A to V, Alberca to Valencia. West to East. 4 stopovers, 650k’s covered. Rain to sun. I meal out, 1 takeaway and a good few tapa’s taken.
We left our lovely free spot in Alberca on the Monday, heading into town to purchase some of it’s prized jamon and cherries. Jamon got, cherries not, the town had been depleted of them over the weekend and so we Ieft, cherryless, but knowing that it’s the season I would not go long without, even if a price was to be paid.
The drive down fom Alberca was lovely, albeit a bit cloudy and twirly, but thankfully not the jaw dropping drops along the way and then we got to the jaw dropping Avila.
Avila
At this point I have to do my Carrie Bradshaw and ask ‘when is bonita not enough’ and this is the case for the medieval town of Avila. It has 8 monumental gates, 88 watchtowers and more than 2500 turrets and is one of the best preserved bastions in Spain, and yet it does not achieve a Lonely Planet Castilla y Leon Highlight. To be fair it does give it a 4 page cover, but both David and I think it really should be up a notch in the LP ratings. Not only that but Santa Teresa, most important woman in the history of the Catholic Church in Spain was born here in 1515. Plus some amazing food including T-bone steak and free tapa to be had.
The weather as we knew was against us but we did manage the Tuesday in the sun and so caught out by it was we, that we both actually got a bit of sunburn. We walked the walls and marvelled at the many wonderous churches and the cathedral that the town had to offer and we also treated ourselves to lunch of the town speciality of chuleton de Avila (T bone steak), well David did. Just a bit too much meat for me and probably also now for maturing belly David. The first offering of the steak was too rare for David and so he sent it back to be ‘plancha’d’ a bit more, but No a whole new steak arrived which was actually not only cooked more but was also more tender, so a double whammy on that front.
We made the most of the excellent location of the Aire, which had lovely views of the city walls and partook in a couple of evenings at the local vermuteria in the town square, very lovely vermuts and free tapas, even if we doubled the age of the customers on both nights.
Madrid
Routes have been planned and replanned to try and avoid the bad weather that was hanging over Spain, but we decided that Madrid should be sampled again even in the bad weather. The drive leaving Avila would have been spectacular if we could have seen more of it and the temperature dropped in the fog to just 13 degrees and thoughts of the warm weather at home pervaded. But lighthearts we are not and upon arriving at Pinto, a suburb of Madrid with excellent parking at €8 a night we donned our macs and headed to the nearest bar to plan our attack. With the weather being inclement we had ourselves that night a wonderful taste of home, pork chops, mash potatoes and veg, my Bisto and mint sauce supplies still not under pressure.
Madrid is a wonderful, wonderful city and should be visited at least once. The Plaza Major is up there as one of the most beautiful in Spain and much value is to be had in the bars and restaurants around the plaza and also at the Mercado de San Miguel. For us it was a vermut at the mercado and then a bocadillo de calamares (baguette filled with deep fried calamari) in the Plaza. The first was €5.50 per glass and the second €4.40 but neither should be missed in our world!.
Valencia
With sad heart, but warm bodies yearning we heading not on the route we had planned, which was middle Spain and then France but to our Only Fools and Horses place- Valencia, Camping Nomadic. A repeat of a repeat on this trip, but where the sun was to be shining and the Aire well known to us as a spot that just ticks all the boxes. The drive was long but by 5.30 that evening we were sat at the local square under the trees in warmth sipping our respective drinks-heaven. Motorhoming is truly amazing but not so much of heaven when the rain is continual!
Our bodies revitalised, best paella in Spain had, the washing done and drying in the sun we sit and plan our route from here, but after these few Only Fools and Horses days we have no option, bad weather or not, to start heading north.