Salamanca to near Alberca

the longer it takes to leave. We didn't manage to get out of Salamanca until about 1:30 p.m. because we wanted to develop some film. At the "one hour" film stores in Salamanca it's best to ask, "how long does the one hour developing take?" It always takes longer than an hour. In our case it took three days. We dropped it off on Friday before a holiday, forgot to come back before siesta, and came back to find the store closed until Monday.

Finally, after picking up our film on Monday, we were all packed up and we rolled out of town in excellent sunny weather. Five km later, we stopped for lunch. Joan had me do all the talking in the bar so I could get the practice. She had picked up Spanish a lot faster in class than I did. (JOAN: Also Eric complained that he wouldn't get much chance to practice Spanish in Portugal, so this was a convenient way to get him to do all the work, talking at restaurants, campgrounds, etc.... on the way out of Spain).

As we had beers and bocadillas (sandwiches), the bartender's two-year old-daughter played with us.

Shortly after setting out again we spotted another cycle tourist coming towards us. We stopped and he turned around and caught up with us. We talked briefly.

Antonio was a very friendly, gregarious guy, probably in his 30's. His mountain bike was relatively lightly loaded. He had rear panniers and a sleeping roll across the top of them, but no front panniers. Though he spoke a little English he insisted we speak in Spanish so we could practice.

It turned out he was in the middle of a two week long trip following a pilgrimage route from Sevilla to Santiago de Campostela. (I had no idea Spain has so many pilgrimage routes.) And his profession was, of all things, an actor for Spanish TV and theater. I've never met a bicycle touring actor. Mostly we meet engineers and other computer types, nurses, journalists, and students. We asked him if he is "muy famoso," (very famous) but he said No. He probably is and is just modest. He said that it was just "trabajo" (work).

Antonio planned to take about eight days to get to Santiago de Compostela, and seemed a little shocked that we had managed to spend a month riding from St. Sebastian to Madrid. We explained that we are slow.

Antonio was the first other bicycle tourist we had seen in Europe. We hoped it meant the season was changing.

All day long the land rolled gently. But the top of each hill was always just a little higher than the previous hill. At the high points we had some nice views back across the plains. Ahead we could see some larger hills. In the far distance to the southeast we saw snow covered mountains.

We didn't stop much except once to get cans of Coke and a can of peanuts at a gas station. Many drivers waved and gave us the thumbs up signal.

At the last town before we expected to camp, we bought breakfast rations. In that part of Spain, our breakfasts consisted of yogurt, pears, orange juice, and lots of muffins. The muffins were often the prepackaged and mass produced.

That night we bought our groceries at a little store with beads hanging in the doorway. As is custom in Spain, we let the old lady that ran the store pick out our pears. She picked some really fantastic ones! They melted in our mouths like fine chocolate.

At about 6:15 p.m. we reached the campground we had planned to stay at. We were about to pick a site when Joan thought to ask how much. They wanted 2,500 pesetas or about US$17.00! They charge by the person, the number of tents, and the number of vehicles. For two bikes they were going to charge us the same as for two cars. It would have been cheaper if we had driven in with a 60-foot-long camper!!!

We just couldn't swallow that price. Even though it was late and the next campground was 30km away in La Alberca, we continued. The woman at the campground (she was not responsible for the ridiculous pricing scheme) called the other campground for us to make sure they were open. She also warned us that the road was "muy dificil" (very difficult).

We told her we knew the road was difficult then left. We knew that La Alberca, a very popular tourist town, was in the mountains but we didn't expect the road to get much more difficult than it had been. .

About two km after the campground we started to descend. We went down and down and down. We had entered the mountains but we never expected to enter them going DOWN. For a full eight km we descended. We lost all the altitude we had gained during the day and about 400 meters more. Then we started to climb.

One of the rewards of riding late in the afternoon is that it's often the prettiest time of day. The light is warm and the shadows give lots of texture. And it's not too hot. So the climbing was difficult but pretty. And fortunately the road was not overly steep.

We saw lots of people out enjoying the evening. Though they might not have many plazas in the country side to be walk through, they still like to stroll.

At the top of a hill near Miranda del Castanar, we asked a man standing beside the road for directions. He pointed to a mountain top in the distance with a antenna tower on it. It looked very very high. He wanted us to visit his town because he said it was a more typical Sierra de Francia village. We wished we could have. We would have if there campground was open, but it wasn't. And with night falling fast, we didn't have time for the side trip.

We dropped steeply from there to a river then the REAL climb started.

After about two km we crossed a new bridge over a pleasant stream. From the new bridge we could see the old stone archway bridge. Behind that it looked like possible camping in a woodsy area. It turned out to be an excellent place. One of the best we've ever had. And it was free!

We put the tent up on a thick bed of leaves. We found a pretty black lizard with yellow stripes walking in the leaves as if in slow motion. Joan almost stepped on the little guy. It's the prettiest lizard I've ever seen.

I cooked another Tibetan Tuna Casserole with mashed potatoes for dinner.

Next: La Alberca Loses Its Charm

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