EEC Tour Day 1 - Burgos

Quitting Vivar, noticed a crow upon the right,

Entering Burgos, noticed a crow upon their left.

My Cid shrugged his shoulders, my Cid shook his head,

‘Fine tidings, Álvar Fáñez, we’re exiled from this land!’

....

The Cid rested there as one does in the mountains. 

We were all up early and ready to go in plenty of time. Fortunately, the hotel let us access the breakfast coffee machine and we had a few cafe con leches before the driver arrived.

The van was quite large but we had to take both front and back wheels off. After a few photos by the driver we were off in the dark. As we went up the freeway it got light and the countryside was quite pretty.

Not quite halfway the driver slowed and pulled to the shoulder. The van was overheating. We slowly drove to the next gas station. While the driver bought and replaced coolant we went across the street and had tostadas and bad coffee at the cafe.

We made it to Burgos without further incident but there was no question the van was losing coolant. The driver - who was Venezuelan - would have no problem getting back to Madrid if he keep adding the 3 extra jugs of coolant along the way 

The hotel held our bags and let us change in the restroom. And with that the EEC Tour officially began. A few blocks later we were in the Camino del Cid Office being helped by lovely Jimena (named for the wife of El Cid and her brother was named Rodrigo). She was very nice and helpful. She told us Elon Musk was just south of Burgos for a big eclipse party.

From there we took the gravel bike route to Vivar del Cid and the official starting point. We took lot of photos. On the way back we followed the official road bike route.

Back at our hotel we checked in, left the bikes in a large meeting room and showered. We were quite hungry at this point. Unfortunately the only open restaurant were could find in this side of the river was a halal place. We just needed calories at that point. The owner was a friendly guy from near Islamabad.

Back at the hotel we had siesta. I think I slept about an hour. Just before 7pm it was time to find a place to watch the eclipse. We walked past the cathedral to the far side of the hill the castle is on. We found a nice viewing area. Bob was very excited. Not a cloud in the sky and we had a great view.

Afterward we went to centro and found a tapas place for some beers and food.