quinta libelula

Still, we got there in the day.  I had sent a text to say we were on our way in and as we arrived, stopped to send another, Peter emerged in his 4x4, ready for the ride down his newly installed track to the house.  It was a good twenty minutes by foot before.  Luxury of a different kind.

I had tried to prepare Joy for our visit, but after a tour of the property, realised that I had not done a very good job. It was on steeper terrain, with more precipitous drops off narrow, uneven paths, more basically equipped, far more remote, with high unfenced terraces (some easily 8 metres) about the place.  She did amazingly well and later, after talking with my brother, discovered that NO ONE who has visited has embraced the spirit of the place without at least a day or so acclimatisation.  It is steep, uneven, almost inaccessible in a beautifully forested valley with no neighbours, only the noise of the birds and trickle of water in the stream, sheltered from winds from most directions, incredibly still and tranquil.  The little house has solar electricity and a solar heated shower, a fully functioning compost toilet, the freshest spring water piped direct to the kitchen, a functional terrace with tables and chairs, a beautiful view over one of the vegetable gardens, olive grove, forest and valley.  

The ground is being progressively cleared and I was amazed by the progress that had been made since my last visit a year ago.  We could walk from one end of the property to the other at valley floor level, via seven terraces of varying sizes.  The ancient irrigation system and much of the flat areas have been completely cleared of impenetrable bramble thicket, revealing more and more olive trees, ancient vines and other fruit trees.  A magnificent cork oak that had lain unnoticed for decades revealed in all its splendor.  Two terraces of vegetables planted harvested and restarted for the winter, chickens, goats and even a trout have arrived during the last twelve months.  The house has been re-roofed and re-floored inside and the upstairs is completely livable until the rest gets done.  

Whilst I was there, Dad visited for a couple of weeks.  We were all rather concerned with how he would cope before his arrival, especially after hearing stories of others that have visited, even for short periods of time. We needn’t have worried, he managed admirable and frequently surprised himself with his achievements on the exploratory front.  He coped with the vegetarian diet with easily and went home with renewed vigour and a determination to get out and do more, get a rail card, visit friends and places he’s never seen.  I sure hope he does.

my bedroom for a month 

4x4 on the new track with house roof visible to the left 

the yellow brick road, I built that

unlikely best mates

new improved 'facilities'

trying to get things into scale

newly cleared access to opposite gives new perspective

Dad and Windy surveying the latest clearing work "Goat terrace"

vegetables in for the winter

salamanca for morning coffee

Salamanca was much quieter the following morning, an ideal place for a cultural saunter and a cappuchino before a day on the road.  Beautiful yellow stone buildings, ornate beyond belief, somewhere religiously important judging by the buildings of old and more specifically when seeing the ‘Universidad Pontifica’.  You can get a degree in priest or bishop or monastic management perhaps.  Who knows.  Yet it was definitely good for a visit, some historical insight will be good one day, perhaps to explain it’s being there and it’s grandness, but great to start the day.

Little did we know then, that we’d be leaving culture and Spain later that day and arriving in good time for dinner at Peter and Michael’s rustic and basic place deep in the Portuguese mountains.   Charmin informed me that our journey time to final destination would be four or so hours, so we went for it without hesitation.  That would give us two full days before Peter headed back to England, a decent time to catch up and spend some quality time.

on to salamanca

We did another impressive leap the following day after taking the longest ever ring road round Madrid to leave. It was rather like the M25 only without so much traffic, but it got us there.  I battled against the toll roads and took a much smaller road than intended towards our destination of Salamanca.  It was worth it, proper countryside villages at an even slower pace than usual.  The road was winding and never flat, we got to see some great little places and a couple of bigger ones too, that we’d never have come across otherwise.  

The huge monastry of Saint Lorenzo del Escorial on its vast yet peaceful hillside, the ancient walled city of Avila that appeared out of no where and seemed to go on for ages, thankfully there was a viewing point as we headed out of town, so we got to have a good look at it from a distance.  Another one for further exploration at a later date.  The schedule to get to my brother Peter wasn’t for breaking just yet.  We didn’t use Charmin Garmin most of the time, he was just too much, though very useful for getting into and out of specific places.  That in mind, I swung off the dual carriage way outside Salamanca to plug him in for our arrival.  I had picked the right junction by chance and was within a couple of miles of our destination for the night.  A swanky camp site situated right next door to a several starred hotel, we even got to use the reception desk to book in and the weakest ever wifi connection, where I uploaded my last postings.  There wasn’t a planned stop in Salamanca, just a quick look if we got the chance.  We had the chance, so again, we took Percy into town for a quick look see.  The whole place was swarming with people, it was still very warm and again no where to park.  There was a massive medieval market /festival / gathering in full swing and as neither of us were particularly in the mood for hustle and bustle we aborted, vowing to get up early in the morning as it did look beautiful.  Our neighbours were evening entertainment, two sisters, traveling up from Morocco where one of them lives, in their clapped out motor home, they’d been keeping an eye on our washing when we went into town, and were more than happy to chat for a good long while.  We got to hear their stories and share some of our own, drink a good few glasses of wine and sneak in dinner at the same time.  I only wish I’d got the Morocco address for somewhen in the future.  Next time.

Avila from the van window

Avila from the viewpoint just outside of town

Salamanca in the evening sun

madrid in a day

Madrid was two busses and a metro ride away.  By the time we got into the centre the temperature was already more than warm.  Joy’s thing was to stop and have a cappuchino ( I never checked how to spell one) and a cigarette whenever she needed to take stock of the day, so, on arrival that’s what we did.  Not having a guide book or even a map by then, we decided to wander through the streets and discover what we found.  Not a plan that would work in London, but within twenty minutes we’d stumbled into the main square, past a pasty shop selling the most delicious looking wares and found the main tourist office.  Equipped with touristic map we continued, checking out the shops and sights as we went.  I’m sure that all the tourist gifts are made in the same factory in China, I’ve seen the same things available on three continents, all minorly modified to be seemingly local.  I didn’t need anything but it never seems to stop a good browse.  A great shop with a window full of crisps, loose crisps in a huge container. I expect you could buy them by the sack load or individually depending on your immediate requirements.  We followed the map, cappuchino by cappuchino, taking in churches and bridges, buildings or architectural note, housing galleries and museums, bridges and views highlighted on the map.  We never found the pasty shop again so lunch was from a back street bakers, some interesting and tasty savory and sweet pastries eaten in a shady park below the cathedral. The temperature moderated our going in the afternoon, it was hot, and the botanic gardens a welcome calm after the busy streets and arcades of the city.  But we had to continue, by late afternoon we had had enough so we stopped and had a meal,  the spanish probably thought we were having lunch, but it was easily late enough to be an early dinner, it was still hot and there were still a metro and two bus rides back to the campsite.  Followed, at the other end by a longer than short walk through some dark woods to find the campsite and Percy again.  Madrid was great, a tidy, small capital city with beautiful buildings and a swanky upmarket feel, I liked it and would go back for another look, but definitely feel more at home in the more arty and relaxed Barcelona.

street art magic

choose your pasty here

impressive town hall

crisps by the kilo

cathedral, completed only twenty or so years ago

Joy posing outside a large and fancy building

neptune doing his stull in the middle of a roundabout

the calm of the botanic garden

vertical gardening in the city

Zaragza to Madrid

municipal campsite with apartment blocks in the distance

the smartest shower blocks I've seen so far

vast, arid scenery

more vast, arid scenery

After some good going early on, we missed out a stop and continued into the capital.  Our roads had been dual carriage way, fast and straight but quite boring to drive.  Optimum speed 53mph for fuel consumption gave us plenty of time to enjoy the endless plains of central spain.  The landscape in late summer was very dry, flat (on a large scale) interspersed with deep, fairly steep sided valleys and gorges, the agriculture varied and lush in the low lying, moister areas and rough pasture, scrub land  and a bit of grain up high.  With us being so quick, we decided that a day in Madrid would be good so we booked into the campsite for two nights, I took a dip in the pool before relaxing in the warm evening air.

after Barcelone

Where was I last?  Barcelona, that seems like an age ago, it probably is, come to think about it, the weeks fly by and the nights are drawing in again and I’ve moved on and on and on.

Joy and I crossed Spain with Percy at a speedy pace, managing to spend three nights with my brother before he headed back to England.  Our journey was enlightening, I had never seen much of Spain before, so it was all new.  We drove most of the first day avoiding motorways with tolls but on fairly fast dual carriage ways and got to Zaragoza mid afternoon, we stopped once en route to check out a crazy housing development and also took photos of the scenery as it flew by.  We booked into the campsite and then took a ride into town to see a few sites.  To the town centre was easy, Percy and I are getting more accustomed to city driving, the traffic, pedestrians and amazingly uninformative road signs that we had been warned about.  But where to park?  we circled the old town for a good hour, all the opportunities were height restricted and frequently underground, something I hadn’t really encountered before.  Further out, we discovered other car parks but all full and decidedly difficult to manouveur in .  We aborted our attempt to visit   returned to the camp site, cooked on board and checked out the plan for the following day.  Next time we’ll take the bus into town.

across spain

The next leg of my travels is with Joy.  I dropped the girls off at the airport with all their luggage - bicycle, child seat for car, child seat for bicycle, toys, regular luggage and the van felt suddenly larger, more spaceous.  Well, it would, four down to two and plenty fewer belongings. 

From the east coast of Spain, across Spain to nearly the west coast of Portugal, I am off to visit my brother.  He’s been living in Portugal for just over a year now and I am so excited to see what progress has been made since my visit last year.  We have chatted loads, but to see it all in reality is going to be great.  

Joy and I spent a couple of hours plotting campsites on a cheap map just so that we had some idea of where we might stay on our journey.  The idea is to catch glimpses of places en route rather than to visit them in depth.  Our timescale is limited as my brother heads back to England for ten days soon and we want to overlap before he leaves.

We visited Barcelona for a day before leaving.  It was Catalonia Day, the local region of Spain that is aiming for independence, and a local holiday.  Many shops were closed and tourist tours were limited to the morning so we made the most of those and spent the afternoon in awe of the vast numbers of people filling the streets in clebration/demonstration of the day.  Spot the Catalan flag!!

(still slow internet................º

traveling light as usual.....

Barcelona from the city tour bus

Magic fountain during the day

memorial for when Catalonia lost independence and was  merged into Spain

Catalan flag anyone?

traditional Catalan costume

A happy Joy in front of the official Barcelona football memorabilia shop