Wednesday, we set off from Palencia in the direction of Madrid. Probably not going to Madrid, cities are hard work with a bigger vehicle. We had been told about Toledo a few years ago when the temperatures were too high for a comfortable visit. It was positively chilly-ish at the moment… Let’s go see Toledo!

I can no longer remember what we had been told about the city so we will have to look it up but there’s loads of time we are travelling more slowly and we won’t reach Toledo until Friday. What will we discover? Beautiful buildings? Interesting history? Nature and wildlife? I wonder will there be parking for us? Or public transport?

We spent Wednesday night in the middle of rolling farmland, as far as the eye could see. Navalmanzano services has a petrol station, plenty of parking, a small shop, toilets, and a cafeteria serving breakfast lunch and dinner. We were almost the only ones in the enormous parking, so we could park anywhere, we went up the back, away from the road. Denis started work while I ambled around taking photos of fluffy clouds.

It was surprisingly quiet all day with only birdsong and a sky full of my favourite clouds. The cafeteria was busy and absolutely packed between 1pm and 4pm when multi generational families arrived for lunch. The food looked great, very simple homemade style and served all day so it was still available when we were ready in the evening.

Just before bedtime we noticed the parking was filling up and a new truck had parked beside us. Judging by the photo on the side it was full of prawns. We didn’t realise the significance of this until much, much later… sometime around midnight, I’d guess.

Food trucks need refrigeration and this one definitely had refrigeration. All through the night the fridge turned on and off at intervals, to keep the prawns comfortable. The odd thing for me was I woke up in silence and was about to get back to sleep when I heard the noise start. Can silence wake you? Seems like the noise of the refrigeration motor lulled me to sleep and the silence woke me up. Denis slept right through the silence and the noise.

But I do love prawns…