Berja to Yegen

November 8, 2021

I'm not sure if I packed my climbing legs

Last night’s stay at the Casa Palaciega reminded both of us of our stay in Le Bourget du Lac except it wasn’t pouring rain. The similarity was that we stayed in a much nicer (more expensive) place than we normally do and ate an extravagant meal at the attached restaurant--and enjoyed the experience!

The owner and chef, Abdelslam Elbaz, seems to have operated a restaurant in Copenhagen for many years before buying this hotel/restaurant. He was wonderful! He prepared a multi course meal just for us, the only guests. A good thing since there wasn't anywhere else to go.

We started with a grenadine apéritif. I don't think it was alcoholic but we made up for that later.

First course: swordfish, salad (with anchovies), and a prawn. A bottle of white wine came out just after this photo.

Second course: a beef tagine. There was a good serving of beef at the bottom, too much for me so Al finished it. Before this, though, there was a sorbet with fruit.

Dessert was a banana boat with no marshmallow in sight (thankfully). This was very nice.

While we were eating dessert, Elbaz brought out some chilled sherry (one of the flavourful dark versions) and poured us each a glass. Later he refilled our glasses.

We really enjoyed our meal, even though it included way more alcohol than we normally drink, especially before a big cycling day. Of course, we could have refused the booze, but it added to the experience. The meal was €120, a bit more than the room plus breakfast (€110).

After breakfast, we were off. From Berja, we first descended into plasticland and then the rest of the day was up and up.

Looking back down at all the plastic greenhouses in the basin just below Berja. A bizarre landscape to our eyes.

Embalse de Beninar is a reservoir that looks like it might once have been a quarry.

Darrical. We are so glad we got accommodation in Berja and didn't have to ride here yesterday.

No idea what this structure is/was/might have been.

A lot of the road today looked like this.

We had a great lunch at this restaurant in Cherín. We opted for the menu del dia (not sure if there were other options) and each ordered a first and second course. We were surprised when a plate of salad was first brought out for us to share- then came our other courses. I couldn't eat all of mine (and Al was too full to finish it for me as he usually does) but we did leave room for dessert. We left well fuelled up for the rest of the climbing.

Looking back at Laroles. Our route was an interesting contour through the streets of the town, fully avoiding the highway.

At long last, we rolled into Yegen before sundown.

Heart

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Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 374 km (232 miles)

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Rachael AndersonI’m glad things are going well for you! We are back in Portland and I’m glad for a break but following your journal makes me want to go back there.
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3 years ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Rachael AndersonFunny, that’s how I usually feel about reading Scott’s. But for me it’s rarely a “back there” and mostly a “I wanna go there!”
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3 years ago