[Jan. 2023] This year, we celebrated the New Year in Salamanca, a university town in western Spain.
The day before, we had asked the man at the tourist information centre about how to spend the New Year Day when all tourist attractions were closed.
And, as he advised, we decided to take a walk.
It was a beautiful day and a good day for a walk.
First, we headed towards the Tormes River, which flows through Salamanca.
Because there is a Roman bridge here.
We just crossed another Roman Bridge in Merida a few days before.
The bridge of Salamanca was still standing, too and people were crossing it in groups of threes and fives.
The fact that bridges built roughly 2,000 years ago are still in common use all over Europe shows just how good the Romans were at building them.
According to guidebooks, Salamanca’s Roman bridge dates from the 1st century AD.
Of the 26 arches, 15 closer to the old town are from the Roman period, and the rest are from the 17th century restoration.
The bridge was damaged by the flooding of the Tormes River at that time.
The river seen from the bridge was overgrown with grass and looks like nature itself.
When the crossing was over, my husband spotted a small animal that looked like an otter.
I think the environment is good around here.
Then, we walked on the promenade on the opposite bank of the river, and there we found many cats in the grass that stretched all the way.
We saw some huts for cats and some foods left by people.
Was it planned by someone as a countermeasure against abandoned cats, or did it develop naturally?
I don’t know how many there are in total, but we saw about 20 during our walk.
Some cats looked injured.
I wondered if they fought an otter?
Anyway, I thought it was more healthy for cats to live in the nature.
Passing the early 20th century Ponte Enrique Esteban and then crossing the river on the Ponte Felipe VI, we took a break in the park before walking back into the city.
We were sitting on the bench and talking about the otter my husband saw earlier, and we saw another otter at the foot of the tree.
We were able to take a good picture this time.
My husband saw an otter on a website explaining Salamanca, so maybe Salamanca’s otter is actually famous.
