Spain/China 2023, continuing (11)

[aadler]

Tenth day in Spain – July 08 Saturday

Up 7:30AM, showered and down to breakfast with Susan by 8:00. Relaxed back in our room, then to the lobby to meet with the others at 10:45AM, with us all on the bus and it moving just after 11:00.

(Kevin had some good news. Amber had left her retainer — $500 worth — wrapped in tissue in the bathroom, and the staff had accidentally thrown it away and hadn’t been able to find it when he reported the matter … but after two such checks, he went through the trash himself and located it. He cautioned us, however, to not tell her where it had been found.)

A couple of days ago, Susan had some allergy-based congestion and sinus drainage, that had affected her throat enough that she coughed a bit. Today, she was starting to feel it in her chest, and there was natural concern whether it would resolve itself before it could interfere with further travel. Wait and watch.

I mostly napped on the bus. We arrived in Cuenca (a city in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, and the capital of the province of Cuenca) around 1:40PM. The rest of the party was going to do a bit of sightseeing; Kevin and I took a try at getting Susan up the hill in the wheelchair, but she decided it was too much effort for us and made us take her back down again before we’d got halfway. Cristina showed us to the restaurant where the others would join us, and honestly they were there within ten minutes of our arrival, so there must not have been overmuch to see.

The restaurant was Mesos Fidel. This time the series of dishes included, among other things, a paste made from wild boar and something that mixed potatoes and codfish. Kevin and I split a pitcher of beer; it was a bit of a hot day.

Return to the bus, and moving again around 4:05PM. Within a couple of hours we were back in Madrid, this time at a Canopy hotel (part of the overall Hilton string).

Susan and I had a few problems with the room we were assigned — the TV wouldn’t load, the lights kept going off automatically because the sensor wasn’t registering our presence — and the front desk simply switched us to the room across the hall.

After a few hours of rest, we were to gather for dinner. Susan opted out again — basically, by the end of the day, she’s done — so I met with the others in the lobby at 9:00PM. We walked around the block to Casa Carmen, had the usual succession of dishes, and Kevin and I brought her back a plate from the restaurant when we were finished.

Susan ate what she had the appetite for, then both us to bed by 11:00PM.