Day 6: Granyena de les Barrigues to Caspe, Spain, 52 miles; 192 miles total

Grind It Out Day

After some easy days with short distances, we looked on the web, saw limited lodging in Caspe, so we reserved the only booking.com hotel available. Once booked, you have to get there. Stuart had cycled this area and particular route 12 years ago, and did not recall much climbing after the dam. Perhaps fitter and younger then, memories fade over time, or just pleasant memories of the downhill portions supplant the uphill portions. Either way, about time we exceeded 50 miles. 

As noted in an earlier post alluding to the grind it out period at the end of many rides, we reached it today at about 35 miles. Often we stop to regroup at the top of a climb, but the descent is cooling and restful, so the hilltop breaks transitioned to grind it out.

We asked Carlos, (remember Carlos our host in Montblanc), about potential routes as we cycled towards Madrid. He recommend the Pyranees and the coastal area south of Tarragona, neither of which were on our route to Madrid. When we said we were planning to head southwest, he strongly recommended against it: That area is shit! Today, sh*t was our destination. I liked it—you can form your opinion from the photos. Essentially, it was dry and largely devoted, in order, to olives, almonds, fruit trees of all types, and grapes with the occasional confinement hog or chicken facility. The almond harvest was underway; grapes were already harvested.

—Dog of the Day in Torrebesses. Realizing some of you quit reading after Dog of the Day, this Doggie in the Window  leads today's post.

—3rd Torrebesses Visit Is the Pause for a Photo. Stuart, John, and Stephen, 6 km into our ride.

—Young Olive Orchard Fronting Typical Village 

—Entrance to Llardecans. 

—Olive Processing.  The grate under the arch appeared to be where olives once were deposited for processing. Stairs behind the bench and wall descended to an underground chamber. The rusted machinery in the prior photo was obsolete olive pressing gear. The following tiles faced either side of the stairs.

—Olive Processing Tile #1

—Olive Processing Tile #2

—Morning Shadows

—John, Stuart, and Stephen

—Typical Hill-Top Village. The hill-top sites are usually lower than in Andalusia (further south) but still the best for prominent church spires.

 Almond Hulling Process, In Order

—Unloading

—Almonds With and Without Hull

—Farmer/Owner

—Hulled Olives into Coop Bin

—Olive Hulls

—Loading Raw Almonds in the Shell, Ready for Transport

—Mails Apartments. Not a double-wide.

—Raquel's home in Maials.

Maials Villager. While I toured the almond coop and village, the others found a cafe for coffee. I encountered this woman pushing a large bag of concrete up a steep street when entering the village and then entering her home 15 minutes later with empty buckets. In the background, Stephen and Stuart focus on their devices.

—Worst Road Surface of the Day but a nice 1-percent downslope. Beats gravel!

—Olives

—Broad Segre River Valley. We mostly followed this river southwest, ascending and descending on the left or east side.

—Three Stork Nests in Church Tower

—Crossing the Segre River into Mequinenza 

—Mequinenza castle, XIV and XV, in Saragossa Province, Aragon, Spain, #1.

The castle was built between the XIV – XV century, the most emblematic building in Mequinenza.  It’s been defeated at times and rebuilt.

The castle was a phoenician tower, arabic fortness, Montcada’s Palace, Medinaceli’s Ducal house, French conquest, Fernando’s VII Crown property, military fortness, and a major figure of the civil war.

—Mequinenza castle, XIV and XV, in Saragossa Province, Aragon, Spain, #2

No pictures after lunch; pretty country but just cycling a series of long uphills and downhills. I am pleased to have installed a 34-tooth rear cassette cog. You know you are going slow when:

• The flies can keep up.
• The 34-tooth is engaged.
• A gentle tail wind is cooling.
• You wonder if you can keep upright at 4 mph.

Caspe is a hilltop city with a steep facing wall to the east and narrow foot bridge over a small river. My Garmin managed to locate the lodging address via a winding course from the backside of the town. The others, following, simply headed for the church tower in the city center and were within a few blocks. Both routes were extremely steep with unrideable portions.

—Road Into Cepes. View from Cepes Town Ramparts

I was appointed to find a dinner place. We all had excellent meals, prepared by our host/chef, who identified herself as Russian from the Ukraine. My excellent baked eggplant was stuffed with cheese and ground pork. 

While born in the Ukraine, she identified as Russian. She said that the USA comprised 51 States,(Stuart tried to tell her it was 50, but she ignored him.). She implied that if a federation of states was acceptable in the USA, then the USA should not be supporting the breakup of the Soviet States, including the Ukraine. Again, Stuart noted we had a civil war over that issue, be she ignored that as well. She liked Trump, disliked Obama and Clinton, and said that America was largely at fault for most of the world's conflicts. Having just read the Pulitzer-winning Last Soviets, read Bloodlands last year, and cycled through the Baltic States in 2015, this was interesting but expected.

Here is my last excerpt from Pleasures and Landscapes, Sybille Bedford's essay: A Journey in Yugoslavia, where she addresses attitudes towards freedom in soviet states:

For one thing, their terminology of freedom is not ours. For centuries these people were great fighters for freedom; the fought and they fought—to drive out barbarians, Turks, Venetians, Austrians, Italians, Nazis; they fought each other. What they fought for was a idea of national freedom; they did not fight for individual freedom, for civic freedom; democracy has never been a living concept in the Balkans. Now that they have driven out the invaders, their intense sense of nationalism is satisfied. 

Tonight's exchange is one of the most fascinating aspects of bicycle touring—exposure to and exchanges of opinions. 

—Russian/Ukraine Host/Chef