Blogs from Salamanca, Castile & León, Spain, Europe

After the hectic pace of yesterday, today promised to be slower and more relaxed. We woke up at 6:45, showered and left the suitcases outside the door at 7:30 while we checked out and ate breakfast. By 8:30 we were on the road, outbound from Madrid. Today was also seat assignment day. To make it fair for everyone on the bus, we initially choose seats with friends or loved ones either in front or behind us, but not across. Every day we move 1 seat towards the rear, so that everyone eventually gets to sit on both the left and right sides and at the front and back of the bus. None of this is important, and most people don’t really care where they sit, but the most important part of this exercise is that we ... read more

Nachdem ich mich mittlerweile etwas vom schlechten FC Bayern-Spiel des gestrigen Abends erholt habe (zu sehen gewesen auf ARD mit VPN), spazierte ich heute durch Salamanca. Die Sehenswürdigkeiten bestehen aus der Kathedrale und der Universität und angrenzender Gebäude im Süden der Altstadt und dem Plaza Mayor im Norden. Beides sah ich mir an und zum Abschluss genehmigte ich mir noch einen Frappuccino im Starbucks der Stadt. Außerdem kaufte ich mir für 25,30 Euro 110 Gramm eines besonders guten spanischen Schinkens, den ich mittlerweile genüsslich vernascht habe. So einen teuren gab es nicht mal bei Dallmayr in München. Mittlerweile habe ich auch den morgigen Tag vorbereitet und ein paar Dinge in World of Warcraft erledigt. Gleich logge ich mich mal wieder mit meinem Business Laptop ein und telefoniere später mit meiner Steuerberaterin. Am Abend werde ich wieder ... read more

Issy is keen to lie on some grass in a big park, so we head to the biggest nearby patch of green we can see on the map, which is the Parque de Los Jesuitas. It’s leafy and very pleasant, with a duck pond, fountains and a section for dogs. We lie on the grass on our Sardinian tea towels and then go for a snack at the park’s cafeteria. Our waiter seems to have a real obsession with the menus, and if we leave them lying down on the table for more than a few seconds after we’ve finished looking at them he appears from nowhere to put them back in their stand next to the salt and pepper. We were probably fortunate he let us look at them in the first place. We wish ... read more

We sleep in, and when I realise how late it is I decide to make this morning’s shower extra quick so that we don’t waste any more of the day. This proves to be a bit more of a challenge than I might have hoped. The water outlets in the bath are a bath tap, a shower rose on the end of a hose, and a real shower head. I can only work out how to turn on the first two of these, and as Murphy’s Law would have it it’s the third one that I really want. How can this be so complicated. After a long time I find an obscurely hidden knob to twiddle and the real shower head bursts into action. I wish Issy luck as she goes into the shower, but she ... read more

If Carlsburg made campsites they would shied a mile away from this one. Gabby is parked on the stinkiest campsite we have ever been on. The type of campsite where you start to smell under your armpits, you check the toilet and the drains on Gabby . You wonder if it is the town drains or the river nearby. There wasn't a lot of choice in this area and campsites were few and far between. Everyone it seems had ended up on the worse campsite for miles around. So how did Gabby end up there? We started out driving along some of the worse roads we have ventured on. We have passed fields full of pigs and cows. The landscape has changed considerably now that we have moved regions. We were heading for the motorhome parking ... read more