Beautiful, yet very eerie!

Thank you so much. I basically type a stream of consciousness and I know when I look back on older tours I, too, like where my ramblings have taken me.
Enjoy Zamora. It is a true gem.

You are doing an exemplary job of both telling your touring story so readers feel as if they are riding with you AND documenting for those of us who are following behind. I always appreciate specific lodging and dining option information. Maps are also helpful - then we know where that little dirt road is that you enjoyed.

Our day into Zamora is short - you've given us a good list of places to go see with our half day off.

Of the cyclists I have seen on the road this week (roadies or off-roaders) I would say virtually all of them had a flashing red light. Additionally every one of them had a helmet and every one of them was faster than me!! (I had my helmet on, too.)

Unless I am going for tapas at a bar, I put on long pants in a restaurant. I have found that women tend to dress up more than their male companion. That being said, most males wore a collared shirt (I do not) but oftentimes they were wearing denim jeans. None looked overly casual, excepting again, in the bars or bar sections.

I mention the bars because over this busy weekend, the restaurants have been filled with customers with reservations so I have eaten some meals in the bar section of these same restaurants. Still nice, but less formal. Same food.

As for the timing of dinner at 8 pm, I have tried, but it is just too late for me, so I either have a big lunch or eat tapas somewhere.

We are all about visibility! I see you also have a blinky light. I've read that rear lights cannot be set to blink in Europe. Is that correct? My lights have a much shorter life when set on steady mode.

Also, what do you wear for bottoms when going out to eat? We've been told we need to dress 'better' during our upcoming Spain/Portugal trip. Better was defined as a skirt for me and pants for my husband. No flip flops. I'm not sure how much we will be going out to dinner, with the late dining hours there. Most likely we will often have a late lunch. We are wondering about appropriate clothing. It's enough to be an obnoxious American, much less a poorly dressed one.

It was nice yesterday morning and last night, but the light was magical this morning. An example of an AP.

Oh my gosh, this is gorgeous

I expect your unit has rubber buttons around the perimeter of the device. So, in case you ever have a problem with these switches...
Internally there are rubber tabs that press into momentary contact switches on the circuit board. These rubber tabs can wear out so pushing them does nothing. Something else (stick, pin, paper clip, etc) needs to be poked into the hole to click the contact switch. There are youtube videos to guide you. Better than throwing away an otherwise good device.

We have the Garmin 1030 plus which doesn’t allow you to pull the battery out but fortunately we’ve never had an issue with not being able to turn it on. We love that it comes with maps of most of the world with a few exceptions.

With the help of youtube I was able to figure out a fix til I get home. It works fine once I get it turned on then leave it on til I pull the batteries at the end of the day. So, I'm literally and figuratively back on track.

I’m sorry to hear about your issues with your gps! We are very dependent on ours.

I think I might be the oddball. Though a traditionalist by nature, when it comes to croissants I tend to prefer that breadier, sweeter croissant, and even better (gasp!) with Nutella inside.

Here in Portugal we are finding some totally accurate French style croissants, though often they are miniaturized, and then there are croissant-like things that are breadier and sweeter than they "should" be. Our present hotel in Regua has real croissants, and I am so happy!

Fanta limon!

Indeed! People were doing exactly that just before I captured this photo.