Espagne encore, serendipity and silhouettes

Farewell to the pastel de nata (custard tarts) of Portugal and hello to churros of Spain. I prefer the tarts, but dipping the crispy churros sticks into thick chocolate has a certain je ne sais quoi (or Spanish equivalent).

La Alberca Plaza

Hello also to a massive amount of air cured hams, we visited the small town of La Alberca, popular with Spanish tourists, and watched the hams being walked away under peoples’ arms. These hams hang from the ceilings in shops and are on the counters of bars, set up in a special torture device to have wafer like slivers carved off. 

La Alberca was one of the serendipitous events to happen recently, we didn’t quite throw a dice but ended up at this amazing little place with narrow alleys flanked by ramshackle houses build of stone, wood beams and plaster. The houses were tightly packed, in some places the sun would have a job reaching the cobbles on the ground. Some houses had the year of construction carved into the lintels above the door, most dating to 18 century.

Portraits on the outside of houses in Mogarrez

We drove about 7 km from La Alberca through oak forests that were showing off their autumn finery, to arrive at Mogarrez. It had similar very old houses, all neatly restored but the difference was there were over 400 portraits on the outside of the houses of past and present residents. The pictures were started in the 60s when poverty drove many locals overseas to seek work. They needed ID cards and these inspired the portraits.

Back in the truck, this time a drive across a Sierra plateau to spend the night at Salamanca. A very attractive town with large cathedral and square. The square had plaques with reliefs of the heads of past leaders, Franco was there – his plaque covered in a plastic bag because of vandalism problems. The other thing I remember about Salamanca was seeing a spaceman carved into the gold sandstone outside the cathedral door – a contribution from the last renovation period in the 1990s. Isn’t Lonely Planet helpful as a spotter’s guide?

Salamanca, view not far from where we stayed

The wind whistled across the high plateau and as we neared Segovia we could see mountains dusted with snow on the horizon. As we drove closer I got up and turned the diesel heater on, to warm up the living area in the truck. I sometimes wonder if this looks alarming to drivers in on-coming vehicles as they think I am in the drivers seat. Starting the heater when we are driving saves power in the batteries as the start up uses a lot of energy.

Aqueduct in Segovia

Segovia is a fabulous town with a huge Roman aqueduct in the middle of town – 2 layers of arches and all in pristine condition. The water from the aqueduct disappears underground and there are plaques in the streets tracing its route. The tourist office directed us to the aire in town, behind the disused bull ring, we shared it with another motorhome from GB and stood in the bitter cold wind trading notes.(We don't meet many native English speakers).

Segovia had a castle, Alcazar, in the old quarter that once again, was supposed to be the inspiration behind Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle, we didn't go in but admired its setting on the edge of a canyon.

Alcazar, castle in Segovia

"In a bar in Toledo ...."

Not the same Toledo, this one had bright sunny skies with cool air, perfect for exploring the back streets of this lovely town. Lovely but busy – phew, we thought we were never going to find a park. The Spanish are inventive parkers – even parking over the entrance to carparks.

I was inventive with my lunch choice as well and had to have churros and chocolate to make up for the great heap of orange oily breadcrumbs with an egg on top – not at the same place of course. Stuart was safe with the beefburger.

Serendipity is the word again – we stopped at Consuegra where the satnav had her wicked way sending us up narrow back streets to get to a park that held 13 windmills and a castle. She was the small price to pay for such a fabulous place to stay. Stuart was beside himself, swarming up the hillside with his camera to catch the final rays of sun on the whitewashed walls of the windmills. 

Windmills at Consuegra

We just struck lucky because there are so few places in our book of aires to stay in Spain and Consuegra was the only one anywhere near our route. 

We are in Don Quixote country and his silhouette along with his companion Sancho Panza feature on sign boards along the way. It is wide open country with olive trees planted in endless neat rows and ditto for small bush-like grapevines. All around us large geometric dusty paddocks are being prepared for crops and farmers are adding smoke haze to the dusty look by burning cuttings. We see silhouettes on the horizon of large black anatomically correct bulls - I wonder if they are government standard issue as they all look the same. Black pigs graze under cork oak trees in bucolic bliss, however judging by the amount of pork available these must be the lucky ones.

We are enjoying a couple of days off travelling, staying in a funny little backwater with a mama as the camp warden. She speaks no English and has her customers translate for each other, a Belgian man explained the ropes to us and we in turned explained things to a German couple. She has sold me eggs, a laundry service or two and tried selling me homemade soap and, I think, the benefits of being vegetarian. I have been cornered several times - I don't understand so she repeats it all in rapid fire Spanish.

Stuart outside impressive Travel Truck

We spent an evening with the German couple who showed us the inside of their truck. Their favourite destination is Mongolia and they have visited all the 'Stans', Uzebeckistan etc
The spare wheel on the back weighs a massive 140kg, and has a special lifting device. The truck is a rebuilt Mercedes fire engine and even has ducted aircon inside. There are metal ramps on the side to make bridges for difficult crossings. Some of the roads are so bad they have had broken springs, but found the people in Eastern Europe to be helpful getting them going again.

When we get the inclination we will head south towards Seville but in the meantime we are satiating ourselves on wifi, sunshine and electricity.