A Great Start

After leaving Victoria early early Friday morning we arrived in Madrid at noon. 

Set up a bike shop in the airport and put the bikes back together. No damage, no losses.

3 confusing subway Metro lines later we got to Atoche train station to discover we missed the train to Ávila by 5 minutes, with a long wait for the next. 

We pedalled around El Centro Madrid for a while and finally decided to get a hotel. Dinner was in a busy, noisy, fun tapa bar.

Early the next morning in the dark still we road through the slowly awaking and for some, still partying predawn city to Atoche, and managed to figure out the trains. 

Less than 2 hours later we were in Ávila, with its original medieval walls surrounding the old city. 

We attended mass in the cathedral, looked all around, did the obligatory museum tour, 

and at 1:00 headed out for Alba de Tormes after a roadside lunch of, yes...tapas.

The ride was 83 kms all uphill the first hour and then steep climbs up and down the rest of the way on secondary and third class roads but mostly nicely paved. 

The tough part was a VERY strong headwind, all the way. It was a very tough ride for the first day. We checked into a nice hotel in Alba, famous for its roman bridge, still in use today. 

After hot bathes all around we wandered into town to the Plaz(th)a Mayor, and found a nice sidewalk cafe/bar where we decided to have...wait for it....yes, tapas. 

Laurie stuck to coke and agua but the rest sampled copious quantities of cerveza. The next morning we bussed to Salamanca, beautiful city, where we did the tourist thing all day including lunch and more cervezas (not Laurie)before bussing back to Alba for a tapa dinner. 

This morning we headed out early and had an easy ride to Béjar except for one very long steep summit. Weather is clear and hot. It hits mid-90’s by 1:00 but cools off at night and is quite brisk for the first hour of riding in the morning. 

Minor accidents, all pilot error, bruises but no serious damage. 2 flats so far but thanks to the Wayneinar they are taken in stride and easily dealt with. The roads have been mostly good except for a 15 km stretch of old farm road on the way to Alba. 

The drivers are wonderful and pass well over, sometimes with honks of encouragement. We’ve met lots of local bikers on training rides but no other touring groups so far. Everywhere we go we meet locals who are so friendly and interesting. 

Grady and Laurie manage to talk to the locals in what passes for spanish. Laurie is getting good at lisping his c’s but  Grady struggles. We’ve met all kinds of people who have pretty good english. Everyone has been friendly except one aggressive beggar who was a little threatening but nothing serious.

In Béjar we stumbled onto a fabulous hotel with incredibly luxurious full suites with large private patios, all beautifully furnished, for 60 euros all in including breakfast and secure bike storage, 100 meters off the Plaza Mayor. The suites are embarrassing but what the hell! 

We paid 70 euros in Madrid, right in the central district, for individual rooms, and only 34 in Alba. So far we’ve got individual rooms each night. Tomorrow we will be through Plasencía before lunch and then we’ll plan where to go from there. Mostly we just go without any clear plan. 

We more or less stick together, and those ahead stop if the stragglers fall out of sight. We’re faithful about drinking lots of water and starting to adopt the “light breakfast, big meal at 2:30 and tapas from 9 to 10 then bed. 

Tonight its off to bed in ridiculously ornate brocaded kingsize beds in our separate bedrooms off our living room suites with patio views of the local mountains. This is ski country here, so we’re quite high, steep hills but very picturesque.

Oh, did I mention we had a few tapas tonight? We’ve got lots of pictures but are having serious technical problems trying to post blogs so it might be sporadic getting the pictures posted but we’ll try. Thanks to Ryan for helping out as Sancho’s helper.

Stay tuned.