Spain 4 - our first fairy tale closed castle and our first guided tour

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Suzy is currently sitting somewhere between Burgos and Valadolid. Penafiel is not on the list above so a guess will have to suffice as to our exact location in Spain.

The night was hot and stuffy with the temperature still around 30 by bedtime. We woke early having had a fairly quiet night. It doesn’t take long to breakfast, wash the pots and put them away, take the bed down and replace everything in its correct place. We seem to have a system that works for us. And you need one in a motorhome. You cannot afford to be untidy or not know where something goes as space is at a premium.



And then it was time to be on the road again. We passed the Bullring which looked rather down at heel, the local Lidl and Simply supermercado. Why is it when you need one that two come together ? Neither of them are open as it is too early in the morning.

It is hard to believe it is now a week since we set out from home. We had read that the rain in Spain was going to fall on us today. We rattled along the quiet motorways passing fields of ripe corn which had been harvested and stacked and fields of vines as far as the eye could see. The motorways unlike the French ones are cheap. What cost us 8 euros 35 cents would have cost us an arm and a leg in France. We ate up the miles as there was literally nothing on the road. It looked as if money had poured into roadbuilding from the European Union but despite that the roads were underused to say the least. Our destination for the morning Penafiel castle set high on a hill above the town.

The castle built of mellow stone was approached via a long and twisting corkscrew of a hill. Up and up we went until eventually we reached an empty car park. We parked up overlooking the town and had a well earned cup of coffee.

The castle did not open until 11 and there seemed to be two types of tours. The first a guided one for 3 euros 30 for the castle itself . And a more expensive one at around 10 euros for the castle and the museum of wine which included a wine tasting. We didn’t fancy the wine tasting at 11 in the morning nor the guided tour which would have been only in Spanish. It seems nothing is printed in English and there are no tours in English. I don’t know if this is because the Spanish don’t want the English or that they just don’t care for the tourism revenue it brings in. Hard to say. And yet again rather rude and indifferent staff. We decided in the end not to bother. We could see enough of the castle without going in. It was a lovely thing and perhaps on another day we might have gone in.





Penafiel to Tordesillas . Our stop for the night was going to be Camping El Astral in Torsidillis a site beloved of the Caravan and Camping Club again and a Camping Cheque site. We had no camping cheques left from our May trip and we had to decide whether to buy a few more. They cost around £15 with a £5 handling charge and only last a year before they run out. We only needed one so decided not to purchase any. We thought we would just pay the 23 euro 80 cents cost in cash. The site is large and fairly empty at this time of the year . It is certainly looking like the end of the season in Spain. We had a huge choice of parking spots. Reception was friendly and efficient and the showers a joy to behold. Lots of hot water and oodles of room. I bought a WiFi token at 4 euros but couldn’t pick up a signal in Suzy which was a pain. We tried the restaurant on site at lunchtime but the menu was in parts pure English, chicken, fried egg and chips or porksteaks, fried egg and chips. Not very thrilling as we had hoped for a real Spanish meal and to try tapas and sangria. There was a small shop on site with basics.

We walked up to Tordisillas, another rather scruffy town with a scruffy square the Plaza Major which was full of people in bars eating and drinking but strangely felt devoid of any life really. Our Dorking Kindersley guide said the town was lovely but I beg to differ on that one. Slightly interesting but not quite lovely.

The town is famous for the treaty signed between Portugal and Spain in 1494 dividing up the lands of the New World between themselves. Spain missed out on Brazil apparently.

We sat for a while out of the unrelenting sunshine in a small park overlooking the town doing what comes naturally - people watching. Well it would have been people watching if there had been any about. In the space of an hour and a bit we only saw four people. Spanish siesta time at work.

Our reason for stopping in the park was to wait for the afternoon opening of the Monesterio de Santa Clara at 3pm. This was constructed by Alfonso XI around 1340 and converted to a stunning residence by his son Pedro the Cruel for his mistress Maria de Padilla. She apparently pined for her native Andalusia and decorated the convent with Moorish arches, baths and tiles. Having waiting an hour and ten minutes for opening time we headed off in the direction of the monastery only to see the dreaded tour guide coming around the corner followed by at least 30 tourists. We joined the queue to pay our entrance fee - it should have been 7 euro each as we were both jubilados – pensioners to you and me but today it was free. Good news indeed . Bad news – guided tour and we had to wait for the tour group before we could go in. We didn’t feel that inclined to wait so headed back to the campsite somewhat thwarted!!!


Oh well you win some and you lose some . We lost this one. Tomorrow is another day and we head for the castles of northern Spain.

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Photos

Tordesillas
A quiet sit down in the sun

Sion found a castle
Woolly Woolly I am looking for a knight to help save you from being mammoth napped

A manhole
another of Sions pre-occupations.