Walking Dead!
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2008
1
20
38
Trip End
Aug 11, 2008
Where I stayed
La Cueva Hostal
Alar del Rey, Spain
Friday, July 18, 2008
Total time 14:30
Trip 79.07
Trip time 4:28
AVG 17.70
Max 63.47
Today we rode from Camporredondo de Alba to Alar del Rey. We started out along a resivore** with mild uphill climbs and downhill coasting. This lasted for about 20 kilometers until we got to Triollo. After refilling our waters at a nice womans house and chatting extensively with an old man who has lived here his whole life, we hit the road for a tough climb that only lasted for about 4k. At the top, we stopped for a few minutes to take in the views and take a couple of photos. We then hopped back in the saddle for a 10 kilometer blast down to the town of Ventanilla. I stopped to take a couple pictures in this cute little town. I climbed back on my bike, and made it to the next uphill. It was really steep. I rode about 2k up it and then hit a brick wall. I stopped, drank some water then pushed my bike up about a half a kilometer until I caught my sister and Leo. We had a SMALL snack, the equivelant of a granola bar, called a granny bar, each have me enough energy to make the remaining 2k to the top. The downhill was fun! My GPS says I maxed out at 65kph! This descent ended in Cervera de Pisuerga. Time for lunch! I refused to eat f'n bread and cheese again so I sought out a bar/cafeteria. Leo and my sis chose to eat bread and cheese anyway so I went in alone. I had the best sandwich I have eaten since getting to Europe! Lightly toasted bread, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, hard boiled egg and ham! Ham like I have not seen since getting here! Not some local cured/dried specialty that was hanging from the rafters for the last year, shaved waffer thin, and requires getting used to. It was the kind of good ole (almost) American sandwich I have been craving for days! I enjoyed every bite! I'm sorry, I'm not closed minded to trying local specialties. I don't even mind the bread and cheese thing every once and a while. But, every day? For breakfast and lunch? For 3 weeks? Gimme a break! Shit, now I am craving a big hot pastrami sandwich on rye bread with a big jar of good dijon mustard and some homemade kosher pickles! After lunch, we found a park to try and wait out some of the heat for the cooler evening air. Now I am begining to understand the siesta way of life. It really makes sense! We waited until 5PM. This wasn't long enough! It was still way too hot but Leo has us on this regimented schedule so we had to ride another 40 kilometers before we could stop. We are now out of the mountains! Good and bad. The good is the hill climbs actually end in a reasonably short one or two kilometers. The bad is that the Picos de Europa mountains are some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen in my life. We rode down a back country road that was a paved single track pretty much the whole way after lunch. One town, I stopped to take a quick picture, and we were acosted by these two eighty year old (by their own admission) men who probably haven't talked to a stranger in a long time. Next, one of their wives joined us. Then another old man showed up wondering what the hell was going on. Great conversation about the local area and such but we had a lot of miles to go so we bowed out gracefully and continued on. The next place of interest we came across was the Santuario Real Abadia S. Andres de Arroyo. This is an old mission that dates back to the Roman era. The only actual date I found on one of the buildings was 1725. The place was under major renovations and also happened to be closed because it was 8pm so we just walked around the exterior and shot pics. After our short break there, it was back to the peddles. We continued through rolling hills of grain until we reached the end of our rope. My sis and I were done! We asked around and found a couple of hostels. After checking them both out, we ended up at the Hostal La Cueva which also had a decent restaurant/bar attached. After a good meal, it was off to bed.
