Paris Dakar rest day #3 – Zaragoza

Our 3rd rest day was September 19, 2023. It’s great to have a rest day after a big ride. I slept really well but expected to wake up stiff and sore from my crash yesterday. But no, I felt ok, even better than last night. It somehow doesn’t feel like it but we’ve ridden 1000 miles already.

I love rest days! I slept so well and it felt so great to not have to get up in the morning. I finally got up around 8 and we all hung out for a couple of hours – waiting for our turn for the one washing machine, bike love (for me just a quick cleaning and chain lube), reading, chatting, etc.

Wytze, Andrew, Bart and I headed out by bus for downtown to find breakfast. Near the center we had coffee (I had chocolate and churros), just great. The chocolate here is even thicker than I remember from other places in Spain. Like thick pudding. The churros weren’t great though so we headed a few blocks away to a real churreria. We passed a furniture store with a nice bed with lots of pillows on display. Wytze said, “I think I used to know what that was…” Chocolate and churros for everyone at the Churreria. Better but still not as wonderful as in San Sebastian. It’s good to have things to look forward to in the future.

Then we walked down to the Cathedral and checked it out. I think it’s the biggest one I’ve ever been in in my life! Maybe not the grandest but, wow, did they ever invest a lot in their cathedral. There was an electric car exhibit outside too. No Teslas but I finally saw one later in the day. It’s not like California here.

After a stop at another café to hydrate and recuperate, it was time to walk to Restaurant Saucco, where we had a reservation for lunch at 2pm. Soon Daniel arrived, then our guest of honor, Ype. We wanted to do something nice for our wonderful mechanic and lunch provider extraordinaire, so took him out to lunch for once. Saucco was amazing. We had the set lunch, three courses with seemingly unlimited wine and water. It was a multi-hour gastronomic feast, just epic. In the end, after the most amazing desserts ever, and three bottles of wine, Wytze wanted to continue and ordered a couple more servings of the best dessert (cheesecake) to share. These extra orders turned out to be even bigger than the regular ones. After this we still didn’t want it to end, so Daniel ordered a round of coffee with rum. I didn’t know that was a thing. By this time we were the only ones in the restaurant. This is truly living like kings, probably better though, due to the company and lack of bullshit. The combination of comradery, everyone’s stories, the superb food, and the change from our normal life is hard to describe, but wow!

We headed “home” to the campground on the bus, arriving around 6, and my plan is that I don’t need dinner. That meal will last until tomorrow. I love this life!