Starting with a visit to the massive castle in Angers and continuing with visits at the castles in Saumur, Rigny Usse and Villandry, today has been a day of hypertourism. It's also been a "hyper" day on the road, with 123 kilometres at 4 hours and 42 minutes - marching speed has been around 30 km/h, even though I've had a light headwind all day. Combined with all the stops for visiting castles, its been a long day - I can't just roll past them when I'm here, can I?
Foodwise, today has been a slightly boring day with on local specialities, at least that I know. However, for the first time, I was annoyed by being served slowly next to the castle in Saumur. Normally, it's the other way around; I get a little annoyed because the food comes in before I'm ready. Not so at the restaurant in Saumur... It made for a nice, long rest, but wasn't exactly what I wanted at the moment.
Having said that, I've actually been in Tours before - two years ago when Jan worked here - and so, I wasn't in a rush to get here, as I've already seen the city. Whether that was the reason I ended up in an Italian restaurant, or simply the fact that I was hungry had me eating Italian, I don't know. What I do know, however, is that I'm very glad that I'm not sharing the room I have at the youth hostel - in Nantes, some French youngsters woke me up in the middle of the night.
And tomorrow features more castles...
