“On a clear and hot day, we approach the site of the Battle of Salamanca, first - if I remember correctly - by Calvarrasa de Arriba, from where there is a view that dominates the battlefield, and where according to our guide the first were produced skirmishes. From there one gets a good idea of ​​the distance at which the armies were, the route of the troops, and the evolution of the battle. Then we drove to the Arapiles, and stopped at the Arapil Chico, and there we could see the strategic importance of the two mounds (the Arapil Chico and the Grande), around which the military clashes occurred. Later, we moved again to get new views of the battle, which allowed us to better understand the movement of the troops, and the decisions that made the battle tilt the Wellington side. Finally we end up in the Arapil Grande, from which this typically salmantino natural landscape is completely dominated, with an oak only a few kilometers away, where some soldiers took refuge at night. The visit followed the development of the battle, and in that way we placed ourselves in the places that were most decisive in the course of it. The explanations allowed us to understand the difficulty of organizing the troops, the random component of making some decisions, and the importance of trust or luck on the part of the commanders. At certain times, it was almost possible to be in the shoes of some of those soldiers, blackened by the sun, with their bodies crippled after a long day of war. As if it were a journey through time, only that the mythical Arapiles field was regarded as a place of fabulation and conjecture, now surrounded not by cannon shots, but by good companions.”