The River (Rio Pisuerga)

There is a lovely river path in town that we walk up and down quite a lot.  It goes pretty far all the way through the city so you could walk it for a few hours at least, I mean you could follow the river right to the next town if you really wanted to I suppose.  Anyhow we live only like 2 blocks from the river so we always start our journey next to this beautiful Rose garden.  It had gorgeous roses blooming in it from May until October.  There are still some roses there but they are dying off now.  In the middle of summer we used to love just sitting in the garden with a bottle of wine and just relaxing.  There is also some green space next to it that we like to play Frisbee in (Ross parents were kind enough to send us one in a care package as they do not have Frisbees here).

The Rio

The rose garden

Anyhow as you walk along the path towards the beach there is lots of park space, basketball courts and concrete soccer fields (I guess I should call it futbol).  At the beach there is an outdoor gym with some old but useful equipment you can use at your convenience.  There are usually older folks using it and its nice to see them working out and doing what they can to stay fit.  There is also a bar at the beach which gets pretty busy in the summer time.  I do not recommend swimming in the river though.  It is really dirty and smells awful.  Even the locals don’t swim in it.

The path continues to wind through the trees all along the water and takes you past more sports courts and there are little ponds with ducks and of course a million stray cats living in the bushes.  It’s actually really sad to see them.  Ross won’t let me pet them because he thinks I will get ticks but they look so cute and lonely.  Apparently this is a thing in parts of Europe, just stray cats everywhere. I hate it.  You do see old ladies bringing out huge trays of food for them and that is nice to see.  I’m a bleeding heart when it comes to animals I can’t handle seeing them suffer.  Ross says they are fine but he hates cats so I don’t trust him.

The path is great for walks or for jogging which we try to do semi occasionally.  There are people who kayak in the river and we often see people fishing which grosses me out since it’s so dirty but I guess people are hungry so you eat what you can.  Or maybe they just like to fish.

So many hobo kitties :(

We try to walk the river at least 4 times a week.  It is one of the only green spaces in town so you sort of feel like you are in nature even though the road is visible no matter where you are on the path.  There is also a pretty big park in the center of town called Campo Grande so it is nice to hang out in there when you need to be more in nature.  That is the park I have mentioned that has the peacocks!

 Hey Buddy

 One of my favourite areas of Campo Grande

Peacock in Campo Grande

It has been tough for us moving to a town like this after living in Vancouver for so long.  We lived like 5 blocks from the ocean and had tons of green space and mountains.  We miss the ocean.  I feel like if you have never lived near it you wouldn't understand how big of a part of life it becomes when you do live near it.  I miss the salty smell and the cool breezes.  It is always nice when we take our little trips here and make it to the ocean but it’s not the same.  At least we have the river.