Tuesday, our first day on the road.

Its always tough getting out of a big city. Heavy traffic, lots of pedestrians walking in front of the bike and hard to find trail markers.

Today was no different. After a couple of miles, we were completely lost and needed to go back and start over.

Another thing about big city's, The trail frequently is on a one way street, against you direction of travel. Second guessing where its going almost always gets you lost. The best thing to do is simply walk down the street on the sidewalk and follow the route.
This of course takes extra time. Riding in the wrong direction can be done in the smaller towns, but chances are in any European City, that we know its name, riding against traffic is impossible and breaking the law!

Again, today was no different.

After about 3 hours, thing got a bit easier. There were more markers and less one way streets.

Later in the afternoon we started to see the mountains we will be crossing in the next couple of days.

All in all, a good first day. Not as much off road as one might expect, but way off the beaten trail and a Spain that most tourists never see.

Part of the day was riding through Rice paddies and Orange groves. Sunny and dry with a good breeze. The later it got, the hotter it was.
Finishing at 4:30 on all pavement and a climb to our hotel, we were happy to see the room. Top floor, with our bags already there.

After a shower and a short nap, we headed up town for a look around and a bite to eat.

Here are some of the photos from today:

Barbara with the nice fellow at the hotel desk.

Our loaded tandem at the offical start of the Camino de Levante

A recumbent sighting on the way out of town.

Dirt back to pavement, back to dirt.

The Rice