Rain, rain rain. I could hear it on and off all night. My sleeping pattern has definitely shifted wholely to Spanish time. I can easily sleep past sunrise and my starts are getting later and later.
I walked out of the hotel toward the center of town and picked a friendly looking, busy bar and sat at the counter. I ordered my usual. I then ordered a second and a jamon y queso. Everyone else was eating then so I thought it was the thing to do.
I was riding by 10:30 and it was not quite raining and but not entirely not raining. The first half of the ride had most of the climbing and the rain was very light. It was enough to keep the road wet and make my brakes squeal loudly. I was cautious down the hills.
I there was a sign I saw "Atencion bandas Sonoras". I thought it was warning women of bandits. Google Translate said it was "Attention Sound Tracks". That puzzled me until I realized they were talking about the cross ways rumble strips.
It was quite a nice ride and I even managed a few pictures. It was warm enough I didn't need my jacket.
The second half was wetter and colder. I have no pictures, of course. It did go quickly as it was mostly downhill. At some point I saw a marker saying 28km to Alora and I thought I had 22km to go. That's when the downhill started and I was moving. It was cold and wet, however. Suddenly I saw a sign 2km to Antequera. I was only doing 40km and I thought it was 50. Nice surprise.
When I got to the edge of town I missed my turn by 100m. From the turnoff to the center of town was about 1km but there was a 100m elevation drop. I couldn't use my phone because everything was wet and I couldn't feel my fingers. I pulled into the first bar and ordered a cafe and tried to make my phone and fingers work.
The road from the bar to the center of town was so steep I had to walk the bike. There were cars on incredibly steep, narrow streets. Very cute little city but the cars are bad. My guess is the next time I visit Antequera most of the downtown will be a car limited zone like a lot of Barcelona and many of the French towns. Only residents and deliveries can pass pop up/down barriers.
Many of the street were blocked off by police for the Monday procession. It was still kind of deadly.
I had to rely on voice directions from my phone to find the hotel because of the wet and useless fingers. When I got to the hotel I just handed my baggie with my passport over because I couldn't open it. My bike is staying in the hotel office. The guy checking me in asked about my name and said his wife was Japanese from Osaka. He knew about the 88 Temples Pilgrimage and was envious I had done it. His kids were very young so it would have to wait
The hotel Arte de Cozina is nice and since the forecast tomorrow is rain I booked a second night. Rest day tomorrow.
I just needed to get in a hot shower. After that I needed some lunch. The hotel also has a restaurant so I ate there. It was a fancy place and quite busy. The dishes were very small by Spanish standards but they were good. I had patatas bravas, garlic onion soup and an okonomi. It was an interesting menu.
After lunch I needed my siesta.
A few hours later I heard a procession marching band outside so I went to check it out. Afterwards I walked around town. I then had another break before dinner.
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