Stayed for 3 nights at the very pleasant Camping Osuna, 10 minutes walk from a metro station and from there 25 mins into the centre. Yesterday and today have seen many miles covered on foot here there and everywhere including free entry to the Museum of Madrid History, and the Royal Botanical Gardens. My overall impressions confirmed the opinion of others – that it is a very beautiful city in terms of beautiful historic buildings, parks, plazas, boulevards and avenues, cafe’s everywhere, both independent and global chains. Other observations included that in general people providing all this hospitality to endless tourists were helpful and pleasant, the prices were very reasonable, not too diverse a population in comparison with London, but many people to my eyes of seemingly latin-american origin.
I should have done a post on my trip to Copenhagen, and that too would have included ‘diversity not very much in evidence’, or better described by my travelling companion daughter as “where are the people with pink hair?”. We loved our visit to that city, its cycling provision, friendly people, good food and cafe culture. Being a fan, and it being my source of learning bits of Danish, I did feel as though I was on the set of my highly recommended ‘Borgen’ political drama. I can recommend the 3-hour cycling tour from City Bike Adventures Copenhagen and our immigrant North American guide made the tour so interesting, bringing his own observations as an outsider who chose to move there.
It was an easy drive from La Granja to the historic town of Avila, with its main fame being its intact medieval walls. I stayed at a paying campervan stop just outside them, for a relaxing 2 nights which enabled me to pay to walk round them, and then the next day do a half a day exploring the very nearby reservoir and rest of the town by bike.
Real life goes on inside these walls, with a mixture of old and newer housing and the whole is very understated re tourism.
The town within the wallsView from the camperstop
Today, after another 2 hour drive I arrived at a campsite 11km from the centre of Madrid, very near one of the motorways round and through. As ever a complete change from the rural but school childrens’ noise, and then the tarmac car park small town setting of the last 4 days and nights.
I put my trust totally in two satnavs to get here, and mused to myself as we were steadily guided across complex motorway intersections, helped no doubt by the fact it was Sunday, that I could just sail on by and out of Madrid, for all I knew of where I was going. In previous times, I would have written down a list of all the junctions and then main road numbers, and in studying the map, I would have had a good idea of where exactly the campsite was relative to suburbs, other towns etc, so then seeing these on signs would have been reassuring. Nevertheless, Via Michelin and my lorry one both got me to my destination, and the non-toll route did involve a very high climb into the drizzling clouds with thankfully low visibility, and a 50km/hr speed limit, to get across the mountains. Google maps continues to shut down when I press ‘Start’ for a car journey, although it doesn’t for cycling??, and only disabling/enabling, then restarting my phone, seems to do the trick for a session.
So I’m finally here to do a second much wanted city visit, after being fortunate to spend a long weekend in Copenhagen last month. My trusty steed and google satnav took me this afternoon to the centre briefly, then back out again, just so that I could get an initial ‘feel’ of the city. Much of the route in was on good, marked, cycling track provision, athough on the way back, heading up a 6-lane long avenue, I was told by a bus driver in the bus/taxi-only lane to my right within about 2 feet of me, (there were plastic road divider things between his lane and mine) that I should get into the middle of the lane I was in, rather than be on its right. At least this is what I very quickly understood from his “Medio, medio…” gesticulation from a glance out of the corner of my right eye. Indeed the markings on the road did indicate that this whole lane was for bikes (and cars!). This caused me to expect hostility from the car drivers behind, to be mitigated by me putting on the motor at its top setting, so that I could zoom off and reach tremendous speeds of 15mph in only a few seconds from the many, many red traffic lights. And bear in mind, there’s no ‘preparation’ amber, and this was uphill for several kilometers. Ah well, it’s all in the good cause of exercise and staving off dementia 🤣.
I’m going to treat myself tomorrow, travel in by metro and spend the day exploring on foot. It’s a shame the weather isn’t quite what I was expecting – showers, some sunshine, then showers. I haven’t been out of jeans and jumpers since I left the UK, But I am enjoying being on the road again without the pressure of a turn-around time within a couple of weeks, loving Blue’s home from home comforts, and thankful to continue to have such opportunities to explore the setups of different countries and hear bits of other people’s stories.
Just to prove I did get somewhere stately in Madrid todayMemory prompting for someone …. campsite is near this building
The idea for this trip had settled on shaping the initial part of it around a first visit to Madrid, and the unexpected Christmas present of the michelin guidebook ‘L’Europe en camping-car’ from my sister and brother in-laws provided exactly the itinerary for this with Burgos as the first stop.
Yesterday I decided that I would visit its Museo de Evolucion Humana, on the way to my next destination of La Granja/Sitio Real de San Ildefonso. For 6 euros entry and 1.40 eu parking I spent a really interesting 2 hours learning about what was discovered from the prehistoric human species sites in the local Atapuerca region as well as my own personal evolution 🙂.
In the afternoon 2-3 hours easy driving on the toll-free, empty A-1 motorway between Burgos and Madrid went through beautiful countryside, climbed to higher uplands and skirted the mountains of the Sierra Guadarrama, arriving at my current camper stop 3km from La Granja and 11km from Segovia.
This is a park-up without electricity but with a toilet and shower for 10eu in the grounds of an outward-bound/farm residential centre for schools from Madrid and roundabout. There are animals just over the wall and a resident peacock, which is regularly calling the shots. I was given 5 eggs from one of the wardens and information about the location, namely that we are already at about 1200m, and the mountain within 16km has a ski station at more than 2000m.
Having got the van battery warning sound last night from watching too much TV when I cut short my intended evening walk because it felt too remote, I was debating not staying for a second night in favour of moving to a campsite with hook-up and more people around. This would have meant missing a visit to the Spanish royalty Versailles equivalent in La Granja, and visiting the old town.
But waking up to sunshine, I found the motivation to get on the bike without any further procrastination such as breakfast, and visit the gardens, free entry is always attractive. It was a great decision. The photos don’t really do it justice and don’t capture the mountain backdrop. Another piece of information I was given about this area was that it only has 4 weeks of summer, and by summer, Hassan the warden meant reaching 38 degrees (he is originally from Morocco!), whereas in winter it can be -15. So I could easily imagine the hoi polloi of the Madrid court needing to move outside of these 4 weeks to this fresher mountain air, and do their aristocratic sauntering up and down the beautiful shady ‘calles’, interspersed with their gorgeous fountains. The fountains are switched on every Saturday in late spring/summer these days.
So I got back, had some of the eggs which were delicious and then debated with myself whether to up sticks and move the van to Segovia, or cycle there. In the meantime, I paid for my stay to another worker at the centre, and found out that she had spent a couple of years working at Wath, a village in the middle of nowhere in North Yorkshire. Who would have believed it! I felt surprisingly encouraged by this conversation to stay another night – still no other company turning up – and therefore use the bike again.
I wish I was able to express just how delighted I was to find myself cycling on part of an official Santiago camino trail, as I took the risk and headed off the road onto a bumpy track, past a field of bulls, with no sight in the distance of my medieval town on a hilltop destination. But thankfully I passed another solitary human and a quick question to him about whether this track would eventually end up there, resulted in reassurance as I determined that this American was walking part of the camino to there, before getting a flight back to his Chicago home. I should have asked whether he wanted any conversation – as I would have been up for some – and through his sunglasses and hiking attire I didn’t detect an axe-murderer, but instead zoomed off with my new-found confidence in the route. The track went across moorland, with a bridge over a significant high-speed rail line, and then under the A-1 motorway, and indeed eventually took me straight into the centre of Segovia, famous for its Roman aqueduct and other sites, medieval old town, walls and churches. Well worth the visit, and the bike ride. I was fortunately able to re-trace the return journey at speed, driven by the anxiety of a phone without battery. Alls well that ends well, and I have been joined by 3 other vans.
Time and again, the moral of the story for me is get out and do it. Avila and then Madrid here I come.
It was 5km lovely walk along the river from the municipal campsite to the historic centre in this town/city of population approx. 200,000 on one of the Camino de Santiago routes. What an amazing cathedral, the lookout from the Castillo, the old streets and beautiful river gardens, and the relaxed, non-busy ambience. Quite a few pilgrims of all ages/nationalities walking through.
A bit of history interesting to me is that Napolean lead his French army into Spain and occupied the castillo in Burgos as part of the support for their war with Portugal. The Duke of Wellington then came along and tried unsuccessfully to remove the French.
There is what looks like a significant museum of the evolution of humanity which I wanted to visit, but got there at 14:30 to find it re-opened at 16:30. I decided that by then, without a book with me, I wouldn’t wait, and instead completed the 3 miles back in need of a cup of tea. I’ve done about 8.5 miles walking today. The temperature reached 23 deg when the sun was predominant early afternoon and the 3rd photo was to remind me of the smell of blossoms in the warmth.
Recommend a visit here.
I love the smell from the flowers and bushes in the warmthA significant place on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela
Each year I have to make the decision to renew the hosting of this blog and domain name, so having spent the money, use must be made and writing therefore continue. Each year I have to make the decision to continue to pay for my campervanning to support the writing, and enable other things. I’m still paying, while life still allows this to happen.
To this end, in February I finally made the decision after a year and a half to end the contract mid-May with the best work of my career. My first week of freedom last week was spent sorting stuff out and preparing, and Saturday saw me set off for the continent and warmth, via Plymouth. I wanted to do some travelling before squaring up at last to nana-hood which is due to begin around the end of July.
It’s alot of money to spend for the high-risk of sea-sickness hell, so much trust was placed in a weather forecast a week out for Plymouth, Bordeaux (Bay of Biscay) and Santander indicating only minor breezes, and drugs. It was 1.5 days of driving in British spring sunshine and an everything to plan departure on the Pont Aven ship yesterday. I was amazed at the number of cars, motorhomes/caravans and motorbikes driving onto it, and someone told me it was supposed to be the largest ferry in the world – holding around 600 or so vehicles. I’m glad I decided to splash out on a cabin, as I ended up going to bed at around 8pm absolutely shattered, and sleeping more or less through until 7 this morning. This is something of a first, as was my decision to join in the offered Tai Chi session. I would thoroughly recommend this ship and its facilities altho’ my bed was narrow and could have done with my own pillow. Best of all, the sea was flat.
Did you know there are around 25 species of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises to you) to be found in the Bay of Biscay. I learnt that from a presentation given by a rep of the Orca charity, which partners with Brittany Ferries to monitor this marine life on its routes. I didn’t spend much time on deck today scouring the horizon for these creatures, given the very overcast and low visibility weather, but am told they can be seen regularly.
We arrived into Santander after about 23 hours to grey and rain – not what I had been hoping for 🙂 But never mind – empty roads, beautiful countryside along the N623 to Burgos, where I am now on a campsite for 2 nights. The rain cleared as I travelled the 126km further south and the temperature rose from 10! (- went over 1000m) to 20. Tomorrow I will explore this city, with next stop aiming for Segovia, north east of Madrid.
I’m doing a towns and cities road trip for the next 10-12 days, before heading to the coast around Javea/Denia. Happy days.
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