After trying out the oven for the first time – roast chicken! – we treated ourselves the next night to a meal in the campground’s restaurant. We had a lovely smoked salmon and asparagus salad for a starter and both chose the veal with potatoes as a main. I don’t often opt for veal but it was pretty good.
The water seems to stop at least once or twice a day – there’s been a tanker truck filling up the pool and other things to compensate for the shortage.
On Tuesday morning we got going at a decent time to find a place on the route for the first day of the Vuelta a Burgos – another of our favourite races. We were accredited photographers two years ago and had applied again this year, but due to covid restrictions were regretfully turned down this year.
We headed southwest from the campground and picked up the route in the reverse direction.
After passing Santa Maria del Campo we turned around and backtracked to Pampliega, a picturesque town on a river where we decided to stay and watch/photograph from.
As we had some time we took the doggies for a walk around the village – uphill to the main part of town.
After asking a local fellow where a cafe/bar was – in Spanish! – we found the place we were directed to and stopped for refreshments, then on to the church that overlooks everything.
The door was open so I went inside – the stained glass windows weren’t that great but everything else was outstanding. I got ready to take my first photo but a fellow inside immediately said ‘no photos’, and pointed to a sign on the wall that I hadn’t seen.
It was a shame I couldn’t take photos – it was by far the most interesting church I’ve been in for a long time. Like in many churches the ceilings soar and are vaulted and the walls are covered in sculptures. But they also had a ‘wing’ with priests’ vestments behind glass – a whole bunch of them. Some looked like they were embroidered in gold thread and lots of silk. Also a display case that contained some relics, including some very old-looking scrolls.
Returning to the campervan we re-conned some possible spots to shoot from. There’s a fairly sharp turn before the riders get onto the bridge and we hoped that would slow them down a bit.
The river, along with the lovely park and walkways was a great attraction and thoughout the morning more and more locals arrived to swim and fish. They also opened both of the kiosks at each end of the park area and must have done a good business.
There was a good crowd gathered, and the race arrived with five in the breakaway – I got a pretty good shot of them coming across the bridge.
They were all from local Spanish teams and had been allowed to get a seven minute gap on the peloton.
I didn’t recognize too many riders in my photos but there are a lot of big-name racers here. It’s a good warmup race for the Vuelta a Espana later this month.
After the racers had all passed we took our time going back to Santa Maria del Campo where there was a very nice free aire for the night.
Colin got his drone up for the first time but the strong wind made it difficult to nagivate – it ended up in a tree, but we did manage to retrieve it safely and without damage.
A few days ago we were heading home from our morning cappuccino in the bar when we stopped to look into the garden at the end of the post office building. The fellow had been clearing the place up and we peered over the stone wall to see what progress had been made.
Suddenly we saw a movement, albeit a slow one- it was a tortoise! A couple of days later we stopped again, and saw that there were two of them. Then the next day the owner of the garden was there and Colin started chatting with him. The slightly larger tortoise is female, and is 50 years old (!) and the other one is the male and is 30.
There are also a bunch of little ones of various ages – he rounded up three of them to show us, each a year apart in age. He’s got a nice little fence to protect his tomato plants – apparently they are a favourite snack
Another day we were walking down to the bar and when we were descending the 78 steps under the arch we saw that a few of the local fellows were doing some more work, both outside and inside.
We chatted for a bit, then one of them took me inside to show me the little chapel that’s right above the arch.
I also got a better view of the painting under the arch – he indicated that it was six hundred years old!
I went for a very nice ride one morning before it got too hot – the sunflowers are out and many of the fields have been cut, bailed and re-ploughed for a second planting.
We went out one night to try to catch sight, and maybe some photos of the comet, but even though we knew where to look for it we didn’t get a glimpse.
However the hundreds of fireflies flitting around in the bushes along the walk back home made up for it.
We left our free parking spot fairly early and took a somewhat faster route south to Reggio Calabria and decided to look for a campground for a day or two rather than try to get a ferry to Sicily right away.
Arriving back at Villa San Giovanni – that we’d passed by hours earlier – we found the ticket office for the car ferry. Having purchased the ticket we then drove through part of the town to get to the actual port – kind of weird system.
The crossing to Messina took only about 25 minutes – I finally made it to Sicily!! The Shark of Messina doesn’t live here anymore so we didn’t bother to stop in Messina and were quickly on our way south.
We stopped several miles south of Taormina at a campground about 300 meters from the sea – Mt. Etna looms over all, but is quiet at the moment.
The beach at the end of the road has the usual ‘private’ areas where you can rent lounge chairs and umbrellas – for the bargain price of only 13 euros a day – not sure if parking is included.
We had a lovely lunch one day at the restaurant right on the sea – there are beautiful flowers everywhere and fantastic views up and down the beach.
Sunday morning Mo and I were up at 6:30 and took a walk to the beach – even at that early hour there were a few folks there, but only 3 hours later the place was packed.
Mo quite likes my tent, and Henry pops in for a visit from time to time.
We really liked our stay at Almoetia campground – it’s actually quite large and at this time of year there should probably be about 100 campervans or more – sadly there were only four of us. Hopefully if all continues to go well here their summer business will improve.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 