"Reasons To Be Cheerful"

(Ian Dury and The Blockheads)






...probably the only way to travel

 

Sadly the opportunity to be noisy and wake Pepe and Chiquitita and their sprogs was not possible because they started to get packed at around 7.30 am. For having these unkind thoughts I discovered a puncture and extracted a piece of fine metal wire from the tyre. So eventually I hit the road and was soon bowling into Valladolid. Found a large superstore but I didn’t find a travel adaptor. Now feeling quite miserable I headed for the centre of town, a lovely city where I have stopped over before, and I speculatively dived into a little shop selling cheap watches and radios. Asked for an adaptor and it was immediately produced. Such was my complete delight that I immediately started scrabbling about in my Spanish phrase book for “I love you and want your babies”. The proprietor was a little surprised. Also I found one of the two Portugal Michelin maps I needed and I thought I was on a roll! Leaving Valladolid was the usual mystery tour (gosh there’s a song title missed!) and I went around all of the southern part of the town before finding the way to Tordesillas. In pitching the tent I was discovering rock hard ground and when borrowing something to bash the tent pegs in with from the ever wonderful Dutch they were handing me nail or sledge hammers! Met and was offered a beer by Deborah and Edward who had been ‘on tour’ in their camper van since May and were not scheduled to return home until October. They had let out their house in the Lake District and were taking in some of the more beautiful parts of Germany, France and Spain. Deborah had a hand written diary with illustrations…very impressive. I think Edward had cycle toured in another life and he cast a rueful eye over my mighty Ridgeback tourer the next morning and I think he fancied also hitting the tarmac, preferably with the wind at his back and the hill rising behind him. The fabulous motor cycles belonged to two lovely Dutch people who were returning home after having been to Faro and they lent me a camping guide and gave me a morning coffee.

.....not a lot to see on the road....