As I Drove Out ...
France/Spain border
In 1934, the author Laurie Lee walked to London from his home in the Cotswolds, to
travel. Knowing one Spanish phrase he decided to see Spain. For a year he tramped through a country which was on the verge of a civil war.He later captured his
impressions and the atmosphere in his book 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer
Morning'.
In the summer of 2003, I set out - to follow in his footsteps. I traversed his route
and am in the process of writing of my experiences.- in my own 'As I walked out...' only I drove most of the way. I hope to complete the route in the near future and in the
meantime would like to share some of my experiences and images.
Into Spain
"It was early and almost dark when our ship reached the harbour. So I lay for a while in the anchored silence and listened to the first faint sounds of Spain-a howling dog, the gasping spasms of a donkey, the thin sharp cry of a cockerel."
Vigo Harbour
Perhaps I should have sailed into Vigo, like Laurie did. Or flew, or walked, or anything but drive. Eventually the motorway takes you out onto the ring road and you find yourself looking down into the harbour below you in the distance. The sea is a clear deep azure, fused and shimmering in the wet green sunlight. Lee’s eagle view of Vigo harbour was from a distant position, six miles inland, after first seeing the city from the ocean.
I view the harbour with its lagoons and hills around it from a height also. It beckons with its bright neon light as we traverse the road downwards
I park the car in the only available space – on a roundabout – very near to the port
entrance, and cross the street dodging cars, lorries, buses, and motor bikes who all
sound their horns incessantly. Everyone is in a mad rush while driving it appears,
gesticulating at pedestrians and vehicles alike, while exhaust fumes belch into the
already over heated air. The Colosseum is a tall Victorian looking building, opposite
the port entrance. I order beer and Tapas and sit at a table on the pavement, almost
deafened by the noise of the traffic. Sounds of cockerels, donkeys or dogs are in no
way apparent here.
Zamora - Toro
" The rising hills before me went stepping away inland, fiercely shaped under the great blue sky. I rolled my things in a bundle and washed my head and feet in a spring. Then shouldering my burden and avoiding the road, I took a track south-east for Zamora."
Toro
Tordesillas
River at Tordesillas
Tordes
Simancas Church
Simancas House
Valladolid
"I'd chosen Valladolid - not because I knew anything about it , but because I liked the sound of its syllables. A dark square city - hard, a shut box, full of the piousdust and presrved breath of its dead whose expended passions once ruled a world which now seemed of no importance"
Valladolid
Segovia - Madrid
"Where should I go now? It didn't matter. Anywhere south would do. Segovia, Madrid, the heart of Castille lay before me, and that was the direction I took."
Aqueduct in Segovia
Puerta del Sol - Madrid
Toledo
"I walked into Toledo, about forty miles to the south, and there the Castilian sun caught up with me at last and struck me down with a twenty four hour fever. I found a brilliant white inn just inside the city gate, so dazzling it seemed to be carved from salt."