Day4: Eating and Praying

On the fourth day of his ‘Once to the end of the world tour – and back’ tour Sigi Grabner got off his bike after 124 kilometers, 640 meters in altitude and a riding time of four hours and 15 minutes. In his blog Sigi talks about cookies, ‘too many’ kilometers – and his monastery cell.

”Today I first rode the 38 kilometers to Aguilar de Campoo. At the moment, the first five minutes on the saddle are pure hell, but then everything is okay. In Aguilar there’s the huge cookie factory GULLON, which looks like a cookie tin, and where I naturally had to stop for breakfast. To be on the safe side, I stocked up on a huge batch of cookies from their ‘Degustation de Galletas’ – for bad times and just in case I get caught in a storm again …

After yesterday’s exhausting day I took it a bit easier today. I’m a bit off-color due to the storms and the 55 kilometer that were ‘too much’. That’s why I didn’t push myself and enjoyed the landscape … as far as the weather allowed. It was still stormy, but not as hot. From Cervera via Guardo I cycled along the valley, west-ward, and on the right hand side I saw in the snow-capped mountains in the north, the Piquos de Europa. I’m really looking forward to the Cantabrian Mountains (Cordilleras Cantabrian) coming up in the next few days. In Cistierna I then got off and called it a day. I only managed 124 kilometers, but I’m already in the province of León and I’m going to give my body a break. Today I’m stocking up on energy and am going to live up the Spanish culture by eating and praying.

I’m staying in a renovated 17th century monastery, which has been made into a hotel. It has four stars … Oh, that’s so great! My room is a comfortable monastery cell that has the sign ‘celda del cantor’ (singer’s cell) written on the door outside, and I have a view of a meditative monastery garden and I’m enjoying the scenery that doesn’t have wind turbines outside my window. Apart from that, I’m devouring unbelievable amounts of ‘Queso de Cabra’, mushrooms and roast beef and drinking the local wine … I might actually start singing today after all.

And something deep: Praise be to the XENON seat padding on my GORE BIKE WEAR cycling pants! Without it, life would only be half as good! And one more thing, insider info on wine: Senorio de San Vicente Reserva 2005. If you’re in the neighborhood, you might as well …”

Sigi Grabner – 06/06/09

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