Amazing how good one feels first thing in the morning on a flat road with the wind at your back; and how quickly the euphoria can be blown away when the wind flies down from the mountains and almost knocks you off your bike as it smacks you in the face.

Though today’s start was close to the same temperature as yesterday, it felt much warmer, probably due to the warm wind coming from the hills.  We rode boardwalks

and beautiful towns

along the coast with only moderate climbing.

We were making good time despite a long conversation with Francesa from France (seriously), still biking at 78 years old; meanwhile I snapped pictures of a little boy immensely enjoying the beach.

The vistas of the sea the homes enjoyedwas incredible.

By eleven a.m. we were at our halfway point, unfortunately, the majority of the climbing would be the second half of the ride.  Hairpin turns

offered spectacular viewsas we laborously climbedand climbed.Seemingly deserted coveswere around every bend, it’s just every bend meant more climbingand even a couple of tunnels.The sound of cars coming through the tunnel is unbelievably loud and the inside quite eerie and intimidating on a bicycle.The tunnels saved us a little climbing, so we were happy, every little bit helps with the climbs are this brutaland the fly-downs were very short lived.  But we’d noticed the wind had eased and the temps had cooled so we were as incredibly drained as the day before.  We finally reached our last climb of the day and could see the town we were staying, in the distance.An hour later, after passing an old castle (we think) and crossing a dry river bedwe arrived at our destination.

After almost six hours on the bike, there was not much touring we could do and not much the town had to offer other than one of the widest beaches we’ve ever seenand a view back at the mountains still left to climb.

Ever since reaching Spain, we have desperately looked for restaurants that open at what we consider a decent hour, 7:30 has been the earliest.  Tonight we had to wait until 8:30…. really cramping our early dinner routine.  But tonight’s paella was more than worth it.