Having been away in Spain for eight days the warmth of that country seems to be hanging on here! We had a great time driving and visiting different cities in Castille y Leon, Usually we are walking but this time we became sightseers.
We started our trip by flying into Madrid and picking up our car. We had ordered a 'compact suv' but were given a massive chinese/spanish suv, which was to prove a challenge when parking in a very tight underground car park!
Our first stop was San Loernza de El Escorial famous for its massive monastery. We were amazed how quiet it was and we had the place all to ourselves. Sadly we were unable to go inside but we enjoyed walking around this impressive building following an excellent lunch of croquettes and vegetable tempura.
We moved on to our first two night stop at Sergovia. I had visited before when birdwatching in the area but it was really nice to return with Debbie and share this wonderful place.
We stayed in a hotel on the main Mayor Plaza just a stones throw from Segovia Cathedral, which we visited the next morning as we toured Segovia.
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Segovia Cathedral
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| Segovia Cathedral |
Our evening meal on the first night was under Segovia's famous Roman Aqueduct.
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| The Roman Aqueduct: Segovia |
We enjoyed wandering the streets, visiting the castle and meeting the Devil of Segovia.
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| The Devil of Segovia. |
That evening we dined at Jose Maria, famous for its roasted suckling pig, which I had but Debbie refused and went for the lamb chops instead. It was all very nice but we couldn't help thinking it was a bit over-rated a few vegetable would have been nice but this is Spain!
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| Roasted suckling pig. |
Next day we moved on to Alvia. We had a short visit sometime before so it was great to spend a bit more time in this amazing walled city. It proved to be much larger than we both remembered and we enjoyed strolling the streets and indulging in our favourite past time of Coffee and Cakes!
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The Walled city of Avlia-Debbie does like her BW photos!
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We arrived in Salamanca in the early evening and had the 'pleasure' of parking our massive SUV in the tight underground car park of the hotel! Having done so we needed food and drink to recover so headed for the Mayor Plaza. We had spent a few days here before when we had finished the Camino de Santiago so it was nice to visit favourite sites. The Plaza was as busy as always in the evening but is still a great place to sit, sip a cold drink, eat tapas and watch the world go by!
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| Mayor Plaza Salamanca |
We were able to find the famous Salamanca Frog as this time we were looking at the correct building, The University of Salamanca not the Cathedral as told by friends on our last visit!
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| Frog on a skull, Saalamanca |
Leaving Salamanca on the Thursday we headed for Zamora, a new place for both of us. We arrived to find it was the start of a four day festival of Cheese, which also happened to be the largest such festival in the world!
We wandered the streets passing hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of cheese with a few meat stalls thrown in for good measure. Even around the castle there were stalls and lecture theatres set up to promote cheese.
Zamora was certainly a pleasant place to visit and if in the area again would be quite happy to spend a day wandering around the place. The work restoring the castle was certainly impressive and well worth seeing.
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| Zamora Castle |
Our next stop was Toro, famous for the number of wine producers in the area and its medieval houses. It was certainly quiet when we walked through the town gates and into the old part which we had pretty much to ourselves.
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| Toro |
We went in search of Spain only wooden built bull ring and were disappointed to find the view of the ring was limited to about ten feet of wooden fence the rest were houses!
By this time we were pretty much monumented out and had little desire to see one more church, castle or deserted street. Skipping two more town that we were planning to visit we headed on to our two night stay in a castle!
Castillo de Curiel stands above the small village set in another of the massive wine producing area. Our room looked out over a terrace and the distant vineyards. Our biggest disappointment was the pool! Not much bigger than a bath! We did not make use of it!
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| Castillo de Curiel |
On our free day here we did a circular walk around the area lasting about three hours. The walk took us through many vineyards where they were picking the grapes, sometimes by hand on one occasion using an adapted tractor.
Returning for lunch we enjoyed some tapas and cold beer. The afternoon was spent bird watching for me and reading for Debbie. While wandering along trying to spot Dartford Warbler I came across the rather sad sight of what must have been an impressive model railway.
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| Abandoned model railway |
That night we dined light and slept like a log!
Our final stop was to be Soria, mainly for its Paradore! On the way we stopped at a wonderful old village of Calatanazor. Here we had a coffee and a wonderful belly pork snack that the area is famous for and it was truly delicous.
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| Crispy Pork belly and donuts! |
We arrived in Soria but have little to say about it as we went straight to the Paradore and enjoyed the best room we've had for a long time. The room was massive with a private balcony and amazing views. Sadly we only had one night here before heading home!
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| Soria at night |
