Europe Bike Trip - Chapter 2
Spain has been good to me. Entering France tomorrow!
Making progress…but in a different direction
Welcome back to my bike trip newsletter! It’s been another action-packed week of riding and seeing various regions of Spain, some of which I did not originally intend to see on this trip. As I am writing this, I am near Deba, Spain, about 40mi/70km away from the northern-most border with France. I originally planned to cut across the interior of Spain and meet the coast at Barcelona. After 4 different people recommended seeing the northern coast, I took their advice and changed my plans. That’s one beauty of traveling solo and on a bike. So far…I am very glad I visited the north coast and Basque region, it is beautiful!
The map of my progress
Stats
~930 miles (not sure what the total will be with the route change)
~50,000 ft of elevation gain
3 nights camping, 6 nights at WarmShowers hosts, 7 nights at hostel/other
>30 pastries
Callback to last week’s claims
Shortly after claiming in last week’s newsletter that the biking distances felt “sustainable” and my bike was “holding up fine,” I ran into some issues. I realized my bike’s rear thru-axle was broken, I got a flat tire, my shifter stopped working, and my knee started hurting pretty badly. After accepting my fate as a result of my boisterous claims, I grudgingly began addressing the issues. My thru-axle can be jerry-rigged to stay in place, and as a result I was able to repair my flat tire. I dumped an irresponsible amount of chain-lube into my shifter and it works for now. I switched my clip-in pedals for flat pedals and my knee pain has subsided substantially. Ok…no more making claims about things going smoothly, lesson learned.
Sandra & Jairo
By far, my favorite aspect of this past week has been the people I’ve met. I feel so thankful for the warm hospitality I’ve received. It all started with Sandra and Jairo, a young Spanish couple, accepting my same-day request on WarmShowers to stay one night at their house in a rural farm town. Immediately after meeting them, I knew I was in for a treat. Sandra and Jairo have biked across Japan and are two really incredible people who are now in the process of creating a permaculture system on their property. (FYI…if I ever use a word/phrase that is uncommon, click the underlined word to follow a link to an explanation).
Sandra and Jairo treated me to a very eventful evening at their town’s bi-annual celebration in the town square. We drank cider, hung out with their friends, and I even got to meet the mayor of the town. But that’s not it….at 10PM, we rode our bikes about a mile to the neighboring village where I attended their family barbecue. We didn’t eat dinner until 12:40AM and I went to sleep at around 3:30AM…thus I did not ride my bike the following day. Instead, Sandra and Jairo welcomed me to stay another day at their home, which I gladly did. In this time, they helped me decide on a route over the mountains to the northern coast of Spain. One of their values/philosophies that I can practice in my life is, travel slowly. So, I took the long route…
Over the mountains
After leaving the farmlands of interior northern Spain, I climbed over some coastal mountains to get to the…coast. It was a very hilly and scenic endeavor.
Fran
Two days after leaving Sandra and Jairo’s house, I made it to the north coast of Spain. After biking just 30 miles along the coast, I passed a cyclist on a hill and we started chatting. His name is Fran and he works and lives near Santander, Spain. While I expected to go much farther that day, Fran kindly invited me to stay at his house, an offer I accepted. It was forecasted to rain that night, so I figured sleeping inside would be wise. Fran ended up being a super interesting guy who reads more novels than anyone I know and knows more about American history than most Americans do. Fran also makes a killer lentil stew.
Along the coast
The next day, after getting some rest and largely avoiding the rain, I continued eastward along the northern coast of Spain, into Basque Country. It’s very interesting to see all signs written in both Basque and Spanish, two languages that are incredibly different. Apparently Basque is one of, if not the oldest, language in Europe! How Cool. I planned on doing some more camping, but to my surprise, another WarmShowers host reached out to me late in the day and said they could host me. I of course said YES.
Pilar
Pilar is the name of my most recent host and she is a very positive, kind-hearted woman, with an epic house that she let me stay at. Pilar was the hype-woman I didn’t know I needed. Her and her 20-year-old son were incredibly welcoming and seemed so genuinely interested to talk with me and exchange stories about life in our respective home towns/countries. After one Spanish-omelette and a dip in the pool, I felt like a new man, ready to bike another thousand miles.
Onwards and southeastward?
Tomorrow I’ll continue riding along the coast to the Spain-France border and eventually start heading inland with the aim of hitting the Mediterranean Coast in a week or so. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time in Spain and it will be hard to beat the level of hospitality I’ve received here. I haven’t been to all that many countries, but nowhere have I found immediately kinder people than here in Spain. Even a guy at the phone shop I went to the other day simply to buy a new charger cable told me, “if you need anything during your time here, call me.” What a legend!
I realize this has been a long post, I’ll try to trim it down next time. That’s all for now…thanks for reading and see ya in a week!
More photos…
Sounds like a great week!! Need to hear more about Fran when you get back. This was not too long!!! Loved every minute of it!!