Barcelona After tackling the motorways which surround Barcelona and which crisscross each other like tangled wool, we checked in to Tres Estellas campsite. It might mean Three Stars but it was anything but. We had been told not to go there, but we decided that, as it is the closest campsite to Barcelona and with an easy bus trip into the centre of the city, it was our best bet. The place itself wasn't too bad and opened directly onto the beach and the Med...

On towards Barcelona Enough of travelling south for a while - we now headed north-east towards Barcelona through the Castilla La Mancha region. We passed through farming country, vast fields yellow with the stubble of harvested hay or brown with the sunflowers nearly dead but not yet picked. Large reservoirs dot the countryside and provide water for irrigation for fruit trees and grapes. Mountain ranges, heavily forested with pine trees mean we climb on ...

Toledo Just south of Madrid is Toledo which we reached easily and quickly by the motorways. The motorways have been extraordinary whenever we have used them - though we tend to drive on small roads and back roads most of the time. When Spain was riding high financially, before the GFC, it seems to have ploughed an enormous amount of money into infrastructure and motorways seem to have been the biggest recipients of pots of money. Our recent map doesn't ...

Madrid Onwards to Madrid through a range of mountains called the Sierra de Guardarrama. We reached nearly 1900 metres past the treeline to see ski-lifts looking quite forlorn on the bare snowless ground. Every available piece of ground by the sides of roads, every small clearing that could be parked on was filled with cars. It was Saturday and it seemed that half the population of Madrid was out in walking boots and hitting the hundreds of walking trails ...

Segovia Sometimes luck goes our way...sometimes not. You'd think we'd be a bit more careful catching the right bus after the last episode... We were directed to the bus stop but not actually told that we need to catch the no 4. So when a no 5 came along headed towards the city we hopped on. All went well until at the last minute outside the city walls the bus veered away down a long, long hill. Bus stops, we have noticed, are few and far between, and ...