The adventure begins

[OakLeaf]

Exciting! Have fun! Looking forward to your pictures and ride reports.

[AppleTree]

Beg for water on a six hour flight??? Yikes!!

Have a great time, sounds beautiful there. Jet lag is HARD the first day or two. I never knew that kind of exhaustion before we travelled to Europe. Have fun, safe travels!

[ny biker]

Have fun!!

[smittykitty]

Looking forward to your ride reports. We will all live through you! Enjoy.

[Crankin]

Day one of riding
Yesterday we met the group at 2:30 and after introductions, headed out for a 3 hour walking tour. Everyone seems ok, a bit of a different group than when I went to Spain with this company. After this, we headed to dinner with our friends. Got back, got re packed after 5 days, got my cycling clothes out and finally got a good night's sleep. Woke up nice early, ate, and started praying that it wouldn't rain. The van drove us to our destination, and it did rain a bit on the road, but was ok when we arrived. Then, the bike set up began. Got my pedals and saddle on the Trek Madone 3 series and I rode up and down the hill to the castle we are staying at. I have to say, I have never been on a bike that fits so well, and I had the precursor to this bike about 10 years ago. Hmm... A new bike may be in my future.
I took off my rain gear and off we went. We rode 18 miles to the lunch stop, flat to rolling, with a vicious headwind. It was a bit more tiring than I thought it would be, but we were the second to arrive. Had a great sandwich and then took off for the beach, about 4k. It was gorgeous. The scenery on the way was ok, mostly cork trees and cacti. This was a one way warm up ride, so we headed back in the van, although a couple of people rode back. We wanted to get back and explore the town, which we did. Had a beer and walked back up the big hill, to the castle, where I am now waiting for dinner. It's raining out now, but was awesome today.

[Crankin]

Ok, for some reason I haven't been able to access TE on hotel WI FI. So a short summary of riding days 2 and 3. Thursday rained. We rode in mostly a drizzle, light rain, totally doable. There were some challenging hills near the end, but again, nothing horrible. The roads were great and hardly any traffic. The scenery was somewhat underwhelming, but I was concentrating on the riding. About 30 minutes after we got to the cafe where we were going to be shuttled to our hotel, the skies really opened up and some of the group got caught in it. They stopped making fun of our toe covers after that...
Yesterday had much better scenery. It also had significant climbing. I found myself looking for a lower gear a couple of times. We saw lots of vineyards. And, of course, cork trees. We are in Evorra, a Unesco site. We spent 2 days here, but unfortunately had to switch hotels for the second day, as there was some kind of screw up. Had a walking tour last nite before dinner. Aside from the romanticized version of the Inquisition, the tour was really good.
Today is the big climb. I am nervous.
I *really* don't like riding on cobbles.

[Crankin]

Today was kind of a bust. I am not in a good mood; basically we were lead out of Evorra through the city and rode on a flat road for awhile, which turned into rollers. We ended up stopping for a coffee break in the same town as yesterday, in a completely different way. DH had to stop and get a new wheel from the van, so I went ahead and he met me there. As we were rolling out, a donkey was running loose in the road! I rode by very slowly, as some men tried to catch it. From there, we rode to Redondo for a picnic lunch in the plaza. It started raining as we were eating and the decision was made to stop the ride there. Hence, we did not do the climb. We drove it, and I am sure I can do it, but after that there was an extremely steep climb on cobbles up to the castle where we are staying. I could not have done that. Riding on cobbles scares me and I am freaked out about leaving here, going down this. Not sure what is going on tomorrow, it's weather dependent.
I need to get my saddle leveled. Had some sit bone issues as well as the start of some bad stuff, but thankfully, no real saddle sores.
The hotels on this trip are outstanding.