Day 4. The 4th day of a long distance cycle tour is usually the day when parts of the body that you didn't know you had start to hurt. Today my left ear and left toes are causing grief but overall I am in better shape than I expected to be in and we should get stronger from here on.

Today we put in 73 miles from Tauste to Bujaraloz (halfway between Zaragoza and Lerida).

The ride started well with me fixing the rear derailleur that hadn't been running smoothly for the first 3 days and then we ran rapidly with a following wind to Zaragoza. But the road we were on suddenly turned into an autopista (motorway) and trucks and cars were honking at us to get off. We pressed on as I was convinced that there was no other choice. Our mood was lifted slightly when Martin spotted a pair of flippers and a snorkel on the hard shoulder in pristine condition. Regardless of the imminent danger of being arrested by the Zaragoza Guardia Civil he donned the said flippers and snorkel and cycled down the hard shoulder for half a killometre much to the astonishment of all the hard bitten truck drivers who thought they had seen it all before.

Even wearing the snorkel however Martin for once came up trumps and noticed that we were on the wrong road altogether and we were able to escape via some roadworks on to the N11 to Lerida. We tapped out a fast rhythm broken only by Martin running over a snake.

Right now Martin is practising his Spanish (which extends only to "Dos cervezas por favor") on the owner of our hotel, who is blissfully unaware that Martin has broken the blind in our room. Spanish hotel rooms are specifically designed to stop you getting onto the balcony but when you need to hang wet cycling shorts out to dry nothing stops in your way!