Andalucia and Green Spain; and Portugal
Part 1 - first 3 months of riding
2,500 miles or 4,023 km - 3 months into a 6 months 2-wheel adventure.
Quick description of the route - we started in Malaga Spain on 15 April (Good Friday), rode through Andalucia; into Portugal; back into Spain and across the northern provinces of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and Basque country - known as Green Spain. Then crossed into France to experience French Basque Country. Fantastic riding, experiences and fun. No camping. Not much advanced planning. We let the wind, temperature and cultural sites determine the route.
Andalucia is the province known for its beautiful white villages. Many are listed as "the most beautiful villages in Spain". We started our adventure in Malaga, arriving on Good Friday. This is observed with a procession throughout the city, where men carry huge religious floats. We had to assemble at least 1 bike before going to observe this procession.
On Saturday morning, Stan worked to assemble his bike. Uh-oh, he found that the rear hub separated on his wheel. We didn't carry that specific tool. Being it was Good Friday-Easter weekend, we scrambled to find an open bike shop. Luck prevailed; I found Recyclo bicycle shop open 1km from our hotel. I called the shop to check on whether it could do an emergency repair. Yes and the owner is British, meaning I didn't have to try and explain the problem in Spanish! He repaired the issue and was a gem of a guy.
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As we started our ride, I kept noticing how hard it was to shift. About 10km into the ride, my gearing jammed completely. Turns out, in our jet-lagged state, we didn't thread the chain correctly. This time, we did have the tool and it was a simple fix. We were off and riding to see friends in Frigiliana, a charming Andalucian white village. We watched the Easter procession there. We hiked with our friends and went to the beach in Nerja to enjoy a swim followed by traditional paella. Great idea!
From Frigiliana, we rode over the pass (2 days) to Granada. We didn't want to ride that distance so early in the journey over a pass with loaded bikes. We split the trip into 2 days, overnighting in Otivar, a small white village. We stayed at Villa Otivar, a bicycle friendly place with a rooftop bar and some tapas and great hospitality. The next day, we knew the weather would be bad and it was indeed chilly, wet, windy. It was a good test of our climbing on "loaded" bikes and the raingear.
We plan to visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites whenever possible and Alhambra in Granada is well worth it.
We joined an organized ride for 2 weeks, starting in Granada, to visit more white villages and get in some decent hill training, excellent and copious food/wine, and good company. Andalucia is a great place to ride bikes and our tour, organized by Bicycle Adventure Club and using IberoCycles as the local coordinator, was superb. The tour ended in Tarifa, famous for the wind and kiteboarding and the ferry to Morocco.
We continued on our own to Santa Marta, near Cadiz, to enjoy a fabulous BnB (Casa des Artes), a family-run sherry tasting, more great food and then a train to Sevilla. The plan was to spend a week in Sevilla seeing more UNESCO sites and enjoying this amazing city at a leisurely pace. We did not use the bikes for 7 days! Trained from Sevilla to Huelva to avoid city traffic and hot weather. Then, a short ferry ride to enter Portugal! As a note - Sevilla is an amazing city, with UNESCO sites, great food, walkable and bicycle friendly. Highly recommend a week here.
Portugal by bike
Portugal is known to cyclists and we agree that it is a great place to ride.
We did not have a planned route through Portugal. Instead, we worked our way west and north, learning of interesting places, historic sites and incredible mountain villages. We knew we wanted to avoid riding near Lisbon and up to Porto (advice of locals). We knew we had to visit the UNESCO sites of Evora and Elvas. Our route was atypical and we only planned 2 days out, except for Evora.
To start, we attempted riding the EuroVelo 1 route, but it was rough in places (fist sized rocks, sandy, no services, not scenic). Even on gravel bikes with 38mm tires. We nixed that and took more scenic routes along the southern coast (Algarve). Our opinion of the Algarve - don't go. It is super touristy with large high-rise apt. blocks. Yes, there are nice beaches, but there are even nicer beaches (IMHO) the closer to Sagres (west of Lagos) and up the Atlantic coast.
The coast gets more intriguing, the villages smaller, the hills more frequent and some quite steep. Great swimming spots. You do need to carry more food as there are only restaurants and not many grocery stores in these places. Below is a list of hotels in which we stayed, giving you an idea of the route we took.
Faro - Sunlight House. Faro was interesting. We could've spent a few more days in Faro, renting SUP or kayaks to visit islands and paddle through the estuary.
Portimau - Highly recommend Hotel Alcaide. It is a short walk to the beach, there is a wonderful, family owned seafood restaurant next door (had dinner there twice) and the breakfast is superb. Great hospitality.
Lagos - Costa D'Oro Village. Not easy to find and about a mile from the busy downtown. Lots of families with small children stayed there. We were told there was secure bike parking in the hotel lot. Well, it was a rack, outside in an unattended, open lot. They allowed us to put the bikes in an obscure part of the garden when we refused to use the outside rack. This hotel has THE BEST BREAKFAST anywhere.
Sagres - Casa Mare. A small, simple BnB with a caring host. Easy to reach downtown by foot and to visit a lighthouse. Sagres is where the coast starts to get wild and windy.
Carrapteira - Carrapteira Lodge. We enjoyed the small town and good vegetarian options at the 2 restaurants. Not much to this village, but great hills and beaches.
Milfontes - Vila Nova Milfontes
Aljustrel - Hotel Vila Aljustrel
Vidiguera - Hotel Santa Clara, a remodeled convent. Great breakfast and super friendly staff.
Evora - Albergaria do Calvario. Perhaps the BEST customer service. Stan broke a spoke en route. Upon arrival, the hotel manager called a local bike shop and the mechanic picked up our bikes and returned them to us in 36 hours with all repairs completed and cleaned! Evora has several UNESCO World Heritage sites. 3 days was ample time to see them and not feel overwhelmed.
Vila Vicosa - Hotel Solar. Worth visiting the royal residence there, which is why we stopped for a night.
Elvas - Hotel Sao Joao Dom
Marvao - Dom Dinis. Top of a hill, great views, lovely hotel. A great little mountain village.
Castillo Branco - Hotel a Espana. Skip this city. It was a good stopping place for us, but there isn't much there for bicyclists, especially on a Sunday.
Monsanto - Casa da Ti Maria. Very hard to find without the owner. That said, it is a lovely, spacious room, and the host was wonderful. One of my favorite villages in Portugal.
Sabugal - Hospedaria Robal
Almeida - Alecrim Rosemarin. I loved this little town and the owner of the hotel is a charming, friendly man. Great Italian food around the corner; good hair cut nearby. Wonderful breakfast.
Trancoso - Solar Sampai. Another remodeled old villa. Beautiful room, great location. Trancoso is worth visiting for the historic old town and interesting food. There is a local small craft brewery a short walk from downtown with good beer.
Celorico da Beira - Residential Parque. Not the best, but had aircon, was inexpensive and we could do a fun unloaded ride. We would not go out of our way to stay here, but it was a holiday weekend, hard to find rooms with aircon and it worked for us.
We stayed mid - way to Duoro at a renovated convent, Convento Nossa Senora. Nothing else around in terms of amenities, except a nice river for swimming and huge buffet lunch on a Sunday. Aircon was essential. Room was lovely.
Duoro - The Original Hotel Duoro. STAY here. Wonderful staff, great location.
Vila Real - Duoro Village
Vidago - ZN Lodge. Visit Vidago. Great history, nice walks, lots of bicyclists, a big/fancy spa hotel with hot spring baths. We LOVED ZN Lodge. The owner is great, he renovated a 15th C vila: the room was huge, modern, and yet another procession passed under our window! Vidago is along the Camino de Santiago.
Back into Spain.
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We opted to follow the Camino route since we were already riding a lot of it. However, walkers and bicyclists often have short, steep pitches. With my bike gearing, I pushed my bike up a lot of stinker hills. That said, it is quite fun to see how many people do the Camino, wishing each other (and us) a "Buen Camino" as we pass. At this point, we decided we ought to visit Santiago de Compostela and planned the route accordingly.
We stopped in Laza, staying at Pension Blanco. This was the ONLY place available at a decent distance, except for a Camino pilgrim hostel. Plus, it was a Sunday and everything around was closed. The owner was great and accompanied us to her favorite local swimming hole. Given 36C heat and no aircon, this was super.
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We encountered some thick and smokey air as we crossed into Spain. This was from a wildfire in a Natural Park distant from us. We stopped in a tourist office to learn where the fire was located and whether our route might need altering. Except for bad air, we were good. The smoke was mostly gone the next day as we rode to Ourense (Burgas Apt), Bendoiro (Paza de Bendoiro) and into Santiago de Compostela (Mapoula PR Boutique Hotel).
Santiago is the goal for many pilgrim walkers and riders. The cathedral is magnificent and still has the giant swinging incense burner. Kids, and us, could not contain their gleeful cheers seeing 6 men manipulating ropes to swing the burner. A first for all of us! We really enjoyed walking around this historic city. Once again, we found ourselves in a place with a fete happening. This time, the neighborhoods build bonfires, small and large. People jump over the smaller bonfires as a tradition. It was quite fun to watch while enjoying freshly grilled sardines and a beer (another tradition). Highly recommend a visit to Santiago.
Part of our goal was to escape the intense summer heat by getting to "Green Spain", the north coast along the Cantabrian Sea. We learned that trains do not allow unassembled bikes. However, buses will take bikes if thYey are sort of covered by plastic and the front wheel is removed. I asked the bus clerk, "what does sort of covered mean?" She replied, "some people get bubble wrap, others get a large garbage can liner, even food plastic wrap will do." We purchased tickets 2 days in advance and went off in search of plastic wrap. One rider said he found it at a grocery store. No luck. We ended up buying 5m at a mail/package store and a roll of tape. Travel day - we rode to the bus station and saw several variations of "sort of wrapped". Turns out the bus was completely sold out and a few riders were denied boarding thinking they could buy tickets from the driver. We were grateful to have scoped this out in advance. The bus trip was easy and brought us to Ribadeo. We unwrapped the bikes, found a bakery open for some lunch and pedaled off to Foz Beach and back. We stayed at a lovely BnB in Ribadesella (Casa do Merlo), highly recommend this place, an old, beautifully restored villa. We walked to see the reknowned Cathedral Beach at low tide (definitely do this), and then walked about 4km to an open restaurant for a fish dinner. This walk was in a downpour, which made for bigger waves and a fun post-dinner walk on the beach.
Our goal was slow motion along the north coast to reach Bilbao and avoid bigger city traffic en route. We stayed in Luarca (Finca Portizuelo), Aviles (Hotel 40 Nudos), Oviedo (Hotel Fruela), Llastres (Palacio de Los Vallados), Ribadesella (Hotel Don Paco), Santillana (Hotel Museo Los Infantes), Lierganes (Posada Carpe Diem), Noja (Hostel de Vinas) and arriving to Bilbao (Hotel Iturrienea Ostatua). Bilbao is an amazing city, bicycle friendly and great food. We got tickets to the must-see Guggenheim Bilbao museum (which is 5-star), walked all over to visit historic churches and other sites.
From there, we rode to a rural pension up on a hill(Hotel Rural Natxiondo), descended to Getaria (Pension Getaria), San Sebastien (Welcome Gros Hotel), Hondarribia (Hondarribia Pension), Hasparren (Hotel Argia-great stay and restaurant). All are worth visits, depending on your level of comfort in highly touristed beach cities. The riding between them is not tough and we planned it for maximizing sea views and swims. Getaria is the one little village where the hotel owners were over the top helpful about storing our bikes when the hotel really doesn't have bike storage. The town in July is filled with tourists and families with small children. San Sebastien is reknowned for superb tapas, the huge beaches and crowds of foreigners. We heard more English here than anywhere else on the trip. We would've enjoyed spending more time in rural Basque country and riding mountain roads.
Back to France, still in Basque Country for a few days
When you ride across the Spain-French border here, you are still in Basque Country but it is different. Again, the weather turned hot and we sought hotels with aircon when possible. Even though it was without aircon, we stayed in Orthez (Moulin de Sens), with a pool. Unfortunately, we arrived to town at 14h06 on Sunday and every restaurant was closed. Except for McDonald's. Turns out, other riders had the same hunger issue. McDo's in France offers surprisingly good salads, even though they were expensive (10 Euros). I never thought I would eat at a McDo's in France (or anywhere really), but it was the only option. We enjoyed a nice dinner at the Chambre d'Hote and met a nice Belgian couple staying there.
At that point, we decided to ride to Pau and catch a train to Lourdes. The goal, Argeles Gazost, a great little city with access to High Pyrenees rides and hiking. We selected The Primerose Hotel based on bicyclist reviews and it was great: secure bike storage, bike tools, laundry, aircon, comfy room, great location, filling dinners and the owners are incredible. Also, hoped being at a higher elevation would be a little cooler. From here, we did a ride up Hautacam and Col de Trammesel, one of 2022 Tour de France climbs.
We knew we had to make it to Foix by 17 July to watch the Tour come through this little city. This meant riding the 10km from Argeles Gazost back to Lourdes (and stopping to see the famed Cathedral) and taking the train to St Gaurdens (Hotel de L'Esplanade - great place). This saved us from riding in the high heat. We arrived to St Gaurdens on 14 July, Bastille Day, meaning most places were closed for the holiday weekend. We found dinner at the only other hotel open. We rode from there to St Lizier (worth a visit) and stayed outside of the picturesque village at Logis Hotel Horizon. No aircon, but a pool, nice guests and a good restaurant. The next day, we rode to St Girons and visited the famous and enormous saturday market. This was fun to see and we picked up a melon for snacking later (melons in France are small enough to fit in a handlebar bag or pannier). We rode the Voie Vert rail trail all the way to Foix and to our friends' home.
Arriving to Foix was a milestone and goal. We have spent considerable time here with Oregon friends. We celebrated 2,500 miles (4,000km)! And watched the Tour de France finish in Foix.
France was in the midst of a second mega-heat wave of the summer season. The 38C temperatures are unusual and sparking many wildfires in the area. Several of the EuroVelo routes in SW France were closed due to the fires.
Today's ride: 4,023 km (2,498 miles)
Total: 5,823 km (3,616 miles)
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