April 11, 2014

Just as I thought – not as restful as it sounds. After breakfast I spend the early part of the morning updating this blog, whilst Ken rotates the various items of washing on hangers out of the hotel window to dry.  It doesn’t take long – it feels even hotter than yesterday.

We then have a discussion with the receptionist about the most likely place to buy our bike parts and depart with a map in hand with two places marked on it. Neither of these prove fruitful, but we get sent onwards to another option – this is closed, permanently gone out of business. The street thermometre already reads 32 degrees. We are a bit stuck now but spot ‘El Corte Ingles’ on the horizon; a department store which usually has a bike section and sometimes a bike workshop too. We are not very hopeful that they will have what we want, but they may know of another bike shop somewhere nearby. The street thermometre has now hit 34 degrees.

We are not successful in ‘El Corte Ingles’ but the shop assistant tells us where there is a bike shop that will definitely have what we want. This is, of course, back the way we have just walked but a bit further along apparently. Never mind, it is giving the legs a bit of a workout even though I’m not sure that is what they want.  We find the shop and for a while we think we might get sorted out but, no, they don’t have the right parts. It looks like the internet is going to be the only option.