Summer in Spain (again) (11 Viewers)

[jumar]

If you say that someone spins a yarn, you mean that they tell a story that is not true, often an interesting or imaginative one. Rukmeni's a great storyteller, so she'll probably spin them a yarn about some prince or god. See full dictionary entry for yarn.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com › ...

 

[jumartoo]

If you say that someone spins a yarn, you mean that they tell a story that is not true, often an interesting or imaginative one. Rukmeni's a great storyteller, so she'll probably spin them a yarn about some prince or god. See full dictionary entry for yarn.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com › ...

Martin's very good at "spinning a yarn" our friends look to me to give the nod, or shake of the head, when they don't know whether to believe him, or not

 

[Peavy]

Martin's very good at "spinning a yarn" our friends look to me to give the nod, or shake of the head, when they don't know whether to believe him, or not

That's hilarious, thank you

 

[jumartoo]

Yesterday, during Martin's siesta, an Ice-cream van arrived. It's only the second time we've seen one in Spain.

He was here for a long time, but Martin didn't wake. He's been propping his eyelids open waiting this afternoon, but he's given in and gone for a kip (sleep Peavy )

I've been told that, if he arrives today, I must go and get a pistachio cornet (or similar) and come back and wake him up.

Yeah, OK . What if I need a sleep???

 

[jumartoo]

The ice cream van man hasn't been

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[Fat Albert]

Sorry wasn’t what I wanted post

 

[jumartoo]

After yet another quiet night, and exceptionally good sleeps for us both, we packed up to leave for the hustle and bustle of Logroño.

The drive went well and we chose to park, for ease, only a minute or so walk away from the bike shop.

Martin returned and we went to get some shopping. He got a phonecall to say the wheel was done .

Our quest for a place to overnight (in shade) took quite some time. The first spot was perfect, but a local, walking his dog informed us that it was Fiesta in the village and people would come down to the shady picnic area later.

We left.

We then tried to get to a lovely riverside spot, but the very narrow track under a railway bridge and alongside a river with a drop off down a wall, put us off. Maybe in a small panel van . Martin certainly wasn't trying it.

Anyway, we eventually found this shady spot at a reservoir.

So far it's been VERY quiet, except for sound of the birds and frogs and the splashing of fish!

There are lots of official motorhome areas around this region, but very few, if any, have shade.

We may be heading to one of the ones with "some" shade tomorrow.

 

[jumartoo]

I had a bit of a stroll whilst it was siesta time.

We then decided to move on.

We're now at a very clean, pleasant motorhome parking area near the village of Castañares de Rioja. We have some shade and, if we stay put, there's a via Verde passing within 300 metres.

This was lovely

But this is official.

And shady

 

[Peavy]

I had a bit of a stroll whilst it was siesta time.

We then decided to move on.

We're now at a very clean, pleasant motorhome parking area near the village of Castañares de Rioja. We have some shade and, if we stay put, there's a via Verde passing within 300 metres.

This was lovely

View attachment 914463View attachment 914464View attachment 914465

But this is official.

View attachment 914467View attachment 914466

And shady

Castañares is a great stop, only built two years ago or so. We use it often as a first or last stop. Does the job

Edit: I see you're closest to the bar. When the bar is open they have a speaker oriented to the parking (why?) and music stops when the bar closes. We try to park at the bottom to avoid this

 

[jumartoo]

Castañares is a great stop, only built two years ago or so. We use it often as a first or last stop. Does the job

Edit: I see you're closest to the bar. When the bar is open they have a speaker oriented to the parking (why?) and music stops when the bar closes. We try to park at the bottom to avoid this

This spot had the best shade when we arrived.

The music .... so far today has been British 80's

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[Peavy]

British 80's

Alright then, I guess

 

[jumar]

Alright then, I guess

Bar now closed....perhaps everyone gone home to watch the football.....only 6 vans on tonight...most have bikes of a sort...
I re-assembled my bike this evening after having the wheel trued...gave me chance to do some other routine stuff and swap the chain too.... early-ish ride tomorrow as it's going to get quite warm..( Hot)

 

[jumartoo]

Well, totally by luck, we got the best spot for shade. The music finished very early (definitely before the football had finished) so being close to the bar had no ill effects.

We set off for a ride today. Martin's bike was making noises, so the ride was slightly aborted until he'd fettled it (Peavy I think we've covered fettled before?). Because he'd cleaned away all the grease and other assorted detritus when he put the wheel back on, the running gear didn't like it. So it needed a bit of tlc .

We eventually set off, and what a nice ride it was.

The via verde to Santo Domingo was slightly uphill (according to the profile on WhatsApp). We saw only one Perigrino (Pilgrim) on the very short section of the Camino we rode.

We stopped to look at, and taste, some very new peas. Soooo sweet, petit pois. The "Man from Delmonte" or "Findus" hasn't yet visited. Peavy old British TV adverts

Just missed him!

A white Stork was happy with the wet ground. Not so us. I watched Martin get wet feet, so I took the narrow bridge alternative.

Mmmmmm so sweet, even without cooking.

Maybe ....

Definitely, wet feet

I carefully pushed on the narrow bridge on the right.

 

[jumartoo]

After this wet bit we rode into the village and I took a couple of photos for the crocheting people amongst us.

We then rode through some terrain more like the norm in Murcia or Almeria, before we dropped down a steep track to a village, with a river, a lovely church, a castle (no photo) but even better than that a bar that served the coldest cervezas with a shared (because we were riding) toasted sandwich of cheese, ham, lettuce and a soft cooked egg.

Heaven ... and no photos to prove it.

A few of the area we rode through though. And the church from the river crossing, just before the bar!

A great day.

The van was still in shade. Of course that meant the rooftop van panel wasn't working, but the new freestanding one is now doing a good job.

 

[jumartoo]

We're hoping for another good ride from here, tomorrow

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[jumartoo]

We're in the middle of a storm. So far we've had rain, thunder (constant and loud) and lightning. I'm keeping that we don't get hail.

Martin's hoping that we don't lose the Internet because there's a football match he wants to keep watching.

It's certainly cooled the temperature.

 

[jumartoo]

The rain stopped and we had a quiet night.

We decided to move on. The riding would be too wet and it was going to be hot again later.

Because we'd charged the bike batteries from the van battery yesterday, a decent drive would be perfect.

So, after a lovely drive (one we'd done before) we're back here.

View from our side window.

I'll show where on the next post.

 

[jumartoo]

We're at Arija. On the Embalse de Ebro. We were here last September but the weather wasn't kind enough for us to ride. We're hoping to get out tomorrow.

 

[jumartoo]

We're watching the weather. There's a storm to the north of us. We're getting a drop of rain now, but the thunder is getting quieter, so hopefully it's tracking further north.

 

[jumartoo]

Last night, whilst storm bound, I found a motorhome parking area that had escaped me. 23km or so east of where we were and right on a via Verde. So, this morning we decided to head here.

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[jumartoo]

The parking is at the village of Santelices or Pedroso (they are very near each other). We rode along the via verde to the next village, Puentedey, with its stunning arch, and then we got some way to another arch across open moorland type area, and turned back when our bikes tyres were growing fatter and fatter.

We were happy with what we'd seen, but .... maybe there's still more to see.

A lovely spot, with a field that's opened up for motorhomes. Not advised after rain, hence we rode the bikes there.

 

[jumartoo]

The guy in the Adria next to us turned out to be a French guy living in Madrid who writes guidebooks.

Now my grey cells clicked into gear and I said "Bernard Datcharry"??? Martin went to ask, and it was.

Years ago when we rode the Camino del Cid and the Via de la Plata, I'd found Bicimap guides advertised. I'd written to them, and received the guides back quickly.

And, surprise, it was the author of said guides. A very nice guy he is.

We really can't believe the chances of it being someone we didn't know, but had had correspondence with.

 

[jumartoo]

I forgot to mention that on the way here we were looking at Buzzards perched, drying out on the cables and posts. One of them, different to the rest, made us look again. It was an Egyptian Vulture (Alimoche). Not something we've seen very often.

 

[jumartoo]

Today, after learning from yesterday's muddy and/or overgrown tracks, we rode route that Martin planned using Komoot. We did modify it "on the hoof" Peavy "whilst we were travelling" when we looked down some overgrown tracks and decided a road was a better bet.

It was still a lovely ride, that took us high into moorland type terrain in the mist, and then dropped us down near to the Embalse de Ebro, before we turned back, shunning some more overgrown tracks, we stuck to the very quiet road that we drove in on yesterday.

Someone had spent some time making full sized footprints in this boulder. Just why?

 

[jumartoo]

As a horse owner/rider of ..... many years I still find myself drawn to some of the horses/ponies we see.

As a lightweight, I don't need the size of horse I used to own, and ride. One of these heavyweight little 'uns would be perfect.

Except ...... for travelling ...... not so easy to do that!

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[jumartoo]

We've moved on today. We left grey conditions and headed into rain .

We're now on the official, €7 with electric, motorhome area at Ontaneda. We've had a lovely walk through the park in the drizzle, and found the Dia supermarket. We shunned Lupa in favour of Dia to buy a cooked chicken and the 3 litre box of wine I bought before. We failed on both .

We did see the marquee being set up for today's Fiesta. We're about 1 km away, so hopefully the 2 am DJ "music" will be muted .

We also called into a ferreteria to buy a mouse trap. We're not sure that something hasn't been in our toilet compartment a cloth in there has some ragged holes in it. It now has a trap. We've not seen any signs inside, but .... we have had the little critters before in the last motorhome. We don't want them in here.

No photos yet, I didn't want to risk my new camera getting wet.

It's clearing a little now, so there may be some photos later.

 

[jumartoo]

The women in the ferreteria were gems. They showed Martin lots of different traps and even asked him if he'd like to try them before he bought. Just how he'd test them, boggles the mind They also offered him a big bag of mouse food, to set the traps. He declined. We don't have that many visitors, if any!

Then, one of the ladies came out to show us the Fiesta schedule.

It's clearly printed DJ from 02.00

 

[Peavy]

Ooops, hope you won't hear the DJ thing. Ontaneda is a nice place with the long via verde, isn't it? It's always funny to see the old tobacco machine reinvented as the card machine to pay for the stay

 

[jumartoo]

Ooops, hope you won't hear the DJ thing. Ontaneda is a nice place with the long via verde, isn't it? It's always funny to see the old tobacco machine reinvented as the card machine to pay for the stay

Exactly. Martin said it was like an old cigarette machine . There is a long via verde, part of which we hope to ride tomorrow.

We, have seen one sneaking in without paying, following behind a (Brit) payee. We're happy to have paid the huge sum of €7, including electricity, the other has their own conscience to answer to.

The only noise we've heard so far have been from fireworks, and we'd expect to hear them.


Please no really loud "boom boom boom" until breakfast

 

[Tigertom]

Sounds as thought the supermarkets dia and lupa should be headlining at Glastonbury………..anagram of Dua Lipa !

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