{"id":25251,"date":"2016-12-16T10:03:36","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T10:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=25251"},"modified":"2019-04-11T17:28:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T16:28:54","slug":"worlds-first-new-years-eve-happy-2017-salamanca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/worlds-first-new-years-eve-happy-2017-salamanca\/","title":{"rendered":"World’s First New Year’s Eve, Happy 2017 Salamanca"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zagan the motorhome’s free-bagging it in Salamanca, in a small car park alongside a park – Jardines Miguel Delibes – named after a celebrated Spanish writer who was born, worked and died in this area (N40.955371, W5.674103<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Cheeky

Cheeky free parking place a stone’s throw from central Salamanca<\/p><\/div>\n

Before I start: thanks to everyone who commented on Ju’s previous post<\/a>, through email, this blog, Facebook and so on. No-one’s died here, and we’re still sitting in a pretty incredible position, but in every life there is some trouble and your words were kind and thoughtful. We appreciated them all.<\/em><\/p>\n

When it gets to the point you’re driving straight past one of Spain’s finest, most beautiful cities without a care for even a wee peek at it, you know something’s wrong. We did that, heading first a few miles south past Salamanca, then back towards the city to find an open campsite (which was pretty pants to be honest, but any port in a storm). Finally we’ve found ourselves a few minutes walk from the 2000 year old bridge which crosses the river to the city centre. Our intention was to use a car park listed in our Camperstop Europe book<\/a> for a couple of hours to go look in the city, but since it was printed the ‘No Autocaravanas’ signs have gone up, so stuff it, we just parked up round the corner instead in a small parking area with no restrictions.<\/p>\n

\"Salamanca's

Salamanca’s Roman Bridge (about half of it is as old as Christ)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Charlie

Charlie was less than impressed with the bridge!<\/p><\/div>\n

This spiralling back in towards the city’s coincided, perhaps with no coincidence, with my mood gradually lightening. As Ju wrote in the previous blog post, I’m having a mental block with the idea of continuing our travels as we have to date. In long discussions it’s become obvious to me that I need a degree of challenge and newness in what I’m doing in order to stay engaged and avoid sinking towards depression. It’s sink or swim. Travelling new countries usually brings that freshness. Whenever we set off we’re always driving through countries we’ve visited before though, sometimes many times before, like France, Spain and Germany. While these are beautiful, fascinating countries to be in, they offer almost no challenge to us, and with the lack of challenge comes the old black dog of depression. I need something new to focus on, and on this trip we’re unlikely to visit any countries we haven’t been to before. Problemo.<\/p>\n

The easiest option is to revert to the old, accepted approach: go home, get a job, let someone else create the newness.<\/p>\n

Did I imagine I’d ever find myself writing those words? Well, yes if I’m honest with you, I did. This financial freedom malarkey always seemed so wacky I found it impossible to believe it was possible (before we did it, and even for a while afterwards). I took to the Internet in search of proof it could be done, and found plenty of bloggers offering evidence it could be done, and describing how. Those that had actually achieved it would often have some words of caution too: you might not be able to handle the lack of structure it creates. The lack of pre-created challenges being handed to you can be a deep issue. I need to get a grip on this. What challenge do I want to set myself? What do I want to do?<\/p>\n

\"Incredible

Incredible carved stonework in Salamanca<\/p><\/div>\n

\"It

It amazes me anyone can do this – and this is only a tiny fragment – see below.<\/p><\/div>\n

For the time being we’re going to continue to travel, but with the aim to stay still in places for longer. This will, if it works, give us time to get to know the place better, and to enable us to develop and work on other projects. Ju also has a half marathon in Marrakech to get around, which I remain hugely impressed with her for doing. I’ve raced half marathons in the distant past, so the newness is missing from that particular challenge to me, but I’m more than happy to keep supporting Ju as she chases down those 21km in Africa.<\/p>\n

\"The

The facade on the new cathedral (they have two here, of course). It’s breathtaking.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The shell house. No, we have no idea.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"We

We suspect this chap may have found himself in a red hat later on…<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday was a welcome boost to morale too. Salamanca’s\u00a0university was set up back in 1130, 79 years before Cambridge’s university came into being. Its fortunes have waxed and waned since, but it’s remained a world-class player and attracts tens of thousands of domestic and foreign students to the city. Which means one thing to me: life. The city is no doubt a thing of beauty, all sculptured facade, ornate Gothic spire, stone road and decorated plaza. But without the university, without the hoards of eager eyed folks who look 12, but are probably 18, these cities can often have a feel of slow decay. Not here, and yesterday was a banging endorsement of life, as 40,000 (somewhat inebriated, would you believe) students celebrated New Year two weeks early with their Noche Vieja Universitaria<\/em>\u00a0town-endorsed party in the Plaza Major.<\/p>\n

\"Calm

Calm before the storm as thousands of students streamed into the city all day<\/p><\/div>\n

\"No

No bottles allowed in the main square so everyone ‘got loose’ around the town instead. A small number of police wandered about on foot, and we saw no trouble.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Freebie

Freebie party? Don’t mind if I do! They even had a DJ called Fonsi (Happy Days anyone?) who was a former MotoGP rider.<\/p><\/div>\n