Sizzling roads deter
Cyclists not, yet in desert
Water can be scarce...
We awoke just before dawn. We cleaned out our campsite and sat by the side of the N-120, eating müsli. The cops showed up shortly.
Cops (there were three, two men and a lady, but I don't recall who was speaking always): What are you doing here?
We: Nothing, just eating breakfast.
Cops: You can't stop here; there's no shoulder! It's dangerous for motorists. There's a pull-off a little ways up that you should use instead.
We: We're sorry! We aren't from here.
Cops: Where are you from?
We: North America.
Cops: By bike??
We: No, two of us started in Copenhagen, and one started in Pamplona by bike.
Cops: Copenhagen??
We: Yeah, we're doing a big trip around Europe. Copenhagen to Lisboa to Istanbul.
Cops: You're going to Istanbul?? How the hell did you think this up, exactly??
We: Well, we were wandering around Kyoto one night on a previous vacation, and we were... a little tipsy.
Cops: Have you stayed tipsy this whole time or what??
It was a pretty amusing dialogue. That's a rough translation (my memory is rough and my Spanish is rough..sigh), but it's the essence of what happened. :) Cops.
On the way south to Sevilla, we ran across loads of cyclists. It was still in the early hours when biking is nice and the sun hasn't scorched everything yet. All the cyclists were friendly and willing to offer a wave or a passing "Buenos días!" to the strangers.
Arrived in Seville, we set out to find a doctor for Venus's ear issue. Turns out that on Saturdays the only place to go is to the Urgencias (Emergency Room), so there we went. After a short wait (Evan and I ran out to get breakfast while she went to see the doctora), we had a prescription and were ready to set off. The search for a Farmacia began! What a search it was... it seemed that Sevilla closed for the hour we were there, but we did manage to find a place eventually. Its obnoxious green sign informed us that it was a) hot and b) late.
We continued on through the heat, towards a town suitable for siesta. Along the way, we had the good fortune to pick up a new lunchbox (the one which Evan's parents kindly provided us had frazzled nearly beyond use over two and a half months), which we were super excited about. We whipped up a delicious salsa fresca for lunch in a park, then sat in a café to cool off and enjoy slushies.
We biked through endless, hot desert, and up what seemed like interminable hills that wound into nothing. The heat gets in your head after a while. You feel lost. The fields and fields of sunflowers don't present any landmarks to navigate by. We stopped briefly at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere to fill our bottles. It was still a long ride.
Hours later, the sun was setting, but we had made it to Arcos de la Frontera, which our map indicated had a campsite. It took three tries of asking people directions through the town before we made it, only to discover that it was... closed. Closed down. Not there anymore. No camping. Security guarded.
We disheartenedly stopped at a restaurant we'd passed to get some dinner. They had reasonable prices on exotic (though not especially well-cooked) food, like the venison steak I had and the swordfish Evan and Venus both chose. They also had rooms upstairs, for the exorbitant price of 60€/night. It was too much, but we were too tired from the previous exhausting days to find a campsite, and it was too dark to see one, anyway. We couldn't go on, so we grumpily paid.
Another day, as they say. A hot, somewhat disappointing one. But some days are like that. We make it through. :)