Day 18 Medina to Duenas

Day 18 Medina to Duenas. 51.95kms cycled. 3.34 hours cycling. 42.16 km/h max speed. 14.51 km/h average speed. Weather – cold, wet and windy throughout.

I’m told it’s not normal for this time of year, but by gee am I getting sick of the freezing, wet and windy weather this part of Spain is experiencing at the moment.

 Basically it makes touring on a bicycle incredibly more difficult than it already is!

 After it rained again all night I knew I was in for a tough day, and believe me I was right.

  From the time I set out from Medina – after initially contemplating having the day off – I am the first to admit that I struggled.

  Not only was it constantly raining and bitterly cold, but I was riding straight into a persistent headwind. Not, I must admit, as strong as the headwinds I encountered in Portugal, but strong enough to make every turn of the pedal an effort.

  The result was a painful countdown of the kilometres, with my goal of making Cevico de la Torre – a 70km trip for the day – looking more and more of a pipedream the longer the day went on.

  Into the bargain I copped my second flat tyre in 3 days just out of Ampudia, which didn’t help improve my outlook on things.

  In the end I called it quits in Duenas, a historic town that is basically too cold and wet to explore.

  Unfortunately the smaller towns in Spain don’t have camping grounds, so I enquired at the Tourisimo office for directions to a suitable hostel.

  The result was the best tghing that happened all day, with my accommodation for the night a near brand new B&B just out of town for just 25 Euros complete with pay TV – no broadband unfortunately – which enabled me to watch the Madrid Tennis Open on live TV.

  So there you have it, what was a pretty ordinary day that finished on a bright note, and with some hope that the weather may start to improve tomorrow.

After repairing the flat tyre in Ampudia, I was in desperate need of a good meal, so went into the only restaurant in town.

  But wouldn’t you know it, it was siesta closing time and I was too late, it seemed. My pleadings for some sort of food must have hit a chord with the lady however, as she reluctantly agreed to get some soup.

  Great, I thought, but you should have seen what turned up. It must have been a local specialty, because it was basically a bowl full of hot, ground up animal fat. And into the bargain it tasted disgusting.

  After forcing myself to eat about half, I gave up and just ate the dry bread that came with it. If I didn’t know better I would say I was set up, but anyway the whole exercise cost 8 Euros, which was just as bad as the so-called soup.

caption. The only picture I took all day - repairing a flat tyre. It was too wet for any other pics.