The hills are alive with the sound of... well, panting and gnashing of teeth. This morning neither of us were really in the mood, partly because of aching feet and partly because we know that we will be ending the day on an incline. After a great coffee stop at Trabadelo we soon get back into the groove. I get talking to a Spanish guy who describes Mancini's work at City to building a 'mental hospital' which makes me chuckle. We arrive at Hairy-arse (Herreria...

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly... GOOD : Ponferrada - I could quite happily live here ! Beautiful city, mountains all around, great bars, pintxos, football team on the up, decent comic shop, velodrome (think that Ponferrada are hosting the world track championship in 2014) - what more do you want ! BAD : Ponferrada has a problem with taggers like London has a problem with pigeons. Why anyone would want to scribble their name on some of these historic buil...

I must admit, I didn't have high hopes for Foncebadon even though it was nearly 1,500 metres up a mountain. It is a village that consists of one street. The street contains about ten buildings : six are ruins, three are farm buildings and the other three are albergues. We had decided the night before that we would try a 'parish' albergue but had our place in line snaffled by a group of Italians. I was ready for a barney, Aliette was not and walked down the roa...

This is the most relaxing day ever ! Beautiful sunshine bouncing of the surface of the hotel pool. The €25 we invested for massage was well worth it and I am now enjoying a chilled beer. By chance the Sky cycling team are staying at the same hotel and Mark Cavendish has just told me that the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are staying on the third floor. Life is gooBEEPBEEEEEPBEEPBEEEEEPBEEPBEEEEPBEEEPBEEEEEEEEP Bloody alarm clock wakes me up to reality. We ar...

I left Aliette sleeping in the comfort of our king sized bed this morning to try and accomplish a highly ambitious 47km. It's inevitable that without my wife by my side I will attract other women. It is therefore no surprise that within 500m of the parador a senioreta waves me to her. She is the size of a family hatchback. I have to use my Spanish which is exposed for what it truely is - appalling. I smile and probably look quite retarded before uttering a "s...