A couple of spare days after Valladolid in October, where to go?

We have to be at a gathering 30 minutes away from Valladolid at the end of October and since it ends on a Friday around noon we thought we’d spend two more nights in the area and fly back from Madrid on Sunday afternoon rather than go home on the Friday but we’re wondering where to go.

We’ve literally just come back from Madrid yesterday and been many times before as well so we thought we’d go somewhere else nearby.

About us: we don’t drive so will be relying on trains although there seems to be a good network nearby.

We quite like smaller European cities with enough to keep you busy for a day or two, with a pretty old town to wander around and some interesting architecture and we love food, we’re more into authentic and simple local restaurants than anything too fancy though.

Valladolid itself looks nice and we thought we could use it for a base and spend 2 nights there with a day trip elsewhere to avoid packing and unpacking too often, possibly Segovia, Salamanca or Avila and then a train back to Madrid the following day to catch our flight.

Otherwise we were also looking at spending one night in Valladolid and one night at either of these cities above, they all seem well connected by train.

We also like nature a lot so if there’s somewhere nearby to do some easy hikes.

I’m aware the weather will be unpredictable (just as it was last week when we were there!) so we’re taking that into consideration when picking our destination and planning what to do.

What would you recommend?