The last city in Spain
This evening we arrived in the city of Ciudad Rodrigo, the last major town before entering Portugal. Psychologically this was probably my toughest day though not the most physically demanding. The evening that we arrived in Salamanca I wasn't feeling good, probably something I ate or drank (not alcohol ) at lunch and by the time we settled in to the youth hostel after arriving in the rain, I was quite ill. So didn't go out to explore the tapas opportunities of this city and the next morning still feeling very fragile, I went for only a short explore to see the Plaza de Mayor, the cathedral and Roman bridge, before returning to my bed for most of the afternoon. Fortunately we had planned to have an extra day as the weather forecast was looking very wet in the afternoon.
Even by the evening I wasn't great and had a little supper, nothing too greasy! By the morning I was feeling a bit better but low energy and we had over 90kms to cover. The road was as previous days long long straights, rolling hills, but more up than down, or so it seemed and under a lowering sky, a headwind, enough to make cycling that bit tougher. The plains continued and we were still at over 800 metres. By the time we reached the halfway point the showers started catching us and we had to duck for shelter where we could find it qfrom the most formidable ones before donning wet wet weather gear for the final hour.
This is Spain, mid May and the temperature was less than 12* C. There has been snow in many parts of Spain over the past few days, I saw online that London was 23* C. Fortunately what ever afflicted me hadn't done for Ken so he was in better shape and set the pace, with consideration for my depleted state. We finally rolled into CR around 5:30pm in the rain. The forecast had promised a sunny evening. We found the campsite, looked at the sodden grass and the complete lack of any break in the rain and googled a cheap hostel. Warm and dry and indoors, not under damp tents. Luxury! A bar, a hot meal and comfy beds, a better end to the day.