Walked today. I started at 6:45am and the sky was turning dark blue but it was still dark. I walked over to the 6am bar and the bartender remembered my order from a few days ago. There were two Camino Pilgrims there. I realized too late to start talking with them and I'm not sure what language they spoke, by their general confusion it wasn't Spanish. I got a 1.5L bottle of chilled water. Bars are a great place to get water, it's always cold and only a little more expensive than a store and you are already in the bar and the store is probably closed.
After a coffee, I took streets up the hill past the place Kieran and I stayed at in April. Just past there you are in olive groves. There are trail signs and I was going to take the loop route which goes through the Sculpture Forest. I like the Sculpture Forest; last time I was here I stumbled on it entirely by accident. What are these strange carvings in the stone. Are they ancient? No they are not. The guy who owns the olive carves in his spare time. He is self taught and some pieces are quite good. He is local news famous - I found some news clips on YouTube. I found one video of a guided tour to it.
The sculptures are only about 2km from my front door. I did end up on my butt at one point due to some loose dirt on a steep part.
The trail continues fairly flat north away from Alcala through the olive trees. Looking across the valley I could see the road where I enjoyed the great view of the castle rolling down the hill. I hadn't seen anyone else on the trail and I needed to pee. I couldn't see anyone and I started. Immediately, a guy comes around the corner walking his dog.
Just at the same distance either way to Alcala la Real, my direction started going up to the top of the outcrop. At a fork I chose right and I climbed to the top on a narrow trail. I suspect left may have been a little wider and less steep.
At the top the trail runs parallel and above the town. A town street met the trail and I took it into town. The route is not direct and you zigzag down. I want to go to the bank to get online access to my account. Currently, I think only the lawyer can do anything with it. The teller struggled with me for a while - she couldn't get the system to accept my US phone number - and eventually gave up and told me to come back next week. She will likely be one vacation and won't have to deal with me.
Next I stopped by a churro place that was always closed when I went by every other time. The place was hopping today. No seats outside; had to go in. I had a coffee and a churro. I think I like the ones at my other place a little more. This was good but I like my other place. After that I went to the bike shop. He did a bunch of work and replaced my head tube bearings. The bike felt better pushing it down the street. The bike tune up and repairs and the coffee and churros came to 37€.
I made another run to the home store for more stuff. Then I had lunch at another place that was always closed before. I had a very nice burger and 3 beers.
Now is the time of day I wish I had more furniture. I will tomorrow so I just have to pretend now. After walking back from lunch I took down the Casa Rural sign on the house. I picked a good time because the sun had been on it for a while and the silicone was very soft. Check off another job. I've been working on the front door for the last few days shaving it down so it closes without getting stuck on itself. I am realizing the door is not very regular or flat or a lot of the things I need it to be to install a new lock. It's gonna take some McGyvering.
I did replace the broken strap on the roll shutters in Room 2. Picking up so many new skills!
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