Hanging out in Isla Cristina: Time changes

October 29, 2017

I had a good night in my tent. It was chilly in the wee hours this morning, and I was glad to have my warm sleeping bag. The campsite was relatively quiet. Of course my ear plugs helped. This is actually a nice, family friendly, clean campground. My biggest complaint is that the campground is very well lit, and that the lights stayed on all night. My buff, used as a blind fold, helped with that. The showers are hot, and the management is friendly. It's running 10 euros per night, 5 for me and 5 for the tent.

I got up in the morning as the sun rose. I boiled some water for instant coffee and ate some odds and ends I had in my panniers. Shortly after 9, when the bar opens, I went to use the Wi-Fi and to get some real coffee. But nothing was open and the Wi-Fi signal wasn't on. My watch said 9:30, but I looked at my phone (which I had connected with cellular data) and it said 8:30. Before too long I saw the guy who had checked me in, and I asked what time it was. It was 8:30. Last night was the change from daylight savings time. And the Wi-Fi should have been on. It needed to be reset.

Today is my last day in Spain. When I cross into Portugal, it will be yet another hour earlier. That sounds good for getting an early start, but not if things open up at the same time. And it means that while it's been getting really hot by about 1 pm, it will be 11 am instead. I'll need to figure out a reasonable riding schedule.

The afternoon siesta in Spain makes perfect sense. It's cool in the morning, and cools down nicely at night, but the afternoon sun is vicious. I've had a hard time reconciling it with bike touring. Ideally, I'd reach someplace I could stop and relax in the early afternoon. But when it starts cooling down, there really isn't much daylight left for riding. That means my afternoon stop becomes my overnight stop. I generally want to get cleaned up and get some food, but at siesta time there are very limited options. The restaurants open at 8 or 9:00 for dinner, and by that time I'm winding down for the day. i don't want to go to sleep on a full stomach, so that evening meal doesn't work.

I'll see if it's different in Portugal.

I walked into town.

Being Sunday, all of the supermarkets were closed. I need to be better at keeping track of what day it is. I found my way to the pedestrian area in the historic center of town. It was nice, and I sat and had some more breakfast (just toast) and coffee.

Palm tree lined, yellow and blue painted pedestrian area in Isla Cristina

In the historic center of the town of Isla Cristina. I wasn't sure who this was or why it was there.

Then I saw people sitting and taking pictures. It didn't work out too well with the selfie mode on my phone.

Then I walked back to the campground and chilled out for a while. The kids here ride loops around the campground on their bikes. For some reason they tie them together in a line. I'm not sure if the leader is pulling the others, or if the ones at the end are trying to slow the group down. I haven't seen that before.

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