Heading East over the mountains towards the Portugese/Spanish border we travel happily on B roads through small to medium townships- Vagos, Oia, Parraes, Aqueda - and then suddenly find ourselves on a motorway with 167kms to travel. This might not seem a bad thing to some but with all the horror stories we have been hearing about Portugese motorways we are a tad nervous but comforted in the fact that "no tolls" has been entered into the GPS. So we continue on, passing Regoso and Caramullo, Viseu and Fagilde - flying through the hills on this near empty, futuristic motorway at an altitude of 870metres. Once again over high, long viaducts giving us amazing views of little villages, olive groves and vineyards dotted on the hillsides below. We pass under several gantries mounted with cameras but, no worries - all will be good. If the Euro signs we are now seeing prior to these gantries mean we are actually on a toll motorway, we can pay at the border! Guarda, Pinzel, Convilha all whiz past, special right hand lanes emerge for Molly {bit slow uphill but gets there eventually} and she is given a moral boost as she triumphantly manages to pass a laden tanker on one uphill slog and then we are in Almeida at the border - where to pay there are no toll booths to be seen!!!!!!.
Unfortunately we have been on one of their motorways which has recently been converted to electronic tolls, is hard to exit once on and which GPSs know nothing about. The charges range from 55cents to 2.75 euro for each segmented stretch of road which are seemingly defined by overhead cameras so, by the time we get to the border, we have probably clocked up close to 25 Euro in tolls being a Class 2 vehicle. Leaving the motorway at the border and heading in the direction of the "control centre" we expected to see a place to pay these tolls but there was nothing and the road just took us back up to the motorway, fortunately in Spain this time where some motorways are free.
Researching and reading blogs about Portugal's motorways causes the mind to reel. After accruing these tolls you have to wait 2 days before you can pay them at a post office but you need to do this before the 7th day otherwise fines click in???????? We are now in Spain so how does that work????????? Motorway avoidance is the answer as we will be returning to Portugal at some stage and have no intention of paying heavy fines for something we tried our hardest to pay. The system is a shambles apparantly.
So we are now back in Spain in Salamanca province, the clocks have gone forward an hour as they, unlike Portugal, do not have daylight saving. As we approach Salamanca, on our free motorway and in the sunshine, we both get the feeling that we are driving into a flat, middle-eastern city not a city in Spain!!! Salamanca looks gorgeous in the distance as though shimmering in a desert..
Arriving at our campsite (camping Regio) we are happy we only need to be here 2 nights - we have had worse but we have had better. It is OK but only just. True to form as dusk begins to fall a huge campervan pulls up right beside us, doors bang, kids jump out kicking and screaming followed by Mum and Dad doing likewise. There are sites all over this camp-why choose us? It is almost impossible to hear our video over the bedlum outside and the same had to be endured the following morning whilst we tried to have a lie in. Is door slamming and screaming and shouting really necessary - and thats just the adults!!!!!!
1.40 Euro each got us a local bus ride from our campsite (a definite plus) to the Old City of Salamanca. Once again the architecture is amazing, the small and narrow side streets give it a lovely oldy worldy feel. Most of the historic buildings have been taken over by the University of Salamanca and of course the students give the place a vibrancy as only students can. Personally for me it lacked that heart and soul I often talk about but Gary really enjoyed his visit, thinking of past history and happenings that had taken place there.
The cathedral is built in the baroque style as are many of the churches - some of which are no longer churches and have been desacrilised - and a Roman Bridge in very good condition forms a backdrop to the old city. We had some tapas and beer and then headed back to the campsite by bus to find our neighbours from hell had gone!!!!!!
Suffering a peaceful night - yeh - the next morning we were up bright and early and heading South to Caceres stocking up at a "straight forward Lidls" as we left Salamanca, paying 46 Euro for two full, big, "save the earth bags" which included wine, beer, good, fresh food and a little meat.
We are now travelling through the Spanish high country at an altitude of 1000metres. The landscape to start with is quite flat and boring as we travel across the mountain top plains. All that exists up here are cows and horses cohabiting with self seeded olive trees and abandoned stork nests high on electricity pylons. From time to time we pass a few brightly painted cows on the side of the road (made from concrete presumably) and then the boring landscape starts to improve and becomes quite picturesque as we fluctuate between 1000 and 1200 metres. We pass an occasional lake, small towns and villages - Guijuelo, La Cabeza and Bejar. Bejar looks beautiful in the sunshine but proves to be too steep and difficult for Molly to safely access so we get back onto the Autova Rota de la Plata and continue to head South on this very, very hot day. We are now coming down off the mountain motorway passing Jarilla, where we see special stands for Stork nests have been erected to discourage them from building on the pylons. The nests must weigh a ton plus the dangers of electric shock, but still they prefer the pylons?? We are now 5 hours into our journey as Oliva, Cancabosa and Grimoldo rush past and finally Caceres comes into view and it is much, much bigger than I had ever imagined. Consequently I am disappointed but the campsite, although busy, is great. We have our own ensuite cabin on our pitch and the sites are sort of cozy somehow. We settle in and plan our visit to Caseres tomorrow.
Caseres - disappointed? No!
1 Euro each local bus to Centrum. 10 minute walk to Old Town Caseres and what a delight. We spent hours just walking up hill, down hill, up steps, down steps, through typical, narrow Spanish streets lined by multistorey higgledy piggeldy narrow houses, discovering churches, the Cathedral of Santa Maria dating back to the 13th Century, buskers, a museum of artifacts, a sole surviving City Gate (Arco del Cristo) dating back to 34 BC and the Plaza Mayor littered with al fresco dining. This whole village within the Old Town walls is unspoiled and a photgraphers heaven. Every which way you turned or spun there was an amazing photo opportunity. Rough brick centuries old buildings with a backdrop of blue, blue sky and brilliant sunshine.
Arriving at the Main Square we had a fabulous 3 course lunch (1st Course, 2nd Course and desert) with nibbles, bread and wine thrown in for 10 Euro each. Such beautiful food for such an awesome price.
By the time we had finished once again the mood had changed - siesta time!!!!!! Siesta time has a lot to answer for in my opinion.
Bussing back to Molly we had enjoyed our day so much we decided to return the following day to actually do some shopping, rather than sightsee, in the newer areas of Caseres. It would be Saturday which generally heralds Markets, heaps of people, cafes and shops heaving and buskers galore. We were to be surprised!!!
Repeating our bus journey starting at 10.35am we initially became concerned when the roads appeared less busy than Friday, Lidls was closed as were several outlying shops and there were only 4 of us on the bus. Alighting the bus in Centrum everywhere was closed and dead. Long story short - the 1st of November is All Saints Day and is a holiday where families take flowers to the cemetaries to respect their dead - only restaurants are allowed to open. They say never repeat or revisit somewhere or something that you truly enjoyed as you leave yourself wide open for disappointment. This was it in a nutshell. Lesson learned.
Next morning we are off to Cordoba in Andalucia - Driving over Lemons territory. Once again we opt for the motorway as it does cut our traveling time tremendously and we are crossing the seemingly never-ending Spanish plains still which are a little boring to say the least. This terrain stays with us as we pass Aldea and Casa Don Antonio, no higher than 420metres, then at Aljucen vineyards start to appear as does the rain. There are little clusters of houses - each with an ornate church as it's centrepiece and focal point - and then we are back into scrubland where dozens of men are out shooting (not sure what). Then the land is given over to agriculture where massive dry fields are being ploughed ready for their next crop to be sown. As we approach Merida the landscape changes again. Newly planted vines are everywhere as are newly planted olive trees and the rich, dark red soil is being prepared for more. Little did we know that we were driving past the largest Roman ruins in Spain!!!!!!!
We are definitely in wine and olive oil country and the plains are vast, hot and flat. Grape vines and olive trees grow side by side in Almendralejo and span kilometres of land. We have seen three different ways to grow the vines - 1. As a bush 2. Espaladed and 3. On top of trellises like kiwifruit.
At Los Santos we leave the motorway, passing a huge olive oil and ?greenfuel refinery and take the B roads deep into the heart of Olive Grove and Vineyard territory. It is breathtaking, the sun is shining and the roads are empty.
We are now moving into more interesting rolling hill scenery and small villages all painted white with terracota tiled rooves are springing up on the hill sides. Villagarcia, Valverde, Granja, Fuente Obejuna, indicating that we are now in Andalucia - all have the obligatory church. The hillsides are like rainbows with all the different coloured soils beautifully ploughed at different angles, the colours looking crisp and clean. At Belmez we see paddocks and paddocks of black solar panels turning their heads up to the sunshine and now we are leaving the rolling hills behind and moving into the Andalucian mountains. We quickly climb to 660metres, passing what looks like a few old mining shafts and a few goat herds and then we are heading down to our campsite just outside of Cordoba in the hinterland.
Cordoba, Granada and Seville are the 3 main areas to see in this part of Spain so although we do not do big cities often we are doing these.
Catching a bus to Cordoba from our campsite at VillaFranca we are shocked when the bus arrives. Whilst we have been waiting many other locals have joined us at the stop and each one alights the bus in order of arrival - there is no queue just pure politeness and respect. The local bus was also a first class coach for the hours journey not your run of the mill, lumpy seated contraption. On arrival we then had to walk for an hour to the historic Old Town. 20 minutes if we took the right route!
Cordoba once again is full of history, narrow streets and great architecture. We were intrigued because although in places the appearance is quite bland with very plain facades, looking through wrought iron gateways the reality is very different. Wondrous gardens and courtyards exist behind this plainness and if you passed too quickly you could easily miss this beauty.
I think Cordoba epitomises Spain. Orange and lemon trees line the walkways. There are small squares where you can sit and take in a special view under the shade of citrus trees and there is always a fountain of some sort there to give the square a cooling atmosphere. Once again every which way you turn there is some new breathtaking scenery to be captured on camera. It is hilly, has an amazing Cathedral, numerous churches and plenty of steps. These all add to its enchantment. We spent a whole day here not catching the bus back to Molly until 6pm. Happy, tired and very hot.
Next morning, after a cold shower and complaint, we head to Granada via the backroads, rather than motorways, a journey of 3hours plus. Unfortunately I have had a "back attack" overnight and the thought of a bumpy journey today!!!!!!! Now we are passing through tiny narrow villages with very bad roads, rather than passing by them but to be honest i have not documented too much on this journey as my focus was on my back spasms and not much else. a bottle of Wrigleys chewing gum was my friend - squashed between the spasming muscle and the seat back. What I have noted does not make much sense either except this journey was probably one of the nicest and prettyist we have done through this part of Spain along the Avenda Andalucia. Rolling hills of Olive groves - young and old - stretched out to the horizon and only seemed to stop when the mountains came in to view. Typically white Andolucian villages dotted the hillsides and huge crumbling castles majestically poised themselves on top. The sky played its part too - dark grumbling clouds tracked our journey giving the vista a magical appearance. I can say, however, we passed through El Carpio, Castelledel Rio, Baena, Donna Mencia, Ventes, Moclin and Pinos Puenti and finally, after a "Kate (GPS) mistake" arrived at our campsite in La Zubia where I scrambled into bed after a glass of wine and some pain killers with fingers and toes crossed and a lifesaving massage from Gary. .
Now all is relatively back to normal the campsite here is rather lovely but the weather is cold. There is snow on the mountains around us and last night the temperature dropped to -1degree.. We must remember it is winter and we are on the edge of the Sierra Nevada National Park where the Spanish come to ski.
It is Gary's birthday today and until we arrived here we had nothing special planned- then it all fell into place perfectly. Firstly we spend our day strolling into the tiny village of La Zubia, having coffee, buying gifts and amazingly finding a part for Molly, which we have been looking for for weeks, in this little shop that sells everything. The whole thing cost us 8Euro, was quite difficult to demonstrate what was needed, not a skerry of English was spoken but we all fell about laughing at the antics and got exactly what was needed. Think it was Mum, Dad and son running the shop and we also bought a new Wok to compliment our amazing stone frying pan.
After enjoying a relaxed, casual day we readied ourselves for Gary's evening birthday bash. An impromptu evening involving a meal in a restaurant set into a cave accompanied by Flamenco dancing and music - all in Granada and all very traditional. The mini bus picked us up at 7pm sharp taking us for an hours guided journey through Granada into the old gypsy sector. Everything was lit up and so pretty, it was freezing cold, the streets amazingly narrow and we finally arrived at the Ceuva Flamenco Restaurant in one of the many caves set into this huge mountainside where the gypsies supposedly live. The evening was amazing, the food great, the music great and the dancing hypnotic and awesome. The Sangria flowed. Only 5 other couples were having dinner although others arrived just to watch the dancing. Having never experienced true gypsy flamenco dancing before we were not sure what to expect. It is all about rythmn - clapping, guitars, snapping fingers and hands slapping thighs - the footwork is unbelievable and very, very fast. Once the rythmn is built the dancer becomes trancelike and their whole body becomes part of the dance involving rapid head movements, arching bodies and beautiful twisting, intertwined arms, hands and finger movements. The vibrations from their stamping feet are reflected in their faces as sweat just drips from them. We were awarded front row seats for the show and were mesmerized. An older Spanish couple were sitting beside us and although, once again, they spoke no English and us no Spanish we were able to communicate on some level with lots of laughter. When they got off the mini van on the way home they gave us such big hugs and kisses - think we helped make their evening awesome somehow. So after taking midnight photos of La Alhambra from a viewing point high on the mountain we headed back to Molly. Happy birthday Gary and yes----------I spoiled him rotten!!!!!!! (For all those who suggested I should)
Today we are spending catching up on repairs and maintenance as tomorrow we catch the bus for a full day in Granada by daylight.
Catch you soon. Much love. Life is good xxxxxx
