Meticulous planning goes into our summer holiday, the hotels were booked before last Christmas, although with free cancellation. And that free cancellation was quite useful as, nearer the time to the holiday we checked if there were any special deals on the hotels we had booked and managed, by John cancelling the hotel and me booking it with the special deal, to save about €40, enough to pay for some drinks and tapas, or a couple of menú del días.
However, the hotels are not the only thing we pre plan, we sort out the best routes, not going on motorways, when possible, as they can be noisy and boring. Country roads can be far more interesting and also allow coffee breaks (or, due to the heat, cold drink breaks) and lunch stops to be easier to find.
The next thing we look at is, is there anything interesting to be seen en route, between stop overs. A good example of that is that we found, between Mérida and Córdoba there were two interesting museums, a historical vehicles museum and a jamón museum, and both of them were free. Well, the jamón museum was free, unless you wanted a tour but, when we arrived, we were given a tour for free, perhaps as we were the only people there at the time.
In fact, this holiday was mostly a visiting museums holiday as, on all our holidays that we have taken annually since our honeymoon 2021 we have found that all major cities have cathedrals and alcazars and castles, and they are all very similar. This year, when we went to a city we had not visited before we looked to see where its important buildings were, and usually saw them from the outside, whilst travelling around from breakfast to museum to lunch etc.
So, the holiday. We first travelled to Toledo, in the Castilla La Mancha region, which we had visited before two years ago. So, as we had seen all its historical sites, we decided to see “Toledo in Motion”, which was a video film recording the history of Toledo and which was very interesting. The other ´museum´ we went to was the MQM, Museo de Queso Manchego. It wasn´t really much of a museum, there were two rooms with straw effigies of farmers and sheep, and some labels explaining the making of cheese. There was an interesting video of cheese making, which was very informative. Then came the tasting! With a glass of wine, we were served three levels of Manchego cheese, cured, semi cured and young. John is always one for a nice strong cheese, like a proper mature cheddar however, we both enjoyed the semi cured the most. The whole point of the ´museum´ was to encourage you to buy the wine you tasted and some cheese. However, the gentleman agreed that to try and transport cheese in our open topped Barchetta on a touring holiday was not the ideal, so we shall have to find a local to home supplier.
Our next stop was Segovia, where we moved to the Castilla y León region, where the highlight was a statue of the devil on a bridge with the aqueduct behind him , taking a selfie! That evening we had difficulty finding somewhere to watch the Spain v Portugal World Cup match and were amazed that more bars were not showing it. However, we got a seat outside a bar where we could watch through the door the match on the tv inside. Unfortunately, we missed the winning goal, as we left the bar to get the last bus back to the hotel.
Our next stop was Valladolid, where we had a fantastic Indian meal the first night and the next day visited the casa de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote.
However, later that day we saw some very disquieting news on Facebook and on Wildfire Watch. There was a fire that had started freakily by an electric cable falling, breaking and sparking. As the countryside near where we live is tinder dry, the fire spread incredibly quickly, apparently the fastest a fire has ever spread in Almería province. As that day and ensuing days progressed, the news did not get any better. People were being evacuated from a village that is just over the hill behind our house. We kept in constant touch with our house and pet sitters and were happy when we could report that the wind had changed, and the fire was no longer travelling towards our property, which for us was a blessing. Sadly, to date, there have been fourteen fatalities, and many have been made homeless or have extensive cleaning up and repairs to do. A very sad time, and it certainly cast a shadow over our holiday. I had been chronicling our holiday daily on Facebook, sharing our trip and the photos we had taken, but felt that I had to pause, it did not seem right talking about our lovely holiday, when people were struggling to cope with grief and loss.
Then it was on to Salamanca, where we had three museums lined up, another museum of automotive history, one of commerce and one of bullfighting. Something else happened in Salamanca too, because when we checked in to the 5-star Alameda Palace I was surprised when I saw the bathroom. Okay, I do prefer a walk-in shower but understand that in many hotels you have to step into the bath. However, that was not the problem. There was a fixed panel along the top of the bath with a small swinging panel to allow access. Except the small panel left an insufficient gap for me to swing my legs in. Going down to reception, we explained that, due to my arthritis I could not get into the bath. For that night they gave us a disabled room, that frankly was quite grim, as everywhere there was room for a wheelchair, which meant there were no 5* type comfortable furnishings, but at least I could have a shower, though we were warned that it was only available for one night. The next morning, we went down to reception and explained our problem and without hesitation we were put into a suite, which was absolutely beautiful. Hey, who doesn´t like a free upgrade?
The following Monday we went on to Mérida, in the region of Extremadura, where I started my life in Spain, back in 2009. The great thing about Mérida is the saying which goes that “Mérida has more Roman ruins than Rome”! this is due to the incredible dryness in Extremadura, which is very low in humidity, enabling the buildings to survive longer. There are a fantastic theatre and an amphitheatre, which are still used for cultural events, operas and plays.
However, once again we had booked to go to an Indian meal on the night that Spain was playing a World Cup match, in this case France in the semi-finals, which they won 2-0.
Finally, we travelled on, this time to Córdoba, returning to Andalucía for our third visit to the city and our second to the fantastic 5* Hotel Eurostars Palace. However, about ten minutes from our arriving at our hotel, our little baby Barchetta just died, had no power at all. Fortunately, John was able to steer onto a slip road and roll down to a stop, fairly safe from traffic.
The outcome was, after John phoned the insurance company, a recovery truck came and got the car and called us a taxi, so we could get us and our luggage to the hotel.
The next morning, we arranged with the insurance company that the car would be taken to our motor repair garage near to our home here, and a taxi would pick us up the next morning, when we were due to leave Córdoba, to take us to a hire car site at the Bus Station, where we would pick up a hire car in which to drive home.
So, all in all, not the totally relaxing holiday we had hoped for. However, we do have some good memories, me of a wonderful white chocolate mocha milkshake and John of an exceptional breakfast, just the usual tostada with jamón and cheese, except the jamón was ibérico, and of exceptional quality and a fabulous taste.
Now, as I sit writing this, Spain won the World Cup (hurray) and we collected the repaired Barchetta this morning, so everything is back to normal, and we are already discussing where to go next year!
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