What a hard day!

I knew today would be hard. My memory has not gotten that bad yet. But I was not prepared for how hard it would be. First of all, it´s always hard to get back into the saddle after your first day of riding. It´s worse when you start the day off with a climb. The cool morning air faded fast as we heated up with our efforts to go up a little hill. We opted to go for the road route instead of the pilgrim path, which we heard was very difficult for bikers. We made a good choice.
I was helped in my efforts by my Ipod. Biking along with Aretha Franklin belting out "Respect" gets those rubbery legs going. I made it up the first climb albeit a little slowly but feeling pretty good. That would be the last time.
We stopped for lunch and as we did, the temperature started climbing. Just outside of Estella is a bodega where there is a fountain which offers wine and water for pilgrims. (If you got their website (www.irache.com), you can see pilgrims at their live webcam. We arrived at 1:00 pm (6:00 am back home.) We woke our children and had them go to the computer so we could wave to them! Although we couldn´t see them, it was nice to know they could see us.

By this point, the sweltering Spanish sun was heating up the air like a convection oven. It was hot and there was no respite. Paul and I pushed on, but by this point, my age and lack of conditioning made any climbing impossible. My legs felt like jello and my head feltl like it was going to explode. It was hot. Paul would wait for me at the top of every climb, but all I could do was push my bike. We would take breaks when we could find shade and then push on. But all in all, it was a long day.

Paul made good use of his waits for me by talking to other pilgrims as they passed by, most of them walking. He met a young German gal whose knee was all bandaged. He asked her what had happened and she said she blew it out on her second day of walking. When asked if she had gone to the doctor, she said no. A chinese gentleman, also a pilgrim, applied some needles to her knee. Paul was amazed and asked if that had helped and she thought about it, then said, yes it had!

We ended our day in Viana, a small walled town, after biking 61 kilometers. Viana is famous for being the birthplace of the infamous Cesar Borgia. They are celebrating the 500th anniversary of said birth. There is a museum and such, but our goal was to get our day´s laundry done and head out for a well-deserved glass of beer, wine and dinner. Tomorrow we are going to the post office again and getting rid of more weight. Hopefully, things will improve on the route.