Do you remember my bladder infection from last week and how I thought the antibiotics worked great? Probably a classic case of rejoicing too soon... This caused us to take advantage of Miguel's hospitality for another week after all. But read for yourself!
Saturday (October 15th) started for us by making a plan of what else is pending and what needs to be done. This included, among other things, cleaning our tent a little after 3 months and letting it dry. After cleaning our mobile home, we decided to clean Miguel's vacation home as well, as we had been staying here for a few more days. The most exciting thing that day was that we worked out a plan how to go from here to Tilman's sister Merle near Valencia. We used "GraphHopper" for the planning and then modified the suggested routes according to our wishes. We have made it a habit to always have both a "Touring Profile" and a "Road Profile" option. The two differed mainly in their road surface. In the touring profile, we usually have somewhat more remote roads, but unfortunately sometimes with a somewhat poor road surface. This is usually the point at which we switch to the paths with road bike profiles. Apart from this planning, not much happened and for once we went to bed early.
Sunday (October 16th), on the other hand, should be a bit more adventurous. Already when cycling downhill into the city, we noticed that our brakes were working a bit poorly. Unfortunately, it didn't get any better, despite frequent adjustments and replacement of the brake pads. During a short break (we had come about 15km by then) I had to realize that my bladder infection came back worse. With a heavy heart, we decided to drive back to repair our brakes in peace and to find a solution for my bladder infection. Since it was Sunday, we decided to go straight to the hospital. Here, the chances to be treated were best. Tilman took care of the bike and our belongings and I headed to one of my least favourite places - doctors and hospitals. But everyone here was nice and super well organized. So, I found myself about 1 hour later on a treatment bed. There, to my horror, I was told that they wanted to take both a urine sample (which I expected) and a blood sample (which I didn't expect). Everyone who knows me knows what that means... And so, the nurse treating me will be talking about the strange German on a bicycle tour for a few weeks, who burst into tears while taking blood. After that, I had to wait about 2 hours for my results with a cannula in my arm.
And let me tell you one thing: hospitals are boring all over the world! If only they had any irrelevant magazines! After about 1 hour, I got a visit from Tilman, who couldn't reach me by phone due to the lack of signal. In the meantime, Miguel had joined Tilman outside. The two waited patiently for me. After about 2 hours, I was informed of the laboratory results. Blood was fine. Urine already showed a significant concentration of bacteria. And so, I got an intravenous antibiotic and a prescription for one to take next week. After 4 hours in the hospital, Tilman and Miguel welcomed me outside. They had already loaded the tandem into the car while I was inside and so Miguel drove us up to the house, where I fell into bed completely exhausted and fell asleep immediately.
On Monday (October 17th) our first trip was to the nearby Farmacia to pick up my antibiotics. We continued into the city, where we had picked out several bike shops. The first store was a failure right away. Unfortunately, this bike mechanic didn't know much about disc brakes and wasn't that helpful in any other ways either. So, we politely thanked him for his time and drove on to the next shop, where staff was more competent but they didn't have our model there. The third store no longer existed. The fourth was very promising, but unfortunately was on lunch break. So, we took the time to munch something on the beach and were back in front of the bike shop just in time for the afternoon opening time. There, we met very competent people and an enthusiastic mechanic who immediately recognized the problem and saw that our disc was a bit warped, which happens from time to time. After some back and forth, he gave us additional tips and we got new brake pads. On the way back, we went shopping and spent a lazy rest of the evening.
Tuesday (October 18th) the bike was cleaned. We also made a plan on how we want to spend Christmas. I would like to celebrate Christmas with my family. That's when Tilman came up with the idea that we could cycle to his godmother in Stuttgart and from there, I would then continue to Haldensleben by train and after Christmas, our tour will continue together. Let's see if we can do that. As you know, there is always something in between.
On Wednesday (October 19th) it was time to chill again …because we haven't chilled enough the last few days... On antibiotics, that's probably the best option anyway.
On Thursday (October 20th ) we got a little more active. It's not easy to chill when you've been driving for 3 months and there's always something new happening. So today, we went down to the beach to get some fresh air. Even the sun showed up! Tilman used the occasion to take some cool photos of the waves.
In the afternoon, we made ourselves useful and mowed the lawn on the property. We discovered a small animal visitor. Our internet research leads us to believe that it was a slow worm. But maybe one of you is a reptile expert and can enlighten us? :)
In the evening we watched "The School of Good and Evil" on Netflix - we can only recommend it!
On Friday (October 21st), we started cleaning the house for the next tenants since there was a reservation for the weekend. After that was done, we moved into the empty apartment of a friend of Miguel's. So, we still had a solid roof over our heads for at least one night. In the evening, we said goodbye to Miguel and ate some pasta. Hopefully, next week we'll be back on the bike again!
Since there wasn't that much exciting to report this week, there is now enough space to tell the story in the autumn starry sky. Our final character is Cepheus . The constellation is right next to the W of Cassiopeia.Our story takes place in ancient Ethiopia. Cassiopeia and Cepheus were the royal couple at that time and had a beautiful daughter named Andromeda. Cassiopeia was at least as beautiful as her daughter and bragged about it publicly. She is even more beautiful than the “Nereids”, which are something like mermaids. Does this remind you of a similar story? In any case, the Nereids were not happy about it and felt personally attacked. They went to their boss Poseidon with their complaint. He then sent the great sea monster (recognizable in the sky as the Whale constellation) to destroy the coasts of Ethiopia. The royal couple didn't know what to do and out of desperation they turned to the oracle in Delphi. The oracle told them that if they sacrificed their only daughter to the monster, the terror would end. Unfortunately, they did that and chained their daughter to the cliffs. Poor Andromeda... But what would Greek mythology be without heroes... Of course, Perseus rode up on his winged horse Pegasus and quite coincidentally he also had the severed head of Medusa with him. With this, he managed to petrify the monster. As thanks for saving Andromeda, he was allowed to take her as his wife.
Do you sometimes find Greek stories silly? So do I! But this is a great way to remember the constellations. Have fun discovering the night sky yourself :)
Tilman & Ida