20 Jan 2015. <ES> Pajares, Comunidad de Madrid; Zamora, Castile y León; Valencia de Don Juan, León —
Today was a travelling day, from Ourense to an aire in Valencia de Don Juan, not far south of León where we've been before. This was to set us up for a drive to Segovia, and then to Madrid. Driving southeast (at first) and then eastwards on the A-52. We dropped in to Verin to shop, but we hit lunchtime, and the town was deserted. So we pushed on, stopping off at a service point just past Verin to top up the van with fuel, and ourselves with food and caffeine.
This was a lot of driving through snow country, but the roads were dry most of the way, so it wasn't hard. We did run through a few snow flurries, however. The scenery was magnificent, in a snowy way. We went through the Túnel de la Canada, and the Túnel de Padornelo (at 1327 metres!), which meant that we didn't quite have to go across the tops of the mountain passes in the Sierra de la Cabrera!
We continued along flatter country on the A-62 and A-66, on the way passing through a Guarda Civil roadblock, presumably looking for terrorists. They were ready for action — at the end of the roadblock, behind a truck, was a Guarda ready with a spiked chain to throw out if anyone tried to run the roadblock — and they were armed to the teeth! Not the kind of thing you come across on Australian roads!
We got to our destination at Valencia de Don Juan, a flat spot beside a school on the edge of town. Quiet! But there's a castle at the other end of town that we'll look at tomorrow!
Distance driven — today, 171 miles ( 275 km ); to date, 11,659 miles ( 18,764 km )
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