A Bil bil bil bil bil bil bao

Doesn´t really work for Bar bar bar Ann, but we have been singing it anyway.

Ah yes, back in a warm hostel after some of the most brutal weather I have ever endured. Things were rough, but Dale and I like to think that it gives us perspective. Really makes us appreciate those sunny days and downhills. I´m now in Bilbao, going to try to recap the journey.

First, some photos that have been waiting for upload.

How I felt as we stopped for cafe con leche on our way to the Casa de Alderete. Before knowing what splendor awaited us.


Dale in her palatial room


View of the pool and the side of the house in the AM



Next day as we cross into Spain!



Day 7 - We do the pilgrim thing in Santiago de Compostella

After some relocating (Day 6 Hostel was run by Igor from the Adam´s family and was equipped with an early 1990´s computer) we were ready to hit the city. Without our bikes. We went and saw the cathedral at Santiago de Compostella, where the bones of St. James (one of Christ´s deciples) can be found in the crypt. It is a major pilgrimmage destination and we saw a ton of people who had made month long treks just to get to the cathedral. Pretty amazing to see that.



We relaxed. Drank some cafe con leche, my new favorite spanish phrase. Found a Kebab shop, something Oxford is known for.



And then worried about how we were going to get to Bilbao. We saw the forecast and knew that we were going to need to cut off a few hundred km if we were going to make it in time. Decided on a train to Leon for the next morning.

Those who walk for weeks
And us, merely passing through.
For the cathedral.

Day 8 - We get to Leon and get back on the bikes

So at some point we changed time zones (not sure where and pretty sure that nobody in Spain knows either) and also got hit with daylight savings. 7am felt really really early. But we had a 9:25 train to catch so we needed to pack up.

But of course you can´t take bikes on the 9:25 train and nobody speaks English so there was some confusion and lots of pointing and gesturing. Eventually someone was able to explain to us that we would have to take two trains, connecting in Orense, leaving Santiago at 3pm and getting into Leon around 10.

Great. We were both pretty frustrated and ready to get back on the road. Public transportation was not part of our plan for this vacation. With 5+ hours on our hand we decided to hang out at the local park. After being hustled to buy branches (later realizing it was palm Sunday) we sat and watched the locals enjoy a Sunday afternoon. Hilarious.

Train ride was unbelievably gorgeous. Became a big fan of Northern spain, especially when it´s sunny. Opinions were soon to change.

Ending up biking about 10km after getting into Leon and pitched a tent on the side of a bike path along a river. Nobody bothered us and we were set up for the next morning.

Playground and a gym
watching kids and elderly.
Endlessly funny

Day 9 - Tempest Day

Things started off pretty rough. Big hill to wake our legs up and then the rain started. We decided to pull over at a gas station right before the Spanish monsoon hit. Ordered two cafe con leche and then decided to brave the storm.

At the time I didn´t think the conditions could get any worse. But it was hardly noon and the tempest had yet to arrive. We climbed mountains, descended mountains, got really wet. Stopped again at lunch for some cafe con leches. My haiku for the day was composed on the road:

Dear Spanish Mountains,
We could use a little break.
Warm regards, Mike´s Legs.

Standard signage



After lunch, I broke my fifth spoke of the trip and had to fix it on the side of the road while multiple storms passed over us. Dale huddled under the rain fly of our tent. We rode for another hour or so, stopped for our third round of cafe con leche, and decided to find a place to sleep. High of the day came during this third stop.

High: Watching a woman walk into an automatic door at the supermarcado. Also, I Kissed a Girl was playing while we bought dinner and cerveza. Wonderful.

And we met a nice dog who wanted to eat our food



We were biking through Guardo, Spain when the tempest hit. Someone might as well have been pouring buckets of cold water over us while blowing a fan in our faces. Pretty sure at one point I was pedaling DOWN a hill and moving only 7mph. We saw a dilapidated old building that we could sleep under for shelter. We had to cover the ground in hay to keep off the "mushy goop" and we slept in our wet clothes because we had nothing dry.

Dale´s Haiku for the day:
My toes are freezing
up this relentless mountain.
I dream of coffee

Our humble abode


Day 10 - Sun! and snow

Alarm went off at 7:15, but we kindly ignored that and decided to sleep until we could at least partly see the sun. When we stepped outside we saw mountains covered in snow. It was actually that cold. Beautiful, yes, but not what you want to see when you have to bike all day.

Early morning rest. So cold.



The sun broke through and we finally dried off. Also warmed up a little bit and got to shed a few layers. This was my favorite day of riding to date. Gorgeous mountains capped in snow, roads without cars, and sun. I was SO much happier. I think anything would have made me happy after tempest day.

The mountains that we left behind


The roads were empty so we decided to take breaks on the pavement


We camped at our first legal campsite, paying 13 euro for a plot of land and a luke warm shower. Shower felt so nice, even though I had to sit hunched on a stool (shower head was literally fixed at my stomach). Also, there were over 100 plots for tenting and we were the only people there. I guess March isn´t high season in Arija.

The lowest of lows
give us perspective we need
for the not-so-bad

See our tent in the background. See anyone else?


Day 11 - New best day ever

Dale and I are in the habit of sleeping in. I set my alarm for 7 and hung my watch from a loop on the ceiling of the tent, what I thought was a fool proof system for hearing your alarm. Plan fails when your watch gets blown off the loop by gale force winds and hits you in the face. I was too tired to realize what had happened and we never heard the alarm. More sleep for us.

First 10km were pretty pedestrian, both of us nursing sore knees and legs, but after a short snack break and our morning fix of ibuprofen things turned for the better. We saw a sign for a downhill of 8% - finally. Literally, the next 35 km were all downhill. And there was a tailwind. And it was sunny. According to Dale´s odometer we broke into the mid-40 mph range on one of the descents. wwwwwwooooowwwwww. This part of Spain is stunning and we got to coast our way into Bilabo.

Little photo op:


Good tunes playing while we road down the mountain. Some appropriate lyrics that stuck with me:

Assembly of Dust - Roads
I don´t know where I´m going but I get there. Sometimes I´m wondering where will it be.

And Phish´s cover of Loving Cup, by the Rolling Stones.
Oh, what a beautiful buzz. What a beautiful buzz.

Such a beautiful buzz. Couldn´t help smiling the whole way down. Dale blew our first flat of the trip after over 600 miles of riding. A quick fix and then another 20km or so brought us into Bilbao. Another hot shower (this time standing) and then went to a tapas bar for cerveza and pinchos. Followed that with a hamburger dressed in everything (apparently hot dogs are a topping, didn´t realize that when I ordered the "extra" option).

Some random highlights of our night in Bilbao:

Seeing a man wheeling a crate of 10,000 cigarettes through the Old Town. Seriously?


And witnessing one of the processions as part of the Spanish celebration of Easter. Little kids look like part of some strange religious cult. Dale and I were seriously confused before someone explained what was happening.



And I don´t know where
I´m going, but I get there.
Still wondering where.

Day 12 - Bilbao! No Biking!

Slept in (until 8), had some coffee, iced our aching legs with frozen peas, and walked over to the Guggenheim Bilbao. Such an impressive building by Franky G. Enjoyed our sampling of modern art. The first floor was nice - some Rothko, a Richard Serra installation that we could walk through, de Kooning, Warhol. Your standard mid-20th century stuff. Second floor was all Anish Kapoor. We watched as a 10kg wad of wax was shot out of a cannon at the corner of a room. Interesting. Some monochrome yellow square that receded into a wall. Interesting. Not really so down with Kapoor. Third floor had some winners. A big installation of Robert Rauschenberg Gluts, which consists of a lot recycled junk yard scraps put together in some pretty cool combinations. Some of it was impressive, others a bit too far fetched.

All in all, a great day. Nice to rest our legs, see a beautiful city, and enjoy the sunny weather. Tomorrow is another rest day and then we head off to meet Amy and Bianca in Biarritz for the second half of the trip!

No Haiku yet for today. And I realize that I have been slacking on the high and low. I kind of gave up on that.

The Serra piece titled "The Matter of Time"


View of Frank Gehry´s building


Alive and well and almost in France,
MBG

Santiago de Compostela

Since I have been slacking on the haikus (they arent usually accessible when i get to a computer):

Day 5 -

Mountain roads, Headlamps
Fatigue and anxiety
All ends well tonight

Day 6 - the ??? becomes a hostel in Santiago de Compostela

Dale and I cross into Spain (no security...?) bike over a mountain, take a train, and arrive in Santiago de Compostela. Pictures to follow.

Rocky Spanish train
How sick you make us both feel
I prefer a bike

MBG

Still in Portugal. But oh so close

Day 5 - Porto to Casa de Aldarete

A day when Dale and I get a late start because I have to get a new rack for my bike. We spent some time at the local bike shop and while one of the guys was working on mounting the rack we started talking to a nice Portuguese man who was in the store buying a bike. His English was impressive, turns out he had spent some time as a surgeon in Oxford, Edinburgh, and London. He ended up offering us some beds at his "casa" up towards Valenca, which was a bit further than we planned on going but we told him we would see how far we made it. Equipped with a hand drawn map to his house and a phone number, we headed North out of Porto.

It rained and it rained some more. For team Dale and Mike, knees were sore and spirits were a bit low. At least my bike was working. As usual, we got a bit lost while going through the different cities - pulling out the compass, heading north, and eventually finding our way out. We hit our first mountains of the trip, which brought long slow climbs and worn out break pads after the descents. And the rain continued.

We pulled off for some dinner when it started monsooning around 6:15, had some tasty chicken plus lots of bread and nutella. When the rain let up it was dark and we still had at least 25km to the apparent "casa" of our friend, Dr. Flavio. The people at the cafe laughed when we pointed up the road, they knew something we didn't. I think we climbed for the next hour or so, guided by headlamps and bike lights, and finally we crested the mountain and started to go down. Down meant windy mountain roads and lots of breaking. Morale was a bit low. At least the rain had stopped.

Finally we saw one of the signs on our map that Flavio had drawn. We followed a few of the turns and came to the "Casa de Aldarete". We called the number and Flavio answered, laughing and saying that he thought we were not going to make it. He let us in through the gate and ushered us into the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We entered a room with a fire going for us to dry out our gear. He showed me the guest house where I would be staying with my own kitchen, shower, and bedroom. Dale got the palatial treatment in the real Casa. After showering off and changing, Flavio's wife prepared us a traditional Portuguese meal and let us sample some of the house wine. Yes, they have a family vineyard at the Casa. It was probably the best thing that could have ever happened. They kept forcing food on us, making us drink more wine, and then they let us sleep. I have never slept so well.

Day 6 - Casa de Aldarete to ???

Mid Day 6 right now, at a Biblioteca in Valenca, Portugal. Broke another spoke about one mile into this morning's ride and had to fix that. It has been raining very hard and we are feeling pretty down about the 5-day forecast ahead of us. Rain, rain, and more rain. Looking at some train schedules to possibly avoid rain and cold in the mountains. It is miserable outside.

I want to go back to the Casa de Aldarete and eat more Portuguese food.

Lisboa to Oporto

Updating from the Porto Poet's Hostel, the sister hostel to one that we stayed in while in Lisbon. Great place, great dinner, great company.

Day 1 - Lisbon to Santa Cruz
The day it actually began. Started off cycling along a major road that was closed off for a road race, which ended up being super convenient for us getting out of the city safety. Quick stop at a nice tower on the ocean (see below - Tower of War)


A stop at the Pena National Palace in Sintra to see some 19th century Romanic architecture. The map didn't mention the 6-mile long hill to get to the entrance. I guess that should be assumed when the palace is on top of the "hill" in town. I would describe it as a mixture between Dr. Seuss and Disney World (though I've never been to Disney World)Things were smooth going out of Sintra as we headed west towards the Atlantic. High of day definitely came when we crested a nice hill and came to this vista:
Realized that I am actually biking myself back to Oxford. That's a long ways away, but it's exciting and pretty empowering to know that you can move yourself that far. Well, at least I hope I can.
The rest of the day followed the coastline, which proved to be a lot of up and down with pretty unfavorable winds. Nothing too bad, but a long first day. Rounded out around 80+. Not so sure since Dale's odometer stopped working on the hill to the Palace. We were going that slow. Pretty sure some walkers passed us at one point.
Spent our first night camping on the beach outside Santa Cruz, ignoring the no camping sign and finding a comfortable plot of sand. Great night.

Palace in the clouds
weathered pastels and tiles
Romanticism

Day 2 - Santa Cruz to Marinha Grande

Turns out that Dale and I like to spend our mornings getting lost. Made a team decision to bike for a few miles on a road that had a sign forbidding: bikes, people, cows, and wheelbarrows. We walked away just fine, minus the angry Portuese man who took it upon himself to stop his car on the freeway (100km/hr road), yell things and shake his finger. We got off at the next exit.

Stopped at the beautiful town of Obidos for lunch. I've started to notice that most bigger towns have their own castle/forts built on the highest point of land. Pretty cool. You can see lunch, and the castle on the hill.
Dale and I experiment with the self-timer at the old church that we had lunch at:
As the afternoon progresses, we become more proficient at self-timer photos. A scenic shot on the beach of Nazare.
Home for night two, another no camping sign in the park but it was getting dark and we were tired. Worked out just fine, and there was even a nice stream for rinsing off. Another 80+ miles and a great night of sleep. Sampled some of the local beer with dinner - mini Segres, which we kept cool with our frozen peas that we later used to ice sore legs/knees.

Talking with symbols
"Abrigato", or Thank You
A great phrase to know

Day 3 - Marinha Grande to Aveiros

A rather uneventful day, when we rode about 90 miles, enjoyed a cold coke with lunch, and slept in some industrial swamp lands. Here is a pretty bridge that we passed over.


Flat roads and tail winds
Might as well be all downhill
Thanks for the weather

Day 4 - Aveiros to Porto

A day when we wake up in the pouring rain, skip breakfast to avoid hanging out any longer than we have to in the miserable weather, I break three spokes in the first 5 miles and Dale carries more than 3/4 of our combined weight, we walk our bikes 1km over a road that is being torn apart, and we triumphantly march into Porto. Literally march, the hills are too big to ride up and they are layed with uneven stones. Felt great to take a shower and to have clean clothes for tomorrow.

Repair job on the wheel: fishing line and duct tape held for 42km

Bridge we rode across to enter Porto


Sampling of some of the tile work that we've seen in Portugal. It's all over the place, they love their tiles.

Another hostel
with dinner, beds, warm breakfast
and time to relax

Hopefully updating from Spain in a few days!

MBG

Lisboa

At the airport before putting together the bike.
Ready to bike to the hostel
Riding up the hill towards Castle S. Jorge
Castle. sweet
Inside the fortress
Resting the bikes for lunch
View of the city from the castle
Remember the jesus statue? See the giant thing on the left? Yup, it really is that big.
View of some sweet garden.

Decided to start with photos because I didnt realize that photos upload to the top of the blog... Kind of new at this. But anyways.

Location: Lisbon Poets Hostel, Portugal (picture is the view from the hostel)

Total distance: Probably around 20 miles, havent set up the odometer yet. Tonights project.

High: Finding the big supermarket in town! El Corte Ingles. The language barrier was a bit harder to deal with that I thought it would be, and Dale and I had some errands to run today before really starting the ride tomorrow. One of those was groceries. The only people who spoke good English were the tourists who didnt know where any stores were, and the people who knew couldnt tell us. So frustrating.

Low: Dale and I were riding along and we saw a giant castle perched on one of the hills looking over the city. Obviously decided to ride up to it. The Castelo S. Jorge, built by the Muslims around the 11th century. Such a cool place. But the low... inside of the castle was, I kid not, a garden filled with sick and dying cats. It was the most depressing thing I have ever seen.

Old castle up high
ornamented with sick cats
interesting choice

One of the cats escaped from the garden...

Until next time,
MBG

Go Time

I'll be leaving Oxford in about 3 hours to catch a cab to the bus station, a bus to Gatwick Airport, and then a plane to Lisbon, Portugal. Should land tonight around 7pm, at which point Dale and I will have to put together our bikes and ride to our hotel. My biggest concern right now is biking on the right side of the road. Why does the UK insist on being different?

Decided to keep the posts shorter to save time for myself and others. Inspired by Overland, I'm going to include: high since last update, low, something I've learned, haiku I've written, and hopefully some photos.

So for today

High - Sealing my bike box yesterday afternoon. It felt great to know that all the preparation and hard work is in the bag and now I get to ride for the next 4 weeks and not worry about anything else.

Low - Running around Oxford trying to find duct tape to seal my bike box. Literally, not a single store in Oxford carries duct tape. And every store that usually does just so happened to be sold out. I ended up bartering with the owner of a local bike shop for his partly used roll of duct tape. Best 3 pounds ever.

Something Learned - Apparently, in the 1950's the President of Portugal thought it would be a good idea to build a giant monument of Jesus Christ looking over the city of Lisbon. It was meant as a thank you/plea to God for having spared Portugal in WWII. That's a pretty serious thank you present. Check this thing out:

The work has been done

So the hard work can begin

See you in four weeks

Cheers,

MBG

Pre-Trip in Oxford

9th week of Hilary Term has begun, which in Oxford lingo means only finals and papers stand between me and our 4-week long spring vacation. I'm lucky enough to have only one final paper - 5,000 words on the philosophical "problems" of consciousness and I'm home free.

I've decided to forgo the traditional "I'm a college student studying abroad in Europe" vacation in favor of the more adventurous, relatively expense free option. In my room I have a RyanAir confirmation printout of a one-way ticket to Lisbon, Portugal. No checked bags. 1 checked bike. I'll be joined by Dale, a fellow WEPO-ite (Williams Exeter Programme in Oxford), for the entire journey and the two of us will be meeting Amy and Bianca (also Williams) in Biarritz, France about half-way through the trip. Me and the ladies for 4 weeks, should be interesting.

As far as accomodations go we have a hostel booked in Lisbon, a hostel booked in Bilbao for two nights, and a campsite in Biarritz. The other 20+ days we'll be tenting wherever we see fit. Beaches along the ocean, the yards of generous strangers, general patches of shrubbery... the plan is not to have a plan.

Here is my best estimate of our route




I'm assuming there will be internet cafes along the road so hopefully I can post pictures and stories to let family/friends know that I am alive and well. Can't wait!

MBG