Author: CaravanRamblings

Following on from yesterday, it seems Pont Aven (our ship home) is still in dry dock with a propellor problem but our sailing on Monday has yet to be cancelled (according to the website).

Under normal circumstances, a several week delay to our return crossing might be appreciated but we have a lot on during the next couple of weeks in blighty so it is important we arrive home by Wednesday. There is one other crossing from Bilbao to Portsmouth that would achieve this, although limited availability – we needed to speak with Customer Services first thing.

08:31 and we are through to Customer Services but our sailing is still scheduled and there is no accurate indication of when the boat will be fixed, so we can’t do anything to re-schedule. Just as we were about to end the call, the lady announced “Oh, your crossing has just been cancelled”. What a stroke of luck as we secured one of the last remaining places on the Bilbao ferry.

After the excitement of contemplating a long drive through France, we took a walk into Tordesillas and visited the convent there. On Wednesday and Thursday afternoon’s, the visit is free to members of the EU, although should we vote to leave next month, I think saving 6 Euros each on entry will be the least of our worries.

The Royal Convent of Santa Clara is a nunnery in Tordesillas and was founded by the king Pedro of Castile in 1363; this convent of Poor Clares is now under the administration of the Spanish national heritage organisation, the Patrimonio Nacional.

It is noted for its mudéjar architecture, such as the ceiling of the church.

In the evening we returned to Tordesillas for dinner, the restaurants as is the usual in Spain not opening until around 9pm. We ate at San Antolin.

We left Camping Internacionale Aranjuez around 09:30 and the journey to Tordesillas took around 3 – 4 hours. It would have helped if we had taken the M-50 around Madrid in a clockwise direction. As it was we had to head closer into Madrid and picked up the M-40 heading clockwise this time to the A-6 which would lead us all the way to Tordesillas.

Our plans were to stay here in Tordesillas until Saturday before driving back to Santander prior to our Monday afternoon ferry crossing on the Pont Aven to Portsmouth. Tonight I decided to check the status of the Brittany Ferry sailings and whilst it was doubtful that the weather would be inclement enough to cancel, I thought it was worth looking.

That’s when we found out that Pont Aven sailings up until Sunday (leaving our return still scheduled) had been cancelled due to a broken propellor and the boat was now in dry dock at Brest. A quick look around the internet suggested that the boat was likely to be out of action for weeks though, not days.

We are staying at Camping Internacionale Aranjuez which is around 40km south of Madrid. It’s a great place to stay if you wish to visit Madrid as the train takes only 45 minutes and the station here is around a 20 minute walk from the campsite.

Anyhow, we aren’t here to visit Madrid, just a stopover on our final leg of the journey back to blighty.

We did however visit the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, in the freezing cold and wet. Apparently this inclement weather is over most of mainland Europe presently but all is set to clear at the weekend.

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez (or Palacio Real de Aranjuez in Spanish) is a residence of the King of Spain, and is open to the public as one of the Spanish royal sites.

It was commissioned by Philip II and designed by Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera, who also designed El Escorial. It was completed during the reign of Ferdinand VI by the mid-18th century; Charles III had two wings added to it.

The huge gardens, built to relieve its royal residents from the dust and drought of the Spanish meseta using the waters of the adjacent Tagus and Jarama rivers, are Spain’s most important of the Habsburg period. The Jardín de la Isla is on a man-made island bounded by the River Tagus and the Ría Canal.

Monday morning and we are up at the crack of dawn, the alarm clocks ringing at 07:15. It took the usual 2 hours to pack the final items away and shortly after 09:15 we were on our way to Aranjuez, around 40km south of Madrid.

The journey from Granada was uneventful until we reached the outskirts of Aranjuez when the heavens opened up. We followed the ACSI site directions from the South (we had travelled pretty much due North on the Autovia) which directed us through the centre of this old town.

With limited visibility, a plethora of one-way streets (not orientated one-way per our satnavs), abandoned cars everywhere (sorry that’s a Spanish term for “parking”) and lots of cobbled roads, the final 15 minutes were tricky. Note for next time: Follow the A4 to North of Aranjuez and then at La Estacion take the Carreterra de Chinchon a A-4 to the M-305 and then directly South on the M-305 to the campsite.

The campsite itself had also been deluged with rain and it was difficult to find a pitch without a personal water feature. Anyhow, we found one eventually and the weather cleared up enough in the evening for our customary BBQ.

We visited the Sierra Nevada Ski Station which is a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada in the province of Granada in southeastern Spain. The ski area is on the northwestern slopes of Veleta, the third highest peak in peninsular Spain and the most southerly ski resort of Europe.

Sierra Nevada is Europe’s southernmost ski area and the highest in Spain. With its high elevation, the skiing season can last from late November until early May but not this year. Most of the town was closed and only the final remnants of snow remained.

It is also less than 100 km (60 mi) from Motril, on the Costa Tropical, which means skiing and swimming on the same day is an option.

Before heading into the mountains, we had taken a walk around the reservoir at Melegris but this was curtailed due to heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Day 34 and our penultimate Saturday in Spain on Eurotrip 5. We made our way via bus, which runs every half an hour on a Saturday from just outside the campsite into Granada around lunchtime. The fare is Euros 1.5 each and during the week, the buses depart every 15 minutes on the quarter of the hour.

There was some kind of fiesta and procession occurring in Granada that day and many of the city centre roads were closed to traffic. A pair of large bulls was pulling the centre peace of the procession.

Later we visited the cathedral of Granada. Unlike most cathedrals in Spain, construction of this cathedral had to await the acquisition of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492; while its very early plans had Gothic designs, the construction of the church in the main occurred at a time when Spanish Renaissance designs were supplanting the Gothic regnant in Spanish architecture of prior centuries.

Weather was mixed again – blighty is enjoying warmer and drier weather than Spain at the moment. Apparently that happens for a day or two every few years… Dinner was a nice steak cooked on the BBQ.

The reason we are here in Granada is the same reason most people visit Granada – to see the Alhambra.

Nothing much to report today.  The day was spent working on a variety of issues and taking care of some laundry.

The evening however was spent at the campsite restaurant where the food was of a high standard. One of their specialities was “meat and stone” – I had the steak and cooked it on the supplied granite block.

Our first full day in Granada and the morning was spent chilling at the campsite. It was quite cold last night with a low of 7 degrees celsius but the day soon warmed up a high of around 31 degrees in the centre of town.

We took the bus, which stops just outside,  from the campsite into Granada in the afternoon. The price is 1.5 Euros for a single ticket and the journey to the Palace of Congress takes just 20 minutes.

We visited Carrera del Darro which is one of the oldest streets in Granada and its name is given to the entire left bank of the River Darro.

Carrera del Darro is one of the most scenic walks in Granada. To the right of the River Darro, it is crossed by two brick and stone bridges (Cabrera and Espinosa), which link Carrera del Darro with the neighborhood of the Churra. It runs between the river, the forest of the Alhambra and the Almanzora, which extends up the slope of Gomerez. The street dates from the seventeenth century.

We are still trying to find out what the Dobla de Oro is.

Evening was another BBQ and despite retiring indoors due to rain, the shower lasted only a few minutes.

I didn’t receive any comments suggesting who the famous person was filming during our visit to Fort Bravo.

Have found out his name is Jesus Calleja and he’s a mountaineer, having previously climbed Everest and now a popular film / documentary producer.

Just google “Jesus Calleja”.