September 20, 2017
To Tudela: Rest day
It's a bit early in the tour for a rest day and we don't really need one yet. This was the natural spot for it though, with a lot to see in both Tarazona and Tudela. Our plan is to get a better look at Tarazona this morning, and then take the short downhill run to Tudela for lunch and more exploration.
After breakfast we walk back up to the top of the old town, largely following the way we followed last night. As always, everything looks quite different in a new light, so we're happy to repeat it. An hour or so later we return to our hotel, check out, and move on to visit Tarazona's famous cathedral, arriving just a few minutes before it opens at eleven. We check out audio guides so we'll understand a bit of what we're looking at, and enjoy a long visit. It. Is an amazing Monument, and we leave suitably awed by the experience.
From Tarazona it's a quiet, easy ride to Tudela, mostly downhill. We have some difficulty finding our hotel though, even though it's well marked on our GPS and mapped on the phone. It's on one of numerous small alleys off the central plaza, but not that well marked and hard to spot it. We miss seeing it the first time we pass by, so we try every other street first before returning to where we began and looking more closely. It's a very small place, but the host just lets us lock them up leaning against the wall of the small lobby. Like every other spot so far, he doesn't blanch at seeing the bikes but just looks around for a spot that will work best.
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We enjoy a leisurely, delicious lunch at our hotel. We've been really pleasantly surprised by the meals we've enjoyed here. I'm a bit saddened by the scene at our neighboring table though. It's a family - a youngish couple with their son of age about six. They're an attractive group, obviously well known at the restaurant - one of the waiters tousles the lad's mop as he walks by? The mother and son have a bright, playful intersection, including a fierce arm wrestling contest while waiting for the first course to arrive. The parents have virtually no interaction at all though, and the father spends every second that he's not eating hunched over, staring closely at a video on his phone.
Afterwards, we walk off to explore the town. We spend most of our time in Tudela's cathedral, a baroque riot of ornamentation and religious iconography. I'm not at all religious and the significance of most of what i see in these places always goes over my head, but it is impossible not to be impressed by it all.
When we're done, we head back to the central plaza, where I sit on a bench in the deliciously warm sun, watching the crowd, dozing a bit, waiting for Rachael to return from a shopping expedition - she's off to the bike store, hoping to find a better pair of leggings or long cycling pants that won't slip down on her. I'm pretty tired, actually - a little walking around in cities viewing the sights goes a long ways for me, and I'll be ready to get back on the bike again tomorrow. How do people on primarily sightseeing tours do it, driving from one town to the next, stopping to peruse the highlights?
After retiring to the room for a bit we return to the plaza and stop at a table on the square for dinner. It is still warm out, and this is the first night I've wandered out in shorts rather than long pants. It is a beautiful night for sitting outside, and we enjoy a cheap but good casual meal - a delicious salad (salads have been unvaryingly great here) and a simple sandwich. I enjoy watching the kids running through the square, playing until nearly nine, and I enjoy the sounds - nothing but the chatter of the crowd, because there's not a car within several blocks.
Sitting there, it occurs to me that none of the chatter I hear is in English, as has been the case nearly everywhere since leaving Bilbao. We've encountered only one pair of American tourists (in LaGuardia), and have had only one real conversation with a stranger (the Dutch cyclist at Puerto de Herrera). It feels like we're really off the beaten track.
Total elevation gain: today, a whole 200'; for the tour, 19,700'
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Today's ride: 19 miles (31 km)
Total: 317 miles (510 km)
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