Arriving at Gijon and onwards

Still on the boat, reading a bit, thinking a bit, I have remembered reading Lawrie Lees account of his walking across much of southern Spain at the time of the civil war, taken by some romantic notion he could help, no language, alone, on foot, amazing he needed no pills.

Only three hours to go now, I can while this away easily, I shall be preoccupied with the timing of my toilet run, too soon and I will need to go again, too late, well it might be too late. Robert Morely said that at a certain time of life one inevitably becomes obsessed with thinking about when you might go and this of course begs the question of where. This leads me on to thinking about the modern thing of carrying drinks around with you, sipping water all the time, I've been doing it but only because I’ve been told to. When I was a boy, in the summer, we went out to play at 8 oclock spent all day traipsing around the countryside doing the things we shouldn't no doubt, home at tea time, slice of bread and dripping and if we were lucky a glass of corona, never a thought of sipping water. Those were the days, as someone who was sent to school in shorts and wellies to the age of 14 I would say that wouldn’t I.

The forthcoming journey pops in to my head, the final destination is a bit vague, my shipmates have regaled me with tales of exorbitant toll roads, massive traffic jams around Madrid, rockfalls, bandits, think I will try to concentrate on the toilet business.

Before I go I think I should admit I have been to Madrid before, that was by plane and accidentally. When the booking of flights first became possible on the internet I thought it a splendid way to save money and booked flights to Malaga, price looked good I could see no problem so I pressed the buy button oooops I hadn't spotted the direct flights only checkbox, you guessed it, we had to change twice, Paris and Madrid, it took us a day and a half..

Landed 

Voyage turned out to be OK just very long, my port of disembarkation is Gijon in northern Spain, it is a blot on a very pretty landscape, smoothly rolling hills remind me of Hobbiton or rural Dorset, behind them I can see a range of mist clad more serious hills, I'm sure we will go round these.

On the road I soon pass out of the concrete slab high rises in to familiar pastureland complete with friesian cows, the round hills are almost alpine with pretty houses clinging to the slopes which are at ridiculous angles, looking ahead, the bigger hills are looking like mountains now with heavy clouds sitting on the top, or could it be the smoke from the fires of Mordor? How on earth can the road go through these mountains? , but it does as I zig zag upwards the cloud comes down to meet me, it is misty and it rains. The altitude is marked every vertical 100 meters, the last one isaw was 1300, the mist was literally hand in front of your face thick and it's dark now, speaking as someone who lives in Lincolnshire it's a shock to remember how steep some of the world can be, must be careful not to get a nosebleed.

The van sails on coping with the road with ease. I was mighty glad when the descent came, the mist and rain cleared. Of course I couldn't resist stopping a couple of times to peer in to the valleys and chasms, spectacular.

Stopped for some sleep 6 degrees and just stopped raining, woken up to 28 degrees and bright sunshine, yippe I'm in Spain, think I will take my vest off.

The southern side of the mountains is dry and parched, barren,no more trees. Some of the rocky outcrops are weirdly shaped almost statuesque, goudi like, I want to stop and look at everything but must keep moving.

 Coming south towards Madrid the temperature continues to rise, the fields of corn or whatever they may be are being harvested, the combine harvesters are busy.

I am at the outskirts of Madrid very early, first light hoping to miss the dreaded traffic, I missed it and I got lucky. My helpful acquaintances from the boat omitted to tell me about the tunnel, the throughfare for the city, at least the bit I was on runs under the city, no humble little underpass this, my route took me 7 miles underground, past countless exits and joining roads, the exits were marked with the final town on the road and I had no idea which exit to choose, mrs sat nav of course didn't work down there nowhere to stop, I had to guess and the guess was lucky, Valencia, I didn't want to go there or even pass there but it was in the right direction, hallelujah. The sad bit it that I didn't get to see Madrid again, what a contrary thing life can be, no intention of going there and I did, looking forward to going there again and foiled.

Feeling peckish I decided on the pretext of wanting wi fi to seek out a MacDonald’s, I saw several big M's in the sky but somehow could never work out how to get to them, I reckon you see them from a distance OK but when you approach them they disappear, like anomaly's. I did find a huge supermarket site which boasted a Burger King and fuel plus the supermarket had free wi fi, I give it a go, first I need some cash so I set off to find an ATM (I know all of these whizzy acronyms, not)

Passing Burger King I notice it is closed, In the arcade bit there is a security lady with a big truncheon, I summoned all my courage and asked about the ATM, she gave me directions in good English so feeling bolder I asked about burger king opening times, she told me it was closed because it was not time to eat (2.30pm) I thought she was going to advise me to sip a little water, anyway whilst still mulling this over I spent 5 minutes trying to get cash from a fire hydrant, well the coiled hose did look like a corporate banking symbol, when I found the actual machine it was out of order, to to this all off the free wi fi was only available if you had a Spanish address Doh!

Another day

The only town of note between Gijon and Madrid was and here’s a bit of cryptic for you, The bands also has royalty in the name, The film is a bit macho (but I liked it) the car is little and quick, (I like that too) The answer of course is Leon. Speaking of kings, which we nearly were, as Spain is between kings so to speak I decided to tidy myself up, today’s jeans have no holes and I have brushed my hair, you never know when the call might come.

Not far from Sids place now, have stopped for a breather, most of the road has been motorway, those of you who know me won't be surprised to know that I instructed mrs sat nav to avoid tolls, this has meant using some single carriageway roads, I travel at an economical 56 mph, lorries seem to want to travel at 58mph and the average Spanish oik seems to have the need for speed, upshot is that I have been in everybody’s way today, which I am almost sorry about, up side is that I have made a lot of new friends, not sure what it is they want to express when they gaily gesture, but I always wave back in the most friendly of ways.