Saturday September 6, 2014

We were up early and ate our breakfast in our room.  We had decided to cycle along the Canal de Castilla to Valladolid.  It was flat and the trail was supposed to be good for touring cyclists.  After about the first 10 kms we decided the terrain was too hard on the hands and shoulders, as it was very uneven, and we came of the Canal route at Duernas.  We followed the N620 for about 4 kilometres then it merged with the motorway and we were left with farm roads until we could find the canal again.

The canal route was nice although a bit rocky and the surface was uneven.  The Canal de Castilla was built as most canals were in the 1800’s to transport goods (mainly wheat and grains) from the hill country to Valladolid.

There are still the remnants of old buildings that were used to collect the wheat and grains from the surrounding farmlands.

In one area along the canal there were four modes of transportation – the motorway, the canal, the bike route and the train.  About 5 kms outside of the Valladolid we stopped at an area where we could come away from the canal and checked on our hosts address.  The garmin said turn left here and 1 km you are at the residence.  Our host’s house was about 4 ks outside of the city centre.  We cycled towards La Overula a suburb of Valladolid and stopped at a little bar for something to eat and drink.  The bar owner was very interested in our bikes, especially Ralf\’s as he has a Trek. We had a great conversation with him about our trip.  He was very impressed.

Hector was waiting for us at his house.  He introduced us to his two cats who “own” the house and said he would be back later to take us into town.  He would stay at his girlfriend’s house and we had the house to ourselves.

This gave us the opportunity to do some washing and for me to clean the bikes.  Ralf checked the next days route.

Hector came back at 8:00 and we went into Valladolid for fiesta.  We had arrived in Valladolid at the start of fiesta.  A celebration to some Virgin or other.

Hector used to work for the tourist information and was able to show us around the city and gave us some history of the city. After we had our history lesson and visited some of the churches we enjoyed tapas at different areas in the city and then went to the central square where we met his girlfriend and friends, we danced and listened to the music until 12:30.

It is the latest we have stayed up at night for ages.

There were a lot of people drinking in the streets, enjoying tapas and generally having a good time.  There was very little police presence, and no bother – just people enjoying themselves.

We had a great time, and fortunately Hector said we could stay two nights at his house so we are able to have a lie-in tomorrow.