A Dutch kilometre is very much like a country mile!

12th – 19th June
When we arrived at the campsite at Salamanca we were at loggerheads, guess why? Yep you got it, the bloomin sat-nav had just had us driving around a local SMALL housing estate! It didn’t help that I was very tired I suppose but the final straw was when the small one admitted she had overruled the sat-nav some way back!!!!! It is of course impossible to be annoyed for very long as it takes too much energy so by the time we were all set up and sipping our beer/shandy we were friends again. Our neighbours were mostly Dutch people but as usual most of them spoke pretty good English. We enquired about getting into town and were assured it was a matter of but a few kilometres along a nice riverside track, more or less flat all the way, just like Holland, trust me. Ha! It was great for about ½ a mile then it became this very narrow almost none existent track through stinging nettles along which Joan refused point blank to ride.

I must admit it was pretty scary and in places there appeared nothing to stop you falling into the river so we pushed the bikes until such time as it widened a little. After a while a tremulous voice said, look this is not fun, when do we get to that road he mentioned? I of course immediately whipped out my crystal ball.....no actually I replied that pushing the bikes made it seem far longer and we would probably get there very soon. Eventually we did of course and to our delight found ourselves in the middle of a market where we were able to buy not one but two pairs of leather sandals, whoopee! With our spirits restored we of course instantly went the wrong way into town and finally made it to the Cathedral where of course the tourist info was. Now unlike lots of tourist info places we have been to where they are amazed (a) that anybody found them they are so well hidden and (b) that you actually want to know about their town etc. In Salamanca as soon as we entered, they whipped out an info sheet with details of hotels, sights, eateries (is that a word Carole?)etc.

What I am going to tell you now will appal you and we certainly did not ask the lady because we were looking for ssh (Mc Donald’s ) only because they have free wi-fi, honest. Our campsite wanted to charge us £4 for an hour and it seemed really excessive. Why is it that whenever we are looking for somewhere in a town or city, that particular road is the one they are digging up or just about to renew the sign? We saw the sign which said it was 300 metres and gave the actual Plaza it was in, but when we eventually found the place, no sign of (Mc Donald’s). We did find it eventually but decided it was far too far to come back to later. After all as we told our Dutch Friend 11½ miles is not our idea of a simple couple of kilometres. We had though returned by the road which was mostly downhill freewheeling once we had found the right one.

The next day was spent recovering and a visit to the pool helped. We also saw our Dutch friend who had the most horrendous swollen foot from a bite he must have got going along by the river. On seeing this I was informed we would be leaving in the morning. Frankly if we had not seen so many wonderful sights along the way we may have been more impressed by Salamanca but we had seen it and felt it was time to move on. Having driven for 170 odd miles we were pleased to pull straight into our campsite at Riaza. According to the book it is only 2 star but it was really super and appears to be brand new. This meant all the facilities were spotless and it was a shame we would only stay one night but I wanted to go to the seaside!

Joan who is concerned for my welfare had planned the next stop at a place called Caspi about 235 miles from Riaza leaving a shorter trip the following day. When I looked at the map it seemed daft to detour there and then drive the next day so as I was feeling pretty good I elected to drive the 328 miles straight through to Cambrils so as to be by the sea in the morning. Suffice to say I was totally knackered the next day and the one after, not entirely my fault as we were on a single track trunk road most of the way and huge tracts of it were dug up which didn’t help at all. We had long delays and there were hundreds of lorries as far as the eye could see in both directions, so not an easy drive. Finally, totally fed up and worried because they were all driving like nutters to make up time. Joan plotted a route to the toll road for the last 30 miles, a fiver well spent we both agreed.

All of you will recognise the words “I told you so!” The married men will and of course, all the women will remember that particular lesson at secondary school where they had to do it over and over out loud to get the right tone!! Joan got an ‘A’plus

I had NOT been looking forward to getting to this site as we had heard it had some low trees. What they didn’t say was the main entrance was only 3.2metres high,(we are 3.1!). They lied, it only had low trees and with my track record, plus having driven all that way, I was hyperventilating within seconds of driving in. Fortunately the small one rises to occasions like this without too many adverse comments, and we now know it is possible to drive our van at 1 inch per minute leaving plenty of time to check heights/ widths etc. What the people who told us about this place didn’t lie about was how nice it was and how nice the beach and promenade are.
Since then we have been cycling along the prom, swimming in the sea etc as you do when the sea is the only place to cool down a bit and the temperatures are in the high 30’s.

Another example of the road up business, we were told there is an amazing place for fruit and veg run as a co-op by the local growers. Armed with a map from the office we set off to find it and of course did so, IN THE END. Why? Because the road we should have gone down is being dug up, ho hum.

So that’s yer lot dear friends, we have another 3 nights here and then we set off for Julies, back in France at last!

Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Happy Birthday to Joseph, we hope that new bicycle goes very fast! X.