Salamanca and Merida

Ok Salamanca was the Wednesday before I went to Rome
Merida was last Tuesday 4/20/10

Salamanca:

We left at 10 from Cáceres and got there around 1:00ish. We walked by the river Tormes saw some famous stuff from a book we've read about "Lazarillo de Tormes". Then we went to the old city. There we saw the old university, basically really old benches, boards, and styling. However, the outside was pretty ornate and apparently there is a frog(try to find it in the picture if you do you get good luck). Oh by the ayw after that it started raining...hard. So then we went to the Plaza Mayor, which is kind of like the one in Madrid, pics. We took a break for lunch, then went around to places like the house of shells and another where they sign their doctorates on a wall with bulls blood and olive oil. Then we went to see the cathedrals, which are ornately decorated on the outside, but nothing special. That Was Salamanca.

Mérida:
We left around 10 got there at 11:30. First we stopped off at this park and saw a huge roman aqueduct. Then we got back on the bus to go to some cool Roman ruins. First we saw a typical house and the communal baths. After that we went to the Colosseum, which is awesome you actually get to walk on the floor unlike the one in Rome and there are actually seats. I definitely could imagine the gladiator coming in through the arches there into the stadium with people yelling and a tiger in a cage yearning to come out. It was everything I couldn't imagine at the Colosseum in Rome, but then the outside wasn't as cool. We even went into the den where they held the animals before the fights it was really cool to see that. After that we went to this old Roman theater right next to the Colosseum, actually reminded me a lot of Truman Sports Complex Roman Version(Arrowhead Colosseum and Kaufmann Theater)Same styles too crazy. Anyways the theater was huge and very cool to see. Then we saw a Roman temple with a Renaisssance palace built inside of it. After that we took a break for lunch in a nice plaza. By the way at this point it was getting very hot although we all preferred that to the rain.

We continued by going into this Muslim palace made after the Romans left. From the wall there we could see the old Roman bridge and a modern one in the distance. Cool story They were moving nuclear reactor pieces in Spain and they had to go through Mérida, the trucks went over the 2000 year old Roman bridge because none of the modern bridges could hold the load. We then went to a museum filled with Roman ruins and statues, some taken from the theater. Finally, we went to the Circo where they used to have Chariot races in a track a quarter mile long, with a lap being .3 miles. There I really wanted to run, so I did a lap around an old Roman Chariot track 1:42 was my time. That was Mérida and it was Sweet!