Today started well until I went outside. It wasn’t that bad, but there was low cloud and mist which wasn’t what I was expecting. I didn’t like the look of the local cafes for breakfast, so I left and dropped by a supermarket on my way out of town. It started to rain as I locked the bike up outside. Sounds like a really grumpy start !
I got some croissants and some food for the day but stood under an awning for half an hour eating and waiting for the rain to stop.
San Juan del Puerto is a nice town, like all of the towns I’ve been to in Spain and Portugal. However, none of the people I dealt with, spoke a word of english. The hotel, restaurant, shop, supermarket were all spanish only and that’s nice for a change. It’s too easy to wander around without making much effort language-wise, apart from hello and thankyou.
In contrast to yesterday’s mud, dirt and vegetation , today the roads were sealed all of the way. You’d think that rain would clean a road, but around here there were some gravel, sand and soil providers and farms as well as the odd building site, so it was a muddy road but luckily, only light traffic. The shoulder was really generous and the good drivers here, meant that I was as safe as houses.
As I approached the town of Niebla, I could see the castle on the hill, reminiscent of Silves. I turned off onto a bike path that I thought would take me into town and it stopped abruptly at the foot of a set of stairs. That has happened a bit in Spain and Portugal. It’s as if the money ran out so the path stopped. One of the paths in northern Spain stopped by running up to some shrubs. There was ample room to go around them, but the perfect two-way surface of green just stopped and didn’t restart.
Up the stairs and into town, I stopped at a local eatery for coffee and second breakfast . The only food they had was tostada and I didn’t understand the rest of the sentence. The tostada was a half size baguette with oil or margarine – nothing else. With no other food in sight, I gulped it down.
After that it was road 472 the whole way until the outskirts of Seville. At first sight, the town looks beautiful and interesting, so I can’t wait to look around over the next couple of days.
Some pics from Seville
