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Well yesterday's planning takes a nose dive this morning. Fog has descended overnight and when we leave the aire visibility is only 60 metres. These are no conditions for driving a B road through the mountains to Ciudad Rodrigo as planned. We join the motorway and gradually visibilty improves enough to drive at 45mph, so we decide to stay on the A66 and cruise up to Salamanca. After twenty miles or so the fog disappears and we are bathed in sunshine.
We came down the A66 a month ago when there were some clouds and a little drizzle but today everthing is bright and vivid; the dystone walls; green field; rugged drab-green peaks, a few with snowy caps; blue rivers and ponds.
By 13:30 we are parked and on our way along the river into town. When were here at new year it was cold and the Christmas decorations were up, plus it was a public holiday with a fair few people around. Today the streets are empty and clear. The sun glows on the stonework as we remember but today we can feel its warmth. Plaza Mayor, bereft of its giant bauble looks even mre imposing. We sit in the sun with coffee and a slice of traditional Salamancan Hornazo. The waiter described it as 'pasty' but in fact it was a soft bread loaf encasing chorizo, pork and ham.
Wandering around the familiar sights we see things n a new way; looking up shows off more details of carving and stonework that we missed with the decorations strung across the eyeline. We also notice that Salamanca has an unusually high ratio of banks, we stop counting Santanders alon at seven.
The only blight is a muicipal worker on a motorised vacuum cleaning tractor whose constant ear-numbing whine seems to follow us around wherever we go.
We return to the van via a trip to the nearby Mercadona supermarket and chat briefly to a Dutch motorhome driver who has just arrived.
Before dinner, which is chicken curry, we have another go at revising our remaining route, fog permitting.
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