Tuesday September 30, 2014

A short ride today and for the next two days.  I had planned this week with three longer days and three short days.  Although after I had planned the route, I looked to see where the Albergues were and we could have done another 60+ ride today.  However, Ralf said we should stick to the plan.  We had a bit of a lie-in at the Albergue and were on the road at 9:15 am, after a lovely breakfast of cheese omelet (my specialty, when I have a good frying pan).

It is a good job we decided to stick to the plan, because I had a massive migraine today.  I had taken an ibruprofen tablet at the albergue and it seemed to help, but halfway up a hill, it struck again and I cycled 30 kilometres with one eye closed.  However, as we came up one particularly long hill, I heard the sheep in the fields cheering me up the hill as if I was in the Vuelta – baaa rii  baaa (arriba) and ringing the bells that were dangling around their necks, I had to laugh and pedaled faster up the hill.

Remember in Australia the \”Giant\” things we saw like the giant lobster, Spain has a giant bull.

We thought it might be advertising something, but it was a large wooden bull.  Now the giant red wine bottle was definitely advertising the local wine.

The temperature was great cycling weather and there was a mix of sun and cloud, we didn’t overheat.  The scenery was lovely.

We passed farmland and more olive groves and vineyards.  We also passed lots of pigs.  This is one of the areas that fattens pigs for the famous Iberica ham.  Ralf asked a gentleman if it was similar to Palma, no he assured Ralf it was so much better than that.  It is cured for 36 months.

We ate lunch in Monasterio and got directions to the Albergue.  It is a lovely Albergue about 10 minutes on the outskirts of the Town.   I took more pills, and slept all afternoon.

Ralf went into Town and didn’t get back to the hostal until well after 6:00pm because he had to wait until the shops reopened again. In some of the smaller Towns all of the shops close between 1:30 and 5:30.

Behind the Albergue was a building which is being restored with funds from the EU.  It is supposed to be an Interpretation Centre for the area.  It has been worked on since 1995 and is still not finished.