Day 80: Castello de la Plana to Sagunto

October 28, 2024

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The weather forecast was for a 100% chance of heavy rain all day. Oh well, we steeled ourselves for another round of type II fun, and put on all our rain gear. The hotel breakfast had a full range of bread, meat, cheese, and fruit, so we were in good shape to face the day. There was no rain as we left, but still at least half of us had faith in the forecast. I mean, 100% is pretty certain!

The hotel desk staff was sure that they could not put our postcards in the mail. Could it be that a business like that no longer uses the mail? Maybe, or maybe the front desk never talks to the business office. Anyway, it seems like a service we could reasonably expect.

We searched the streets of town and did come up with a post box. So grandkids, stand by for some more cards!

Further to the streets of town, Castello seemed singularly uninspired. It earned one of my lowest ratings: "Looks like Vancouver".

We set off out of town, and as you can see from the photo below, the sky was blue, and the road free of cars.

Looking back at Castello, yes, even a broad view fails to reveal much of interest.

But looking ahead, things are good, as our way leads through quiet orange groves.

Of course, almost every day on tour produces at least one callous blocking of the Eurovelo route. The one shown below came up quite early in the ride.

We went into our usual routine of ripping down the barricade.

But this time the works crews had us covered - there was no way we were going through here!

Ok, so we found a workaround. It would add some kms to the day, but was no disaster.

And look, maybe we could spot an otter here (we would have to slow down, it says.)

Another big plus was the discovery of some pomegranate trees. Later we would find a whole untended orchard of them!

Burriana seemed quite ordinary, for this region, and we had no reason to really enter the town.

Except for these two interesting buildings.

We returned to really nice cycle path. We had path like this, or at least wide shoulders on roads, for the whole day.

The route touched near the sea, and we enjoyed watching it splash. Unlike the Atlantic in Portugal, for instance, this was not at all a case of big surf, but still fun.

Ah, more wild or semi-wild pomegranates!

I am not sure why these folks do not like "Playa".

Heavy rains, even last night, had left quite a few flooded but not impassable spots. I had spent some hours cleaning the bikes last night at the hotel, so I did not much appreciate this lack of drainage.

We came to a spot where EV 8 called for us to turn onto a gravel path. We were standing considering if we were going to go with that, when a man came along and told us that the EV 8 way was flooded. Though speaking Spanish, he gave us to understand that we could still probably make it through. But, we gave it a miss, opting for a longer but surer way.

Not having a map in front of me, I am not sure what happened next, although the trip seemed to drag on for an inordinately long time. A lot of it was on safe shoulder or as shown - protected pathway - but still beside tiring/noisy highway.

Sagunto is a place of immense historical significance. The Romans established the fortified place, probably in the third century B.C. Hannibal of Carthage besieged it in 219 B.C. and it took 8 months to fall. Hannibal had a big army for this, as he was on his way to attack Rome itself. All this made the Romans extremely crabby, spawning the Second Punic War. They recaptured the place seven years later.

There is lots more history to Sagunto, including that the Arabs took it in 713 a.d., and the role of the Jews there, in the 1300's.

But all this is lost on the Grampies, who are beat from the various detours, and just looking for their BnB, Domus Atilia, in the lower part of the city.

The streets of Sagunto, below the fortress, are not like what might be found higher up.

Domus Atilia has a nice patio, and a pleasant owner, though she speaks only Spanish. We are somehow mutually able to communicate anyway.

The small but nice pool - too chilly for that now!

The rain forecasts turned out to be an almost total hoax, although there were a few small sprinkles. We had all our special gear off quite quickly, and the temperature touched 27 degrees briefly. This gives us hope for a really nice time in and around Valencia, which we will reach tomorrow.

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 4,003 km (2,486 miles)

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Scott AndersonHey, the same place we stayed last fall! Say ola to her for us.
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2 weeks ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonYup. We both seem to have stayed here, us twice now.
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2 weeks ago