Spain is hilly and huge to cycle around it!
We arrived in Spain, which meant we had to cross the Pyrenees! After one month cycling the flattish France we were not sure how we were going to handle it. We were afraid of the hard climbing, thinking how many breaks we would need and how many days it would take us.
In the end, like anything else in life, it was just a task like any other, and a pleasant ride once you get used to and start to take it easy. Small gear, look around and keep going. Don’t worry about the speed, you will get to the top. Sooner or later, later rather than sooner.
We had two summits ahead of us, and after that all the way down to Pamplona. And Zaragoza. Surprisingly, the hardest part were not the mountains, but the flat and boring road direction Zaragoza. The wind took advantage of the lack of obstacles and it made much harder pedaling. But the worse was the arid landscape, and the little entertainment it yield to our eyes.
Cycling to the Mediterranean sea
After Zaragoza we kept riding direction Teruel, easy roads there, and took our first vía verde to the coast, an old coal miner train way that leads direction the Mediterranean sea.
It was early Spring, but for a Latvian girl, the weather was Summerish and we got our first sunburns of the year. Oranges and mandarins were ready for the pick up, but most fields were going to waste. Fruit production in Spain is massive and prices paid by intermediaries are extremely low, so lots of field owners don’t even bother to pick up the fruit. That was a treat. We enjoyed the perfectly ripe fruits and turned ourselves freegan.
After the quietness on the miners way, we arrived to Valencia during its craziest days of the year: during las Fallas! A totally-nuts-party were people celebrate making us much noise as possible.
We felt we needed to run away from there, and so we did. But the Mediterranean coast was a bit of a disappointment for these budget bicycle tourers. Everywhere you go, you just find more and more huge buildings. No wild coast, no nature, just construction and man-made coast side. We didn’t enjoy it, but we kept delighting ourselves in the orange fields.
In some occasions it was really hard to find a decent spot for camping. That’s a problem because wild camping in Spain is not allowed, overnight outdoors sleeping is grey area, and after being kicked out once -and threatened with a fine- we decided we needed to hide properly.
Lucky for us Alicante province finished, and it got a bit quieter, a bit more rural. Less touristic and more wild land. But really dry, we spend one night in a town with the Spanish record as driest city: It can take years without one drop of water from the sky! Suck it England!
Cabo de Gata was beautiful; arid, but beautiful. Really interesting landscape, wild beaches and dirty paths next to the coast. Sometimes too rocky to push on the pedals, which made us get down the bikes and push when cycling next to dangerous cliffs.
Cycling in the mountains: Sierra Nevada
Next city was Almería, touristic but quiet, sunny but chilly thanks to the wind and proximity with the sea. From the upper part of the city, you could guess the coast line of Africa. But, in the end, it was just another city. We wanted to go back to the mountains, and so we did. There we go Sierra Nevada!
We wanted mountains, and we got them. We cycled the whole Sierra Nevada mountain range across. We spent 5 days climbing up a summit, going down the next one, climbing up again, going down one more time… and camping between almond and olive trees. Yummy almonds by the way!
After 5 days of hard cycling we were happy to reach civilization, and we got to Granada, one of the gems of Spain. We enjoyed the massive portions of tapas -one or two beers and you have had dinner-, and walking around the different neighborhoods.
Making plans on the fly
We were planning to get to Sevilla and to Portugal from the South, but we changed them -we really never made them to be fair- and went through the central part of Spain to Madrid.
The only reason to get into the immense capital of Spain was that I had a blogging awards ceremony to attend, the Spanish version of this blog had been chosen as finalist for #Premios20Blogs, the main national blogging competition. Cool, but not enough to win!
We follow some of the Camino de Santiago routes, the Southern ones, the less crowded and more interesting ones; specially because you get some free “albergues” where to spend the night and get a real shower, like human beings.
Madrid and Camino de Santiago to Portugal
Cycling to Madrid we had spend almost 1 month without a proper break, no more than a couple of nights at somebody’s place, every day wild camping, wild showering and so on. We really needed to rest and felt human again. So we used the opportunity to stop a bit in Madrid and just do that: take a break.
We ride out of Madrid with more mountains on the way, going to Segovia -famous by their aqueduct and the roast baby pig called cochinillo– and from there to Salamanca. That was our last city in Spain for a little while, since it was time to cross the border with Portugal and try to find the differences between Portuguese and Spaniards. But Salamanca was a great goodbye, a really beautiful old town.
And from there we ride our bicycles out of Spain, crossing the unattended border with Portugal and getting rid of that helmet that was making me feel way too hot under that shiny sun.
See you soon Spain, at least one more time!
Jacek Antoni Konieczny
July 6, 2014 @ 15:50
Did you go through Pirineos… from Sainf Jean Pied de Port (Fr) to Ronsecvalle (Sp) and to Pamplona…?
Pablo
November 1, 2014 @ 19:27
We crossed through Otxondo and Belate summits.
Ve
November 1, 2014 @ 18:59
Would like to clear up a little misconception for you, lest other people reading this get the wrong idea too: there is no such thing as a “free” albergue on the camino routes. There are many albergues with no fixed charge, usually run by volunteers, that are solely for the use of genuine pilgrims (defined as people walking, cycling or riding to Santiago de Compostela, usually for religious or spiritual reasons). These albergues rely on contributions from pilgrims who stay there in order to stay open. If you stayed for free it was an abuse of their hospitality because a) you were not pilgrims travelling to Santiago and b) you seem to have had enough cash for beer and tapas so why not give a donation?
Pablo
November 1, 2014 @ 19:09
I think you got the wrong idea, and facts.
First of all: There are albergues run by the municipalities, from their budget, that don’t demand contribution; and other by the organizations of the camino that appreciate a donation.
Second: everybody who is walking, cycling or riding an small part, or the whole way, is welcome; independently if they finished it or their reasons.
Third: Albergues that rely on contributions don’t demand them, the whole idea of accepting donations is that you cannot enforce them neither can expect to enforce them.
Forth: We cycled hundreds of kilometers of the Camino de Santiago, different routes, all leading to Santiago. We had the same rights than anybody else to use the albergues. And none of the ones we used mention, asked, suggest or had a place where to put any donations. We actually went to Santiago, but that doesn’t even matter.
Fifth and last: We travel on a budget of 3€ a day, we had a beer with tapas once in the last 10 months cycling. Yeah, we are rich and we are splurging around while cutting corners on albergues.
Thanks for reading and commenting! 😉
Ve
November 4, 2014 @ 14:13
Thank you for your quick and detailed reply.
I note your clarification of which albergues you stayed in and the situation regarding donations. I had not realised that some municipals were free on the VDLP so I stand corrected on that.
However, if you travelled to Santiago, why is this not shown on your map?
I still take issue with what you say on your blog:
“Para aquellos que tengan intención de recorrer España en bicicleta, les voy a dar una buena noticia, por 2€ que cuesta la Credencial de Peregrino podréis visitar todos los albergues de peregrinos gratuitos (o no), aunque no estéis realizando estrictamente el Camino de Santiago, ¡incluso si estáis yendo en dirección contraria!”
This reads to me like you are a tourist looking for free accommodation, and encouraging others to do the same.
Travelling the world on a small budget is fine, it is your decision. Getting free accommodation from people who know your true position is fine, that’s their decision. But obtaining a pilgrim credencial not to do a pilgrimage, but just to get free accommodation on a holiday, don’t you feel that is dishonest?
Pablo
November 4, 2014 @ 14:49
It doesn’t show in the map because we didn’t cycled to Santiago, someone offer us to ride there with her when we were near by and we just went for the day to Santiago. We had not been filling up the Credencial so we were not gonna be able to get the Compostela anyways, last time we have get a stamp was hundreds of kilometers away.
The blog, specially the Spanish blog, is not a tourist blog but a long term alternative-way-of-traveling blog. Tourist and traveler are pretty much antonym words.
I mention that it is possible to stay in the albergues, which is true, and I say that you don’t need to be doing the whole way step by step of the Camino de Santiago. Which is true as well.
It is up to each individual how far they overstep the mark, but I personally don’t find anything morally incorrect on staying in an albergue even if going on the opposite direction; as long as you go there with a respectful attitude, the right spirit and you don’t really have money for accommodation. In our case, we found we would prefer to spend the night wild camping than in an albergue, so after a few experiences we didn’t repeat again; and we never actually use it going on the opposite direction.
I mention “albergues de peregrinos gratuitos”, which mean those free albergues, the municipal ones. And, as said earlier, you are entitled to be a “pilgrim” and get a credencial even if you are only doing a few stages. There is dozens of routes going to Santiago, it is up to you which one you want to take, how long it takes you and if you wander around or follow the path. There is nothing against it.
Actually, we found that most people that makes the Camino de Santiago in an strict way is just tourists, not people I could really call a pilgrim. We met people with a kinder spirit doing just parts of it and venturing on a different way. Wandering, getting out of the mark path which has became way too touristic and organized.
Terri
July 18, 2015 @ 15:09
Interesting discussions – and I didn’t realise there were ‘many’ routes on the Camino de Santiago way!
unamigo
October 6, 2016 @ 18:15
Amazing,
but, it’s not true that rain doen’t fall in ¿Alicante or Almeria? for years.
Average rain amount is over 150mm per year. It’s very dry, but every year it rains.
This is not Atacama.
Kind Regards!
Pablo
October 8, 2016 @ 11:57
Haha, I know. I wasn’t meaning Alicante as the driest city, but Aguilas, which actually hold that record. 😛
unamigo
October 6, 2016 @ 18:20
Y como sé que entiendes el español te lo digo de otra forma:
No le digas estas cosas a los guiris que luego se piensan que aquí quemamos a nuestros santos para honrar a nuestros muertos mientras bailan gigantes y cabezudos (Visto en Mision imposible), y hasta le ponen chorizo a la paella.
Muy buen blog, me subscribo desde ya.
Saludos.
Pablo
October 8, 2016 @ 11:58
He visto sandwiches de paella en supermercados ingleses xD
Dennis Haycox
March 30, 2018 @ 21:45
Hi
Have you completed your travels now.
It looks very inspiring what you have achieved. Are you happy with the Thorn Nomads you used for your trip around the world.
Thanks
Dennis.
Pablo
May 11, 2018 @ 05:26
Still on the road! Currently in New Zealand.
We are happy with the bikes, not so much with the customers service.