Our Route South in Spain – Aranda De Duero and Pinilla Del Valle
Zagan the motorhome did not expect to wake up to snow here in Spain, but he did just that this morning. He’s parked up by the small village of Pinilla Del Valle (N40.92828, W3.81584) north of Madrid, at the feet of the mountains of the Sierra de Guadarrama. We’re above 1000 metres up – no wonder it’s chilly!
After a couple of nights charging his batteries at the aire in Ontaneda, we headed south. A fellow motorhomer who had driven to the aire from the south told us the road we were planning to use was tricky and a bit rough in places, he suggested we head for the motorway instead. A quick look at the map and we decided we didn’t fancy the detour, so we headed off south. There were roadworks, a few patches of rough tarmac, hairpin bends, snow poles on the summits, a descent into a gorge and everything else we could ever want from a drive. No problemo. It was also all contained in the first hour or so of driving, after which we reached the motorway and continued our cruise south.
On our last trip we attempted to stop off in Burgos, with a plan to nip and see the grave of El Cid. That stop was thwarted by a fun fair where the motorhomes are supposed to park and us very nearly getting wedged into a very full car park. This time, we’d read that the motorhome parking (aka the fun fair) was no longer available, and not fancying the car park trouble we had last time, we made an executive decision to skip the city. It’s a bit of a shame, but we just weren’t feeling the love. Instead we carried on south to Aranda de Duero (N41.67036, W3.69273) where the lovely folks of the city have marked out dedicated parking for motorhomes and provided us with a free service point.
By the time we’d arrived it was well into locked o’clock (not just lunchtime as we Brits know it, here in Spain most things shut from anywhere between 1.30pm and 5pm), but the skies were blue, so we nipped out for a look around. The good thing about everything being shut is that there isn’t anyone around to spoil your photos!
A poster over the entrance to the city pronounced that the city is the 2020 European City of Wine, and there were posters in shop windows for something happening the morning of the day arrived. We’re not sure what it was but from the photo, it looked like it was taking place in one of the 120 wine cellars in over 7 kilometres of caves under the old part of the town, some of which date back to the 13th Century. We’d spotted vineyards popping up alongside the motorway as we approached the city, and as we walked around we saw a higher than usual amount of Bodegas, several of which advertised tours of their cellars. But if you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ll know Jay doesn’t drink these days, and my wine standards are Lidl Brik, so it would have been lost on us.
On our wanderings around the town, we spotted a ferreteria (not a place that sells ferrets, but an iron mongers) that cut keys, so we made a plan to head back to Zagan for a while and pop back when they reopened after lunch.
At 5pm we ventured back across the bridge over the Duero, strange to think it’s the same river we were parked up next to in Porto on our first trip, and into the Ferreteria. I had rehearsed a couple of sentences in my best Spanish asking for a key to be cut (we’d forgotten to pack our spare door keys), but the response was a shake of the head then Spanish far to fast for me to pick out a single word. Sensing our confusion the chap took us outside and pointed in the direction of another shop. Long story short, in all I got to practice my sentences three times in three different shops, and despite two walks back to the van to test blanks to see if they would fit in the door, we still don’t have a spare key. Still it gives us something to do each time we visit a town or city and at this rate I’ll be fluent in ferreteria terms!
We set a rule a while back that we should stay for two nights on our trips, but after looking at the weather forecast and working out that we didn’t really want to arrive in Madrid on the weekend, we decided to forget that rule and get a wriggle on south. Setting the satnav for a free parking place next to a lake and the village of Pinilla Del Valle (here!), about an hour north of Madrid we hit the motorway again. This time there were a few long uphill drags which lorries crawl up with their hazard lights on. As we passed one lorry, it started to pull into our lane, we had nowhere to go, so blaring its horn really didn’t help. It turned out there was a cone in its lane which it had to go around, but as it had its hazard lights on you couldn’t tell it was indicating (if it was), it was a close call, but we all squeaked through in the end with a big shot of adrenaline each.
Arriving in Pinilla, I nipped out to see if there was anywhere I could buy some bread as it was nearing locked o’clock. I wandered around the streets lined with honey coloured stone houses, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. It turns out that less than 200 people live here, and most of the houses are second homes for folks wanting to escape the heat of Madrid in the summer. I spotted a sign on a wall and my brain recognised the word for shop – following the arrow and then down a flight of stairs I found a small greengrocers and secured a lunchtime baguette. I even managed to explain to the shop keeper that we’re here in our camper. I’m getting so much enjoyment attempting to speak the language, even if it is a little frustrating at times.
After Jay had a run around the place, we had a walk around the village and spotted a couple of cars – but still no people. I guess it is winter and back home most folks would be holed up keeping warm.
We retreated back to Zagan and put the heating on. By 9pm it was below freezing outside, but then it clouded over, so my run this morning was my first ever run in snow! I followed the path around the lake and expected to be sharing it with cows, but they were sensible enough to be sitting down and keeping warm near their breakfast.
So the plan is to stay here tonight, then drive into Madrid on Sunday. There is an aire to the south of the city from where we can catch the train in. I counted up the other day and this will be our 25th European Capital City visited by motorhome, the list had 50 on it, so we’ve still quite a few more to see. Time to do a little research to see what Madrid has to offer – if you have any suggestions, please pop them in the comments.
Ju x
Hi Guys
The aire in Burgos was still open in July last year and was pretty busy. The council have however removed the service point so there’s no fill ‘n’ dump.
All the best on your travels, we’re off again in May.
A&J
Cheers guys. Yep, going off the park4night comments the parking area is still there but didn’t sound too enticing (a few mentions of old caravans parked up long term with nowhere for them to dump waste). It’s probably be fine but we weren’t that bothered about visiting the city. Thanks for the info and happy travels! Jay
Love to have your blog back to read on a Sunday morning. We have frost and it’s cold but not like the rain they have on east coast of Spain.
We travelled down through Spain in 2017.
Could you post your keys to a campsite and stay a night.xx
Hi Nora – yep, that’s an option but we’ve had mixed success posting stuff out so we’re wary of it. We’ll do that if we have to though. Cheers! Jay
I know I did have trouble posting a jacket to Spain. It never arrived. So best be weary. Nora.
First of all, be very aware of pickpockets in the area around the station in Madrid. When our friends came out to visit us when we were travelling, Judith had a purse taken from her handbag within a few minutes of getting off the train. By the time she’d contacted the bank they’d withdrawn cash! On a more positive note, the Royal Palace was good and, whether you agree with it or not, the bullring and adjacent bull fighting museum was fantastic. Well worth a visit. By the way, we stayed on a good site in Toledo and got the high speed train into Madrid. All the best. Pete and Val
One place I would recommend is Avilla. A walled town, where they filmed “The Pride and the Passion”. Which starred Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and Sophia Loren, in 1957.
Thanks Brian. Jay
Hi guys,
I’ve only just started reading your blog over Christmas and reckon I’ve gone through most of the main topics.
It’s a great insight as I’m interested in doing the same in ‘21/‘22 but using a larger van or 5th wheel, I’m 6’4”, so the campers are really tight for me. Do you see many 5th wheels on your travels?
Also, you touched on it in the topic but how do you cope with the languages of all the places you visit? Is it just having phrase books to fall back on? It’s probably the biggest concern I have, my foreign language skills are poor and I’m
worried about not knowing what I’m being asked/told on travels.
Thanks again for all the blogs and books, Andrew
Hi Andrew
We don’t see many 5th wheelers but we don’t stay on that many campsites either. Thinking about it, I can only recall one, a New Zealand couple in Oslo. Lovely rig mind you, beautiful inside.
We speak some French and Ju can understand some German and a little Spanish. Being brutally honest you can get by completely in English, buying groceries at supermarkets, paying for diesel and campsites need few local words. The travel experience feels better the more you can converse with folks though, and we’re using stuff like Michel Thomas’s audio guides, Duolingo and Google Translate mainly (the latter is helpful for real issues like breakdowns or health problems), plus the 15 Minute guides for Spanish and German.
Cheers, Jay
Hi Both,
I am enjoying the ‘spot the local’ photos – sort of ‘Where’s El Wally?’. My top tip from several visits to Madrid is a visit to a great café / coffee place called Café Mallorquina on Puerta Del Sol. It is opposite the entrance (exit?) to Sol metro station. It is packed full of locals and you can either have a coffee and cake stood up in a polite scrum of customers downstairs or take a table upstairs and enjoy watching the waiters carry impossibly laden trays and people watch out of the windows. Valley of the Fallen outside of Madrid is quite a place too…though Franco has now been evicted recently.
Have fun and be city-smart folks,
Chas
Thanks Chas, we visited the Valley last year before Franco was exhumed. Thought-provoking place. Cheers, Jay.