Slept well at the Poussada even though the church clock still dings through the night which kept Tim awake when he was here 39 years ago, good shutters and a good distance from the town square helped.The poussada is such a big place it would be great for a family reunion or a wedding even! It was just amazing walking through all the long passage ways with small chapel recesses and old faded frescoes on the walls, a good walk to get to breakfast.

It was a surprising 8C chilly in the morning and we had decided on the hilly route to avoid the route to Borba where all the marble mines are (and hence trucks) although now there are plenty of marble mines around Vila Vicosa aswell.It started off with beautiful scenery but before we knew it we were in the clouds and focussing on just the road as the small lane way weaved its way through the hills.There were fields of mother bulls with small bullocks and birds everywhere sitting on the wire fence.The birds were all types finches, crested plovers, and honeyeaters but as soon as you stopped they flew away.We passed several abandoned derelict churches, even a field of really stunning horses and of course sheep.

The hills were classed as moderate but even with an e-bike I was puffing away reluctant to use the top 2 levels of assistance in case I ran out of battery. I felt like I was in a bike spin class at the gym pedaling like mad downhill to get up the next hill and then pedalling as fast as I could up the next hill till the battery kicked in.

We arrived at Elvas a spectacular walled town by 1115am a very late coffee stop.The main square was straight up many cobbled tiny streets however Elvas council didn’t seem as diligent with maintaining their cobbles as other towns so plenty of loose and missing cobbles to suddenly miss. A quick look around then it was time to try and get out down all the one way systems.Tim pulled into the police stations parking lot just as a police van was returning but they were quite relaxed with Tim taking a photograph their parking spot.On the long route out of Elvas we came out past a huge aqueduct so incredible to see I’m glad we didn’t miss it.

The next section was tricky as we weren’t sure whether a minor road next to motorway to Badehoz, Spain existed. We were fortunate there was a great cycle path all the way to the motorway and the minor road actually existed so I conserved my battery power for nothing!It was now a very easy ride into Spain and Badehoz whose town greeted us with a beautiful new cycle path it didn’t last long however.

Our first impressions of Badehof were not great Soviet style large apartment blocks everywhere, the river looked dirty however bike traffic lights and bike paths so cannot complain.We reached our hotel another concrete block, booked because it had underground parking and in fact a dedicated area for bikes.We are an hour ahead so we have lost an hour coming to Spain just aswell as breakfast is that bit closer.

As we wandered around the city everything was shut apart from cafes and the parks were full of family’s picknicking. So when we stopped at a cafe to grab some drinks we asked the waiter what the public holiday was, it was Fathers Day. Nothing at all was open apart from cafes selling drinks and a few tapas, even our fall back in France the traditional turkish kebab shop was not open.The hotel said they would restart room service at 8pm at night.Too late for us.We have checked our supplies its nuts and an orange for dinner.Looking forwards to breakfast.

Just aswell we had a big dinner in Vila Vicosa last night.We did also find a 24hr pharmacy open by pure chance as Tim’s bee sting finger was looking increasingly red and swollen. I was going to learn some Spanish before the trip but thought we might just end up in Portugal so didn’t learn any hence I had to mime Tim getting stung by a bee.The pharmacist got the idea and gave Tim some steroid cream, problem sorted. I also got something for my cough which seems to work so we are all fixed now ready for our big ride tomorrow to Merida where we join the Ruta via de Plata which was the route we originally wanted to do.

Badehoz entrance into town from river

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