We made an earlier start today, for us anyway, and were underway by around 10am. Another stunning day, and the dogs were a little more animated this morning, but not too early. I spied a human visitor with them, which is likely to be a rare occasion, as it’s not uncommon for dogs to be left on their own to guard a property in these parts. At least they’re not chained up.

Today was to turn into a real “castillo-fest”. Counting the one we left at Pedraza, we saw 7 of them. The first visit of the day was the castillo at Turegano, which we agreed after all our other castles, was our favourite. This assessment was based on its rawness and authenticity, compared to the more polished and renovated castles we saw.

After this we drove to Cuellar, but only after dropping by a fuel station selling bargain diesel at €1.159. Can’t recommend the GasAll app for Spanish fuel enough.

Cuellar has a great aire for all the major services, although I had to override the SatNav as it wanted to take us a more dodgy route. I’d say the very modest car park is great for accessing the castle just across the road, and for using the services, but not ideal for overnighting.

We didn’t look at much more than the modest castle, and were soon on our way. I should mention at this point that Sophie threw in a curved ball, suggesting we continue in a North-Westerly direction to see the castillo at Isacar. She doesn’t seem to realise that I’m trying to get us South.

From down below, Isacar’s castle looked like a square water tower, but was actually impressive at close quarters, and we were pleased we visited it. Relieved to be about to head South again, Sophie slipped in that Medina del Campo’s castle might be worth seeing. I checked out the photos and annoyingly it did actually look impressive. By the time we were at Medina, we were only a stone’s throw from Valladolid, where we’d passed through on our first grand tour of Spain a couple of years ago, and so we were now getting further off track than I wanted.

As it happened, Medina del Campo’s castillo was a good visit, with very handy parking, and with somewhere shady to eat our belated lunch. Even though we were in mid-March, the sun was hot in the cab and temperatures outside around 20C.

We’d say check out the castle here if you’re ever passing. One bonus of coming here was a local Lidl, which we hadn’t anticipated for today. So an ice-cream top-up was top of the list, plus loo paper, these being the essentials of the day, and cava of course.

We hit the Castillo de Coca at around 6pm, by which time I’m getting a bit twitchy about finding a parking spot for the night. Their Park4night didn’t meet our exacting requirements, and after looking round this very lovely castle we were on our way, with the clock ticking and the sun heading rapidly for the horizon.

I’d read on Park4night that you could park next to the Castillo de Arévalo, supported by plenty of good reviews, but I had my doubts. The town was right on the main motorway, it was a Friday night, and it was obviously in a town, all of which were not good indicators of a quiet night’s sleep. However, it didn’t seem too bad at all, only a couple of cars there, and the motorway below had more of a white noise hum, that we barely noticed. We were of course next to a beautiful castle too.

We’ve just completed our second week and have just notched up our first thousand miles. It’s been a busy day, haring around, and I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep. Let’s see what happens.