Day 18: How a perfect day should be on the road

Date: Tuesday 15th April
Staying: Camping La Osuna – Madrid, Spain
Distance Travelled: 134.7 Miles
Song of the day: Perfect Day – U2

After Salamanca, we were a bit apprehensive about making our way to the enormity that is Madrid, Spain’s capital. To break up the trip, we decided to make a stop at Avila (another fortuitous discovery from the “1000” book), since it was on the way, and Madrid only a mere 200km away from Salamanca.

We took a gamble, and broke our number one, cardinal rule: “Never go into a city unless you have a map”, but at only 50,000 residents, we took a chance. It paid off handsomely, as we found a park, a supermarket, and got into the city within 15 minutes of turning off the highway. Avila is a walled city, built between the 11th and 13th centuries, but looking as though the brickwork just came off the shelves of IKEA. Like all good walled cities, they are built on hills (Avila has the distinction of being the highest city in Spain), and the highest point is usually the cathedral, so we had a good hike around the city, looking for the cathedral, patches (Cam), and coffee (Laurie). It was peaceful, and not at all touristy, quite a hidden gem I suspect.

After Avila, we drove off for Madrid, the tense point of the day for me, as we approached the city from the north. Madrid is only a little smaller than London, but the roads are better, wider and more organised. There are five lanes of traffic in each direction coming into Madrid, and I’m pleased to say that we navigated them with relative calm, only muttering “sorry” to other road users about three times (perhaps I have finally mastered overtaking like a Spaniard? Though Cam tells me I don’t do enough brake testing, a la Fernando Alonso, F1 fans take note).

Of all the odd things, the campsite in Madrid was the easiest to find that we’ve had yet – from the off-ramp (number 8), turn left at the roundabout, and it’s on the right. It was so simple in fact, that we had time to actually go into Madrid for an afternoon of Paella and Sangria in the Plaza Mayor (Main Plaza). (Sangria rating = 10/10, although we couldn’t finish the jug. I know, we’re lightweights.) We did a quick reccie of the place, before retreating to the (relative peace) of the campsite.