#181 Moors & Christians (junior version)

Its the Moors & Christians Fiesta in Denia. Gangs of chaps (mostly) dress up as Christians in armour or Moors in Arabian robes and act out battles from a thousand years ago.

Before that they parade up and down the high street accompanied by marching drum and brass bands. Imagine, if you can, a slightly out of tune "Puppet on a String" being *bashed-out* with tremendous gusto by five or six separate sets of costumed groups coming down the street. You can't help but grin :-)

On Tuesday they had a pre-parade for kids. Just the same as the seniors, except some of them had to be carried by Dad.

#180 Madeline Peyroux

Sunday we went with some mates to the Xabia Jazz Festival to see Madeline Peyroux . . . . it was ok . . . . . but most of her stuff is slow and bluesy, so after an hour and a half of slow blues I was ready to go. . . . . . maybe she's more suited to a smokey jazz club rather than in an open air athletic stadium.

#179 South France & North Spain

Two weeks in southern France & northern Spain.

Sunday: We drove to Barcelona and went to a jazz concert with Tom and Carrie (who organised nice seats) in the Teatre Grec to see the Chuchu Valdes Quintet with a guest appearance of Chuchu's dad Bebo. ¡Que Bien!

Monday: Left Sally in Barça, I rode to Placa de Catalunya station to take the train to Ripoll. Seeing my bike a railwayman engaged me in conversation. When he discovered we were both ex-Ironmen he spent 20 minute detailing his bike splits in various races around the world - just about made it onto the train. From Ripoll rode on to Ribes de Freser, got another train to Puigcerdá then rode into France and on up over the Col Quillane to Formigueres. Total for the day - 60km.










Tuesday: From Formigueres to Castelnaudary. This was *supposed* to be all downhill but was advised to take a short cut that was on little roads and had much less traffic. It certainly had less traffic (see below) but was v hilly. Many hours later found a hotel in Castelnaudary (dined on Cassoulet famous regional dish of beans and pork), 120km for the day.


















Wednesday: Very long day (8 hours, 150km) from Castelnaudary to stay with friends Brian and Maureen Wilkins who live near Lalbenque in the Lot region of France (was welcomed by their dog). Sally drove up from Barcelona.












Thursday: We all went to a local village for an open air gourmet evening. Excellent food - seen here a half eaten plate of maigret de canard - duck and fried potatoes (cooked in duck fat, delicious!).





















Friday: We drove to Cahors to see start of Tour de France stage 18. Saw lots of skinny brown cyclists posing and men wearing Tour accreditation being important. Then to a village called Bach for luncheon.

















Saturday: We left chez Wilkins and had a weekend in very chi chi hotel to celebrate wedding anniversary (40). Sunday got the bikes out and rode 60km out-and-back beside the river Lot.


















Saw fields of tobacco (no government health warnings) and a delayed train.





























Monday: 9am by car via Cahors, Toulouse, Pau. Over the Pyrenees to Zaragoza, Spain. There we parked in the railway station car park and with minutes to spare, caught a regional train to Logroño. From Logroño a 17km uphill ride arrive at 9pm in Laguardia (Pais Vasco). There we met up with a group of Spanish mountain bikers, led by our old mate Chus, who are following the Rio Ebro from one end to the other.


















Chus (above) runs a bike tour company called Pangea. We went with him on a tour of Spain's Vias Verdes a few years ago and then I did the Ruta de Cid from Burgos to Valencia, 8 days mostly on tracks. This time we are going to ride on the road parallel with the group, meeting up for dinner and hotel each night.

Tuesday: Sally and I rode Laguardia to Alfaro 110km. Mostly quiet roads except for the last 10km on 'N' road which was full with high speed trucks. Had a convivial evening with the mountain bike gang. There are a couple of dozen of them taking 8 days for their trip from top to bottom of the river Ebro.












Chus has two guides; Juan (who is the one rebuilding a wheel on the pavement) and Antonio (who has just stuck his fingers somewhere unpleasant).

Wednesday: Alfaro to Zaragoza. We had no choice but to ride for the first hour to Tudela on the N232 that was more like a motorway in the rush hour but narrow because it was also under construction. Unpleasant. We rode another 65km into a headwind. Then did a sneaky trick and caught a regional train into Zaragoza, so avoiding another bout of motorway madness. 85km days ride.


















Thursday: Our next stage was mostly in the car from Zaragoza to Monasterio de Rueda. We did a bit of riding (40KM) and sightseeing. Monasterio de Rueda is an ancient monastery converted into a luxury hotel - not the sort of digs us cyclists are accustomed to so we made the most of it, lounging and dipping in the pool.































Friday: One last lounge and one last look at the River Ebro and then we drove home.

#178 Bike Books

As I survived my trans Iberia bike ride (and the Tour de France is on the telly) I got in a real cycling mode and bought some bike books via Amazon.













I wanted to like Robert Millar, I wanted to like his independence, his contempt for authority, his tenacity in the face of opposition . . . . . . but . . . . he also seems to be a rude, impolite, thoughtless prick. So, I didn't warm to him, I wouldn't want to meet him and I wouldn't re-read this book.

Marco Pantani has a similar aura to Millar. He was painted as the "devil may care pirate". Drugs elevated him to the podium - then he died - story ends. Sadly there is not a book's worth of interest or enjoyment here.

The third nutcase, Graeme Obree, is welcome round our house any time. Although as crazy as the other two (and he's got the certificate to prove it) he doesn't embark on a life of cycling with any devious intent to raise his profile. Chapeau!

Push Yourself a Little Bit More - backstage at the Tour de France by Johnny Green is a book I liked, mainly for Green's enthusiasm. The story is of a three week road trip running parallel with the Tour. Although he tries to be the "diamond geezer who's seen it all" he still writes about the race with affection and humour.

#177 . . . . . . 1066km in 9 days.

How I rode from Lisbon to Denia. I went through parts of Spain untouched by tourists (and not many Spaniards, either) I went through Portugal's Alentejo to Spain's Extremdura, Castilla La Mancha, a bit of Murcia and finally Alicante. An interesting ride, sometimes exciting and sometimes a bit boring (but in a nice way).



















Prologue. Friday 15th June - 15k
Flew from Alicante to Lisbon via Sevilla with Iberia - nice surprise, we were given Håagen Dazs ice cream on the second leg - they don't do that on EasyJet! Then rode from the airport to Oriente railway station and took the train 25 min north to Vila Franca de Xira (so as to
avoid the Lisbon city centre traffic).

From there biked to Porto Novo and stayed in the Albergaria S Lourenço. Small mis-translation from my Spanish to their Portuguese, I didn't get the ribs for dinner, just one big piece of cow on the bone . . . . maybe it was a big rib?

Here is a picture of some typical Portuguese road.















Stage 1. Saturday. Porto Novo to Évora - 105km
The rain in Spain stays mainly in Portugal. It rained - drizzled - rained for four of the five hours on the bike. Fortunately have excellent Assos rain jacket so stayed relatively snug.

Évora is a UNESCO heritage site so is full of ancient buildings, cobbles and tourists. Ate out, had grilled tuna.




























Stage 3. Sunday. Évora to Olivenza - 115km
Rained all night and all morning so rode half of stage in the wet. Realised that the last time I rode my bike with rain stinging my face must have been . . . years and years ago! However made good time as the winds have been favourable, except when I crossed back into Spain and had a fight for the last 20km, then to very nice hotel, Palacio Arteaga, in Olivenza.

Pictured below: the frontier between the land of the people that say vozshh and the land of the people that say ñ.














Interior of Palacio Arteaga, Olivenza.














Stage 3. Monday. Olivenza to Pueblo de la Reina - 110km
Out in the wilds (see pic below). Very little traffic but good roads.Went down one hill and touched 68.8kph (thats quite fast with a big bag jumping around your handlebars).















Couldn't find a hotel so stayed in a self catering chalet (only 35€+tax) and cooked a baked potato and tuna for me tea.














Stage 4. Tuesday. Pueblo de la Reina to Almaden - 145km
Long day; counted at least 9,000 sheep, 4 dogs and 2 cars. Got chased briefly by one of the dogs. Went up big hill. Came down other side. Saw a lake.



























Arrived 7 hours later in Almaden and the nice hotel I had hoped to stay in was completo :-( so went to another joint. Dined on consomé and monkfish.

Stage 5. Wednesday. Almaden to Almargo - 120km
First 50km on tiny rural roads, all uphill (it seemed) and poorly surfaced. At the top passed a load of firemen playing vollyball and waiting to jump into their helicopter and put out a forest fire. Apart from that didn't see any humanity. Stayed in very chichi b&b but had dreadful meal, beans and chicken wings (I think). Almargo is very nice and has a summer arts festival.














Stage 6. Thursday. Almargo to Ossa de Montiel - 111km
More flat roads, diverted to look at the Lagunas de Ruidera. Looked then carried on. Met a couple of mountain bikers who were charging around the Ruta Don Quixote.

Ended up in the cheapest hostal of the trip. Beer and Doritos on arrival. Evening meal; soup, lamb chops, ice cream, full bottle of wine. Room (with choice of 3 beds!) and breakfast = 38€. Not bad, eh?



























Stage 7. Friday. Ossa de Montiel to Hellin - 134km
Big roads and no traffic. In the Hotel Reina Victoria in Hellin, had a beer and some tapas including some torrednos which turned out to be deep fried pork belly fat - excellent! I think I've discovered the new Power Bar, just need some fancy packaging . . . . . .






















(the white line continues)

Stage 8. Saturday. Hellin to Biar - 105km
After 7 days of good condition, I'm absolutely shattered. Its all uphill, into a stinking headwind and the road surface has been made from bits of left over ashphalt thrown at random to give an unpleasant cobbled effect. If this had been the first day, I would have thrown my bike in the ditch, hailed the first taxi and ordered it to "Take me to Denia - Immediately!"

Horrible riding! The only nice bit was the last 10k when I got on a Via Verde, one of Spain's old railway lines that has been converted for the pleasure of bikers and walkers.

But! Sally came out to meet me on my last night and we stayed in a finca rural Les Fanecaes and had an outstanding evening meal - worth all the day's grumbling :-)










































Stage 9. Sunday. Biar to Denia - 105km
Last day and although its mostly downhill to Denia, it wasn't easy. One longish hill, more wind and tired legs, I was happy to just follow the signs :-)














ahhh . . . .

#176 Three Breakfasts on Sunday

Breakfast 1. 8:00 Mango, Banana, Black Coffee.
Ride 21k to Pego, swim 2k. Meet up with Sally and some of our English friends, Christine & John.
Breakfast 2. 11:30 Special Cyclist's Breakfast put on in local caf; Gerkins, Olives, Green Peppers, Palm hearts, Beer - then a big platter of sizzling . . . Rabbit! and more beer :-)
Ride back to Denia.
Breakfast 3. 14:00 Coffee, toast and marmalade and read the Sunday papers.

(Last night we went and watched open air Jazz just near our house).

#175 Shark! Shark!

Somewhere very close to where we swim, a shark was hauled in by local fishermen. This shark was BIG, 8 metres long and weighing 4 tonnes.

I might not go in the sea for a day or two . . . his Mummy and Daddy might still be looking for him :-)













photo : Las Provincias

#174 Listerine?

Most of the restaurants round here bring you a free drink when you ask for the bill, usually a sweet wine or a shot of liqueur. On Sunday we were given what looked (and tasted) like Listerine Mouth Wash . . . !
I didn't think there was *that* much garlic in the paella.

It seems that, along with a ban on smoking, catering establishments will now have to send customers away with sweet smelling breath so as not to endanger the general public with second hand, potentially polluting and greenhouse effect inducing, hazardous belches.

#173 No Time Toulouse

We went to France for a week. Stopping on our way to see Tom and Carrie in Barcelona.










Then to visit Dave and Jackie in Valras Plage. We intended to ride beside the Canal du Midi for a few days but it was so windy that one day's riding was enough.
Not only that, the WC had something missing . . . . . .












We drove north to see Brian and Maureen who live in this farmhouse near Cahors.









Got one more bike ride in, then back to Spain, stayed a night in Berga, had another drink in Barcelona and then after 5 hours cruising down the A7 . . . . . home :-)

#172 Dos Mayo

As it's my birthday we went for luncheon at the Mena restaurant which has wonderful views overlooking the Mediterranean - and nice food, as well.

The boss gave me a bottle of Moscatel as we were leaving :-)