When you go to sleep at 9 AM after a long night of work (we talk about at least 12 hours at the telescope), then it is not that easy to fit in a short ride before the sunset as you wake up on the afternoon at 4 PM. And it is impossible to do if you have to work again during the next night. But as this was not the case for me yesterday, I went for another 52 km (with 1100 m of elevation gain). As it was only 14°C when I left (yeah, the weather this high is quite chilly compared to the 26°C in Santa Cruz), I am glad that I put my knee and arm warmers on (plus a wind vest, but I was quite sure about wearing that from the very beginning), because the descents with 45-70 km/h were a bit cold. This is the first time I used them ;)

Looking at the photo (and the crystal clear blue sky) above it might be hard to believe that I had to ride through clouds just before and after that picture was taken. But that’s how it was. The wind from the N just pushed the low clouds from one side of the ridge of the mountain to the other, so there was a continuous flow of wet and cold air from my left or my right, depending on which way I was riding. Video here :) Basically I did the same route as five days ago, just went a bit further down and up at the easternmost and westernmost point of the course. I can hardly feel now that I am riding more than 2 km higher than I usually do, so it is time for something bigger ;) Oh, and I met another cyclist, so I am not the only crazy one here (though I doubt that he brought his bike from Belgium on a plane…). I won’t have observing duties tomorrow, so I will probably read articles during the night. After tonight, I have only one more night at the IAC-80 :(

Honestly, I could live like this for much longer. Let’s say, being a support astronomer here on Tenerife or La Palma, working at the telescopes, then riding the bike around in my free time would be a good combination. (But first I need to finish my PhD :D) Though I think I would miss the Belgian chocolate, the great waffles, the beer and the fries, and I might get a tiny little bit lonely after some time… It is a bit sad that I would miss more Belgian stuff than Hungarian :( Pfff… I think I will stop thinking about this topic right now.