May 14, 2013

Our biggest concern today is the weather forecast.  We saw it last night and it is predicting 4 or 5 days of storms with heavy rain and strong winds for the whole of the Iberian peninsula. It is predicted to be so unusual that it was making the headlines on the news. Oh dear – we don’t want to be delayed for several days and still have three weeks cycling left to do, so we’re thinking through contingency plans.

We decide that we’ll go to the railway station to see if we can take a train to somewhere south along our route, like Salamanca perhaps, so we can wait out the storm and set off to arrive as planned. We pick up a botanical itinerary to walk the city and take the route from park to park, stopping off at the railway station as we go. We can get an indirect train, with one connection, to Salamanca but not with the bikes. We can take the bikes on other trains but only to local stations which does not help much.

We continue our walk whilst thinking about options. On route we look round the historical centre, which is full of narrow streets through very tall, granite buildings – mostly souvenir shops and restaurants.  Pleasant enough diversion for a day, but not for a week, so we continue our deliberations about the weather.  Our next idea is to hire a car/van one way to Salamanca – something to be investigated on the internet.  We’re hoping that we’ll still be able to set off tomorrow on the bikes so we’ll wait and see what it’s like tomorrow before making a decision.