Ponferrada!

After arriving so late yesterday we were looking forward to getting a good nights sleep. So finally after showering and settling in we went to bed about 1 AM. As tired as we were it was not our natural time to sleep. I laid there for a while wondering if I would be able to fall sleep. Well the next thing I knew it was 8:45 AM. Wowza what a great night. When I woke up my Dad was already down having breakfast so I decided to go down and join him. The hotel breakfast had a great buffet and I was able to sample a few things that I had never had before. Today was the day that we were going to get our bikes. I was really looking forward to getting them out and making sure we had what we needed to start our journey. The bikes were shipped in to our hotel the day before and they were keeping them locked in a room in the basement. They let us in and we started to unpack them from the boxes they came in. We knew we would have to put on the pedals and adjust the handle bars and maybe make a few adjustments. The company gave us the tools and the directions on what to do. They made it so easy that even I had no problem following them and in about 20 minutes we had two bikes ready for us to try out. These bikes are mountain bikes and have some really low gearing on them. We took them out for a quick ride and I really liked the feel of the bikes. After riding on my road bike I felt like I was riding on a cushion of air. We decided that since we would be heading out in the morning we ought to find out where we start the trail. This turned out to be a little harder than expected. My Dad who has never met a stranger saw a couple of Pilgrims walking across the square in front of our hotel. He literally ran across the square to catch them. They told him an approximate location and we headed out in search of the Camino. We saw many signs and saw some really cool things in Ponferrada but no sign of the actual trail. Finally we asked a police woman how to find it and in her best spanish while using hand gestures she sent us on our way. We were not super confident in our understanding but we rode a few miles and made two turns and sure enough we were on the actual Camino! We rode it for a few blocks and decided to head back to the hotel. After lounging around for the afternoon and packing our bike bags we decided to eat at the hotel. Tomorrow looks like the day! The first day we plan to ride to the base of a mountain that leads up to the city of O'Cebreiro. This is a large mountain that we know we may have to push our bikes up parts of it. (For those of you reading this in Roanoke Virginia it is 3 times larger than Mill mountain.) It has been in the back of our minds for some time now and it is hard to believe that we will be climbing it in two days.  Tomorrow is a big day for sure! Nervous anticipation probably describes it best. Buen Camino!