It's soooo hard to wake up in a comfy hotel.....the room has a great view of the Mediterranean....booking.com...its made for some cheap high end hotels.

Shake off the cob webs....hose off... And proceed to get some desyunas. The place is packed with Brits! all they have is a buffet breakfast so I give it a try....and exit rapido....everywhere you have breakfast has fresh squeezed orange juice...getting to like that.

Pack up.... And hit the road.... Really have no idea where I'm going but I think there are some neat looking roads to the north .... Also Cordoba is in the general direction..and Diego has that suggested as a place to visit,sounds like a plan I guess. The challenge is finding nice roads....for riding a bike...secondaries in good shape...with curves...not asking much.

Once on the bike its a matter of looking at the map....seeing what dots make sense by adding the right lines. I'm using Michelin maps...they are awesome they color code the roads....anything colored green is scenic and in great shape....even with GPS you need a map...big picture...then you use the GPS. My gal has been treating me pretty good lately...and she puts up with my lack of ability to hear the female voice at times...."recalculating, recalculating" keeps echoing in me head for a while after I'm in the bar and the bike is asleep. Trick seems to be to find twisty green roads.....and if you look hard enough...they pop up.

I even seem to have figured out some of the signage....a tread mark with 2 tires....you can pass ahead...figure that one out.....took me a bit...least that's what I think...no ones honked at me yet...if I had Alberta plates I could get away with more....got spanish plates so if I screw up...they just get pissed at me. So far so good, no ones tried to run me down yet.

Highways top limit is 120....translates into about 140.....thats decent. through the towns....lots of speed humps...and cross walks and lights...and roundabouts everywhere they keep the traffic moving nice. No one really signals a lot....and no one gets annoyed. Everyone seems to know no one is trying to deliberately kill anybody. Secondary speed limits are all over the place...the road signage is amazing way better than at home. Seems they spent a lot of money on the roads here. Every village has a gaggle of old folks sitting on a corner watching you as you go buy. They always watch as I go buy....suspect a new gringo is in town I guess.

Gas is 1.40 euro a liter....thats a bit pricy....I'm noticing that at the pump....all small cars here...hmmm wonder why......I've not seen a bunch of bikes as of yet either...on the hiway that is....just the odd one and they always wave just like at home.

Sooo I grab a map....find a few squigglys that have dots in the right place and the general direction is Cordoba...pinch myself...yup I'm still here and everyone is speaking spanish still....coooolllllll......yepa yepa undaley.....ya thats spelt wrongggggg

So the roads I pick are a highway to get out of town...then a secondary of dubious nature....lol was I right in that...its a goat trail..but paved and twistier than elvis in the early years...prior to the fried peanut butter and other congealing things sandwiches. granted I did discover the Peanut burger at a restaurant in Edmonton...man is it good......comes with cardio paddles...its awesome. I felt a connection with the King first time I tried it. But I digress oops

The road is a goat trail paved but bumpy and it climbs a mountain..with crazy curves...and its got huge drop offs, coooool old stone bridges and its a great weather day. So all is good...I have fun but can't go to fast....for a bit at least...don't want to bottom the suspension too much....makes for a tricky ride in tight corners. so I stop a lot and take a ton of pics on the way....and eventually pop out at a place that has a Cafe...time for a cappuccino.

The Analucian villages are cool to see as they are cut into mountains...and all painted white. Another thing is that there are castles everywhere....look at a hill and chances are there is a castle or church on top. Amazing if you like history..

Now the landscape really starts to change...I'm in olive country....there are nothing but fields of olive trees as far as the eye can see....all planted in neat rows.....and its a very dry landscape....very interesting difference.

So my day consisted of poppiin in and out of villages via cool roads....stopping for a beverage every once in a while. Very relaxing.   So the day was getting long and needed a room.....booking.com suggested a place in the old quarter....sort of an old moorish castle....again great price so I book it a head for it as it seems Cordoba is as far as I am getting today. I'm liking this by the seat of the pants thing......

Seriously folks....trying to find anything in the old areas of towns here is like looking for needle in a haystack... You end up in these mazes of narrow streets surrounded by tall ancient buildings, churches, and monuments...nothing runs north or south.....not that you can tell what direction your moving....so I blindly follow my gal....and amazingly she navs the alleyways like a local....still can't pronounce anything ... just gibberish in me head. I have to sort of drive....look at gps for a turn....by the meters its coming at me....and get a feel for the direction of the turn....and when the meters are near zero...commit to one of the various alley options....if I get it wrong....recalculating...and its easy to get it wrong....

So either way....can't find the place...I wander all over for about a half an hour.....I know I'm close....so resort to stopping at every doorway .... to look for a sign....finally there is a name that looks right....it has a driveway and I drive in....its like a castle entrance...into a court yard. WOW! They great me before I'm off the bike. The main guy is from New York....so he talks me head off about the place. His helper is drooling over the bike and goes on about how he only has a vespa cause his madre would kill him if he tried to get a bigger bike (doesn't matter what part of the world you are in for that it seems)....super friendly though.

ts a restored castle...again...very old. They give me a drink...check me in....and they dump me bags in me room and he proceeds to tour me around the place. Its actually built on roman ruins. Underneath is an archaeological dig site....so the government owns that part...so they build the dining area above it...on a glass floor.....you look down and there are actual ruins below you. Tres cool....old fresco on the walls....very cool. The rooms are super modern..so bizarre....

So I ditch the bike gear....and hose off mostly to fix the helmet head...hate when people point n laugh. Sensitive that way I guess. Most stuff is closed but I find the main plaza...and wander around...it has cafes all over so find one and do the tapa thing and took in the area for a bit....then..discovered me first religious parade. Seems a bunch of guys with t shirts wrapped around there heads had to lug a big ass .... thingy.....somewhere....and it looked heavy....a bit of a mob following them and coaching....mostly girls....I figured it out eventually. They had to stop every lil bit and put the thing down...Its like a bit tortoise shell....with fifty guys underneeath it....non of them can see where they are going. So with much fanfare..they stop...set it down for bit..the gals then go under and find there guy and give him a hug or s*** not sure..which..."Antoni....you have to try harder..Antoni is making you look bad" ...seriously I think everyone here is called Antoni. No fun unless your suffering I guess LOL.

.So I decided to let the Anthoni's carry on I shall try to find the hotel....I was totally lost in the area. Just kept wandering about.....least I was sober....eventually I had to give in and pulled out the iphone.....had to use the map function to find the place...and I was only two sort of blocks away.

Lonnnngg day...but a fun ride day and seeing very different things......socks....are gettign pretty lively again.....sheesh.... tomorrow...Valencia....I think.