(Tierra de Campos from a moving motorhome)

Yesterday we travelled through a vast flat landscape, with gently undulating bits for added variety, called Tierra de Campos. The name means Land of Fields and that describes it well. The road we drove on was very good but no places to stop for photographs. I took some from the van but wished I’d washed the windscreen first…

(See, no space to stop)

After two hours we arrived at the Spanish town of Palencia. We had never heard of it before but there’s a great motorhome parking spot with electricity and wifi, all free, so here we are. The town which is surprisingly beautiful, is a short walk through a park and over an old bridge. I got some pictures there and wrote in my notebook.

(Main pedestrian street is called Calle Mayor)

The shopping street is full of beautiful buildings interspersed with very old cathedrals, churches and monasteries. There’s a lot to see in a very small space.

(The old Roman bridge between the park and the town)

We’re getting used to being in a different country. There’s been a few changes… The time zone is different. The language is different. The availability of English speakers has reduced dramatically causing us to dig deep into our Spanish language resources. The love of change instead of banknotes is gone. The ease of using a credit card has increased… detrimentally.

(Some lovely old shops here)

Another change is the shops close during the middle of the day, they open again around 5pm. So far we haven’t seen a big change in prices, definitely more expensive than Portugal but still way less than Ireland. I don’t know if it’s true of all of Spain but in this town there are a lot of Dad’s taking care of small children. There was an adorably lovely Dad yesterday pushing a small (<12 months) boy in a buggy with another possibly 3 year-old child wandering around him. But what made the Dad adorable was he was holding the little boy’s soother in his mouth. Well, that’s where I used to keep it clean too.

(Interesting exhibit in the Archaeological museum… not dog hair)

I went to the Archaeological museum too and it was free on certain days and to certain ages and if you are a member of the EU. I seemed to qualify under one of those, the man in the ticket office didn’t have an English, but he decided it was free to me. Full of interesting exhibits including mosaics. They also had an exhibition of the work of art students in the area. The one I cannot forget is a felted necklace made from the artist’s dog’s hair!

Better that than stuck to the cushions I suppose… Mairead.