With breakfast served only between 7:00 am and 8:00 am, I wrested myself from bed just before 7. Unsurprisingly, all but one of the other perigrinos left well before then. I walked downstairs for breakfast to find only remnants. Eating the food available, I realized I crossed a time zone when I left Portugal. Now suddenly 8:15 am, I packed up quickly. Kent, the host, pointed out to me I needed to be out by 8:30 am, but said all was forgiven when I mentioned I’d been functioning on Portugal time.
As I rolled my bicycle out of the auberge, I realized the bicycle had a flat front tire. Sitting next to the entrance to the auberge I removed my panniers and proceeded to fix the tire. I pulled a quarter-inch long thorn out of the tire during the patching process. My first flat tire in over 10,000 km!
I started off on back roads this morning, as I cycled to Villaralbo. While not a hotel, a local club converted the nearby Castillo Villa Ferga into their own private club house.
Eventually merging back to larger highways, a straight shot brought me to the Campismo El Astra just outside of Tordesillas (this time not cerrado). Certainly the nicest campground so far this trip. Overall Spain appears to be slightly more expensive than Portugal.
After a brief siesta, I wandered the small, uneventful town before returning to camp – a quiet night. The day off in Salamanca, and the last two shorter cycling days (on more level terrain) have slowly reduced the ache in my knee. Hopefully a few more days of that will set things back to as right as they can get. The shorter days also have me ending the day before the peak heat, a nice combination.
Low on sunscreen I skimped a bit on application today, and burned myself, especially the back of my neck. I bought more sunscreen, and hopefully can reverse the process. I normally slowly lose ground every day to sunburn. This region of Spain has few trees and little shade, so I expect a continued struggle . My dermatologist recently asked what my job was. When I answered, “computers” she said that explained why my skin was in such great shape – because I spent all my time inside.
Tomorrow I keep meandering my way north.