And that’s saying something . Today was a later start because I was just a doing a 25 mile day to the university town of Cervera. When I read that Cervera is a university town I imagined groups of bright young things ,fiercely intelligent and cool, excitedly harnessing academia to propel themselves to personal excellence and fulfilment .

Well

I can only imagine that the students of Cervera all graduated with first class degrees in surliness and indifference and then stayed in the town to work in the service sector .

The town was grim. The hostel was grimmer . There was no food available but I’m calling it as if it was-grim . It was but a staging post for Barcelona tomorrow but I expected more. Rolling through the suburbs I felt (for the first time ) the need to hide my phone away.

On the journey in I’d been listening to UK radio and it was in that curious journalistic hinterland between the Queen dying and her death being officially announced. The House of Commons energy debate had been prematurely halted as I rode ,and the speculation was beginning…..in one way it was (very) good to miss the actual announcement and all the talking heads and opinion pieces ,but it was also weird to think about it happening, as inevitable as it was .

This whole trip was planned with an acknowledgment that I’ve been in full time work for forty years, beginning all that time ago with an attestation and an oath to the Queen . I’m not a Royalist but there was definitely an end of an era feel to tonight -didn’t excuse the 30 minute wait for a drink though!!