Day 79: Torreblanca to Castello de la Plana

October 27, 2024

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Our hopes for a really great day on mostly flat cycle paths were washed away today in a flood of cold rain. With the temperature at 13 and the rain flooding down, we put on a lot of the gear that we thought we were done with when we left chilly France for warm and sunny Spain.

This is not all the gear, but we are preparing to be as yellow as possible, given how dull it is outside.

It's hard to get a convincing photo of rain, but this was just outside the hotel.

There was no question of using any of our regular cameras. The shot below was taken with the waterproof cell phone. Being waterproof does not of course keep the lens from being drenched.

Muddy puddle like this not only can conceal deep holes, but can also play havoc with rim brakes. The sound of your rims being ground away by grit is troubling. This sets you looking for lakes of cleaner looking water to charge through in hopes of washing away dirty grit with cleaner grit!

EV8 suggested we leave the somewhat paved path in favour of the gritty wet one. Our team is examining their case.

Among the joys of today's ride, according to Grampies 2023, would be fruit trees by the path. It was all true, but in the cold rain we were not really into fruit salad.

It wouldn't be a real cycling day without the route being blockaded at least once.

For this shot, Dodie has clearly shoved the concrete blocks aside.

It looks messy but there is clearly a way through.

Dodie sneaks around another corner, and we're through!

What we were through and in to was a sort of vacation village, populated by huge apartment buildings and amusements like water parks.

This water park featured a lot of jungle style carving.

People would then stay in buildings like these, which are not far from the sea.

There were really a lot of big apartments.

There is quite a gap in the photo record, because it was too rainy to really do any. But this tunnel seemed an important subject.

The roadway part of the tunnel was too flooded to use, but the sidewalk was ok.

We were on the "Via Verde del Mar", clearly a rail trail. Accordingly we had the tunnel, and also at least two rock cuts.

This tower stood along the way as well. It's story is told in the panel.

I climbed this rocky trail for a better look at the tower. I imagined the original soldiers of the tower would have been more agile than me, and had to scamper up and down on the way to and from work.

The tower had a stairway leading to the top, but this was locked. The original access, we read in the info panel, was by a rope.

Yes, she is studying the history. She tells me those Barbary pirates were from North Africa and were notorious for attacking as far away as Ireland, enslaving populations.

The second rock cut - see how nice the path is!

I imagined I spied these Barbary pirates, but in the rain could not start a signal fire.

Now I had a clearer view of those pirates. Since there was nothing I could do, I had to move on to some other fantasy!

We arrived at Benicassim, which occupies the sweep of a large bay.

The buildings are sort of vacation resort standard.

We had been looking for a bus shelter for our lunch, but all were very skimpy, offering little shelter. We finally found a deck by the beach, which probably had a snack bar in the season. Below is a view of our spot, with the red roof. It provided a very pleasant seaside interlude. At this time the temperature had moderated all the way up to 14 degrees, and I was no longer suffering, as I had been all morning. I even switched back to my short fingered gloves from the long fingered ones. Wow!

We now continued with terrific bike path, like this. In good weather this is pure joy, while in bad weather it really helps you cope.

The scratchy sounds our bikes were making started us dreaming of being able to clean them. So when we came to a Chinese import store, we sent Dodie in for a bucket and cleaning supplies. This happened to be opposite an electric bike store, closed today of course. This was of interest, since my Bosch controller/display is acting up. We thought about (are still thinking about) returning tomorrow, but it turned out to still be quite far from here to our hotel, so it would be a major backtrack.

Note the fairly weird creature clinging to the building!

It turned out we were still only on the outskirts of Castello de la Plana, and we now passed through an area of big box groceries and American fast food, like McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC. But there was one that caught my attention: Popeye's. Popeye's does not operate in our part of the world, but I had followed news reports of their amazing success with a chicken sandwich. People at some point were lining up for these, and I was curious. Strange that I would have to tour to Europe to investigate American fast food!

We pulled in, just for the sake of research! They were offering not the one but eight variants of their thing, and all seemed to be included in meal deals. I also think I see a 1 euro "supersize me" option, which I would have thought long discredited in the fast food industry. I negotiated a non meal deal sandwich only for €6.49, which made the fries and coke seem cheap, or maybe the sandwich alone was too costly.

The kitchen seemed appropriately sterile, but not so "Louisiana", from our recollection of that state.

As we rolled in to Castello, we were heading, Dodie assured me, to the very hotel (BnB Hotel) that we had stayed at last year. Yet I remembered not a single thing that I was seeing, as we moved through the fairly grungy downtown. Even when we pulled up to the place, no light came on in my head. This had me thinking "Which other large chucks of my life have I totally lost?". It wasn't until we were in our 5th floor room and I looked out the window, that it clicked. Down below was a pizza place. "Hey, I went in there and ordered a pizza!". So while big chunks of my life may well be gone, I can be quite sure that none involve food. I certainly am not about to forget a pizza place!

Right, so turning to the Popeye's research. I had already guessed that the chicken burger would have an American hamburger bun. It's hard to find low quality like that in Europe, but that would be one of the superpowers of the fast food corporations.

Not easy to find a bun like this over here.

The same goes for the gooey mayo and orange cheese.

But I must say (and sorry for the blurry photo) that the actual chicken piece was thick and tasty. Americans out there - did I get an authentic Popeye's chicken sandwich - the one that caused all the fuss?

Now I am reserving this space for a brief rant about lighting in European hotels. Each and every one is in love with dark corridors and stairwells and parking garages, which can (usually) be lit if and when you manage to find the feebly lit timer switch for it. Once you activate such a switch (assuming all your hands are not loaded down with luggage), you have a very limited time to do your thing and leave the area. Typically, the lights will go out while you are still trying to drag your heavy luggage up or down the stairs, or to load a pannier onto a bike in an otherwise dark parking garage. And of course, my favourite, while you are sitting on a toilet in a naturally pitch black washroom.

Just how much power and money do the hotels save with this stunt? I really don't think it's worth it!

Related rant #2: Needing to put your room key card in a slot to make the lights come on or stay on. If like everyone nowadays, you are trying to charge something in the room, then having the power go out when you go out is not good. So then you have to go to reception to ask for a second card. Dumb! But today BnB Hotel outdid themselves on this. Instead of sliding down and in to the fitting by the door, their card had to go in at a very precise angle. They had an explanatory diagram - not much use when you are standing with your luggage in the dark. And no way to look at their diagram, unless you have already been able to see their diagram. I tried it, like 9 ways, before going back to reception for a lesson. And then to support my rant on this, I took the card out and challenged Dodie to get the lights on. She did it in three tries. That's in line with the 3:1 intelligence disparity between us, but three tries is still too many, don't you think!

The require angle is very precise. And no idea what the fitting just beside the card thingy is.

Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 3,943 km (2,449 miles)

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Jacquie GaudetAl and I carry headlamps. We originally got them for camping, then picking up after the dog in the dark, but now they go on hotel trips for finding the bathroom in the dark. Mine has a red light setting which I find easier on the eyes. I'd have to dig mine out if I needed it to find a light switch or card slot, but I know where it is in my pannier and could find it in the dark. Alternatively, my bike headlight travels in my handlebar bag when not in use--a small advantage of a non-electric bike.
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3 weeks ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Jacquie GaudetHeadlamps are a good idea that we may have to implement next yrip.
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3 weeks ago