Thursday October 3, 2014

I woke up with a solution for Ralf’s Schengen problem. How do we get out of Schengen and get back in again without having to fly out of an airport or really deal too much with borders? We go to Gibraltar. Gibraltar is part of the UK – don’t ask me how but it is. If we cross into Gibraltar, we can come back into Spain, Ralf will get his passport stamped with an October date which allows us 90 days, starting from that date. I am not sure how serious they are at the Spanish/Gibraltar border, not too problematic I hope. After Seville we will continue heading south instead of east.

Today was a great ride – hilly, but an awesome road. We saw more cyclists than we did cars today and that is how it should be. We were waved at, cheered (bravo, allez allez, arriber etc.), encouraged and then there is a certain sound that some roadies make when they see loaded touring cyclists, especially when those same tourers are cycling up a 3 kilometre – 6% grade hill. The sound is difficult to describe but it sounds a bit like oy as if they are about to say oy vey and then the sound an air mattress makes when it is being deflated – oyussh. There is a mixture of awe, respect, and occasionally we get the feeling that they are going to give up cycling because they are struggling going up those same hills on skinny tires and really light road bikes while we are pedaling up those same hills often with big grins on our faces, because our legs are good and we are having the time of our lives.

As we arrived on the outskirts of Seville we spotted a Decathalon sports store, that is where Ralf got the last lot of gas. We decided to stop in and was able to stock up on gas, electrolytes and chain oil. As we checked the bill, we realized there was a mistake and had to wait for about 10 minutes while it got corrected. Now we know why we see everyone checking their bills.

We had lunch at a McDonald’s – first time we have eaten McD’s since Australia when we needed to use the wi-fi there. The McWrap was pretty good.

Ralf and Garmin found us a great way into downtown Seville and the backpackers hostel. All on bicycle lanes. A couple of mountain bikers joined us and chatted to us about the new cycle lane infrastructure in Seville. It was only put in place 5 to 6 years ago, due to a forward thinking politician. They made sure we knew where we were going and headed off on another cycle route.

We had to find our way through the madness of narrow streets to our hostel which was located just around the corner from the Cathedral.

We stopped to check the map and Garmin and another Sevillian asked whereabouts in Canada we were from – he explained that he had been to Canada while he was a merchant seaman travelling up the St. Lawrence to Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto. He told us he was a biker and proceeded to pull up his shirt to show his ample belly, but actually what he was trying to show us was the tattoos on his back of his two motorbikes. Apart from the weirdness of having a portly old guy pulling up his shirt, he was a very nice guy and proceeded to walk us to the hostal. He also gave us the name of a place to see traditional Flamenco, in a bar.

We settled in to the hostal, the rooms are clean, there is a small kitchen and a rooftop patio where everyone meets. They also have dinner specials there most nights. Tonights dinner is pasta carbonara for E5 each plus a glass of Sangria. We signed up for the dinner and the evening “free” walking tour of the Jewish Quarter.

The “free” walking tour was really good the guide was a bit wired, way too many expressos, but he gave us tons of information about the history of Seville and the Jewish quarter, which I will write about in tomorrow\’s blog – Seville Rest Day.

When we got back from the walking tour we headed upstairs to the rooftop and ate a lovely pasta carbonara washed down with copious amounts of Sangria. It is the latest we have stayed up in ages – well past midnight and we didn’t turn into pumpkins. Of course we were the eldest by far, we were going to bed at midnight and most of the others were going out at midnight!

It was fun to chat to people from different countries and backgrounds again, we have been a bit isolated for the past month or so. With no campsites to stay at and staying in cheap hotels, we have only been speaking to people who chat to us in the street. When the other backpackers discovered that the two bikes in the lobby were ours and what we were doing they were dumbfounded. We are probably older than their parents.

Wednesday October 1, 2014

After yesterday\’s day of climbing we obviously had hit the top and today it was downhill, not quite all the way. We did have some minor hills to climb but we were definitely rewarded today for the climbs of yesterday. Any hill we went up today we definitely got the reward of a downhill – elevation gain 454 metres, elevation loss 853 metres – this means more downhills than uphills:)

We are now in Andalucia, an autonomous region of Spain which has a different dialect, which I am trying to get used to.

It is a beautiful area with some lovely scenery.

We arrived in El Ronquillo at 11:30 and proceeded to look for an Albergue. Sorry, no Albergue in Town and very little in the way of accommodation. We had some lunch and considered cycling to the campsite that was indicated on the road sign, but when I asked how far it was, the person in the municipal office said it was 8 kms away not 5 kms that it stated on the sign. It was located west of where we are headed tomorrow which is south. I really needed internet connection today to book accommodation in Seville, as we have struck out with warmshowers. We are in a hotel room again and I have managed to find a reasonable priced backpackers in Seville for the next 3 nights.

I am also trying to find out what happens if you overstay your welcome in the Schengen Area.  It is not good.  Ralf could be asked to leave and not be allowed to enter a Schengen country again, or he could be fined, or both. The fine could be anything from EU 6,000 to EU 10,000+.  Because the French didn\’t stamp Ralf\’s passport I thought we were home free, but that isn\’t the case – the burden rests on you to prove when you arrived in the Schengen Area.  Ralf\’s British entry stamp allows him to stay in the UK until the end of November, but England isn\’t part of Schengen and he should have had a stamp for the Schengen Area.  However, because he didn\’t I am not sure what will happen when we are ready to leave the Schengen Area.  Apparently Italy is one of the worst places to get caught without a Schengen visa.  Of course, we are going through Italy and you are supposed to go to a police station within 8 days of arriving in Italy.  That is when he will get busted. If we prove that we arrived in the Schengen area in August, then we only have until November 1, 2014 before he has to leave the area.  I am in a bit of a panic about the whole thing.   We expect it will take us another month to get out of Spain, which means he will overstay.  It is all rather worrisome.  Ralf just shrugs his shoulders and say lets worry about it when it happens.  An EU 10,000 fine would really put a big dent in the budget and if he gets deported, and not allowed back in Europe, that puts a big dent in the travel itinerary of visiting the old East block countries that neither of us have visited.(:

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.

Monday September 29, 2014

We were one of the first “pilgrims” that were up before 7:00.  We had breakfast and were on the road before it was light (7:45).  We eventually found the N630 and were on the right road and out of Merida by 8:15.  We both felt a little sluggish today, but it was a good route again.  We passed hectares upon hectares of vineyards and olive groves.  We were surprised to see that a lot of them were waterlogged.  There had been some heavy rains here while we were in Portugal.  Most of the grapes have been picked, but we did notice some pickers picking the olives – by hand!!

When we arrived in Zafra, we noticed an Orange shop.  This time I went in with the phone and my data stick.  “Hola, Do you speak English?” – “NO” oh heck here we go again.  Holding the phone up I said “recharge”.  She clicked on something on the computer and started typing, YEAH Google translate.  We spent about 20 minutes, hardly saying a word to each other, busy typing what I needed and google translating.  At first she came back with you need to call this number.  No hablo espanole can you do it for me.  You can ask for an English operator.  She attempted to do it and after rolling her eyes for a couple of minutes, because she couldn’t get an English operator after pressing several buttons, she recharged the phone for me in store.  I then needed the data stick updating, they didn’t have any in the store.  We have the phone with credits that should last us until we leave Spain.  I don’t have a data stick, but am hoping that we can keep using free wi-fi where I can find it.

We found the hostal/Albergue and paid a little more than we expected to, but it is really nice and we have a private room.

After we were settled in, I rinsed some clothes out and hung them on the line. We then went for a walk around the old town and as we were walking to the grocery store, the heavens opened and it poured with rain!!  Oh good gravy all my clothes will be sopping wet for the morning.  When we got back to the hostal, the lady had bought them in to the garage and they were dry.  She even came into our room and closed the window, because our cycling shoes were getting wet.  Great service and really nice people, even if they don’t speak a word of English.

The old Town of Zafra has lots of little streets and alleyways to get lost in.  Most of them open out on to small squares or plazas, where there are bars and cafes to sit and enjoy a beer or coffee.

The old Town has been very well maintained, with whitewashed buildings and clean streets.

As you leave the old town and enter the \”real\” town, it becomes apparent that the old town is for the tourists and the new town is a bit worse for wear.

The hostal was originally a monastery and is about 300 years old.  It has been an Albergue for about 7 years.

Ralf went out to take some photos of the Alcazabar a hotel and castle, while I updated the blog.  He was only supposed to be gone for half an hour, but my dearly beloved manages to go inside the hotel, past the security guards and takes photos of inside the castle/hotel.

After he had finished investigating the three floors of the hotel, he came down to the reception area where they offered him a glass of red wine.  Of course, to be polite he accepted the free glass of wine, he carried on taking photos and pretending he was a guest, when they offered him the second glass of red wine, not to be impolite he took the second glass of wine.

He came back to the hostal, where the door was locked and our proprietor made sure they knew who he was before letting him back in!  The security is better at a E14 a night hostal than at a E135 a night hotel.

Sunday September 28, 2014

Up and away before first light today.  It was beginning to get light as we left the campsite at 8:15 am.   Our lights were on as we headed for the N630 one of the Spanish National routes that parallels the highway.  I think we saw more road cyclists today than we saw cars.

It was a lovely ride, rolling hills with a few little climbs, just to test the legs.  We both felt really good and we seemed to be going really quickly, we finished a 73 km ride in just over 4 hours.  We passed two castles that were located within 100 metres of each other.

There is a route that is being promoted in Spain called the Ruta La Plata.  It is primarily a route for mountain bikers, but is well signed.  It criss-crosses the highway, N630 and the Camino de Santiago.  It could be a really nice ride, if we weren’t fully loaded.  We stuck to the N630 all the way to Merida, which was a great route.

We didn\’t know what these road signs meant, so we asked at the Albergue, she told us that it meant it was the traditional road that cattle take. Nothing to do with Canada being a cow!

On the outskirts of Merida we followed the signs for Avenida La Plata, which took us by a Roman aqueduct that had storks nests on the top of each arch.  Almost every nest had a stork in it, clattering their large beaks and displaying their wings.

Occasionally they would take-off and fly a circuit around the aqueduct and land back on their nest.

We arrived in Merida at just after 12:30 and found the Albergue really quickly.  However, it was closed with a note on the door with a telephone number.  As we do not have an update on the phone yet, we couldn’t call the number.  We decided to find the Oficini de Tourismo and ask them to call the number for us.  We went into the main square and asked for directions, but we were hungry so we had a coffee and some tapas (croquettes). The placemat had a map of the Town on it, and I was looking for the Tourist Office on it.  Ralf said \”OMG, we are now planning our route with the help of a placemat\”.

We headed up to the tourist office, with the help of the placemat map and discovered it was closed until 5:00pm.  However, a Spanish lady started to speak to Ralf in rapid Spanish asking him if he was a pilgrim and needed the Albergue and trying to give him directions.  Ralf had that \’deer in head-lights look\’ and tried to explain we knew where the Albergue was but couldn’t call them because we had no phone.  Her husband came along, told us again where the Albergue was, then got the idea that we knew where it was but couldn’t call.  He took the phone number from us, called the number and asked when they opened and if they had space for us with bicycles. Yes, not a problem, it opened at 5:00pm.  How nice is that, people help us all the time.

We had a few hours to kill so we wandered around the Town.  While we were having lunch we noticed a few people wandering around in Roman attire, Togas etc.  We didn’t know that this Town was a Roman Town and has many Roman archaeological sites.  The major site – the ampitheatre and theatre – had a E15 per person entry fee (too much for our budget), but most of the other sites you could view for free.  We also didn’t know that this week-end was “Dress like a Roman week-end”.  If we had known we would have bought a couple of white bed sheets and wandered around the Town in togas.

Whenever we stopped to investigate a site, we were asked a lot of questions about our ride.  One fella indicated that due to our trip I had very large thighs and was very impressed with them.  His wife dragged him away shortly after that.

We met a really nice couple from Mississauga who were here for two weeks on vacation and really enjoying Spain.  As we passed one restaurant, a group wished us Bon Camino, then noticed Ralf’s Canadian flag and asked where we were from.  The two fellas were walking the Camino and their wives were in the support vehicle, they were from Victoria, BC.  Ralf is going to keep a count of how many people we meet that are from Canada (6 today).

We didn’t have any provisions for dinner and weren’t sure if the Albergue had a kitchen.  We decided to eat in a restaurant and had the menu el dia (menu of the day).  Starter, main course, dessert, bread and a drink for E10.60 each.  We had a nice meal and then headed to the Albergue.

There is one room with 8 bunk beds in it and two showers.  The albergue is located in an old mill on the side of the river.  The City decided to restore this building and maintain it is an albergue.  A lovely historic building.

Of course not all the things that the municipality does makes sense.  They have built a new municipal office over the top of these ancient ruins.

Saturday September 27, 2014

We left the hotel at 8:15 under cloudy skies.  We watched the sun fighting its way through grey skies. It was a little cool to start the day, but as the sun worked its way higher in the sky, it got a little warmer.

However, the grey skies won the fight today.  As we progressed south on a lovely ribbon road with cattle farms on both sides of the road the weather became quite humid.

As we came into Caceres it started to rain, then it poured down.  We were close to a Carrefour supermarket, so we sheltered there while it stopped.  Ralf went in to the Carrefour as there was an Orange store in there and I thought he might be able to update his telephone.  They didn’t speak any English and he was unsuccessful in adding more credits to his phone.

He also got the provisions for dinner tonight – Dinner Menu #1 – Pasta with tomato sauce and tuna with olives and garlic.

I spoke to a very nice Spanish guy who was very impressed with our trip, he spoke good English.  He was a cyclist who had cycled, in one day, 360kms from the Pyreneans to the Atlantic Ocean including some of the mountain cols that are climbed on the Tour de France.  I was very impressed.  He told me I was the better cyclist, I disagreed with him.  My daily rides are nothing compared to a 360 km one day ride, especially over some of the mountains that he went over.

Eventually it stopped raining and we made our way to the campsite.  We decided to take one of their cabins, which was only E8 more expensive than a campsite.

We managed to do some “housekeeping” – washing and sewing, – our cycling gear is seeing the worst for wear.  We have been wearing them almost every day now for 10 months and they are beginning to wear quite badly.  We had to do some minor sewing repairs on the jerseys.  Drying the bikes and cleaning the chains is always a priority after they have got wet.  I will have to give the bikes a good clean at some stage.

On checking my email I got some awesome news – Joy’s surgeon met her today and told her they got all the tumor.  Life is really good.

Friday September 26, 2014

Although we only had our rest days in Porto (5 days ago), we needed to regroup and get ourselves organized for Spain.  Plus Alcantara is a lovely little Town well worth exploring.

We had a long lie–in this morning and after breakfast, we headed into the old town of Alcantara.

Often when we explore towns we take the road less travelled and find all sorts of interesting things.  For instance this town still has a bull ring.  Although I do not agree with bull-fights, it is part of their heritage and culture, especially in small rural towns.

We carried on through the Town down little lanes and streets finding the main sites.  We were in one section of the town that on the map it was described as the Barrio Judio – surely not another Jewish quarter.  Yes, we came across another Jewish quarter, which still has the old synagogue (recently renovated).

Although the Spanish and the Portuguese tried to convert the jews to Christianity in the 15^th Century, and prohibit virtually everything connected to Judaism, there still is an acknowledgement of their heritage in some places.

We came to the main site in Alcantara the Convent of San Bonito.  It is an incredible building which was originally built as a regimental building, changing hands to the church in the 15^th century.  After a few wars it was left in the hands of a noble family.  In 1961 it was bought by a foundation which has been restoring the building to its former glory.

We were looking at the opening hours, when a priest came by and told us that we could see inside at 1:15.  It was 12:45, we wandered around the outside and took some photos, then went back to the entrance.

Another couple of guys joined us and old fella passed by and told us we had to ring the bell.  We rang the bell a lady came and gave the four of us a guided tour and history of the inside, in English and Spanish.  It was a free guided tour and we thought we should donate but no money exchanged hands.

After a lovely wander around, we had lunch in the square and then came back to the hotel.

These two photos are taken from the same position in the Town.  On the up side of the river is a massive dam, on the downside is the Roman Bridge.

We planned our route south and emailed some warmshowers.  We also noticed that we are back following the Spanish Camino route south, we might be able to stay at some Albergues on the way south.

We have moved the clocks forward again, it gets dark at around 9:00, but doesn’t get light until 8:00.  We still need to get on the road early, as it gets quite hot by noon, an early night for us.