Sunday September 8, 2014

A long lie-in and a lazy breakfast.  We eventually headed back into the city at 11:30.  Valladolid is a city of churches and convents.  We wandered the streets of the city, went back to some of the places that Hector had shown us last night, ate more tapas, drank some beer and eventually headed back to the house at 4:30.

The doors in Spain are incredible.  We spotted this one last night and had to find it again today.

This door is on a building that houses some military offices.

Last night Hector had shown us this octagonal plaza, apparently it had been a bull-fighting area.  Now it has retail on the bottom floors and apartments on the upper floors.

This is the square where the music was playing last night.  We are amazed at how quickly everything gets cleaned up.  The street sweepers are cleaning streets all the time in the cities in Spain.

There are some very nice buildings in Vallodolid.

We had caught the #18 bus into the city.  We saw a # 18 bus near the cathedral where we had got off the bus and stopped the bus.  We had assumed that there would be one #18 bus going in one direction.  Not in Spain there are two buses going in opposite directions of the city. When we realized we were not going in the same direction as we came into the city we thought maybe it would do a figure of 8 loop.  No we had to pay again to go back into the city and then switch to the other 18 bus and pay again to go to La Overula.

We arrived “home” at 5:30 Hector texted us to say he would meet us again in the city at 9:00pm.  We explained that we had an early start tomorrow and could not meet him that late.

He understood and he emailed us a route to take out of the city.  Our second warmshowers host in Spain and they are wonderful, generous people.  The saying “mi casa, su casa” – \”my home your home\” definitely holds true.  Hector had put beer and wine in the fridge told us to make ourselves at home and showed us his city.  When we were in the city at fiesta with his, he would not allow us to buy any drinks or tapas.  We found that a little difficult to accept, but he made it very clear to Ralf that we were his guests and would not allow us to buy any drinks.

Saturday September 6, 2014

We were up early and ate our breakfast in our room.  We had decided to cycle along the Canal de Castilla to Valladolid.  It was flat and the trail was supposed to be good for touring cyclists.  After about the first 10 kms we decided the terrain was too hard on the hands and shoulders, as it was very uneven, and we came of the Canal route at Duernas.  We followed the N620 for about 4 kilometres then it merged with the motorway and we were left with farm roads until we could find the canal again.

The canal route was nice although a bit rocky and the surface was uneven.  The Canal de Castilla was built as most canals were in the 1800’s to transport goods (mainly wheat and grains) from the hill country to Valladolid.

There are still the remnants of old buildings that were used to collect the wheat and grains from the surrounding farmlands.

In one area along the canal there were four modes of transportation – the motorway, the canal, the bike route and the train.  About 5 kms outside of the Valladolid we stopped at an area where we could come away from the canal and checked on our hosts address.  The garmin said turn left here and 1 km you are at the residence.  Our host’s house was about 4 ks outside of the city centre.  We cycled towards La Overula a suburb of Valladolid and stopped at a little bar for something to eat and drink.  The bar owner was very interested in our bikes, especially Ralf\’s as he has a Trek. We had a great conversation with him about our trip.  He was very impressed.

Hector was waiting for us at his house.  He introduced us to his two cats who “own” the house and said he would be back later to take us into town.  He would stay at his girlfriend’s house and we had the house to ourselves.

This gave us the opportunity to do some washing and for me to clean the bikes.  Ralf checked the next days route.

Hector came back at 8:00 and we went into Valladolid for fiesta.  We had arrived in Valladolid at the start of fiesta.  A celebration to some Virgin or other.

Hector used to work for the tourist information and was able to show us around the city and gave us some history of the city. After we had our history lesson and visited some of the churches we enjoyed tapas at different areas in the city and then went to the central square where we met his girlfriend and friends, we danced and listened to the music until 12:30.

It is the latest we have stayed up at night for ages.

There were a lot of people drinking in the streets, enjoying tapas and generally having a good time.  There was very little police presence, and no bother – just people enjoying themselves.

We had a great time, and fortunately Hector said we could stay two nights at his house so we are able to have a lie-in tomorrow.

Friday September 5, 2014

We left the hotel early after a free but small breakfast.  Toast and jam and a coffee was the free breakfast.  We bought 2 sandwiches and 2 more coffees to keep us going, even though we were only going to the train station.

I am not sure why we had decided to take the train to Palencia other than we didn’t want another day of hills and we had a warmshowers host for tomorrow and we would not be able to cycle to Palencia in one day.  Anyway, I had checked on the train times and we had decided to take the second train of the day out of Aguilar de Campoo, mistake. The second train didn’t have any space for bicycles we had to take the third train which left at 5:30 pm and arrived in Palencia at 7:00pm.

We spent a day at the train station.  We arrived at the station in plenty of time to catch the second train.  The second train left at 10:44, we arrived at 10:00am. We then waited for 7.5 hours to catch the next train.  I made sure the bikes could go on the train.  When the 5:30 train arrived we put the bikes on the train with the conductor complaining bitterly about bicilettas.  \”Too big bikes, too small space\”.  He wanted us in the last carriage not the carriage where we got on.  At the next station we got of the train and got back on in the last carriage, he still complained that our bags were too big, but too bad we had tickets to say the bikes were allowed. Apparently regular bikes are allowed but not touring bikes with large panniers.

While we were waiting at the train station, we reserved a place in a hostal near the station. We found the hostal quite easily once we headed in the right direction! We  had a shower in the smallest shower cubicle in the world even I banged my elbows on the side of the cubicle.

Palencia is supposed to be a really nice place to visit but we unfortunately didn’t spend any time there at all except to sleep.

Thursday September 4, 2014

We left Reinosa and continued climbing.  Will we ever go downhill again?  It was quite chilly this morning, but we soon warmed up.  The mist in the hills was very pretty.

We have been following the N611 it is a parallel road to the motorway.  As I mentioned in yesterdays post it is a good wide road with a paved shoulder and no cars on it.  Spain has built new motorways and left their old major highways in place, it is such a quiet road great for us.

The morning mist was soon burnt of by the sun, until we came up another hill where the hills were shrouded in ‘mist’.  No that wasn’t morning mist that was smog.  What a shame, we came over the hill and discovered why it was so smoggy – welcome to your job, welcome to your house and welcome to your smog.

We soon left the “factory” town behind and finally began to swoop downhill like the eagles we were sharing the hills with.  Soaring up and down a great ribbon road.  For non-cyclists a ribbon road is a road that has rolling hills, you swoop down the hill and get all the way or almost all the way up the next rise – lovely road.

As we came into Aguilar de Campoo this castle sat on top of the hill.  This looked as if it could be an interesting Town. We had planned on staying here, but had no idea what it was going to be like.

We arrived in Aguilar de Campoo at 11:30 and found the Tourist office straight away.  It looked as if it was closed, although the opening hours stated it should be open.  I tried the door and yes it was open – saving electricity by not having any lights on!  The young girl was very helpful, but as usual would not call any of the hostals/hotels to see if they had vacancies.  We had to cycle around the Town.  We called the camp site which again was outside of the Town and up another hill, they wanted E28 for the pitch.  We opted for a hotel tonight, breakfast included for E45.

We really wanted to stay in the Town as it had a great history and the brochure the Tourism office gave me showed a walk that we could follow taking in all the main sites and entrances to the Town.   It was a Roman town and had many \”gates\” (entrances) to the town.  One of the quarters of the Town was the old Jewish quarter and the \”gate\” has hebrew writing on it – if you look really close you can still see it on the white stone above the gate.  This is the only remnants left of any Jewish occupation.

The following photos are of Aguillar, which we had no idea was going to be this beautiful or historic.

The main square was a hive of activity at lunchtime.

There are two monasteries in the Town.  Santa Clara houses 45 nuns who make various pastries and breads.  The other is a school and hostel that charges E75 for a night.

Amongst all the history in the town there are some commercial areas.  I loved the way this flower shop advertised.

We broke the budget and had pizza and beer for dinner.

Wednesday September 3, 2014

Certainly built some character today.  My garmin informed me that I had a new personal record for elevation gained.  Thanks garmin I already knew that.  We beat our previous record of 1,210 metres (New Zealand) of climbing by 64 metres.  Elevation gained today was 1,274 metres.  The hills can be hard when you are tiny cyclists with giant panniers.

We were up early and were on the road by 8:30 am.  We knew we had some hills today and wanted to be finished before it got too hot.  That plan didn’t work out.

Our morning ride included 2ks of 7% grade, but a great downhill to Los Corrales de Buelga for a pay off.  We made reasonable time and stopped for lunch in Los Corrales.  We found a café that made sandwiches and we had a baguette.  I was chatting to a policeman in the café who was trying to tell me about the Fiesta that was happening in Los Corrales.  His English was very limited and I thought he was warning me that Los Corrales had the worst crime rate.  What he was saying was the fiesta was a reenactment of a war (Guerra).  I had heard guerillas (bandits)!

After lunch we popped into a bookstore and picked up maps for the next Region and a Spanish/English Phrasebook.  I think we need it.

Our ride in the afternoon started to kick up almost as soon as we left the Town a 5km 5% climb, worse still we didn’t get the pay-off of a downhill.  We just kept climbing, all afternoon.  It was getting hot and I was getting slower, but didn’t get off the bike until we were 4 ks from our destination when the road then kicked up to a 9% grade – lots and lots of character building.

Even with all the climbing the scenery was lovely.  The morning was primarily through farmlands, we heard cowbells as we climbed.  I felt like I was in the Vuelta with supporters cheering me on every hill.  The afternoon was forested and rivers.  We could hear and see the river flowing in the valley, it sounded so cool and refreshing, while we were so hot.

We almost decided to wild camp here, but decided to carry on to Reinosa which was only about 13 kms away.  Once again the highway paralled the road  or went over it or underneath it.  The N roads can be completely devoid of traffic, but have wide shoulders, which is great for us.

We started the day at just under 200 metres elevation and ended it at just over 850 metres elevation.

Tuesday September 2, 2014

Hills, hills and more hills – some daft American told me it builds character!!  (LOL)  We woke up early thinking we might get an early start and keep ahead of the heat.  At 6:30 it was still dark, so we had a cuddle and got up at 7:00 as usual.  We left at 9:10 with a tent wet from the dew.

We were told it was relatively flat from here – from a car driver.  Only believe what cyclists tell you – it was not relatively flat at all it was hilly.

We came into  Laredo and stopped to look at the map, an older gentleman asked where we were going so we told him Santander – the general direction – he told us it was a motorway, then said we could take the national route (which was the route we were planning on taking) then he got a few other people involved discussing which was the best route for us to take.  All we really needed to know was whether we were on the right road.  But the Spanish seem to like to have a committee involved in our route. If one of them can’t speak English, they stop other people to see if they can speak English and discuss the route together then carry on in Spanish. It is very funny.  Eventually the older fella decided he would take us to the road we were supposed to be on, to make sure we were on the right road and not the Motorway.  May be he had heard about the two touring cyclists that were on the motorway going towards San Sebastien!

We carried on going up and down hills until we stopped in a small town for lunch we had passed a group of Russian cyclists a couple of times and they passed us as we ate our lunch.  This group of 6 cyclists had major discussions at every roundabout.  The major roundabouts usually direct you to Santander via the motorway and the N route – two different directions.  Cyclists cannot go on motorways, all you have to do is follow the directions for the N route easey peasey.

The N634 is a national highway road, with no traffic on it, as the Motorway runs alongside it in some areas or they are working on building a major highway next to it.  There are some roadworks, but these guys were there to warn us to slow down.

We arrived in Solares at 1:00 and picked up our groceries for dinner, and checked for a campsite.

There was nothing in the Town, so we decided to wild camp. I knew there was a National Park nearby and figured we would be able to find something in that general area.  We didn’t figure on the fact that the National Park was actually a wildlife park with elephants and lions!!

We thought we might be able to camp at the campervan park, but the notice specifically said no camping and wild camping was strictly forbidden.  We were at a loss as to what to do when we spotted a Municipal Albergue.  We had asked at a couple of the restaurants if they had rooms –E70 to E80.  I asked at the last restaurant about the Albergue, he called a number told them we were touring cyclists and let us in to this hostel.  We are on our own in the hostel which has a kitchen, a common room, hot showers and lots of rooms – cost for this hostel E12 for the two of us.

We prepared our dinner in the hostel kitchen and then went for a nice walk after dinner.

Life is good.

Monday September 1, 2014

We had a late start this morning, because we waited for Jagoba to come to the apartment, so that he could cycle with us to the Portogalete Bridge.  He came at 9:30 with a gift of chorizio sausage and some other smoked meat from his uncle.  We left his apartment at about 9:45 and cycled through Bilbao to the Portogalete Bridge.  Ralf took some more photos as we cycled along the cycle lanes of Bilbao.  Bilbao used to be a huge industrial city with cranes lining both sides of the river.

The Portogalete Bridge is the only bridge of this type to be still working around the world.  There are about 12 bridges around the world like this that are still standing, but this is the only one that is still in use. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It has a \”ferry\” that is suspended under the bridge structure that carries cars, and passengers across the river.  It takes about one minute to do the crossing.

After we crossed the bridge I went into the Tourismo Office and Ralf took some photos.

When I came out Ralf was nowhere to be seen.  He was surrounded by Spaniards who were telling him the best way to get to Santander, the scenic route, the quickest route and the route with less traffic.

One of the older people had his granddaughter with him who was trying to translate what her grandfather was saying.  Ralf said she did a really good job, but every time she couldn’t remember the words she went very pink.

At the tourismo office the lady explained we could take the escalator to the top of the hill, then take the cycle path.  I wasn\’t sure what she meant by escalator, but there was an actual moving sidewalk all the way up a very steep hill.

Jagoba stayed with us until we got to the beach area where he was going to spend the afternoon and then cycle home again (27 kms).  At the beach we met two girls who were cycling the Camino.  Jagoba talked to them and told them what we were doing.  They wished us well and cycled away.  We had some lunch and said our farewells to Jagoba.

We were told that there was going to be two big hills, tough with the weight we are carrying.  Two roadies were telling Jagoba about the hills and shaking their heads at our bikes and panniers.  It didn’t sound like it was going to be a fun afternoon ride.  We followed their directions and headed up the first hill – dropped down into the grannies and motored up it, not too bad at all.  Going up the second hill we passed the two girls we had seen at the beach and managed to get within 100 metres of the top before I had to get off and push – it had kicked up to 12%

The downhill was a screaming downhill.

We arrived in Castro Urdalis at about 2:30 and found there were two campsites.  One was 2kms away up a hill and the other 7kms away on our route – relatively flat from now on said the woman in the Tourismo Office.  We decided to do the 7 kms as the campsite was on the way.  It wasn’t flat, but after the hills we have been doing in the past few days, they were rolling hills.

We ate the chorizo and Jagoba’s mum’s pasta sauce for dinner with a lovely wholemeal baguette.

Ralf went for a walk around the campsite and beach area while I attempted to update the blog. He said the beach wasn\’t very pretty.

We paid E1 for the internet and it is so slow, all we managed to do was update the garmin’s.  I will use my data stick in future.

We were lulled to sleep by the sound of the motorway running through the mountain above the campsite.

Sunday August 31, 2014

What a lovely day we spent with Jagoba, our warmshowers host.  He took us around the old City along little passage ways and lanes that I am sure if we were on our own we would have gone in circles. Around 1:00 pm we stopped in the square and at one of the restaurants for a small beer and some pitxios (small snacks).

All the bars have these little snacks on the bars and you pick one to go with your beer. Jagoba took us to one of the these little restaurants which had some good snacks.

He asked if we wanted to go on the funicular to see the city from the surrounding hillside. He gave us his Mum & Dad’s transportation pass to use.  I wasn’t comfortable doing it but Jagoba assured me it would be o.k. Ralf explained to Jagoba that I wasn’t very good at deceiving the authorities.  But we did it anyway I waved the pass at the machine and the turnstile opened for me. I was worried that the station police would be waiting at the top for me – Ralf and Jagoba were laughing.  Ralf had no worries about using Jagoba\’s fathers card (who has been dead for a couple of months).  Jagoba said his father would be pleased that the money hadn\’t gone to waste.

We were on the funicular and up we went to the top of the City.

We had a great view of the City and had a lovely wander around the top, where a lot of Bilbaoans (not sure if they refer to themselves that way-but it sounded good to me) come to this area for picnics.  We were getting hungry again, so stopped in at another restaurant for more snacks and a glass of wine/beer.

We talked to Jagoba about what time they eat their main meal – it is usually around 2:30 then they have a siesta, get up around 6:00 have a light meal, then more snacks about 9:30 to 10:00, a late night usually around 12:30 (if they don’t have to work the next day).  The Spaniards seem to graze all day.  Jagoba could not get his head around eating at 6:00 at night.

This monument on top of the hill was to commemorate the fighters in the Civil War. It was a really impressive piece.

By the time we got back to the apartment at about 6:30 Ralf and I were starving.  Jagoba made us a lovely Spanish omellette (tortilla) with a mixed salad.

Jagoba wants to do some big cycling trips and was very interested in our equipment.  At the moment his family comes first and he feels he needs to be near his mother.  He may travel later in the year or next year.  Jagoba was a lovely person very kind and caring.

These murals were painted on the top of this arcade to represent the civil war.  Bilboa has some very surprising features. Old and new buildings trying to work together.

Saturday August 30, 2014

It rained in the night, but by the time we got up and had breakfast the tent was dry and everything was packed away dry.  We had about 2 kms of downhill through Mutriku, then it was uphill all the way for the first 38 kilometres. Ralf stopped on an uphill to take this picture of the side of this old building.

Our highest elevation was at 425 metres.  We actually climbed less than yesterday but we had one hill that was 2 kilometres long with a 10% grade.  I didn’t get off until the last 50 metres when it kicked up to a 14% grade. I felt very proud of myself.

Elevation from Garmin.

It was a lovely ride, even though it was very hilly, the last 30 kilometres along the N634 were relatively flat.

We arrived in Bilbao at 1:30 pm, we had arranged to meet our warmshowers host at 3:30. We came in along the N634 and followed the signs to the Guugenheim Museum.  Very easy to find and this was our first view of it.

This gave us lots of time to eat something and explore the area around the Guggenheim Museum.

Awesome architecture, the building changes colour depending on the light it was very interesting. Our host Jagoba met us bang on time at the flower dog. I was expecting a small flower display not this massive dog that was at huge.

Area around the Guggenheim used to be the old port, the Guggenheim revitalized Bilbao.

Jagoba asked if we would like a tour of the City but then said you look tired, I will take you home, it is up a hill!!

Why are our warm showers host houses up hills?  We cycled through the outskirts of the old city and up a smallish hill to Jagoba’s apartment.  We had our showers, and put a load of washing in.  Ralf went shopping with Jagoba who then left us in his apartment. Jagoba stays at his Mom’s house since his father died recently.  We have the apartment to ourselves and he has generously said we can stay as long as we want.  Which is really nice as we do want to explore Bilbao tomorrow.  Jagoba suggested we give him a call in the morning and he will show us the City.  I think we will have a lie-in and a nice breakfast, then give him a call.

Friday August 29, 2014

An early start today, we were on the road by 8:45 am.  It had rained in the night, but was clear when we first got up.  However, it started to drizzle as we were loading the bikes.  Drizzle isn’t so bad, it was warm, so we left the YHA in the drizzle.

Last night I had asked the guy at the youth hostel, which was the better route to take – up and over the hill or along a busier road?  His response was “You go left out of here and up two small montains for 8kms then it is flat for 4 kms, then you go down hill.  I did it with my brother a few years ago it is a nice road, we have not done it again.”

Two small mountains or busy road? – two small mountains it was!  Because the hill kicked up as soon as we left the hostel, we decided to walk the bikes until it flattened out a bit.  Two kilometres later and it eventually flattened out a little bit and we got on the bikes, it was still going uphill.

This road was the road we would have taken two days ago to get to the camp site.  I would have died and possibly killed Ralf if I hadn’t spotted the YHA.  The campsite was 4.5 kms out of town and at an elevation of 375 metres!  It looked like a lovely location.

The drizzle continued for most of our two mountain ride, we could see about 100 metres in front of us.

We could not see the hills coming up, which was probably a good thing, and we could not see the hills going down.

We stopped for lunch in a small port town.  There do not appear to be any sandwich shops in Spain.  Lots of cafeterias that sell good coffee and pastries and ice-cream.  I popped into a small grocery store, they had full-grain baguettes, meats and cheeses – I bought the fixings for our lunch and the lady sliced our baguettes for us and we made our sandwiches on a park bench.  We got a lot of strange looks at us eating our lunch and the loaded touring bikes, but no one stopped for a conversation.

Spotted these donkeys on the way down a hill, Ralf stopped to take the photo for me.

We arrived in Deba at about 2:00 pm and discovered the campsite we were going to stay at was actually 2 kilometres back up the road we had just come screaming down.  I checked the campsite book I had got in the Tourismo Office in San Sebastien and there was another campsite 2 kilometres out of Deba, not quite on the road we were going to take to Bilboa tomorrow, but it was in the general direction.

We arrived in Mutriku and followed the directions up a 12% grade hill to the campsite.  I pushed the bike up the 200 metres to the reception area.  I was convinced there would not be a flat piece of ground for our tent, but there was and it was a lovely campsite with a great view over the ocean and town.

The price was only E15, it had a little grocery store on site and the prices aren’t too bad, so we bought the fixings for dinner at the store.

We talked to a nice family from England about our trip and their vacation.  The daughter planted the seed into her parents head about a trip to Spain.  They drove out in their camper van and she flew out to join them for 2 weeks vacation and they then take a sedate drive back to England.

We have a warmshowers in Bilbao tomorrow night we are meeting him at the Guggenheim museum at the flower dog.

It will be a long hilly ride (64 kms), but at least we will have a bed to sleep in and a good shower tomorrow night.  I think I have become a little fixated with my showers of late.