Tired...

I feel like this:

I sort of knew I was unfit - apart from frantic bursts of activity in the lab I spent most of my waking hours last year either sitting down at a computer or slumped on the sofa. Still, it's taken me a little by surprise just how tired I feel less than two weeks into the trip. I'm aching in places I didn't even know I had places! In terms of actual number of routes climbed, I've hardly done anything - I've probably only been averaging one route a day so far.  But after such a long period of inactivity that, plus getting up almost every day and carrying a bag up a hill, is apparently enough to wipe me out.  It's going to make me stronger in the end though, right?

Andy's been coping better than me in general - until yesterday.  He had a fantastically successful day the day before at Gandia in the Costa Blance (a 7a and 7a+ onsight, and another 7a+ second go), but yesterday had to rest on the rope on a 6b+ (four grades easier) because his fingers hurt too much to pull on the holds!  We spent most of the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun chatting to an Australian couple who'd quit their jobs to travel round Europe for two years, putting our 9 month trip to shame!

We therefore decided it was probably a good idea to have a proper rest day today.  We did another few hours of southward driving yesterday evening, had a lazy morning (including a much needed shower!) this morning, then this afternoon we're off to have a look round Granada. I'll hopefully post something about that I the next few days.

In the meantime though, here is a collection of random things I have noticed recently:

- in Spanish supermarkets it doesn't seem to be possible to buy garlic in smaller denominations than a bag of five bulbs.  The concept of only wanting to buy a single bulb of garlic doesn't seem to exist.

- I have discovered a new foodstuff! On our last shopping trip I bought a block of smoked and cured tuna. It's nice - it tastes a bit like biltong but fishier!  I'm not sure if this is a uniquely Spanish thing or a general continental thing (we were in a massive Carrefour at the time), but it's not something I've ever seen before.

- in small Spanish villages, cafés don't seem to have much interest in advertising themselves as such - I assume the logic is that all the locals know where it is already so why would they need a sign?  In Chulilla (a picturesque little village at the head of a gorge full of great climbing) we had to ask in the butcher's shop (where we were buying bread), whether there was a cafe nearby and it turned out we'd been standing right next to one - but it just looked like someone's house!  I should have taken a picture really, but didn't think about it at the time...

- somebody in Gandia really doesn't like golf!!  On reflection, this is probably a comment on the despoiling of the countryside around the Costa Blanca by developers building golf resorts (we weren't too far away from Benidorm and Alicante), but the idea of someone getting that riled up about golf as a sport amused me for a few minutes.

- Spanish parking can be...interesting.  Here, I like how the guy on the left has ignored about 20 available parking spaces (there are about five just about visible in the picture, plus loads of others out of shot), and has just stopped in the middle of the road with hazards on.

- I saw this French sign in a service station south of Murcia, so quite a long way from France. I can only assume therefore that this service station must have a specific problem with French people trying to wash their feet in the sink...

Anyway, I'm off to be touristical for an afternoon. ¡Hasta luego!