We began the day with breakfast at our hotel, descending from our room at the agreed upon time, 8:30. This was arranged when we checked in - we were asked when we would like breakfast, and we hopefully suggested 8. When the hostess's face clouded over I suggested ocho media, which returned a smile to her face and earned me congratulations for knowing even a few words of Spanish.
Our breakfast was a delightful experience, unlike another I can recall in Europe. It came to our table in trays of small servings of fifteen to twenty delicacies, reminding me a bit of traditional dinners in Japan. It made for a fun and substantial meal, sampling small allotments of cheese, thin-sliced ham and beef, herb-encased sausages, almonds, olives, jams, cookies, toasts, yogurt. And fresh-squeezed orange juice. And coffee.
The dining hall itself was interesting to browse through, with historical artifacts (for example, a crank telephone) and botanical displays of dried leaves, herbs and seed pods.
Five sections of herb-encased sausages, and the fruit plate. When Rachael saw this she thought it and bread were the whole offering, and that we'd need to supplement it. But this is just the beginning. The implement is something I haven't seen before - a sausage slicer. It can only be used with the right hand, which didn't work for Rachael, who is very left handed.
After checking out of our room, we carefully worked our way downhill to the highway and then backtracked a bit to the turnoff to Aguero. This is the village lying at the base of vertical cliffs like those we saw yesterday at Riglos that had captured my imagination and pulled our itinerary in this direction. From the the highway it's about a four mile moderate climb up to the village. Like yesterday, the village and its array of cliffs suddenly appears as you round a bend, and makes a remarkable sight. We're seeing the two villages in the right order - Riglos is illuminated in the evening, and Aguero is lit up in the morning.
Just yesterday Rachael commented on how few cats she's seen on this journey; but Murillo is teeming with them.
Walking down from our hotel. I'm always surprised to be reminded that it's easier walking down streets like this with a bike than without one, because they have brakes.
Coasting back down from Aguero, we returned to the Gallego River and began following it upriver and toward the mountains. We'll be following it's tortuous path for most of today and tomorrow morning, toward its origins in the Pyrenees near the French border. These first miles today are especially dramatic, passing between the Mallos de Riglos on our right and the towering formation above Murillo on the left.
Just past the Mallos, the rock formations abruptly change. An information board explains what we're seeing, and points to a fault line just north of the Mallos where we're entering the formation that the Pyrenees were created from. Soon after, the river turns a bend through a narrow gap that cuts through a low range, and abruptly enters a narrow, transverse valley. The valley is almost completely filled by the Pena Reservoir on the dammed Gallegos, which bends east and upvalley for several miles. Then, through another gap in another ridge brings us to the tiny village of Anzanigo.
After Anzanigo, we leave the Gallego for now (we'll rejoin it tomorrow. It bends east and upvalley again, while we begin the gradual climb over the shoulder of Mount Oroel. It's not a bad climb at all, but it's hot work with the sun beating down on our backs. It must be in the eighties today, the hottest day of the tour so far.
Over the top, we are presented with a beautiful spectacle: Jaca sprawling across the valley floor far below, and the high Pyrenees stretched dramatically across the horizon. We quickly coast into town and stop in a confectionary to cool off with ice cream bars, and then check into our hotel. It's about five when we arrive, theoretically leaving us time to look around a bit (we could have at least walked one block to visit the cathedral); but we've seen enough for the day.
We don't leave the hotel again. I head down to the bar/restaurant for a beer while I do my best to catch up on the journal, and then we come back down again later for a delicious, amazingly inexpensive meal.
Total elevation gain: for the day, 3,700'; for the tour, 31,600'
Biking upriver along the Gallego with spectacular cliffs soaring above us on both sides, through a gap that an information board described as the gateway to the Pyrenees.
