Olvera

Without a car, my options were more limited. But then again, so was my stress!

Luckily, Rita had plenty of suggestions of things to do without a car. One night Rita and I had been walking on part of the via verde de la Sierra, an old railway route that had been paved over recently, and I decided I wanted to try and bike the whole thing. The first day back in Olvera, I woke up rather early at about 8am, shocking Rita, and hiked down to pick up my rental bike. The bike was a mountain bike, and seemed in good working order. The only negative was the very thin, road bike style seat. Compounded with the fact that I hadn’t been on a bike since I left, well, 36km each way seemed ambitious. 

The way there was great, with lots of places to stop, and a slight downhill. I was making great time. The tunnels were super fun too. I arrived in Puerto Serrano with plenty of time left in the day (I had to get the bike back by 6pm), rode around a rather nonexistent Puerto Serrano, rested a bit, and headed back. The way back was a lot slower, partly due to having to wait for goats to hurry up, partly due to the uphill, but mostly due to the pain in my butt. I kept switching positions, and standing up, but it was a bit of a slog back. Luckily, I found somewhere to stop for a beer en route, which dulled the pain slightly.

I arrived back at 5:45pm, just in time, and hiked back up to Rita’s. It was quite a hike at this point. But luckily, a hot shower and wine was waiting for me…

Cadiz

The next day I hopped on a bus and another bus to head to Cadiz for the weekend. When I arrived at my hostel they told me the 4 person mixed dorm I had booked had a couple of guys in it who were getting complaints about coming in loudly, late at night, so they switched me to another 4 person dorm, which I had to myself! Needless to say, I didn’t meet many people in Cadiz, but I did sleep well!

Cadiz was a lovely town, right on beautiful beaches, with an equally lovely old town, full of colonial buildings and narrow streets. There were quite a few tourists, but it didn’t take away from the charm. I had a great time wandering the streets and reading on the beach. After two nights, I hopped on a bus back to Olvera, arriving in the afternoon.

Back in Olvera

For our last day in Olvera, Rita and I decided to check out a swimming pool on the edge of the town, which we spent all day at, as we had to ourselves. It was just heating up in Olvera as it got closer to July, so the pool was perfect. The only downside was lunch, which unexpectedly turned up a plate of liver (we had no idea what we were ordering) and a heftier bill than expected.

We ended the night at Juan Valdez, Rita’s favourite bar (and now mine), where we thought we’d be the only ones as it was a Tuesday night. Apparently some sort of school event had just let out, as we just managed to grab a table before the place was full at 11pm with families ordering wine and tapas. Ah, Spain. It was a great way to end my 10 days in Olvera. I will be back!