Articles by Karen H

Ride: 70 km Climb: +370 m / -670 m 

The night in my monastic cell was not great.  Very hot and stuffy, woke at 1 a.m. with sore throat.  Definitely caught the group cold which has been spreading around, inevitably given we are in such close quarters – picked up on that lovely fermentation vesicle, the airplane/airport by a couple in the group and generously shared.  Eventually got back to sleep again – we have an earlier start today which is good, but I could have used the extra z’s for once today!

At least it isn’t a major climbing day but a longer distance – the rejigged route has us starting from the hotel and riding 75 km, with a pickup at the other end instead of at the beginning for some reason.  Not clear why – communication…

I learned at breakfast that hot and stuffy rooms were pretty universal, and one room had no working shower or toilet.  So, lovely place to look at but not so functional…

Breakfast on the terrace a little earlier than normal and then the usual scramble to pack up. 

the crew at the Kasbah during the scramble to leave; Havid, Abdul, Yousef, Roberto and Redouanne. Note Havid’s “Sousse” (turban)

We started from the Kasbah, heading down the valley then up a small pass and over to the next.  My da Brim hat da-tached near the beginning so I got a bit behind while I rejigged it – it provides an extra rim of sun protection which is very useful in this heat.

It was a very gradual up for the first 25 km, and very dry; then we turned left and went up a fairly decent incline to the pass.

The next valley was amazing – an immense valley with only a little growing around the oases. Little traffic, and a moderate headwind. I drafted behind ebikes as often as I could! Largely flat so we made good time.

one other with da brim!

henna in the foreground and date palms in the background. The henna leaves are removed, dried, then ground and dissolved into water or alcohol for use.

Lunch was excellent as always and I was handed a can of tuna for protein as the main dish was chicken. Just before lunch we had pedalled into a small town and on the outskirts a group of three boys in their early teens were harassing the women who rode past, attempting to hit them in the middle and succeeding in a couple of cases. Not clear if they were trying to unseat riders from the bikes… I accelerated and rode directly towards them so they scrambled out of the way. Right before the lunch spot another group was gathering and were spoken to by Redouanne and Yousef. They didn’t disperse, but didn’t attempt anything and as they were still there when we were ready to leave, and seemed to be filling their pockets with rocks, we went back to the highway via a back trail. Lovely. We have decided to group together before villages now so as to go en masse.

lunch under the shade of an acacia tree..

out on the road in the second large valley

dromedaries!

Another 25 km for a total of ~75 km took us to a larger town where the bikes were loaded and we had a short transfer to the next accommodation in Zagora. Most of us were happy to reach the bike trailer as the temps on the ride were 29-31C. Not awful when you’re moving and creating a bit of a breeze, but a blast of hot air when you stop.

Zagora is the gateway to the Western Sahara, 52 days from Timbuctu on a traditional journey and had great significance in processing goods crossing through Africa to Europe. It made Morocco economically and politically important in the region at the time.

It was a gruelling journey through the Western Sahara and the “tree of hope” monument was built to express the hopes of those passing through Zagora.

The region is also the biggest date producing area in Morocco; it is harvesting time now and we are enjoying these as snacks at our stops.

the Draa valley, which we cycle through tomorrow, is 1200 + km and filled with date palms. There have been two good rain years and crops but they survive drought reasonably well though may not produce dates; prior to that there were 6 dry years. The band of green as far as the eye can see shows date trees; the most common species is Medjool though many different varieties are grown.

there was a quick grocery stop for cold drinks – it was quite hot by the end of the ride which was done in 29-31C. Colourful array of “Sousse” next door, a type of turban used in the high Atlas to protect from the sun.

doors to the dining room at the current Kasbah Sirocco

We are now ensconced in our current accommodation which is an upgrade from the last few nights as there is ac in the rooms, a pool, a bar, and a very modern looking shower. And the toilets work… My plan is to rest and chill before dinner and hope to dislodge the sore throat quickly…

Dinner was a little different for the carnivores, for which they were thankful – kebabs and french fries! The Moroccan soup is great, always the first course – tonight’s was particularly tasty and they always have lentils, often squash and gorgeous olives on the side both black and green. There is a special dish for pits on the table. Unfortunately, though I had confirmed before dinner with Redouanne that yes indeed, they had organized protein for the main dish, the vegetarian option I was served was – for a change LOL – tagine with no protein (not even couscous). At Day 7, I am less than impressed with the inability of Spice Roads to get on top of this.

We shall see what tomorrow brings for energy and cold symptoms.

Ride: 61 km Climb: +800 m / -1430 m

Another 3:30 a.m. wakening alas. Nodded off to sleep again at 5:30 and the alarm went off 15 mins later, can’t win!

After caffeinating, it was time to tidy and pack up and put luggage outside room as instructed yesterday. Buffet breakfast fairly meh but got some protein in the form of fried egg and yoghurt so not complaining. Hauled luggage upstairs as apparently communication last night was incorrect, we all handle our own. Represents a bit of a theme, communication is not the most clear or consistent and it has nothing to do with me not being on whatsapp. Meeting at 9 a.m. to discuss the day’s route – some km at the beginning are going to be chopped off as the road is in bad condition and there isn’t enough room for cars to pass without cyclists having to drop off the edge of the tarmac, and it is fairly busy with traffic at the moment. We were all good with that, safety first!

So we loaded into the vans and buckled into our seats – a bit of a joke now as the seat belts are very hard to attach and cinch one like a boa constrictor once latched in. We headed along the busy touristique strip and passed the French cyclists from yesterday as well as several stork nests strategically located atop minarets. We got onto a secondary road after about 20 mins and headed towards the “anti-Atlas” mountains – the “extremely tough” approach to the pass on a dirt road was dropped too as it took us onto the bad road (not disappointed about that!). The message hadn’t been given to the bike truck though apparently as he had stopped at what we assumed was the normal start point and unloaded most of the bikes – he was waved on by Havid. Poor Abdul, he would have had to put them all back on the trailer…

dry country with outcrops along the way

Another 20 mins through extremely arid country took us to a spot where we had tea – we think killing time whilst waiting for the bike truck to get past us.

Havid concentrates on the double handed pour

Welcome tea is very important in Morocco, made of verbena, tea and mint as well as sometimes safron. First squat toilet here, feel sorry for those with knee issues…

The final stop was at an artisan shop where the owner was busy making water cups from wood; using mostly juniper but also cedar, they smelled divine and were beautifully crafted. Other wood creations on display were also amazing.

So on to our bikes we got, finally, and of course headed straight uphill. I got dispensation to head out early and for once felt GOOD! My body actually did what it was asked to today. I was passed by everyone, of course, before the top but wasn’t much behind and more importantly, made it under my own steam. Admittedly it was a better road than we’ve had, with better grades, but progress is being made 🙂

interesting rock formations at the top

We gathered together just past the top for snacks (it had been 1/2 hour, after all!) and then shortly after at a coffee shop seemingly in the middle of nowhere which produced espresso for 10 dirham (about $1.50). Tasted suspiciously like nespresso but went down nonetheless. Interesting rock formations here.

We suspected that again, some of the stops were in place because the kitchen truck needed to get ahead to set up, but it was all very pleasant and leisurely.

There was a fairly steep but pleasant and long descent next, taking us down to the first plateau seen in the vistas; we all remarked on the temperature change from cold to warm air as we descended, as there appeared to be quite a sharp demarcation zone.

It was an intermediate pedal then to lunch – which was as always the best meal of the day, and we had seats and shade for this.

Then it was off for more undulating riding through a narrowing valley in a stiffening headwind – because of the narrowness of the valley it felt like a wind tunnel at times. Another hill up a pass with stiffer grades and we were onto a very large second plateau.

our goal was the far side of the valley

it was beginning to get warm.. pleasant pedalling for about 15 km took us to the end of the valley and we turned onto a red dirt road which after 2 km took us into the town of N’kob.

Early to the Kasbah today! The usual chaos on checking in with some folk with twin rooms being given singles, all the ac not working (it took a year to get a needed part for the split duct system and a year later the owner is still looking for someone to put them in) and some plumbing not working… my room is a monastic cell with barely enough room around the single bed to move, but it has everything I need and I was very quick to hop into a shower today while there was still hot water… got the laundry done and hung up, I suspect it will dry very quickly here.

reception area

The Kasbah is fairly new, only 10 years old and owned by a retiree from Germany who built it from the ground up.

We were interested to learn later on that there are water restrictions in place as the river running through town does go dry on occasion; one side of the street gets water in the morning, the other in the afternoon and it is carefully monitored.

down the lane beside the Kasbah (palace)

Because the owner is European, there is a bar on site and inevitably we congregated there, on the terrace, for an after-workout drink; most elected to try the Moroccan beer (stork beer, meh) but a few tried the Moroccan white wine (the verdict was that it was “quaffable”).

water of course wasn’t potable from the tap so we had to go down the hill to the vans to get potable water fillups of our water bottles.

hotel pool was small but well kept – unfortunately I didn’t find out about it until dinner time.

Helene and I went for a walk in the town nearby and again found the people much friendlier than early on in the trip.

Dinner was at 6:30 tonight; we’d requested an earlier start in the hotter spots as well as earlier dinner whenever possible. Once more no vegetarian option, and when it did come after I prodded the spice roads rep there was no protein… two hardboiled eggs eventually appeared after the owner’s wife tried to get me to put the chicken flavouring sauce on my couscous telling me it wouldn’t have any flavour… she was not impressed that I wouldn’t comply! Last course was a plate of white pomegranate which tasted citrusy, a nice light end to the meal.

The cold virus is marching through the ranks and I have a scratchy throat tonight – fingers crossed it’s just from gulping very dry air during the cycle today. I heard from most at dinner tonight that they really enjoyed the lighter day after some intense pedalling, and tomorrow’s has been rejigged as well so we start directly from our kasbah and do the transfer at the end rather than the beginning. Tomorrow we will be on the edge of the Sahara so we all boned up on the history of the Western Sahara/Moroccan conflict.

To Dades Valley

Slept until 6:30 am with only a quick interruption to close the window in the early hours as a fire had started nearby and the smell was permeating the room (prob the bakehouse, I was told the next day).  Relaxed breakfast at 8 a.m. on the main terrace and then with luggage being packed into the vans most of us set out for a hike.

The geology around about is like Utah, with large red rock monuments and we were taken by our guide to the nearest one. 

It was an interesting route, through the town we were staying in which was a labyrinth, but which looked quite poor.  

We crossed a cement bridge designed to allow water to run on top of it during flooding, and through the forest amongst crops (corn, squash and other crops planted in amongst the trees in small openings), fig trees and walnuts.  We passed many people heading back to town with loads of willow (for family baskets), hay and bamboo, and passed willow posts which were drying in the sun and used in the construction of roofs.  Then through another town which looked more prosperous, another labyrinth, but people in both towns seemed much more friendly. 

this town only across the river looked cleaner and more prosperous

this cat waited very patiently for its owner to come out and leave the door open…

Then it was out through the back of town where we were met by the bike truck driver on a bicycle delivering walnuts and dates (delicious – do they ever feed us well!) and up a dry gully winding around eventually to the top of the hill.  Lovely views of the valley and the inevitable green strip surrounding the local river.

It was beginning to get warm again…

waiting for the slower ones at the back

We scrambled down a fairly steep path for a more direct route back and to make a loop. 

Somehow I managed to put a foot wrong and twisted something in my right hip, which had been bothering me for a couple of days.  It’s now very painful to weight bear on it and I’m hoping a night’s sleep with help…

We were met with a cooked lunch near the bridge – delicious frittata (I’m popular for bringing this in), tuna salad, carrot salad and grapes.  The leftovers went to the local kids, we noticed, who ate until full and took the rest away in a bag (takeout!).  Then we were off for a transfer to Dades Valley via the Valley of Roses.  Well, in actuality we had a vote and decided that the cooperative selling rose perfumed products in the Valley of Roses wasn’t of much interest to us so we went directly to see the sights of the Dades Valley.

Quite a touristic area, with restaurants and hotels spread up and down a long strip.  Not super busy though, apparently this is towards the start of high season.  We first stopped at the “monkey’s fingers”, an area of differential erosion leaving behind interesting rock formations.  We saw goats frolicking on the rocks as well, and they looked to be going straight onto the faces; their hooves have adapted well to be able to stick on rock.

Next stop was Dades canyon, and this was truly spectacular – the storm from yesterday had made the river levels higher through it and it was that much more spectacular. 

two lanes of traffic + pedestrians and no problems!

On the way to the canyon we watched a couple of fully loaded cyclists pedalling up the switchback system up one hill – on the way back we stopped at the top and I found them there so started chatting to them.  They were French cyclists, here with mountain bikes for a week, had gone over the mountains yesterday in order to avoid a 250 km detour here.  It involved carrying their bikes some distance, which they had expected, as it was far too steep – however they hadn’t factored in the storm and were wet and cold by the time they packed their bikes to the top, and the nice downhill that they expected didn’t exist by then as the trail had turned to mud.  Every 500 m the mud would build up between the frames and the brakes so they would have to stop and clear it; eventually the disc brakes stopped working and they had to run 5 km downhill beside their bikes. Then, the simple stream fording that they had expected turned into a rushing frenzy from the runoff so they had to scout a different crossing… Epic.  So the comment was that today was a piece of cake!  They sounded like a very resourceful couple, in their 30’s, with one of them an ICU doc and the other a mountain guide.  But both said it was their first bike packing trip and they wouldn’t do that trip again 

All to say I guess I can’t complain about the grade tomorrow!

Back to our hotel we caught some interesting light on the hills from our room balconies when we had figured out where we were slotted into. 

Wifi is as usual spotty, so after a couple of tries of uploading info I gave up and had a shower – no hot water alas, the rest of the group must have depleted it!  Time for a quick laundry before dinner – we had a nice variation on tagine with excellent presentation and Spice Roads seems to have finally figured out the vegetarian protein experience… there is obviously a real chef in the kitchen tonight.

dining room at Panorama Hotel

Hoping that the hip settles down overnight as it sounds like another tough day tomorrow.  Back to work!

Ride: 62 km Climb: +1490 m / -2142 m 

Breakfast at 7 a.m., with departure slated at 8 a.m.  (of course we were late).  At 6:55 I went to unlock the door to my room to start hauling luggage down and couldn’t get out – lock completely stuck.  I was able to raise someone in the room across the hall and they alerted someone at the desk; by detaching the key from its’ ring and passing it under the door it was able to be unlocked from the outside.  A new adventure every day!  We left “Happy Valley” which appears as a green strip from above and grows apples, bananas, pomegranate and other crops.  From the rain yesterday though some of the lower part of the valley had been flooded so the route had been adjusted to another which remained passable (there was an option for a technical descent on gravel however between the flooding and likely some road damage from yesterday’s rain it was ruled out).

as we started to climb, a village at the bottom of the second valley

Cool day today – sunny to start but we are high enough to need arm and leg warmers.  We had a transfer first so were in the vans for about 90 mins – the first part we navigated through another village with even worse roads, then turned onto a road that started climbing.  And climbing.  And climbing.  Not a great road, esp. after the rain yesterday – we passed a grader going down who had been doing some repair work but multiple washouts (age undetermined) were visible and the drop off quite steep.  Some of the grades on those hair pin corners were impressive.  We wound our way up, and up, finally getting to a pass where we disembarked and had great vistas of the next part of the mountain range which had fresh snow last night… it was very chilly up there @ 3000 m., about 10C.

first pass

this pass was about 3000 m and across the valley at 4000 m was the fresh snow

Down the other side we wound, to the next green valley bottom where we appeared to randomly stop for an advertised toilet break.  We thought it would be a stop “au natural” but after the guide knocked at a gate we were let into a gite where we were served welcome tea and were able to use clean washrooms.  We haven’t come across squat toilets yet, surprisingly, only Western ones but I am sure our locations are curated.

pleasant temps!

The enterprising owners of the gite also had a “boutique”.  The local bread served with honey and olive oil was declared the best ever by our group and the gite owner sent a messenger over the bridge on a donkey post haste to retrieve some more.  We were shown the clay ovens where they are produced – very rudimentary for such a lovely product.

the owner’s kids?

On our way again, we headed up the next hills and then finally caught up with the bike trailer which was still being unloaded.  Fairly chilly due to a wind so we had a quick snack and then headed out on a mostly gravel road, with ruts reminiscent of Mongolia.  It was a pretty gruelling ride up to the pass, and chilly as rain started to pelt down as we approached the final bit.  I had to walk a section due to the grade, and then when the rain came down steadily got quite chilly quickly despite the effort,  and abandoned ship.  Even some of the ebikes were behind and struggling and our tour organizer was already boarded on the van. 

A short drive later took us to the pass where group pictures were taken, the last layers were added and then there was a fairly nasty/steep descent on quite potholed and loosely gravel surfaced roads on switchbacks with lots of exposure. I caught up with the bike trailer about 1/3 of the way down, and got back on my bike as it had stopped raining & the wind had died down.  The rest declared the first part of the descent their least favourite ride segment to date, and two riders abandoned at this point.  I mostly enjoyed the remaining descent, with lots of caution at the corners, and it certainly was a long descent back into another green valley bottom.  We had an undulating section then the next ascent began in earnest with grades up to 16%.  Even a couple of the superhuman muscle bike riders were beginning to struggle at this point so it was time for me to hop on board the travelling train, with company this time. 

you can see us switchbacking up – this is about where the rain was becoming steady and it was cold with a chilly wind. What it doen’t show is the road surface on this part – rough and rutted making it extra special riding! grade, weather and surface, it had it all.

Shortly before it had started to rain again, and by the time the last riders had reached the top and the lunch stop everyone was huddled under a small cypress tree cold and wet, awaiting the hot meal being prepared by the kitchen staff.  The staff eventually managed to erect a tarp that they held up manually while we got our food – an amazing selection again (and this time I managed to purloin some eggs). 

across the top

The beans in a yoghurt sauce were excellent.  Cumin is a fairly predominant flavour in cooking here, which I love and it is ascribed several medicinal qualities according to the herb/spicologist we visited in Marrakesh .  As the rain did not let up, the wind was howling and there was occasional thunder and lightning, we abandoned the cypress tree and headed into the vans to eat – much better, and Redoin called off the next descent and ride due to the shivering that was pretty universal by now.  It was 10C and most of us had applied all the layers we had brought.

view from hotel balcony

So were driven to the next overnight stop at Kasbah Chems, unusually early and happily as the remainder of that cycle would have brought us in quite late given the late start and leisurely coffee stop.  Time for a shower, hang up yesterday’s clothes, wash today’s and have a cup of tea before sitting down to catch up the posts.  Unfortunately the wifi is again miserable but I managed to get postings up with the help of hotspot.

So our most evil day of cycling was greatly reduced by weather, and I think it was pretty unanimous that there was no regret.   There has been a LOT of climbing on fairly severe grades over the past three days and those are circumstances predisposing to an accident.  Tomorrow is a rest day from cycling, though we move hotels again to the Valley of Roses and have a hike planned.

The hotel is the nicest back country one to date, with all the amenities – hot running water (though no cold), drinking water provided and lots of plugs for charging as well as places to hang things.  Dinner was tasty – guess the menu?  Lentil soup, tagine (vegetarian without any protein) and fresh fruit salad for dessert.  I managed to purloin both cheese and eggs at breakfast, some of which I brought down to dinner, and the spice roads rep said canned tuna would be arriving (though didn’t and was replaced by boiled eggs at the end of the meal.  Tomorrow’s protein!!  The group is very happy to have eggs at lunch – I am hoping I won’t be presented with canned tuna for breakfast, lunch AND dinner as we were in Bhutan, kind of what is happening with eggs right now.  Doesn’t seem to be a lot of cheese used?

And so day 4 ends.  SURELY I will sleep tonight.  It’s raining off and on again but is forecast to be clear tomorrow.

Imi n’Ifri – Aït Bouguemez 

Ride: 62 km Climb: +1490 m / -2142 m 

Sleep – the elusive element.  Another early wakeup at 3:30 and that was it for the night. 

Breakfast thankfully included both eggs and cheese so some protein finally.  I had a word with the Spice Roads rep who promised to fix the protein problem.  Truly not impressed that Spice Roads haven’t mastered this aspect of dietary requirements, when they advertise being able to accommodate any dietary requirements, and STILL need to be schooled in it.  A block of cheese, boiled eggs, some nuts, anything guys?

We had a 90 min drive to the cycling start point today which moved slightly as we left past our ETD time of 9 a.m.  The terrain became rockier and rockier as we moved towards the mountains. 

There was a quick stop in a large town  (Sour el Aaz) for coffee and nature break – it had some well kept sections and government buildings/projects making it look more prosperous than most. Every café had a row of tagines outside and inside preparing for the lunch rush.  The tagines are electric – they have a plug in electric base which looks incongruous, but delicious smells were emanating.  The coffee was Turkish-like, very strong which was great – the breakfast coffee has so far been undrinkable in the riads/hotels. Most villages that we’ve driven through have been very third world in appearance, with the concomitant garbage scattered everywhere, very basic houses and one or two nicer areas but most looking quite poor.

the town mosque, with its colouring making it appear fancier than most

We gathered the masses and piled back into the buses for another brief transfer and then mounted bikes and the climb was on.  Immediately. 

Oak, burro and man

quick mechanical repair on the way up

It was quite warm to start with (29C) but as we got higher it started to cool which was welcome.  Grades were not bad to start with but quickly ramped up to 9-10%; like going up Seymour in the heat without any warmup.  The ebikes soared up and the superhuman muscle bike riders managed to almost keep up.  I assumed the usual position as lantern rouge and struggled up as much as I could then abandoned and rode the van to the pass; the van and truck driver were very good natured and were able to catch up to the rest after I was loaded on.  Just not feeling the oomph here and not able to climb as much as I was doing in Canada before leaving, but making it a bit further each day.  ?jet lag. ?heat ?bike positioning (quickly uncomfortable in the seat).

We wound our way to the top with a couple of stops for water replenishment – this type of cycling wouldn’t be possible without support vehicles as there is nothing but rock around.  Spectacular views but nothing much else, little habitation apart from nomads camping with their flocks.  There were a number of apparently abandoned dogs by the roadside on the way up and Abdul, my van driver, stopped a couple of times to give them water and some food – hard to comprehend how they were surviving in those remote and apparently barren environments, and where did they come from?  Abdul’s French wasn’t great, unfortunately, and everytime we tried google translate there was no cell signal.

I assumed the role of trip photographer, marvelling at the tenacity of the muscle bike riders going up grades of 11%.  The corners of those switchbacks were ugly… everyone eventually struggled up the first pass, navigated a steep descent on a narrow road with some truck traffic, and then began climbing again. 

This was the steeper climb, and it seemed interminable.  3 km below the summit there was lunch for which eggs appeared for the first time in response to my request for a protein substitute.  Sadly there was no explanation of this given to the rest and by the time I got to through the lineup they had all been scoffed.  Sigh. At least we couldn’t complain about heat at this point, as temps had dropped significantly and we had all donned coats.

The pass was finally achieved and the requisite pictures taken.

looking down from just below pass – very desolate countryside, occupied by at most a few nomads with livestock

the road down from the pass

I retrieved my bike for another steep (but fun) descent, again needing to be careful of passing vehicles on the narrow road (significant dropoffs).  We couldn’t pick up a lot of speed anyway due to intermittent potholes and washouts that had been filled in with red clay – there were rain clouds looming and I was just very thankful we made it down the steep parts before the rain started as those clay sections would have been deadly slick in the wet.  There had been a little sprinkling on the way up, not very significant but a sign that things were different, and the temp had obviously dropped at the 2000 m elevation in the passes so we had donned windjackets at the pass.

We dropped to a place called “Happy Valley” which turned out to be not so happy in parts.  The rain started and the road became intermittently quite muddy, passing  through what seemed like a continuous village. 

Lots of people about, mostly friendly but the boys were occasionally a pest; some had their bikes grabbed, others had pebbles thrown at them and two brats held a long bamboo stick held across the road which they didn’t move until the last minute – and it wasn’t clear they were going to.  It was a long descent (with a hill up of course at one point!) so we were fairly spread out and although the leader scolded in Arabic to the kids when he passed, by the time others went by they had decided they were going to get away with it again… quite the opposite to the friendly Moroccans we were told about. 

the roads were fairly well used…

A fairly heavy rain started in the lower 1/3 of the trip and as the muscle bikes didn’t have fenders those of us on them were pretty muddy by the time we got to the turnoff (a “skunk line” on the backs of coats, socks and shorts).  The last 2 km were on a dirt road, now dodging puddles and mud, and we had an amazing hill up to the Kasbah (palace) at the end to finish off the day’s climbing.  Just as we arrived the thunder and lightning really set in and the deluge began in earnest so we scuttled in to the accommodation.

the Kahsb

It was the usual disorganized who is going where, puzzling as the spice roads rep had left the group a couple of hours early to organize things.  It turned out there weren’t enough rooms, so the rep had to stay in a different hotel 12 km away and she wasn’t well pleased with that, understandably.  I was put on the top floor, off an open courtyard with towels outside the door so that the water didn’t run into the room.  A nice room with surprisingly more plugs than yesterday’s but the power started flickering in the storm and as predicted, eventually went out.  There was no running water to begin with which was apparently a supply issue with everyone trying to shower at once.  I managed to eke out enough to wash my muddy clothes in installments and it took awhile for the hot water to reappear again but got ‘er done.  Unsurprisingly the wifi was unreliable, coming and going and requiring resetting after the power came back on, hence the late posting.

Dinner was served about 8 pm and the vegetable tagine arrived, again without protein.  The cooking process looks to make the meat very tender and it was enjoyed by all.  Late to sleep and am hoping tonight’s sleep will be better. 

Hallelujah, I slept until 6 a.m.!  Breakfast on the lovely rooftop terrace, disgusting coffee as expected.  TG I brought my own…

We pulled our luggage to entrance of medina for van pickup and loaded up, off we went.  We drove through the city, mostly quite third world in appearance, past a tony neighbourhood on the outskirts with high walls, big houses and lots of pools and then were into arid desert with occasional olive groves.  And more olive groves. We are getting olives with breakfast and dinner, which is great for me as I love them!  After about an hour, with the roads deteriorating somewhat (asphalt edges crumbled, potholes and the odd washout repaired with sand) we arrived at our starting point (a curve in the road with a pullout).    At this point we were in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.   The bikes were all standing waiting and there was a slight downhill to begin.  It was the usual chaos as people fitted out their bikes – there are 24 riders including guides Redouin (front) and Yusef (back).  Eventually we got off and the first hill appeared fairly quickly, with the ebikes zooming off into the distance.

It was HOT.  Bearable on the flat or a slight incline, but the effort of going up a big hill producing more heat was fairly tough.  The hills were reasonable initially, with some undulations, and then the real work began.  A long uphill to a dam, with a brief rest in the minimal shade provided by a security kiosk, then up some fairly impressive grades up to the next ridge with the GPS showing this to be going on for some time.  Did I mention it was HOT?  With the reflection from the tarmac my bike computer was reading 39C.  It was brutal.  Fairly quickly I opted out of heatstroke and hitched a ride on the bike van.  That hill was long, and grades approaching Mt. Seymour’s – I was happy to have opted out of that one.  Probably doable in reasonable temps, and that was the theme of the day – the overall elevation gain wasn’t too bad today, but the temps did me in and it felt like at least twice that.  I was wearing my de Brim hat around the helmet and although it seemed to cause hilarity going through villages it was definitely an asset.  (although perhaps it wasn’t just that, as I learned at dinner later that the front riders also were being greeted similarly).

After topping the first hill after the dam – hot and dry

lake above dam

At the top of the hill the cooking van with our cook Hassan had pulled over and concocted a lovely lunch – it was great to cool down in the shade and we had our first introduction round with the riders as last night had been too noisy at dinner. Riders from Ottawa, Vernon, Jasper, Edmonton, the 5 grannies for Africa from Victoria and someone from White Rock.  They all seemed like a nice bunch, some looking quite elderly and others definitely much younger and still working.  The Spice Road rep along with us runs the custom tour dept. and lives in Bangkok.  The CCCTS tour director’s friend Aziza had appeared and was riding along in one of the vans – her invitation to Morocco had been the inspiration for this trip to birth.

After lunch we set off again, and I joined the troops on the ground back on the bike again.  The next hill wasn’t long in appearing, and was a longer one than the last according to my GPS.  I assumed my usual role as lantern rouge and struggled up about half of it before the heat got to me again and I bailed.  It was a long trip to that pass, and I can only bow to the other muscle riders who were tolerating the heat and managed to get up it.  Even some of the ebike riders were beginning to look tired. I retrieved my bike again and suspect this is going to be the pattern for the trip.

at the top of the plateau

one of several villages we passed. The front guide, Ruidon, would speak to the kids gathered at the side of the road to watch and I’m sure was telling them to be polite. By the time the back riders arrived (not me at this point) they were becoming increasingly impolite. Kids are the same everywhere – egging each other on!

olive trees and minarets can be relied upon

We had a brief stop before descending, under the shade of some date trees – also plentiful and their products frequently enjoyed in our snacks -to top up water bottles. On the plateau it had cooled down to about 30C and that felt very pleasant and was tolerable on small hills. Some impatient drivers in both directions made for some interesting passing and there were some closer than liked passing but the majority of drivers were courteous and we all made it intact on the descent into town.

the town in the distance offered hope of getting out of the increasing heat again at the riad. Unfortunately we rode through town (up a hill of course) and around the corner before arriving at our final destination.

The last stop was a canyon which was pretty impressive – some people were visible at the bottom swimming? Picnicking?  It would have been a long way down and up again.  Nobody from our group was tempted even had we the time – we were all done.

cliffside at Imi n’ilfri. The habitation at the top left without fencing would have been shut down in a western country! Unfortunately like most third world countries there was garbage everywhere including this lovely site.

The destination for the day was shortly after that and had apparently been changed from the original as our van driver misdirected one poor cyclist and we did a detour before he was called on the phone and we turned around.  The actual hotel was on the main road and was interesting to say the least.  We had a welcome glass of tea and then a stretch on the grass in the centre of the complex; then were broken into groups and given a guide to our rooms depending on status of single, twin or double as we were put into different building.  Unfortunately the guides disappeared, reappeared then disappeared again so we headed out on our own to scout for our rooms as the luggage had already gone there.  The singles were eventually met by Aziza and directed through a carpet museum, then a largely unlit corridor in an adjacent building, and then finally met by a hotel person who took us to a different building entirely for our rooms – pick your own.  It was a bit disorganized.  The rooms though were spacious, and we were lucky enough to have running water, but only a tiny window and they were very dark with the second light switch in my room hidden behind the headboard of the bed. Two twin beds, not sure why we were the “singles” building? We learned at dinner that the “twin” building had no water at all for the first 45 mins.

We had time to shower, get rearranged then back to find the restaurant for dinner at 7:30 p.m.  The wifi was only available in the restaurant, hence the late posting – a delicious smell and line of tagines was visible inside the dining area.  Dinner was very tasty, soup and olives  followed by tagini with either beef or chicken and a vegetarian one.  The usual problem has surfaced for travelling vegetarians – we apparently don’t need protein of any kind as there’s no sign of substitution at any of the meals so I’ll have to have a word with the Spice Road rep. tomorrow.

There’s another large tour group here, a group of Germans. Wonder what happened to the original accomodation, as it has definitely changed from the itinerary given to us. We are now staying in the Tamount.

Tomorrow we have nearly double the elevation gain of today, and a final pass of 2,000+ meters so depending on the temperatures I’ll likely be in the van fairly soon.  Today’s ride would have been doable without the heat but the temps are killing me… The van driver Abdul unfortunately doesn’t speak much French and the translate app doesn’t work out of cell range (which was most of today) so it’s been difficult to communicate.

I was hoping I don’t have nocturnal visitors as I noted rat poop on the windowsill last night and so far, so good – I am writing this at 3:30 a.m. as insomnia has struck again. 

Another early wakening – 3:37 a.m. Hope things will shift soon…

Breakfast and pack for the superfun trip back to the airport with luggage in rush hour metro traffic. The first part was the most challenging as it was towards the direction of downtown, and each train that approached was crammed full, it appeared. The only thing to do was push in dragging my retinue and miraculously there was room as people reluctantly shifted! Plaza d’Espana change was the only one involving stairs, both up and down, with the only alternative a complicated path to the outside square and a search for another elevator down across the road and down a bit, so elected to do the stairs. Other travellers were similarly searching for alternatives, I noted 😊

Madrid airport is HUGE. Did I mention that? Flight left from Terminal 4 which is quite a distance from Terminals 1,2 and 3. But, no – once navigating through checkin at counter 840 at Iberia, who were quite suspicious when I didn’t have a return flight with them (they had to record that I was exiting Morocco via Ryanair) it turns out there is also a Terminal 4s (satellite) which required boarding another underground for a 5 min journey there. It also appeared to be a full sized terminal. Having time to kill I went on a search for coffee and the only option was Starbucks – those guys are so good at locationing – the most expensive Starbucks ever at 5E. Flight was quite prompt in boarding but slower getting away from the gates so we were about 20″ late leaving – completely full flight – I think we made most of that up in the air. True to bare bones airlines, even the water was for sale enroute… needless to say I came prepared and had a lovely sandwich of leftover smoked salmon, truffle cheese with baklava for dessert!

Lovely terminal. Country outside Marrakesh looked very dry apart from the immediate area which was covered with green farming plots. Passport control was very efficient, changed a small amount of money into dirhams which are not available outside the country – about 7 dirham/CAD. Retrieved luggage and went to find my ride arranged for the Riad where we were staying – nowhere to be seen. Phone on, esim activated – didn’t work. No internet, no phone line. Over to the Maroc telecom kiosk where a representative reluctantly took the phone to play with it – handing it back saying she couldn’t fix it there, I had to go into town to an agency office. Grrrr. She kindly phoned the riad for me to ask where my ride was (it was now about 1/2 hour past my scheduled landing time so I thought they might have given up) and then sent me outside where there was a second collection of pickup drivers and mine was waiting. Egads – it was like going into an oven, as soon as you left the (warm) terminal it was a blast of heat. Found my driver and we marched to the parking lot (no help with luggage, not a problem for me but interesting) and off we went.

The usual third world driving – to turn left you just point your vehicle into traffic and the oncoming may or may not stop… we drove past KFC and McDonalds but few Western style buildings. Mostly they were brick and a max of three stories, which we learned later was traditional so that you couldn’t see what was going on in your neighbour’s compound. I was dropped at the closest medina gate and the riad receptionist came out to meet me – a short walk in a pedestrian only (well apart from tuk tuks, motorcyles and bicycles!) zone took me to the lovely riad where I was checked in, given some welcome tea (very welcome, I was feeling very dehydrated!) room not ready so retrieved what I needed from my luggage in the foyer for a quick excursion. There was a tour scheduled for 1:30 starting from the lobby and it was now 12:45 with a 15 min walk to the nearest Maroc telecom office so I set off posthaste to try and solve the connection issue.

Like a blast of heat in a furnace outside, I learned it was hotter than usual today (typical). Had to stop and ask for directions once without a map but it’s fairly easy here with French as a spoken language. Navigated across a pedestrian crossing a busy street somewhat like the driving – you start crossing and the drivers may or may not stop so you judge their impatience and continue or not depending on the assessment. Nobody ever stopped entirely for pedestrians, just wiggled around. Arriving at Maroc telecom there was one person working and several people sitting around – I was given a number and told to sit down for a possible 20 min wait. As it was by now 1:10 I had to turn around to make the 1:30 meeting but at least I knew now where the agency was.

the medina – 320 quarters each with their own bakery, mosque, Koran school, public fountain and hamman (public spa).

Back to meet up for the tour. I was told by the trip leader from CCCTS that there would be no communication outside whatsapp (to be fair, I must point out that this “do or die” was not indicated in the trip notes)… Did I mention it was hot? We had two Rashids as tour guides and set off to learn about riads, medinas, the 7.2 earthquake a few years ago in Morocco, and were schooled in medicinal herbs and cooking spices in a (fortunately air conditioned shop). Interesting.

main square outside medina with one of 7 large temples in Marrakesh, oleander in foreground

minaret

part of our tour group being schooled by Rashid under the interested gaze of pigeons. Many stray cats around the medina, but looks like they are fed with scraps.

rebuilt after the earthquake

being schooled in herbs and spices

We fortunately had a quick stop at an ATM during the tour, and then I peeled off to get back to Maroc Telecom to sort out the connectivity issue. After being issued another number and waiting, I was told by the non-English speaking rep that they couldn’t do anything for me at the agency, I would have to call in to the main office. The security guard was instructed to call for me, at least, and after about a 20 min wait I was connected with someone who took the info, and eventually told me to enter “0000” when I received a text. Hmmm. I waited, no text arrived, and I’m confused how one would when there is no internet connectivity (not even wifi at the agency). I was assured it would work, I persudaded the agent to wait with me until it did, the text (very delayed) did arrive and – lo and behold no improvement with “0000”. He told me he would send another, and lo and behold this time it did so he rapidly disappeared. I checked the phone before I left – no connectivity. With my fading battery I got chatty to problem solved for me while waiting for a second phone call to the main office and lo and behold, chatty saved the day. Euraka, I have connectivity.

Back to the riad, hot and sweaty, for a quick change then a meet in the lobby for bike fitting and then dinner. I hate rental bikes… but it would have been impossible to bring my own on this journey. Several adjustments and bikes later I have a semi-fit and others are fit to their tanks – the ebikes are indeed tanks. They did put on a garmin mount and a bag, unadvertised, and there’s room for 2 water bottles, thankfully. Another rider has converted to ebike so muscle bikes are a real minority.

Then it was off to dinner at a gorgeous spot – rooftop terrace and a try of “casablanca” beer -who could resist that? Very overpriced but not bad. Dinner in the restaurant below with musicians – far too much food, though it was excellent, and it went on waaay past my bedtime. Vegetarian tagine was wonderful and desserts were lovely. The others demolished chicken and lamb which looked very tender. I sat beside the spice roads rep, strategically, and gave her my phone number in the hopes she would let me know of major itinerary changes. Didn’t seem a lot to ask considering the cost of the trip, but the CCCTS leader seemed to think it was a big ask. We will see how it goes.

Quite a big group (24) although I suspect we will soon be two distinct groups of e-bikes and muscle bikes, 2 support vans and guides and some interesting folk. Grannies for Africa x 5 from Victoria – had an interesting conversation with one of them on the terrace. Heard some travel horror stories from the group – I got off lucky – one left a CPAP machine on board scrambling to make a connection so our start tomorrow is delayed to 9:30 to see if he can get a replacement at a store opening at 9 a.m. I am highly dubious.

terrace of the restaurarnt

masses of food, with our guide Yousef

the musicians, with amazing instruments, who twirled their fez tassels enthusiastically whenever they saw they were being watched

courtyard of the restaurant. highly tempted to jump in.

anteroom of the women’s washroom!

the hotel (riad) has similar lovely marble. Outside quite third world, with shanties and piles of garbage/discarded materials. Obviously a large homeless population.

With relief, off to bed.

I made it to 4 a.m. today so a bit of an improvement. Hopefully the trend will continue! 6 hours sleep is actually pretty good for me, but still running a deficit due to the last three nights.

After breakfast (and caffeine!) another walk to the centre of town, near Plaza Mayor to meet for the bike tour. There were too many signed up for the 10:30 slot so there was an overflow group and happily I was in the smaller overflow group of about 8; one couple with a small child who wailed initially but fairly quickly settled down and was very good throughout the trip (as were her parents in handling her!). It was apparently her first trip in a child seat. They got some pictures of her slumped in it fast asleep which they’ll doubtless use to blackmail her as a teen 😊. Everyone else spoke Spanish, most as a native language though everyone was fluent in English so they ran the tour in two languages.

My first time on an e-bike and it was indeed big and heavy but oh-so-easy to ride… it was not super hot but initially quite humid so wasn’t replete with energy and appreciated the extra power on the inclines. It did feel like cheating, and there weren’t any evil hills, so if weren’t for the humidity, and later on heat, I would have felt guilty! The entire bike share system in Madrid (bici) is electric, and there is a push on to encourage people to bike and take trains – but very few bike lanes around so most riding is done on the narrow streets and/or sidewalks. Helmets are not mandatory > 18 y.o., surprisingly. Competition for bike space comes from pedestrians, electric scooters and motorbikes and there was definitely a lot of dodging and weaving to do.

Once we’d all been fitted with a bike we headed out (everyone in my group on e-bikes despite their youth!) with our guide Rodolfo (Rudy) who enthusiastically regaled us with history at the numerous stops we made. Very helpful and informative, and as usual I learned things I would never have picked up otherwise. Interestingly, one of the Madrid symbols is arbutus (madronas) and there are trees everywhere, and a liquor made from the fruit which I am hoping to try. This is the Arbutus unedo variety, strawberry tree, not our local Arbutus menziesii.

The cycling was mostly on fairly quiet streets until the end, more on that below.

We visited all the usual tourist spots, the Opera House:

the royal palace: more popular than the Prado, I couldn’t get a ticket to get in. There was a heavy police presence as President Macaron was visiting today and he was being welcomed by the royalty so the flag was up over the palace.

There are a few huge parks in Madrid including one with a huge forest that is overlooked by the palace, as well as Buen Retiro, formerly the grounds of the Royal Palace which became the Prado (translates to prairie as it was such all around when first built). I ate lunch in here yesterday and erroneously called it Jerónimos Parc; it’s actually in the Jerónimos neighbourhood which is why that was labelled on the map.

The monument to Alphonso XII across the large artificial lake in Buen Retiro

We visited a curious cloister where the nuns bake cookies for sale, and money is put in a revolving door with the cookies returned so the nuns don’t have to reveal their faces:

In the artists’ quarter we saw Cervantes’ house – he is much admired in Spain.

A very large living wall near Paseo Prado; gardening with an air:

Paseo de Prado was fun to ride down – the central boulevard made it safer

we ended in the Gran Via area, just down from city hall, one of the few places there was a bike lane – of course there was someone pushing a pram with his entire family completely occupying both directions of the bike lane.

Peurta Alcala, one of 6 gates marking entrance to the city. It and the mad traffic circle surrounding were reminiscent of L’Arc de Triomphe

Metropolis private club – expensive AND need an invite

There were a number of other stops, suffice it to say it was a good tour!

Our last stop was to be Plaza del Sol, where all the addresses in Madrid start. It was very crowded, and Rudy told us our visit to Madrid wouldn’t be complete without going by a protest. There was an encampment there which went up on Saturday – it was HUGE and the police were watching but not doing any crowd control. We headed over towards the side of the protest walking our bikes but soon hit a choke point – the crowd was very active chanting and singing, and there was only a single file line with both directions trying to get through. It took a very long time to get to the other side – I was following Rudy, and the others behind disappeared. We were of course very popular pushing heavy bikes through the masses, although the couple going through in the other direction with their luggage were even more popular! It was a huge relief to get through, finally – and there in front of me was the patisserie La Mallorquina that I had been to Sunday aft, clearly going in by a different entrance as I hadn’t even noticed the mess. I ate lunch while Rudy went back on foot to see where the others were; they had found an easier way through on the other side of the plaza, where the active chanting was not happening. I looked up the protest when I got home and got this:

This is primarily a housing/renter-rights protest, not a general political demonstration. It began on Saturday, September 26, after the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, who had lived in her Madrid home for more than 70 years. Protesters are demanding stronger protections for tenants and action on Spain’s housing crisis. There is now a substantial tent encampment in the middle of Puerta del Sol. Reports today range from hundreds to around 1,000 people remaining overnight, with the camp continuing during the day.

The police are hanging back from evicting the encampment as there is an argument between the regional and city authorities; the city wants them removed due to significant disruption to residents and pedestrians (I can attest to that!) whereas the regional govt. says as long as they are peaceful, let them be. To be continued…We are facing the same issues all over the world.

the encampment with blue tarps and many tents showing in the middle; because of the activity it turned out the route to the right was the easier one through, though it didn’t look like that when we started! Once we were in, there was no way but through…

Finally back at the bike shop, an hour late, I repaired for a much needed cortado and another look at original city wall which can be viewed in several locations through a glass floor (the coffee shop just happened to be one location). With recommendations from Rudy I headed to San Génis chocolate shop but wasn’t impressed with either the product or the snooty staff so headed back home for tea and rest. A quick trip back to La Latina district later on to try the madronas liquer – which is served in some places in a chocolate cup which you eat afterwards – brilliant! I loved the liquer but only acquired a small amount to bring home as it’s quite heavy and I’m bearing in mind the return journey to the airport tomorrow!

And so ends my very quick trip to Madrid, but it is a lovely city and I’ve barely scratched the surface so would love to return at some point!

Well unsurprisingly I was up from 12:30 a.m. to 4 a.m., dozed a little after that but a typical jetlag pattern in combo with my usual lousy sleep pattern. The evening revelry had died down outside my flat by 1 a.m., so I was able to open windows again which was nice for cooling as the sleeping loft catches the hot air rising.

The instant coffee was thankfully very tasty (and very caffeinated!) so I came to fairly quickly and with the help of chatty (chat GPT) was able to retrieve tickets to the Prado for 1:45 (they hadn’t been sent by email as they were supposed to be). Admissions are substantially less for seniors over here (1E for the botanical gardens, 7.5 E for the Prado) but one is warned to bring supporting ID so I toted my passport around all day. The botanical gardens didn’t ask to see anything – I am internally offended when I’m not carded these days 😏 but the Prado did.

After a quick breakfast of yoghurt and baguette I headed out on foot to the Prado area – the botanical gardens are right behind the museum. Cooler today, with light rain in the forecast for this afternoon. The more I walk around Madrid, the happier I am to have booked an e-bike for tomorrow’s bike tour – there are quite a few inclines to navigate. But the central area is lovely for the most part, with well kept old buildings, picturesque narrow streets and many plazas and parks.

There was a stream of tourists heading towards the Prado like bees to a hive, all navigating with phones – one huge advantage of technology. The gardens were quiet initially – not much flowering at the moment but ironically one of the most colourful sections was the North American dahlias! A nice herb and medicinal plant section, and the frogs in the water pond near the back were very vocal.

Quite an extensive garden, no areas overrun by weeds like Vancouver’s VDG and UBC botanical gardens… lots of gardeners out working.

flowering plants were strategically located at the entrance. The gardens were meticulously laid out with great labelling and an enormous specimen collection.

Palms outside…

and inside. Small greenhouse compared to many other botanical gardens.

the Australian section.

the artichokes were left to flower, impressively tall plants, and the squash were left on the plants as well.

The filtering pond in the foreground was full of very noisy frogs, unfortunately the blog site doesn’t handle video files.

I reckon this is the right size for a gingko! Amazingly, most of the bonsai specimens were 60-80 years old

I turned off Strava part way through this section as my iphone battery has degraded significantly and runs out quickly on touristing days… by the end of the botanical gardens I am sure I was well into the double digits for walking km. Definitely ready for coffee which I took to Jerónimos Park via a chic neighbourhood. There are lots of trees, and the large avenue in front of the Prado reminds one of the Champs Elysee, with wide treelined boulevards. Lunch in the park of baguette with lovely truffle infused aged white cheese and I felt ready for the Prado.

Church in the Prado neighbourhood

Lots of joggers in Jerónimos Park, and a formal section called the Parterre

The traffic circle outside the Prado, with the expensive Palace Hotel in the background

Queue time next, despite having booked a ticket online we were all sent to a queue at the ticket office to convert them into a paper ticket. Happily this lineup was much shorter than the “buy at the time” lineup – the booked tickets were allotted a time in 15 min increments. I picked up a pre-booked audioguide as well, which was a recording on an iphone with a headset, and set off to see what I could see. Like the Louvre, the collection is overwhelming (though not as big as the Louvre) and it helped to have the audioguide to focus on select paintings. I chose the 2 hour selection – there is a 9 hr version!!! Apparently the museum is busiest in the mornings – it wasn’t too bad by the time I got there, definitely less crowded than the Louvre but the tour groups were a little annoying if you happened to try and see a painting where they had taken over. The labelling system for the rooms drove me crazy – room 6A didn’t necessarily connect to 6B and sometimes you’d have to go to room 9 to get to 6B…but the audioguide was very good otherwise and well worth the 5E. Due to getting lost, and some diversions, it took me more than 2 hours to get through but so much better than aimlessly wandering through all those amazing paintings. Midway I stopped at the “cafe prado” to get a coffee and had a chat with an elderly ?American couple behind in the line-up who were scouting out GF options and we commiserated how difficult that was during travel. When the lineup reached the coffee machines what I thought were real espresso machines turned out to be a huge nespresso complex so I quickly exited stage right. Ugh. Seems sacriligeous in the Prado!!! (we have a couple of Prado cafes in Tsawwassen which make real coffee).

The museum was most impressive, both in and out!

backside, from the botanical gardens entrance

the rain had started early afternoon, but had petered out for most of my walk home

A couple of false starts on a search for more bread on the way home before I located a decent bakery – bread is really reasonable here with a baguette sized loaf selling for .60 – 1 E. Coffee is also cheaper, with a capuccino in a local cafe going for 2-3E. Didn’t check the prices at Starbucks which are also around, they get a wide berth (though not as wide as nespresso!).

Into one of many shops selling fresh produce yielded some fresh fruit from a great selection, and with the help of google translate was able to get a carabiner from a local hardware store to hold my broken strap on the carryon bag. I was headed for the “mad mad vegan” for dinner but got waylaid by a string of Indian restaurants in my ‘hood – prawn masala was quite different from home but very satisfying after a long day walking. The rain was back so I headed home to put my feet up and prepare for tomorrow. Time in Madrid is flying!

on the way home – cobblestones were wet and a bit hazardous in parts

Patisseries from La Mallorquina -highly rated, est 1894 – I’d give them a 6/10.

Kasha to alternate parents on Friday. Little sleep as usual the night before departure. Uber to airport on Saturday morning, amazingly left on time for Toronto. 2 hr layover there, next onto the Toronto-Madrid leg (7 1/2 hours) where sleep was slotted in, to aid in acclimatisation to jetlag according to the plan. Alas it was not to be. A young girl in the penultimate row in business class screamed at top volume for the first half of the trip; have no idea how she had the energy to keep it up but everyone’s teeth were gritted by an hour in and it went on much longer than that. Meal service was repeatedly suspended for turbulence and announcements of same in three different languages also made it hopeless to sleep. Ate the appetizer and then gave up on the rest of the meal, tried to get some sleep as the shrieker had subsided but as soon as I got comfortable, off she went again. Yeesh.

Thankfully, had an audiobook to listen to which drowned out some of the ambient shrieking and she eventually did die down somewhat, with intermittent bursts thereafter. But it was just brief dozing at that point for me for the rest of the flight.

Fortunately breakfast was edible so decanted from the plane replete from a food standpoint but definitely bleary eyed, into the promised queues from the new EU border check system. Unlike my cousin Marion’s experience recently, sadly showing a UK passport didn’t let me into the EU lineup. We were “processed” through an automatic check machine like ours at YVR which scans the passport, takes a picture and then ???? Of course, my machine decided the picture wasn’t good enough but it didn’t seem to matter as we all seemed to be sent to the same lineup which was Disney-esque in length. After 45 mins of shuffling back and forth through a very warm and stuffy holding area we were put through a similar machine, this time with fingerprinting function, but once again I didn’t get through the picture stage. Which again didn’t seem to matter, and happened also to the couple behind me, as we again were funnelled into the same queue as everyone else. Another 30 mins of snaking and shuffling around and we were sent through yet another machine which rejected my passport completely and I was ushered to a different section to be manually processed – a much shorter lineup, could I have joined that two machines and an hour ago??? Who knows. After being manually processed I was finally disgorged, 1.5 hours later, into the baggage hall where a few forlorn bags were rotating round and round…mine amongst them, happily. Gosh, travelling from A to B is so much fun.

So time to regroup and activate the vodafone plan I’d gotten online before leaving Vancouver. Didn’t go smoothly of course but eventually got it working so I could see where I was headed to my central Madrid apt. Took a bit to find the metro, quite confusing signage but did find it after a couple of elevator rides up and down. The metro station ticket machine where I got a tourist pass for the duration of my stay wouldn’t accept my Wise VISA card preloaded with Euros (but did accept that of the fellow behind me, grrr so will have to troubleshoot that). I ultimately paid with cash and got change in Euro coins, so many it was like winning the jackpot at a casino, they came tumbling out with verve onto the floor as well as into the change section and attracted a few grins from bystanders. By the time I got my ticket quite a lineup had developed 😏 – it was off next to catch a series of trains – 3 changes to be exact. Happily the Madrid Metro is mostly serviced by escalators so there were only two staircases to navigate, neither approaching the magnitude of ones traversed on the London tube with luggage. I did manage to break the shoulder strap of the bike accessory bag though on one of the manual stages uphill, will have to find a hardware store to jerryrig something else to hold it on.

The flat owner lives next door so was very helpful and I was able to stash the luggage while the apt. was being cleaned, thankfully. Surprisingly, and gratefully received, there is an elevator in the building (mignon but functioning!) so I was able to skip the four floor ascent with full luggage. First stop was the recommended cafe on the first floor of the building which has a Columbian owner and beans from Columbia. Excellent coffee and can’t beat the proximity – it is slow as they are mobbed but worth the wait. It’s a lovely neighbourhood filled with old buildings/ethnic sections – I passed through a North African section, an Indian section and a vegan area along the route to Plaza Mayor. Hordes out enjoying the Sunday shopping and eating, and all the small stores were open and seemed to be doing well with tourists of every nationality there as well as locals. A warm day, to be sure, but didn’t feel like the 31C forecast. So glad I’d taken shorts on my carryon to change into though, esp for the interminable wait in the passport lineup in the hot lobby (thank you Kandie for that suggestion!!)

Plaza Mayor

The caramels didn’t look particularly tasty in this shop but made a colourful display!

I managed to gravitate to one of the patisseries I’d hoped to visit, near the Plaza Mayor – it was mobbed with only one person serving so lots of patience needed but samples duly acquired for taste testing in the next couple of days. Checked out a few others and a chocolatier, all in the same area but they didn’t look above ordinary so I’ve crossed those off the list.

Plaza Mayor with a couple of bike groups. Didn’t see a lot of bikes on the roads though I suspect it likely locals would avoid this area on a weekend due to pedestrian congestion – did see the odd weaver and dodger and some delivery bikes.

Stopped at a Lidl on the way back to get provisions and checking out at a self-serve was fun… came home via a loop route along more very pretty streets and lots of restaurant activity.

Must be part of the pedestrian only network as everywhere else the narrow streets are jammed with cars, scooters, and bikes all competing for pavement.

Burners weren’t working so another call to Hector, the landlord – he couldn’t figure it out either (seemed to be on “lock” so couldn’t turn the elements on) and as he offered to get an oil burner it suddenly came back on line. After a tricky session following that trying to get the koodoo, vodaphone and SMS functions going without incurring international daily charges I can roundly curse technology! The verification codes from charge cards were being sent to my Canadian Koodoo number so I couldn’t retrieve them and was attempting to get a ticket for the Prado Museum tomorrow, the whole operation only took an hour! Apparently one needs to reserve tours at least 2-3 d ahead now and of course I didn’t so am relegated to an afternoon slot now which is tough when jetlagged.

And on that note I am nodding at the keyboard – have lasted until 7 p.m. which is amazing but after two nights in a row of little to no sleep I am done!