Salamanca is a beautiful city. I only wish I had more time to visit. I could sit in the Plaza Mayor all day long and people watch. The restaurants that circle the Plaza don’t seem to be in any rush to serve small tables, more fool them. I had a nice sit down in the shade and drank my bottle of water.
All the cattle I had seen grazing the previous day were bulls. I read in the tourist information that Salamanca has deep routed tradition in bull fighting so I guess the bulls I had passed the day before were possibly destined for the placa de toros. Slightly tempted to see what it’s all about but not enough time.
I didn’t sleep well Saturday night. There was a bug outside my tent that kept making a loud noise every few seconds. So I woke with heavy eyes and not feeling fully refreshed. Incidentally, I hadn’t slept well Friday night either because I’d had too much to drink. It was the barmaids fault for buying me that one extra pint.
With two huge croissants and a café con leche inside me I headed off towards Avila. The ride started well. I managed to get a pace going I hadn’t achieved over the last few days, and although it was sunny it was quite pleasant and not too hot.
Halfway I had stopped to put some sun cream on and eat a snack when another cycle tourer went past in the opposite direction. He pulled up next to me. His name was Han from the Netherlands. There are a number of caminos in Spain other than the one I had cycled. Han had pret
ty much cycled all of them. He loves riding Spain and he is almost 70 years old. That’s pretty impressive.
Continuing on I had only 40 kilometres to go when the wind got up, and unfortunately it was coming from the direction I was heading. This made for really hard cycling. At times I was down to a crawl. The last 40 km seemed more like 60. I’m hoping this will die down tomorrow.
The next few days are going to be quite tough. I want to get to Madrid on Monday then Cuenca on Tuesday. These are both hefty distances around 100 miles each. I’ll see how I get on. Otherwise I’ll just have to spread the distance out over an extra day. Fingers crossed for no wind!
Tonight I’m staying in the hotel Han had recommended. My bike is safely stored downstairs and I have a large double bed. The hotel rates are 100 Euro a night so how I have this room for 40 I have no idea. I’ve had a short walk around Avila. It’s a walled city, a pretty impressive wall at that. I’d compare the city to a mini Toledo but without all the tourists.