Yeah, so a sprinkle turned into a downpour:
It cleared up, though. I celebrated with a little too much throttle and found myself hiding out here to avoid unnecessary attention:
Northern-ish Spain is fairly desolate. Whereas in France or Germany or Austria there are pockets of little cities and villages everywhere, Spain has massive areas of land that are devoid of life....and then all of a sudden you hit a huge city with a million people. Case in point: While riding to northwest to Oviedo, I rode through (and stayed in) Aragon, an 'autonomous community' (think State). Aragon is 18,000 square miles and has 33 counties, yet 50% of Aragon's population lives in the capital Zaragoza. That leaves a lot of land and not so many people (not a bad thing). I found myself in a little city called Huesca for the night.
Dripping wet, I wandered into a hotel that looked far more luxurious than I needed. Instead of being met with consternation, the hotel manager started firing off questions about the bike. Spaniards are intensely passionate about bikes and, I soon learned, were the biggest fans of both sportbikes and Ducati across Europe. He gave me a steep discount, which equated to something like $39 US) and let me park my bike in the garage.
$39 for this kind of hotel opulence? Hell, the only thing $39 lodging gets you in the US is scabies.
Hungry and thirsty, looking a little gaunt when I arrived:
But booya: gear heaters in the bathrooms:
Went out wandering and there was some sort of Sunday farmer's market thing going on with meat as the star of the show:
Otherwise, the city was fairly desolate:
Huesca Cathedral (church finished in the 1500s that was built on the foundation of an old mosque):
Would have loved to know what stories this ancient man could tell:
View from hotel:
