Rest Day Comes To An End

Paul and I sit at an outdoor bar enjoying a glass of tinto under a decidedly cooler Spanish evening. While people are out strolling, it is not the crowds we experienced last night. Outdoor tables were at a premium. People circled like vultures waiting to pounce as soon as a table even looked as if it were going to be free. With a cool chill in the night air, outdoor tables are an open selection.
Today's rest day included a lot of shopping. But if you assume that it was I partaking, you would be incredibly mistaken. As what can only be described as Paul doing his best Carrie Bradshaw imitation, we hit up shoe store after shoe store, where after the spree was over, Paul had four new pairs to add to the ones he purchased in Logrono. On sale no less! Said shoes are .Paul's favorite comfort wear. They are worn by just about all the older Spanish gentleman who look forward to comfort over fashion. They are lightweight and and definitely more comfortable than the heavy leather shoes worn in business. Paul now has enough to last him should we not return to Spain for the next several years. (He did get them in several colors too!)
Today was not all about shopping. We also took a tour of the Cathedral, which is absolutely magnificent. The amazing height of the ceiling which soars straight to heaven is matched only by the stunning stained glass windows which are made of such glorious vivid design and color as to be absolutely breathe-taking. We ended our evening as always: with a fabulous dinner and wonderful bottle of wine. We strolled past the Cathedral, lit up most magnificently. We decided an ice cream was in order and then we called it a night to our well-deserved rest day.

The Longest Day!

Today was our longest day of biking yet. Paul and I rode nearly one hundred kilometers (98 to be exact). The good news is that the day was much cooler than yesterday. The bad news: the reason for a break in the weather was the wind blowing directly in our face and bringing possible thunderstorms. For the most part the wind was not too bad and the road relatively flat. That enabled us to make our longest ride to date. We arrived in Leon where we are going to enjoy a well-earned rest day.
We continue to enjoy great meals and fine wines at dinner.
Some general impressions of our trip so far: we have met a lot of friendly people on this trip. A few spaniards are making the camino. But the majority of people we have met so far are Italian. It seems as if the whole of Italy is in Spain, especially those from Milan. Nearly everyone we chat with us from Italy.
We'll have to take a trip there sometime to meet some of the wonderful people we have met on our trip.
Other impressions about this trip: the change in technology. This blog is being written on Paul's blackberry. Last time I had to hunt for a ciber cafe to make posts. Now I do them while we are waiting for drinks or dinner. Another marvel is my Ipod. Aside from listening to music which gets me pedalling faster, we are using the Ipod to download the photos from our digital cameras. What a great inovation. On our last trip, we had to hunt down local photo stores to download the pictures and then burn a CD that we could mail home. It was a time-consuming process. What hasn't changed is that the trip to Santiago is hard, always has been, always will.

Well Done and Extra Crispy!

Yesterday was the hardest by far. It was our longest ride to date and the hottest as well. Temperatures soared to over 45 degrees centigrade, which by Paul´s calculation was over 115 degrees. We felt each and every one. We couldn´t drink enough water. Thankfully, each village has a public fountain where we could fill up our bottles. We needed every drop.
Impressions of the day included fields of wheat as far as the eye could see, surprising fields of lavendar, which made the day aromatic and storks every where. After baking in the hot Spanish sun, I hit an emotional and physical wall about three mile from our final destination, Carrion de Los Condes. When faced with one more little climb, my legs and head said, "no mas!" With Paul up ahead, I found a tiny space of shade behind one of the camino markers and just sat down until I could cool off and gather enough strength to make it up what I prayed would be the last climb of the day. (At the beginning of day or if were not so hot, that climb was just a tiny blip in the road, but given the day´s heat and length, it was enough to stop me in my tracks.) I finally got up and pushed up the hill to see Paul and our final destination just down the road. What a relief!

Day Four Successful!

The day's ride was another beautiful one. We spent most of the morning on the Camino. Overall, the riding is pretty good. However, it can be a little challenging at times. The gravel Camino is often filled with large stones, making it rather bumpy. Going downhill can be particularly intense as you don't want to hit a stone that's going to throw you over. We only had one large climb on the day. It was three kilometers up a 6 percent grade. The shoulder was very narrow which made it a little nervewracking with all the traffic.This time Paul and I had a plan in case we got separated so we would not be waiting for each other in the wrong places.
We arrived Burgos where it was a happening Friday night. The town plaza was jammed with families and couples walking arm and arm.
During the day's ride, we met some wonderful people. Katarina was an older German woman who was walking the camino. We we also met an older Spanish gentleman from Pamplona who was biking.