Monday 21 January 2019

Monday 21 January - Palencia

Where's Bertie? He's still in the exact same spot, at the Aire at Palencia.
Weather: Glorious morning, gradually clouding over later, but very cold and with a short snow flurry first thing.

The fancy that took us today was to go out for a big Menu del Dia lunch, so a decision was made to stay here another night.

That meant that when we woke up to a freezing morning, I was at leisure to have breakfast and wait a couple of hours before donning Lycra and heading out into Parque Isla Dos Agua - the parkland adjacent to the parking area. Around the edge of that park runs a 'Circuito Urbano de Running' (yep, good Spanish word is 'running'!), as described by an information board that puts the track at 1km in distance. I ran around it 11 times, which sounds a bit dull but actually wasn't, although I did change direction six laps in, just to spice things up...

There was a hard frost and the lake was semi-frozen, but the track is grit so, save for one bridge crossing, it was all grippy and the effort soon had me at a comfortable temperature.

Mick walked whilst I ran, then he conducted a thorough test of Bertie's alarm sensors. Always good to check they still work every now and then, even if the test was accidental.

A couple of hours later, at gone 1pm, we headed out into town to find somewhere for lunch. That proved to be surprisingly difficult, not because we were being picky, but because, in the absence of outdoor seating, we were failing to spot the restaurants.

Eventually somewhere suitable was found and lunch got off to a start ... an odd start. I'd opted for the soup and when it arrived the dish comprised a freshly fried egg, covered in a cold, congealed pea and ham sort of soup. It was tasty enough, but the texture and temperature was just wrong and, of course, my almost-non-existent Spanish wasn't up to the job of asking if it was supposed to be that way. During the rest of our lunch, another seven people ordered the soup and, of those, four sent it back to be heated up. The others ate it cold, including one who was asked if he wanted it heating, but declined. That left me none the wiser as to whether it was supposed to be hot or not.

Apart from the soup, everything else was good - including dessert, which was a pot-luck affair. The waiter listed the options, we understood nothing, and thus asked him to choose on our behalf. Mick ended up with a trifle and I had something I couldn't identify but that suited me nicely.


Then we waddled back to Bertie where indoor activities have taken up the rest of the day, including a decision as to the direction in which we are going to head tomorrow. South, is the answer.

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