just outside of Madrid, Spain
We finished the Camino de Santiago about a week ago, meeting up with an friend from earlier days on the Camino, Isabel, as she arrived in Santigo from the east and we got back from doing the Finisterre, Muxia, and back to Santiago loop. Old home week reconnecting for a day before we flew back to Madrid late Tuesday evening...on the ever eventful, Ryan Air. Cheap flights as long as you follow all the rules. Not printing your boarding pass can cost $100 extra. $30 to check a bag (so we shipped our poles and knives back to Monica's). We arrive at the airport 2 hours before the flight. We read all the fine print on our printed boarding passes as we're trying to figure out if we need to go to the desk (read..long line) if we have no bags to check. We decide No, and go through security. After our decent wait,the passengers start queuing up and we join them. Then April says, "I knew it! We have to have our boarding passes stamped at the desk...see, it's in big print!" Dang! Neither of us saw it until now. OMG, do we have time to run back out through security? Gotta try! Security doesn't understand us and has to find someone who speaks English. No one at the counter. It's closed. Security shrugs her shoulders at us, then says "Try Information." Mind you we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off, sure we are not getting on that flight. Where to go? WHo to see? Then April spies another Ryan AIr desk for who knows what. Wiiiiiiill they stamp it? Yes! All stamped,we head back through security and back into line (where we dropped out, I suggested) and then we wait because the plane hadn't even arrived...whew!!!
So after 3 delightful and restful days with Monica and Mauro, and there place felt like "home", today we packed our bikes and headed west towards Portugal. In my usual way of winging it, and not wanting to ride on the busy main road, we found dirt trails and farm roads on Google Maps and followed them, sort of paralleling the main road...sort of.... and then it showed that it was going to end because a river was coming up and only the main road crossed it nearby...and this main road didn't have an entrance ramp nearby. But we managed to find a tunnel under the main road and I decided to take a different route all together heading down to M 507 and then across. But you shoulda seen how Blaze and Wildfire handled themselves: Mountain Trikes! Truly we were mountain biking on these trikes....and only the heavy sand made us get off and push! We didn't make many miles today, but we sure had fun!
and tonight we're camped down a dirt road in amongst the crispy, crunchy prickers. This place is a desert! Never seen anything so dry...and even more so after wet Galacia where Santiago is.
Oh, ya...our new plan is to spend 3 weeks pedaling to Lisbon, Portuagal. We have tickets out of the Schengen area on the 89th day so we won't cause any problems. April was just getting too nervous and I didn't like all the negative energy. It's one thing when I'm on my own and decide to bend the rules and see what happens....another when I'm with someone. So we'll spend 6 weeks touring the UK and then I'll see if I can get back into Europe alone later in August cycling through France, Italy, Greece to Turkey and Istanbul as originally planned. Plans are written in sand and always subject to change:)
Livin' the life,
BagLady
