Walls of Ávila

I have a bit of PTSD when thinking about bikes on trains. Running late in Paris and then getting a flat tyre on the kid’s Chariot, trying to bundle everything on at the last minute without the two year old falling onto the tracks, realising that the train door won’t open wide enough for the chariot, realising that the fold-up mechanism on the chariot is broken, …. The train starting to move with only half the family on board and half the chariot still out the door. Fun times, good memories. That was not the only bad experience. I remember another time being pulled onto a departing subway by the shirtfront, having managed to get my bike on, but not all of myself, as the tunnel edge approached.
The rules here in Spain say only three bikes on a train, so it’s always been a bit of a lottery when we turn up. We can’t ever buy 4 tickets. On our 5th train now as a family however, so fortunately the rules seem bendable. Not that the train we’re on now is going where we decided to go last night. That train line, for reasons unknown, was declared strictly ‘no bicicletas’ at the ticket booth, so Salamanca will not be enjoying our company this evening. Instead, Valladolid had us riding down the green carpet this morning, laid especially for us on the promenade into the main plaza. We think Penelope and Javier might have had first go on it last night for some filmfest, but we just speculate . Valladolid has also enjoyed us putting on a fine display of family hacky sack with the soccer ball this morning. A double hack has been our modest best so far, but one of us is just turning the corner after breaking a rib a week ago, so cred to them for getting off the couch at all. We did all greatly enjoy watching the Valladolidlian A League team, known locally as Pucelas, beat their rivals from the north yesterday afternoon. We were sat amongst the Basques, so had to feign enthusiasm when their team took shots, but were secretly happy when the local underdogs got their home ground victory. Seeing a game in La Liga was one of the few items on our ‘to do’ list, so it was a victory for us as well. We’ve finally left the north coast to spend a few days in the heartland before heading home. Hoping that the rains in Spain choose to fall elsewhere for a bit, and let us enjoy a bit of relatively flat cycling.Read more