Wednesday August 27, 2014

Today we were testing out our hill climbing legs again.  We have had almost three weeks cycling on the flat through France.  As soon as we left the campsite we were hitting the hills. We turned on to the Velodyssey route and found a small chapel and this memorial.  There were four slabs similar to the one below.  They represented appeals for contemplation and never to forget the wars, persecution, struggle for democracy and the human rights.

We took the Velodyssey route for a short while until we had to push the bikes up a steep gravel hill. I wasn’t getting any grip with my cleats and cycle shoes and with the weight of the bike I was beginning to curse velodyssey. An older lady who saw me struggling asked if she could help.  She got the back end of my bike and we both pushed the thing up a short 15% grade. A 60 year old woman helped me push my bike up a hill – Velodyssey indeed.

Today we climbed over 794 metres (2,600 ft) and it was a hot humid day – it reached a high of 37 degrees.

We stopped in Hendaye for lunch, it had a lovely beach and both Ralf and I could see a face in these rocks.

The final route through Hendaye and into Spain was interesting. No border crossing, the only ‘border’ was the river.

However, as soon as we got into Spain there were no signs of a cycle route.  We joined the main road and headed towards San Sebastian.  At one point we thought we might be heading for the motorway, but carried on cycling as it was still a dual carriageway.  Then we realized we were on a motorway, fortunately it had a big shoulder, but we got of at the next possible opportunity, which happened to be an on-ramp.  We had to go back a couple of kilometres to find our way through a grubby little port town and found a cycle path all the way into San Sebastian.  Even after we had arrived in the outskirts of San Sebastian, which is a big city, we weren’t even sure we had arrived in the right place.

We eventually found an Officinada Tourism (Tourism Office) and were told that there were pensions in the old city and one camp site.  We were both tired, so decided we would try a pension.  They were too expensive and on the second floor above shops in the old city.

We resigned ourselves to cycling to the campsite – another 5 kms out of Town and uphill.

As we made the turn away from the beach area and starting to climb I spotted a YHA, slammed on the brakes, rapidly unclipped from the pedals and turned to Ralf to tell him there was a YHA.  I went in, they had space and we were booked in.  We were asked if we were pilgrims, this is part of the Camino de Santiago de Compestala – a pilgrim walk.  We said that we were on bicycles, he gave us the pilgrim rate anyway.  We were in a dorm room that had 4 sets of bunk beds, a private shower room and our own loo, what more could we ask for after a long day of climbing.

It was a long hot day and nice to sleep in a proper bed after a good shower, a lovely meal and a glass of wine.