After 3 weeks of holidays we were on the way home from Oviedo. After visting Santa Cristina de Lena near Pola de Lena south of Oviedo we drove on over Puerto de los Pajares at 1.300m and down to Leon, which we passed to stop finally at Astorga.
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| View from Puerto de los Pajares |
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| Puerto de los Pajares |
The parking close to the centre was closed because of a medieval festival at the park nearby. But we found a big parking area just around the corner: (42.460042, -6.055135)
We walked through town into the centre and encountered roman remains and a lively Plaza Mayor.
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| Plaza Mayor – Astorga |
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| Cathedral – Astorga |
We just managed to get into the bishops palace built by Gaudi before closing time.
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| Palacio Episcopal – Astorga |
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| Palacio Episcopal |
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| Palacio Episcopal |
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| Palacio Episcopal |
For the night, we used the caravan parking next to the bullfighting arena, which was fine for the night. (42.4514 , -6.0659)
The next day we drove through the flat Maseta with its endless fields in direction to Madrid.
We drove past Segovia and La Granja up into the mountains to Puerto de Cotos. (40.823121, -3.961367)
There is a big parking, a restaurant and an information centre for the National Park of the Sierra de Guadarrama. We got a map and a route recommended up to the Laguna Grande. The area is under high protection, you are not allowed to leave the tracks and the number of visitors is restricted. But in summer there are not too many people going there. In spring and autumn it might be different. The route was beautiful and the landscape and vegetation really spectacular. It took us 2,5 hours, if we would have had more time we could have gone further up to the peak and more lakes – next time!
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| Sierra Guadarrama |
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| Laguna Grande |
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| Mountain Goat |
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| Refugio Zabala |
In the evening, we drove down to Navacerrada to visit friends and former neighbours who live here now. Without them, we would probably have past this place without finding out how lovely this village is. Our friends took us to a nice Restaurante called Felipe and we spent a great evening.
As we had to be back home in Javea the next day we decided to drive a little further this day and slept at a P&R outside of Madrid.
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| Park & Ride Boadillo del Monte |
The next morning, we drove to Valencia but stopped at Castell de Garcimuñoz, which is a village just next the highway with – surprise, surprise – a castle. This one is a little special inside. Sadly it was closed.
There is a caravan parking next to the castle which we used to empty our tanks.
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| Castell de Garcimuñoz |
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| Castell de Garcimuñoz |
We stopped at the next restaurant in Honrubia for lunch before we finally got home.
During the past 3 weeks we payed only 4 times for staying over night, in total 54,- Euros, thereof 30,- was the camping we used once. We found the north of Spain quite camper-friendly.
It’s just strange that on official caravan parkings often the use of supports to level the car were not allowed as it is seen as camping behaviour. I fully understand if they don’t want people to really camp there, putting awnings, chairs and tables out, but why bother if a car is propped up a little to be level? We have even been warned by the police once in the middle of a forest where nobody was around to care, but that’s the law it seems.
Expenses during 3 weeks:
Caravan parking 54,-
entrance fees for 2 persons: 63,-
Motorbeach Festival including parking: 76,-
public transport (including cabel car at Fuente Dé) 57,80
Caravan Service – just once: 3,-
Fuel: 438,- (3.000 km)
