Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 20

We overslept this morning. The people in the room above were scraping chairs and having showers at 1am. Honestly, this hotel appears to have zero sound proofing! Today we are walking back down to the city to take advantage of all the free sightseeing that the lady in one of the monuments told me about yesterday! What skin flints we are…but why pay if you don’t have to? We have started our day at El Banuelo, a Roman style bath house. We enter a house with a courtyard, then through to the three bathrooms behind. First the cold room, followed by the warm. All have moorish skylights representing the moon and stars. A third room, which we can only see from behind a barred gate, has a pretty blue and white tiled floor. The baths are ... read more

This morning we are up with the lark. We have tickets to see the Alhambra but it’s possible there will be long queues to enter. Our time slot for the Nazarene Palace is 9.30am and we have been warned not to be late! I am an avid reader of Philippa Gregory’s historical novels and the Alhambra has been on my wish list ever since I read ‘The Constant Princess’, which follows the life of Katherine of Aragon. Katherine, who grew up in the Alhambra, is sent to England to marry Arthur…and subsequently Henry VIII after Arthur’s death. After the sunshine of Spain, Katherine hates both the English climate and the heavy stewed food. She longs to eat salad again. There are vivid descriptions of her former life here. It’s still cool, having only just got light, ... read more

I owed you a somewhat longer description of our last day to Santiago de Compostela. A day, literally, with a number of highs and lows, but ending with the biggest high: biking into Cathedral square. What satisfaction and happiness. In moments Like this, I have to contain myself to not start openly crying. Not just a tier, but really crying. The three of us embraced which felt great. Lots of pilgrims on the square, most utterly tired but happy-faced. The effort paid off; we made it! Back to our day: this was probably the heaviest day of our journey, with steep climbs from the moment we left the hotel. Since the clock had advanced 1 hour the day before, at our regular hour of starting our rides, 8.00, it was still semi-dark with a temperature of ... read more

Vilaboa to Santiago de Compostela 86 km ARRIVED!! For the time being a brief note. After a challenging day on the road, at 6.30 PM, we arrived in Santiago de Compostela. I feel blessed to be in the position and state of health to complete this bike ride. As it turns out, entering the cathedral square, we exactly clocked the distance from Faro to Santiago at 1,000 km or 625 miles. I will write more about today and our stay here in Santiago tomorrow. Now I feel too tired. Before clocking off, one thing I need to get off my chest: I COULD HAVE NEVER COMPLETED THIS TRIP IF IT WEREN’T FOR MARK AND JAAP. MANY THANKS, I OWE YOU GUYS A LOT.... read more

Ponte de Lima to Vilaboa 80.36 km A day dominated by batteries. It started with finding out that my battery had not charged entirely during the night. My USA battery charger cable requires an adapter to connect to the European electrical outlets. Apparently, the adapter had slid out of the outlet during the night and had stopped the battery from charging. A major issue, but not fatal. We had to stop more frequently to make sure I did not run out of battery. At a critical moment at the end of our today's ride on our way to the hotel, which resulted to be farther away than we anticipated, we were barred from charging in a restaurant. Something unusual that had not happened to us before. We were all running out of charge and had to ... read more