We wake around 7.30am after a good night’s sleep here on the aire at Burgos.

For a moment, I wonder where I am and remember I am in the high bed over the front seats of the camper in the Spanish city of Burgos! I make coffee and we plan the day. Despite there being about 40 campers on the camper car park (yes, more arrived after we went to bed), and being in the centre of the city next to a larger car park, I am amazed how quiet it has been during the night.

We have breakfast and service the camper, emptying the grey water and filling with fresh water. It is all free! I walk around the camper park and count 40 campers from six different countries (GB, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Czechoslovak). We look for and finally find the Cepsa filling station that also sells Autogas and fill the Propane tanks – only about 10L, but as we know, you don’t wait until you are running on empty to fill up, now we are ready to go.

We take the E-5 dual carriageway south towards Madrid stopping near Valdorros, just south of Cogollos at a picnic stop for coffee. We are amazed at the number of fields full of sunflowers, mostly finished flowering now, just large brown seed heads about the size of a dinner place. All along the roads, field after field of sunflowers… sunflower oil for all of Spain! On through the Sierra Guadarama mountains where we stopped for lunch at Robregordo.

We take a good break of about an hour and then back on the E-5 towards Madrid. On the outskirts of Madrid, we take the M-50 circular motorway, clockwise round Madrid to Pinto. It is busy and reminds us of the M60 around Manchester with commuters knowing exactly where they are going! Turning south again, we leave the M-50 and rejoin the E-4 south. At Pinto we leave the E-4, turning south along Calle de Alpujarras towards Parque Juan Carlos I, where we turn off on Calle Poeta José Hierro and stop for the night at the Auto-Caravanas car park.

It is a very large car park for the park, much used for exercise by the fit! Next to this a section is fenced off for motor homes, there are only 5 campers when we arrive and no sign of life in any of them, all perhaps parked up and gone to Madrid city (about 30 minutes on the train). We arrive about 4.00pm and walk to the nearby shopping plaza to stretch our legs and look around buying two bottles of cava at €2.75 each. There is an enormous selection of wines, we are somewhat overwhelmed and find difficulty choosing. Back at the Hymer we open a bottle of cava that has been in the fridge all day, it froths out and we lose a glassful, what a waste!

This aire has a charge, €0.33 per hour, like a car park, you pay for the time you are here. Spanish ham stir fry for evening meal. We are tired so catch up with a few things and go to bed early, the roads today have been excellent, free too, we covered 268km (168 miles).