From Almarza to Almazán, day 29

Tuesday, 15.8.2023, Day 29
Today we made good progress again, heading south for a good distance, 60 km, which is quite impressive, not as challenging as the previous days, as we only had 608 meters of altitude. So our stage today was quite moderate and relaxed. As an addition to yesterday: those who noticed the huge bird nests on the church tower of Almarza were right to assume that they are stork nests. Interestingly, there are also storks (cigüeñas) in Spain. And while we were practicing the Spanish word cigüeñas, our Spanish hosts struggled with the word "storks". In the late morning, we came across a closed country road, which initially made us happy because we were completely alone, there was no traffic, and we made good progress. Then the closed country road turned into a permanent construction site and, in the end, into a catastrophic gravel track that we shouldn't have ridden under normal circumstances. For cars, there was the option of taking the highway, but not for us. There was also no bypass without having to go back for kilometers. So we continued on this gravel track, hoping that it would turn into a smooth asphalt bike path after every hill. But it didn't. Instead, the catastrophe lasted for 10 km, and I prayed the rosary up and down (especially because today is the assumption of Mary celebrated in Spain), praying that the material would hold, that we wouldn't get a flat tire. And I'm talking about the tires, not the inner tubes, because I have 4 spare tubes with me and could change a tube at any time in the scorching midday heat, but not a tire. If we had had a flat tire, we would only have been able to push the bikes in the blazing midday heat. The idea was not particularly attractive, pushing the bikes on a gravel track at 40°. Fortunately, the material held up and nothing happened to us. Clearly annoyed, we arrived in Almazán 1 hour later than planned and declared it a cleaning day for the afternoon. First, we all went to the laundromat, throwing our sweat-drenched jerseys into the washing machine, then polishing our gravel-dusty bikes into a high gloss at the gas station. And to top off the unexpected day, we treated ourselves to a plato de Döner para llevar at the kebab shop. Now we're sitting outside, waiting - like every evening - for the temperature to drop from 30° to 20°, because otherwise, sleeping is not really an option.