It is estimated that there are around 1.6 million vegetarians in the UK and of those an increasing number (estimated 500,000) are on a wholly vegan diet that not only involves cutting out animal products like meat and fish, but also dairy and eggs.

Coming away to Spain I said I wanted to have as close as possible an authentic Spanish experience particularly with regards to food. So far I had a few hits and a couple of misses – a plate full of mixed whole fish in Guadix comes to mind.

Today we’re heading away from Cordoba towards Madrid to make tracks up country in a generally NE direction. We’ve had some great experiences over the last week, but to fit in even more good stuff we need to cajole Charlie into covering some serious miles.

The more miles we do, the more fuel we use, so frequent visits to top up both diesel and LPG are required, especially as our single 6kg Gaslow tank is in hindsight a tad on the small side. Filling up with GPL as it is called in Spain is generally a straightforward affair, except where the gas station attendant (who insisted on helping) hadn’t got a clue how to attach the gas hose to the nipple – eventually after much gesticulation he let us show him how it’s done.

We’d seen on ‘Search for sites’ a parking spot with good reviews not too far off our route near these windmills. When we arrived the area was busy with sightseers. When they had all gone, apart from two other French registered vans, we had this huge parking area to ourselves.

The Las Musas restaurant next to the windmills in Campo de Criptana had some great reviews although it was almost guaranteed to be tad expensive for our budget. However parking so close we just couldn’t resist at least checking if they might have a free table?

As we approached we could hear loud music coming from a bar area on the terrace outside. Luckily this stopped shortly after we secured a table in an empty restaurant – well it was only 8:30! which is opening time in Spain.

The foie gras was covered in gold-dusted chocolate with a lime jelly. It sounds weird but she assured me it was ‘bloomin gorjus’

The food, wine and service was as good as we had expected given the reviews on Trip Advisor. Lesley had lamb for her main course. But….

Here comes the shocker a few days ago I had said to Lesley completely out of the blue that I had a notion for steak and chips – Yes that’s right Steak and Chips so for the first time in 35 years guess what I had!!!!

So I’ve gone from being a vegetarian to pescatarian to flexitarian? – or am I just plain fussy….

Lesley very unusually woke up early and said let’s watch the sunrise. We were on our own in the carpark so we opened the blind and lifted up the window and got snappy with the camera. Just as we were lying there in our birthday PJ’s! a police patrol car came by….. yikes get dressed, close the blinds, panic! We needn’t have worried, we think they had just come to up to see the sunrise as well.

After a night at one of our free best aires so far we set off north, planning to bypass Madrid. Hang on, it looks like the wildlife around here could be a bit of a concern. Not to worry says Dave, I’ve borrowed a red cloak from the oversized matador with the guitar…

Thanks again for reading about our journey.

D&L