Astorga
We found our Aire last night easy enough. Just some ground at the back of the bull ring and next to the helicopter port. There was a bull fight due on the Thursday night so we only stayed the one night.
During the drive to Astorga, a lovely wee warning light on the dash came on. For some reason as it was windy on route, I thought that it was a cross wind warning. However I later found out that it was the adblue warning light. So first mission of the day was to find a garage and get some adblue. It turns out it wasn’t as scary as I thought.
We planned to visit the chocolate museum, but unfortunately it was closed today. The van was parked safely so we walked up to have a look at the Gaudi Palace.
We had a cuppa just outside the palace and headed to the Cruz de Fierro. This is a famous scene from the film “The Way.” People leave a stone or some memento, at the base or something significant like leaving a burden behind.
From where we were parked we noticed a sign across the road with a 3m height limit. We were now in a Dilemma. We studied the map, tried the internet and prayed for an answer. To go or not go?
A few moments later a family arrived and stood at the the mound. Lorraine had gone to study the signs and John decided to see if they spoke any English. The youngest girl was taking a group photo and John offered to take a photo to include them all. Turns out they were there with their 90 year old father. They spoke really good English and one of the guys was able to read the Spanish sign and tell us that the height limit probably only applied to deliveries down service roads. If we stayed on the main road we would be ok. If that’s not an answered prayer I don’t know what is!
To see the Cruz de Fierro, we had to take a minor road. The drive was sketchy at best, but the views were incredible.
At one point the road just turned into a single lane through a village, then back to a road again. Expect the unexpected on this trip.
Our stop for the night was an Aire behind a shell garage in Ponferrada. Not pretty but all services and electric hook-up all for 5 euros/24 hours.
3D Experience
Crus de Fierro
Not a bad view fro tonights park up.
Ponferrada
After three cities in a row, it was time to slow down and for some R&R. Today we took the opportunity do do some tasks that really need to be done.
The van has a wifi router but it is much cheaper to buy a sim in the country you are travelling in.
John bought a Vodafone sim in Leon, but was having problems getting it working. Well today was the day to try and get it sorted, which it now is.
Didn’t really do much until late afternoon. We went for a walk, about 2K to view the castle Ponferrada. Seniors rate it cost us 8 euros to be admitted. The castle was ok as castles go, but nothing special.
As we had electric hook up, we tried the air fryer and made some wedges for tea.
This is not the most pretty park up, but it had electric and allowed us to get a lot of admin stuff done. We also hatched a plan for the next few days.
Weather, was very warm 27 degrees, so not a lot you can do in that kind of temperature anyway.
Baralla
The drive this morning was quite straight forward. Mostly on the A6. Our destination was Baralla aire. Free park with fantastic facilities, electric and water for free. Just a lovely spot. Might stay two days now.
We were sitting on our chairs just outside the van and a lady came over to explain that it was not allowed. We had noticed there were people carrying their chairs over to a shaded spot under the trees but thought nothing off it. It was good of her to let us know the local rule. It was much cooler under the shade of the trees anyway.
We arrived here in the heat of the day so had lunch and chilled under the trees with everyone else.
This was atop top Aire and we thought we would stay two nights, but in honesty lovely as it was, there wasn’t enough about to keep us there.
Santiago de Compostela
We got prepared, and headed towards Lugo where we intended to spend the night. However when we arrived and good as the aire was. It was another big city, so we decided to push on towards Santiago de Compostela. We came upon a garage that did LPG gas so we decided to top up the cylinders. I asked a very helpful guy to help me and John showed him the adapters I had. He decided to try one of the adapters on the nozzle and a spray of gas hit John in the face. No damage done but I could have been disastrous. Anyway topped we were on our way.
We had emailed a campsite and they had told us to come no need to book. Camping As Cansealas. We arrived around four ish, Beside the campsite was a large shopping centre, but most of it was closed this being Sunday. Next morning we had a shower and headed to the shopping centre to do some shopping. Dot the trolley’s first outing. For sone reason this gives Lorraine great pleasure that John would buy a trolley. Groceries bought we headed back to site. Lorraine was able to get three washes done and all this before lunch time.
We walked down to the bus stop (No 4 Bus) and caught the bus to town. Got speaking to a lovely man Peter from the Netherlands and he gave us some pointers.
Santiago de Compostela, has a lovely vibe about it, and as you can see from the photos the cathedral is just beyond words. There were many who had just completed their Camino, one way or another.
For tea we found a Pizza restaurant and had lovely Italian Pizza. Looking for some where to eat we stumbled upon a Choir and sat around listening for about 1/2 hour.
As usual when we got back to the van we were tired and it was an early night, in preparation for moving tomorrow. Camino done it was time to head to the coast.
