Hola chicos. When i reread my old posts i sound really negative, i think i just tend to write more when i'm annoyed. I don't want you to think Spain sucks. For me there are three things that suck: my girlfriend is in the US, i hate the food and the often mentioned burrocracy. What i like is the sometimes surprising natural beauty, the depth of history and culture that only comes with age (celtic, basque, roman, visigoth, moor, anarchist, monarchy, fascist), and the art treasures that only an old empire could have amassed. I did my ride to rascafria via peurto de la morcuera, returning via peurto de cancencia...about 100km each way. So I've got 4 puertos in the bag for this mountain range...never mind, its a wierd obsession i have, kind of like hikers who bag 14ers in Colorado. It was all pretty, but I wasn't exactly a shutterbug...there just weren't good shots. Everything beautiful was too big to be captured in a photo. I stayed the night in Rascafria. Could I do it in 1 day, yeah I think so, but I would have to avoid the afternoon somehow or do it a month ago. Despite the altitude, la morcuera is quite warm and you are exposed to the sun for over half of the climb. From madrid its a 70 km approach just to begin the climb, and then you bust ass. I was hurting at the top, and was totally bonking. I could see the parking lot/scenic overlook at the pass maybe 0.4 km away but I couldn't make it without stopping to eat. This happens to me from time to time. This one was tougher than Navacerrada i think, or maybe it was just warmer. Par usual the downhill was killer, although a dumbass on a motorcycle almost hit me head on. If you have to veer into the middle of the opposite lane to make a curve, it's simple...you are travelling too fast. These guys are 100X more reckless and dangerous than the drivers of the cars. Unfortunately they love the same roads that cyclists do, because theres few cars. I had a customary stop at a spring near the top, all the puertos have springs developed into fountains. I found a hostal in rascafria for 20 euro, and pretty much passed out from 4:00 - 7:00. I couldn't motivate to climb another puerto (e.g. los cotos from the east) on account of my caloric deficit. The I went out and carbo loaded (this is what some people call drinking beer). The next day I got up early and tried to beat the heat. I stopped 3 times for breakfast, which always consisted of donuts and coffee. Puerto de Canencia turned out to be totally easy, the grade was mellower, it's a bit lower, and the approach is a tree tunnel for part of the way. I recommend this ride to any cyclist, oh and theres a spring with water at the top.Last weekend it was near 40C in madrid, plenty hot and it just doesn't inspire me to get on a bike to be quite honest. So i went into Madrid to score a free museum visit. First I returned to visit some favorite Picasso, Dali, and Bunuel that i had seen before and tried to take in some of the Reina Sofia colletion that I hadn't really seen. After they closed I walked around looking to treat myself to some good vegetarian food. The thai restaurants all had meaty menus and no tofu, and even the indian restaurants menus were meat centered. I did find a vegetarian menu which cost 16 euro, yeah seriously about 25 bucks for lunch! So much for that idea. But in my wanderings, i was also looking for a pint, I found the Caixa forum. I passed it going one way and just thought it was a bank building. I passed it the other way and saw a 4 story building covered in a jungle! "what the shit is that!" "That" turns out to be a sort of arts community center sponsored by a credit union. they had a nice exhibit of mass produced art (posters, stamps, postcards) by Mucha, aka Joe ArtNouveau. They also had enormous paintings by some nameless artist that were actually vertical sheets of wax upon closer examination. Finally they had a small theater which was showing short Japanese animated films. And the building itself is a work of art (see pics). On the way back to the metro, i made the most important discovery...convenience stores run by Turkish people sell these durum wraps for kebab. You get like 30 big-ass burrito sized ones for 4 euros. They are identical to tortillas! Not exactly cheap but compare that to 2.50 for 6 fajita-size tortillas made by Old El Paso. Now wheres the corn tortilla substitute?
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