The nearly day

 Merida

Weather.  Cold front still causing David’s hair to stand on end.

We decided to try the aire at Merida.  In France aires are very popular, they are areas at the edge of towns or villages where campervans can camp up for a small parking fee in the hope that the happy campers will spend money in the local shops and restaurants.  They aren’t so popular here and when we stopped at the one in Merida it turned out to be a car park used by the police to store cars!

But the Roman remains were worth a look.  Apparently they are about the best conserved remains outside Rome.  The amphitheatre is still used for concerts etc.  Must be very special.

So we nearly stayed at the aire but decided to keep heading south.  Found a campsite near a small town called Monestaria.  Sat nav sent us down an unmade road, which crashed our crockery and toppled our half full tea pot over.  So we stupidly had another look at sat nav and it came up with a campsite in the town.  The roads were so narrow that we walked the route holding sat nav in front f us.  We passed a square with a café offering tea and gin.  Very tempting but there was only a brick wall at the end of sat nav’s route so we couldn’t stop.  But we nearly did!

But what we have done is to stop at an absolutely bonkers place called El Rocio where 1mill Spanish Roma people will descend in 2 weeks time for a big festival.......When the wifi settles I'll post some pics.

Post Polish twitchers

Caceres
Weather: Strong sun with gusty winds = excellent line-drying

weather














What's this?  Why it's our very own san facs block complete with flushing toilet, shower, washing up sink and electricity (and the odd mega ant)

And what's this?Why, it's 2 of the 3 washing machines crammed to the gunnels with our washing - I would tell the kids off for filling them this full.  But at €3 a wash you have to make the most of it.  Very satisfying.




Anyway - to Caceres.  A lovely medieval city with absolutely hundreds of Palaces and pretty Plazas.  We got off the bus too late but enjoyed the walk back past a string of book kiosks that were doing a brisk trade.  We noticed in Madrid that it seems to be a popular pastime browsing book stalls at the weekend.

The old centre was busy but not as bad as Toledo and a real pleasure to wander around.  Topped off with a beer and a red wine in the Plaza Major.  We couldn't help but notice that like the other places we've been to there is hardly any litter, but there again we've not seen many fast food outlets.

This jewellery was made 6-5 Century BC!

David taking a break from culture half way round museum

The Polish twitchers?  At the last campsite next to Monfrague National Park we got back from our visit to the bar (Had to go there for Internet access) to find a group of Polish men with very large zoom lens cameras trained on the back of our van.  Bit of a shock til we realised they were filming some blue tailed Magpies that were sitting in a tree just behind us.  Very off-putting as they spent several hours there.

Lets go birding now

Weather: heavy spring rain leading to burst of blossoms everywhere

The Road to Amarillo

Well, Monfrague National Park near Plasencia in Extremadura actually.  Stunning park where we did what had to be one of my top 5 all time favourite walks.  The area is covered in beautiful wild flowers with the scent of lavender in the air as you brush past the bushes along the trails and there is a steady buzzing of bees and other insects with the bird calls in the background.  Are you there yet?  According to our very helpful neighbour at the last campsite (John Taylor of XXL sat dish fame) it is apparently a very famous bird watching area and at the end of the walk we did (so well marked even we didn’t get lost) there was a cliff where vultures nested.  We’ve never seen such enormous birds, they were like deadly silent stealth bombers, pretty scary.

Spot the birdies

For Mr W it is all about the destination, not about the journey

Robin - this is for Margaret, looked like an iris ?!

We had to drive to the park so the idea was to stock up on lots of lovely food before we got back.  We’ve both lost weight and unfortunately as you get older your skin doesn’t shrink to fit so we need to fill out those wrinkles.  Convinced?  No? well I don’t care we just wanted cake.  Went past an Aldi and a Lidl but turned our noses up at them and ended up at a “Dia Extra”.  Should have stuck to Aldi.  Felt very deflated and even moire wrinkly until we spotted a Carrefour sign – it was like manna from heaven.  Cake, cheddar cheese (being French it didn’t come under “cheeses of the world” of course), fresh fish, cling film and more of the delicious creamy avocados you get here.   What more could a wrinkly ask for?  The cling film is just to keep the cake fresh til the next snackette!

Sunday night is ice-cream night in Salamanca

Salamanca

Weather: Blue skies but chill winds requiring gloves and vests.

Beautiful city - great place to go for a city break, lots to look at and loads of cafes to sit in whilst looking. 

Short cycle ride into town (no hills - phew) so we went to savour Sunday night in the Plaza Major.  Fantastic, really beautiful square and all the locals were out for a promenade and an ice-cream.  We settled on a G and T and visit to a pastelerias on the way home.  Looked for the Abadia Bar but Tourist info shut so didn't find it until today when the bar was shut!

Silvia set us a very hard task of finding a frog on the facade of the University and an astronaut on the facade of the Cathedral.  Nearly gave up, but after spending a long time watching other tourists point them out to each other we finally spotted them.

Looking....still looking....still looking......

Size matters apparently...we have English neighbours today.  Compare the size of their sat dish with the German's next to them..

We're relying on the box set of Breaking Bad as lent to us by Caroline who has promised to bring series 4 out with her when we meet up for the Thompsons on Tour in L'Escala.  Great recommendation!!

The Streets of Toledo

Toledo
Weather: Ice scraper needed in morning but sun cream at midday.

Hmmm bit "meh".  Lovely town to walk around but even in April it was heaving with tourists and full of shops selling tutt.  I guess it's because there is such a lot to see there.  Mix of Christian, Jewish and Muslim influences with Roman bits and bobs still around and El Greco lived there most of his life.  Seems to be a mecca for hen parties too.

So what did we come away with?  Some delicious marzipan treets - had to copy a picture because ours are well gone.  And we did wander round one of the museums passing the cat on guard at the gate.

More meat feasts in Madrid

Madrid
Weather:  more heavy pressure on midriffs giving way to zero temps at night

Chance to sit on the bus and relax.  We spent time in Madrid a few years ago and really enjoyed it - name drop - we spotted Tim Robbins coming out of the Centro de Arte, or it might have been the Prado, can't remember now, so much culture!  We even had a special meal at the Opera (on expenses), after the Maitre d' kindly leant the men some jackets and ties to replace their anoraks.  


So today was a chance to just enjoy the atmosphere of the city.  But we also followed a Silvia recommendation and had Cocido for lunch at La Bola restaurant.  It’s a kind of stew served in an earthenware pot.  You start with a bowl of noodles and the waiter pours the liquid from the pot over the noodles to make a delicious soup.  When you finish the soup the waiter empties the very tender meat, garlic, potato, chorizo, chick peas and of course pork fat into your bowl.  Typing this up 7 hours later I am still full and it hurts to even write about food.  We agreed that the Spanish must find our food extremely boring.  But that finished us off for the day and after a lie down in the park to recover a little we caught the bus home.

PS to Sharon, think I've changed the settings so you can comment without faffing about now.

For Lindesy and David - a reminder of hamming it up with you in France

Why are we always walking or cycling uphill?

Manzanares El Real

Weather:  High pressure in the mountains 

Found a campsite near a place called Manzanares El Real which offered both the chance to do some walking in an area called La Pedriza and a 40 min bus ride to Madrid.  When we arrived we cycled into town to check out the walks.  We both thought it was a gentle uphill ride so should be a nice downhill ride home.  Haven’t worked out yet how it was in fact uphill both directions!

Tried the tourist office first: closed.  A notice re-directed us to the advice centre in the town hall: closed.  But the library was open and the very nice librarian gave us a pack of printed walks.  When I looked through they all seemed to start a few kilometres out of town.  So the next morning we caught the bus in to check it out at the tourist office: closed.  The advice girls at the town hall gave us a map to Centro de educacion ambiental Manzanares which was a couple of km away.  Once there a very helpful girl explained that most walks started from a place called Canto Cochino which was 3.3 km away from the centre.  When David asked how long to the Canto Cochino she looked at us and said “1 hour, but you are strong so 40 minutes”.  Seemed a bit of a trek before even starting the walk she gave us but it was a nice day.

After 3 hours of steady climbing up the mountain we decided not to wait for the Canto Cochino for a nice place for lunch.  After another 30 mins we decided to call the ridge we had reached “the summit” and turned round.  After about 20 mins descent David checked his altitude app and we were still at 1511m above sea level.  Canto Cochino was only 1027m so we decided to celebrate the fact that we are poor at following signs on walks rather than just very unfit walkers!  When we were waiting for the bus home we worked out where we had gone and altogether we’d walked 23km, so no wonder we had trouble standing up to get off the bus at our stop.  We obviously need more educacion ambiental.

Had to have a sudden lie down half way up!

But there's nothing like a cup of tea and piece of Christmas cake to get me on my feet again

The Summit

If you want to know the way ask a policeman

Segovia

Weather:  Building to high pressure around the midriff.

Should have figured this out before cycling into Segovia.  The famous Roman aqueduct was only 1 storey high when we rode under it from our campsite but it has 2 storeys of arches in the main square.  Lots of freewheeling into town with that niggling feeling that it was going to be a tough ride back.  Very clever those Romans, didnt use any mortar making those arches just clever angles.

The city is well worth a visit.  We were a bit cathedralled out so just admired the fancy Gothic twirls from the outside. 

  Then we wandered up to the Palace and for some reason foreigners were being given free entry on production of ID.  (PS just found out from the guidebook that it is free to EU citizens on a Tues pm) I’m like the Queen when on holiday, no money so no purse and all I could find was a receipt from the gym for suspension of my membership but by the time I had turned out every pocket the ticket guy gave up and let us both in.  Perhaps the truth of the matter is that David doesn’t trust me not to lose valuables when on hol.  Not sure that Prince Phillip takes the same approach.  Anyway, it was worth the effort to get in.

Then we hung about trying a little wine and tapas, until we could follow another of Silvia’s recommendations.  Roast suckling pig.  As a taster we were given a dish of cubes of fried pork fat, so we had an idea we were in for a meat feast.  The main dish was a quarter of a piglet each with no accompaniments, although to the waiter’s disbelief we ordered a salad.  It was delicious but seeing the pig’s trotters was a challenge even for us meat eaters!

So it was just as well that we had to cycle back up hill in an effort to bring our cholesterol levels back down.  It should have been a real air punch moment to finally arrive back but the moment was spoilt by the fact we were locked out of the campsite.  Fortunately boy scout David found the bell and they let us back in.

On our way out of Segovia we tried to find a supermarket and ended up asking a policeman at a petrol station.  David duly forged a bond by flashing his police badge (sorry kids – very cringe I know) and the policeman insisted on giving us an escort to the supermarket!

Whereas these policeman were investigating a very serious incident at the wine shop judging by how long they were in there

Baby boom in central Spain

Pedraza

Weather: Sunshine with sudden gusts of wind as storks flap wings in mating displays

Stopped off at pretty medieval village of Pedraza.
Another Silvia suggestion, nice place to stretch our legs but very much off season.

 

 

Storks were flying round making funny clacking noise with their beaks like those football rattles you used to be able to buy.  Apparently its a mating ritual, bit like men smacking their lips at girls they fancy I guess.  Hmm, whatever.










On the way out of town looked up new Spanish phrase too late to be of use, it was "road closed"  We picked up first dent to 'van finding a way round :-(

Lunch in a 2 donkey town

Riaza

Weather: Cold winds from snow covered mountains blowing away cloud.  High pressure to use sun tan cream ignored at equally high cost.  Temperatures dropping during night.

Randomly ended up in a ski resort base town after route through villages with castles, huge churches and one with a monastery where we stopped for lunch.  At 2pm a crowd of young families filed into the monastery and yet the guide book said that the only tour was round a library.  Not sure what that was about, but impressed to see all the kids going in without tantrums!



Several of you have said that Spring has arrived finally in the UK.  We did a nice walk today and saw lots of lovely springy flowers.  Not sure what most of them were but they were v pretty.

Look at the horns on that!

We had to squish between some very worrying cows with huge pointed horns, but we left each other alone.  Burned off a lot of nervous energy on that bit so maybe in calorie input/output balance after the Christmas cake we had with lunch.

When we stopped in a little town for lunch a couple of donkeys wandered over to check us out.  But they obviously didn't fancy our sandwiches.  And anyway we didn't fancy their b.o. when eating said sandwiches.

Leigh - this is for you..David doing his Blue Harbour thing

Have we got religion?

Burgos channelling Bracknell

Weather: High pressure to put on extra quilts at night but outbreaks of localised shorts and sandals later in the following day.  (Extremely localised to campsite as fashionably dressed Spaniards did not look impressed.)

Burgos is one of Silvia’s recommendations and it had a campsite (not always a given) so off we went.  Interesting journey from lush Cantabria through mountain passes with streaks of snow and past fantastical limestone outcrops.  Then we drove through plains with nothing but massive wind farms to hit the by-passes and roundabouts of Burgos. 

The guy who sorted my puncture the next day said it was the first day of sun they’d had, but he also seemed to think we were cycling the pilgrim way to Santiago de Compostela.  I’m very unsettled about giving this impression.

After touring the fabulous Museo de la Evolucion Humana we did the other must see: the Cathedral.  It is a Gothic wonder but it did seem to be all about power and politics rather than prayer and piety, but then hey I’m no pilgrim.  Or am I?

Another of Silvia’s suggestions was Casa Pancho.  A very enjoyable 2.5 hr lunch later we emerged into a now deserted city.  There was a real feeling that everyone was gathering their strength behind closed doors for a big Saturday night out.  But it was all we could do to stagger up to the castle for a last look at Burgos before cycling back to a little promenade round the campsite followed by toast and marmalade and bed.  Not in the Spanish groove yet but we’re working on it.

Do go to Burgos, it’s a lovely relaxed city with lots to see and this year its Spain’s gastronomic capital.

Big swell, nasty smell

 Portsmouth to Santander
Weather: Light winds progressing to heavy squalls in Bay of Biscay

See that teeny tiny cabin at the front (yes where the boat goes up and down the most), that was our cabin.  In truth it was OK once we had located David's bunk bed in the roof.  The only problem was the smell of wee in the little en-suite.  But we got round that by going to duty free and drenching loads of those perfume tester sticks and leaving them in the en-suite.  None of your air-wick air freshners for us, we only use Mademiselle Coco by Chanel.

St Vicente de la Barquera

Weather: Rain with occasional dry periods requiring Swedish fortitude rewarded by slabs of Christmas cake.

Need to come back to this area (Cantabria) later on it's very pretty.  Our campsite is near the sea with clear views to the snow topped Picos de Europa mountains.  We'll come back to walk in them in the summer when we hope that the snow will have disappeared!

There's a festival on at the weekend involving girls singing on the beach as a statute of Virgin Mary is brought in from the sea but the wet weather is too much even for David to hang around waiting for singing girls!
He says his hair is standing on end because of the cold.