Nice and easy does it!
Trip Start
Apr 18, 2009
1
24
31
Trip End
May 19, 2009
Plasencia,
Extremadura,
Spain and Canary Islands
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Lovely breakfast with lots of good things and got away just after 9 am to find myself hurtling down a long, steep hill on the N-630
Lovely morning views
. What goes down must come up and soon enough I was climbing once again. But this climbing is real pleasure: the mountain views and birdsong are an absolute treat.Knowing how tough the Spanish section of this trip would be I have deliberately kept the daily distances short by the standards of what I was doing in France. Today was no exception and I anticipated a run of around 85 kms. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that the computer generated route was much longer than the route I chose myself - by 27 kilometres! The second surprise was to discover that the new route was short on hills, at least those going upwards! I spent what seemed like an age descending further and further (and needed to stop to don a windproof jacket to keep the cold out!) through the mountains that I had climbed the previous day. I took a picture of a Via de la Plata route marker and before long I passed a couple of pilgrims with whom I exchanged a friendly: "Bon Camino!" Later as I entered the old Roman spa town of Baños de Montemayor I saw a group of pilgrims on bikes, about to climb the very mountain roads that I had just descended - poor devils.
Soon I found myself descending into a wide valley with the Autovia running parallel as company. I stopped at a roadside cafe for a quick coffee and a couple of locals started chatting away as though I was fluent in Spanish
Via de la Plata
. The gist of this amusing exchange was that it was about to rain and I really shouldn´t be doing what I was doing it such weather (It occurred to me that a sane man would not be doing what I am doing in ANY weather!) I bade them a friendly "Adios" and continued my way south.Soon the Autovia broke away to the west and my road took to the mountains for another enjoyable climb. I spotted cork trees that had been stripped of their bark and could not resist a quick photo. I had previously thought the world´s cork all came from Portugal.
Then we were descending down into Plasencia, where my GPS did its thing and navigated me through the narrowest of streets to my hostel for the night, the award-winning Ikea-type Alojamientos La Plaza. I arrived by 1pm after just 3 hours cycling during which time I had covered only 58 km. So a real treat for me (almost like a day off!) and presented me with lots of time to explore the town and get the blog up to date (but photo uploads will have to wait for a couple of days - sorry!) Like almost every town I have visited this one is full of history and I took lots of pics on my wander through the impossibly tiny streets through which traffic continues to pass. I popped into the Tourism Centre and was surprised they spoke no English . But we got by and the helpful lady presented with me with an armful of interesting material. My walk this afternoon took in just about the whole of the old part of the city and I thought it a crying shame that such beautiful old buildings should be so blighted by graffiti. I have seen a lot of graffiti on this trip but this place seems to have suffered much worse than the others, and especially the old stonework. Such a shame.
By the time I had updated my blog it was getting late so rather than seek out a restaurant I headed for a busy pizza bar. Not only was it busy it was a zoo! People shouting and screaming at each other, customers queuing up to complain about late and wrong orders - so I made a quick exit! Just up the street I spotted another pizza place that was completely devoid of customers so knew that I at least would not have a long wait! The manageress and serving staff spoke no English, but the delivery driver did - actually really well. And the resulting pizza and salad was excellent. However, moments after being served the driver left on a delivery and things became a little heated: the manageress and young girl serving had a nose-to-nose argument, complete with finger-pointing and jabbing. They were of identical height (about one metre :-) age and size so were pretty evenly matched - and the argument just went on and on. The phones were ringing, doubtless announcing fresh orders, but they were ignored, and so was I! Before blood was spilled I headed for the door thinking my shouting "Buenos noces" might interrupt them. No chance - as the door closed behind me they were still at it!
Time for bed.
DISTANCE FOR THE DAY: 58 km
TOTAL SO FAR: 1789 km
