On the Road to Salamanca

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From Aquilla del Campoon we took a diversion past a monastery before being back on the highway toward Salamanca.

We did hope we would make it but as we left a little late and stopped for a long brekky on route by a canal, we only got two or so hours down the road before it got too hot. A lesson in getting going earlier, which we did know but stupidly didn't obey our own rule!

We stopped at an AIRE, which are basically motorhome parks outside cities set up by councils to accommodate tourists. It's basically just a carpark but we were by a river with a medieval bridge that was built over an old Roman road.

After siesta (yes, we are already on Spanish time) we spent a while trying to sort out the 12 v system. Turned out that we needed to trickle charge it to push it over the 10 v it had discharged to. The solar panel did the job, thank God, as I really didn't want to do without a fridge! After a tidy up and a sleep we went into the town for a beer at the bar across the river.

Then we had a lovely walk around the town. Simancas is only small but it was a typical old town on a hill with a castle at the top. This had been turned into a prison in some century and now it has a huge archive of some 35 million documents that's the largest in Europe.

Everything was very quiet.. it's the off season which is fabulous. We reminisced a lot about the early years of our marriage in Europe and how loved up we were, and how loved up we still are. Europe is a nice place to be in love.

It was a reasonably quiet night. Jamie heard a bit more noise from up in the pop top but it was much quieter in my 'cave' below.

In the morning we packed up earlier and were in a caravan park in Salamanca by 9.15. Currently I'm writing this at a bus stop waiting to go into the old town. I'm not doing too badly being a Hiver on my phone in Europe, am I? Probably not so good at responding to posts or catching up with you all, but I try my best. Thanks to all of you that drop by and say hello.

Super cool things in Spain so far

Storks in giant nests. They are HUGE!
In public toilets the toilet paper is outside the cubicles, so you have to take what you need before you go in. This saves toilet paper friggin everywhere like Australian public toilets.
The highways are in sooo much better condition than home.
I find Spanish one of the easier Euro languages so have more confidence in giving it a go.

Update on my Dad - first chemo went well, so he's keen to up the dose by 10 percent. He's not a good texter but has been trying to text me a little bit which is sweet. I've been sending him lots of photos and updates of the journey. Go Dad!