Over half-way there ...

Took the bus back to Calzada, with its squatly elegant church tower, in the morning and carried on to Villanueva del Campean.  Not an exciting walk - more wheat fields, and lots of high-stacked straw and very few trees at first. Nearing el Cubo de Tierra del Vino I saw a high green tower in the distance.  At first I thought it must be a curious form of grain silo, but on approaching saw that it was the watchtower for Topas penitenciario.  Other than the watch-tower and the barbed-wire fences, the prison's arcitecture looked much like a large budget hotel at an international airport.

Despite the name, there were no vines at all anywhere near el Cubo.  Took the bus back to the lovely parador in Salamanca, and spent the afternoon wandering around the town.  It is a wonderful place.  The entire centre seems to be made of warm golden stone.  Even the modern bits fit with the ancient - at the Puerte de Zamora, for example, there was a petrol station made of stone with elegant arches and Ionic columns holding it up.  The breath-taking Plaza Mayor was as beautiful in many ways as the Piazza San Marco in Venice, but more so in others, as everybody was just walking through it going about their business, not giving the place over entirely to tourists as in Venice.

Plaza Major, Salamanca