Retrieved our car from the public car park where we’d had to park it overnight round 9 , and putting our full faith in Google maps pointed our noses towards Salamanca (our stopover en route to Madrid). GM told us it was a 426 km journey (true) which should take 4.25 hours ( total porkies).
Once again we set out in light fog with the promise of a sunny day. As has become the trend, getting out of the city was a bit hair raising, but once we were on the highway the early part of the trip was fairly unextraordinary – on wide interlinking highways with all towns bypassed.
We had organised to meet Rick and Bei in Ourense, what looked on the map to be a relatively small country town about an hour out of Santiago. Turns out it was a city of about 250k people (don’t know how we missed that small detail). First challenge was to find a park – and navigate the parking instructions in Spanish- challenge two was to find each other! Challenge three was to navigate the route out again to continue our journey.
David and Rick took the opportunity to get some manscaping done – they popped into what looked like a barbers- turned out it was a ladies hair and nail salon – they had a vacancy and so – job done. There was lots of lively chatter among the girls working there – no idea what they were saying, but were pretty sure it was about us!
By 1.30pm we were back on the road, fed, coiffed and good to go.
Heading into central Spain meant mountains, and much of the afternoon was driving above the snow line. It was a beautiful mix of snow and sunshine. The roads were pretty rough and ready – lots of potholes, likely from the high volume of trucks using them. It took it.s toll on the running board of our rental – which vibrated loose. But we are nothing if not resourceful – with a bit of jiggling and Rick’s masking tape we were able to stick it back on – let’s hope it holds!
Arrived in Salamanca round 6.15 (so much for 4.25 hours!). Too tired to explore, opted for an early night instead and exploration tomorrow. Pretty sure we’ll need our winter woollies.