It was very overcast as we left the MH Aire in Segovia

Once we got onto the Autovia it started to rain - the first real rain we have had for ages.
We passed through a very fertile area with lots and lots of indoor pig farms.
Segovia is well known for its pig products, and roast suckling pig is on the menu at most restaurants.

We later passed one of the rarest sights on the roads in Spain - what we call a P Man  
This is the sign that indicates a layby or picnic spot and they are like hen's teeth. The Spanish mostly stop at restaurants at lunch time for a full meal. When in need of a 'break' they just go by theside of the road. Luckily we have our own facilities with us. 

   On most of the Autovias the PMan signs are about 100km apart, and then you see 2 in 5km!
 
Vallalolid does not have a complete ring road and on our map there is a stretch of motorway that may/may not have been built yet! Needless to say we saw quite a bit more of the centre of Valladolid than we wanted to....  
Just out of the city the Canal de Castilla ran along beside the road.
When we reached our goal - Palencia ,we entered the city from the north side and passed a huge statue on a hill  
From that side of the city the MH Aire is well signed, and we found it easily, next to a park and near the river.
By this time it was really raining hard so we had a late lunch and spent the afternoon reading etc. No wifi so unfortunately I could not catch up on the blog - which was days behind.
The Aire at Palencia is convenient for routes from Santander and Bilbao and gradually started to fill up.  The Aire is in a car park, but the 27 MH bays are marked out in yellow with a small pictogram of a MH, which stops cars from parking in the bays. We also saw a Police car drive around a couple of times.
The rain finally eased off at about 8pm , so we went for a stroll along the river, which actually had some water in it!   We walked into the main pedestrianised street to see if we could find somewhere to buy milk and were surprised to see all the shops open and masses of people busy shopping. But of course in Spain, late evenings in towns are always busy.