Where's Bertie? He's in an Aire which forms part of a car park in the town of Palencia (exact location: 42.00417, -4.53503).
Weather: Rainy start, then showers with sunny intervals, then as we travelled south, increasingly sunny.
I spent almost the entirety of last night busy sleeping, but still got the impression that it had rained most of the time. Whether that's accurate, or whether it's just that it was raining as we retired, when I woke briefly during the night, and when I finally woke this morning, I don't know. In view of the inclemency, we didn't feel inclined to sightsee around Vitoria-Gasteiz, even though the guidebook made it sound worthwhile. I'm sure we'll pass another time, and we'll hope for better weather then*.
Almost everything was packed away ready for us to leave when I decided that I needed a brief jogette before we went. At that point we were looking at another 5- or 6-hour day of driving, to get us just over the border into Portugal, which is an awful lot of sitting down. By good fortune, I had a mainly dry outing as I explored the immediate neighbourhood, only catching the leading edge of the next shower just as I returned to Bertie. A minute later it was lashing down again.
The free motorway took us so far towards Burgos and both SatNavs told us to leave it just as it became a toll road. We duly did so and continued a few kilometres before it occurred to me that this was one of the toll roads that has been de-tolled. That de-tolling was the very reason for the whole saga of trying to update the TomTom SatNav, just before we left home and it seems that my days lost in trying to update the cursed device were nugatory: it still doesn't know that these roads are now free.
Redirecting us back to the AP1, we found the reports we had read online to be true: the toll booths are still in situ, but the gates are open and signs are displayed saying that the road is now free. That sped us (if you can reasonably refer to 50mph thus) along ... but not to Portugal as planned.
During my map gazing, I'd been having second thoughts about the plan hatched last night, to enter Portugal at Vilar Formoso (about half way down its length) and then either tootle south, or head over to somewhere around Lisbon and tootle down the coast. Would we be better driving through Spain to the south coast, then entering Portugal to tootle our way along the coast, westwards then northwards? Given our track record of taking way longer than expected to make progress in any direction (too many places to stop and explore; too many things to see!), would we be better to start in the warmest part of the country, rather than risk not making it that far?
I'm not sure we reached a firm conclusion, but those questions did cause us to cut short today's journey before reaching Salamanca, where sits the critical junction of roads. Moreover, by this time it was past lunchtime, the sun was shining, and we have spent eight entire days either sitting in garages or driving - it was time for a short day, a leisurely lunch and an afternoon of relaxing or bimbling around, as the fancy took us.
We have been to Palencia before. I have more of a recollection of the place than Mick, but even though I remembered the parkland next to which we are parked, and the river that sits between us and town (a five minute walk away), I struggled to recognise anything in the town centre. Admittedly, our previous visit was a flying one, so I'm not going to worry too much about my memory.
(*We say the same about Chartres, in France, every time we drive past. One day I'm sure we'll get the combination of good weather and not being in a rush to get somewhere, but it hasn't happened yet.
Other Miscellaneous notes:
1) We saw lots of snow ploughs, with drivers, sitting in strategic positions along the road to the north of Burgos, which seemed incongruous under the blue skies. Later the overhead variable message signs confirmed that snow is expected. The section of road in question does run at altitude.
2) Bertie was treated to some good quality diesel today. It wasn't entirely intentional on this occasion, although fuel prices in Spain do sometimes entice us to buy other than the cheap stuff. The cheapest ordinary diesel we saw advertised today was €1.11/litre (we deviated from our route for that price, only to find the petrol station closed because it's Sunday). Along the motorway it varied from €1.18 to €1.28, with most being around the €1.24 mark. )
Weather: Rainy start, then showers with sunny intervals, then as we travelled south, increasingly sunny.
I spent almost the entirety of last night busy sleeping, but still got the impression that it had rained most of the time. Whether that's accurate, or whether it's just that it was raining as we retired, when I woke briefly during the night, and when I finally woke this morning, I don't know. In view of the inclemency, we didn't feel inclined to sightsee around Vitoria-Gasteiz, even though the guidebook made it sound worthwhile. I'm sure we'll pass another time, and we'll hope for better weather then*.
Almost everything was packed away ready for us to leave when I decided that I needed a brief jogette before we went. At that point we were looking at another 5- or 6-hour day of driving, to get us just over the border into Portugal, which is an awful lot of sitting down. By good fortune, I had a mainly dry outing as I explored the immediate neighbourhood, only catching the leading edge of the next shower just as I returned to Bertie. A minute later it was lashing down again.
The free motorway took us so far towards Burgos and both SatNavs told us to leave it just as it became a toll road. We duly did so and continued a few kilometres before it occurred to me that this was one of the toll roads that has been de-tolled. That de-tolling was the very reason for the whole saga of trying to update the TomTom SatNav, just before we left home and it seems that my days lost in trying to update the cursed device were nugatory: it still doesn't know that these roads are now free.
Redirecting us back to the AP1, we found the reports we had read online to be true: the toll booths are still in situ, but the gates are open and signs are displayed saying that the road is now free. That sped us (if you can reasonably refer to 50mph thus) along ... but not to Portugal as planned.
During my map gazing, I'd been having second thoughts about the plan hatched last night, to enter Portugal at Vilar Formoso (about half way down its length) and then either tootle south, or head over to somewhere around Lisbon and tootle down the coast. Would we be better driving through Spain to the south coast, then entering Portugal to tootle our way along the coast, westwards then northwards? Given our track record of taking way longer than expected to make progress in any direction (too many places to stop and explore; too many things to see!), would we be better to start in the warmest part of the country, rather than risk not making it that far?
I'm not sure we reached a firm conclusion, but those questions did cause us to cut short today's journey before reaching Salamanca, where sits the critical junction of roads. Moreover, by this time it was past lunchtime, the sun was shining, and we have spent eight entire days either sitting in garages or driving - it was time for a short day, a leisurely lunch and an afternoon of relaxing or bimbling around, as the fancy took us.
We have been to Palencia before. I have more of a recollection of the place than Mick, but even though I remembered the parkland next to which we are parked, and the river that sits between us and town (a five minute walk away), I struggled to recognise anything in the town centre. Admittedly, our previous visit was a flying one, so I'm not going to worry too much about my memory.
(*We say the same about Chartres, in France, every time we drive past. One day I'm sure we'll get the combination of good weather and not being in a rush to get somewhere, but it hasn't happened yet.
Other Miscellaneous notes:
1) We saw lots of snow ploughs, with drivers, sitting in strategic positions along the road to the north of Burgos, which seemed incongruous under the blue skies. Later the overhead variable message signs confirmed that snow is expected. The section of road in question does run at altitude.
2) Bertie was treated to some good quality diesel today. It wasn't entirely intentional on this occasion, although fuel prices in Spain do sometimes entice us to buy other than the cheap stuff. The cheapest ordinary diesel we saw advertised today was €1.11/litre (we deviated from our route for that price, only to find the petrol station closed because it's Sunday). Along the motorway it varied from €1.18 to €1.28, with most being around the €1.24 mark. )
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