We are currently on tour in Spain and Portugal. The trip is going smashingly. We are talking about returning next summer. We had the easiest entry I can possibly imagine. We flew into Madrid, and stayed at a nearby hostal that had a free airport shuttle. The bicycle shop was a few blocks from the hostal. The bike path out of town started within a couple of miles of the hostal. 

Are there other such easy entry cities by bicycle that you've used? It seems most cyclists use the train to get to a good riding area. My long recumbent isn't conducive to trains, plus I'm married to a man who absolutely has to ride every inch, no discussion on getting to the good stuff with him. 

Well, my first thought is that if you found Madrid to be an easy springboard I wouldn’t worry about it too much.  I’d just figure out where you want to go first and then look around for what’s in the region.  In general though, we think smaller airports in smaller towns are much easier to manage - places like Santiago, Faro, Malaga, Nice, Innsbruck, Pisa, or Salzburg for example.  

Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Gdańsk. 

A few years there was the Berlin-Tegel airport quite close to the city center, but it was closed and replaced with the huge Berlin-Brandenburg hub. But it still shouldn't be a problem, as there is a direct connection to the center of Berlin with S-Bahn - city railway.

S.

I find Lyon and Marseille are my "easy entry" airports, from a map they might look inaccessible to bikes but the reality is a little different . From Lyon - St Exupery Airport you can go east along a minor road towards Lyon itself, or go south through the small cargo area to the town of Poulieu (quieter route). From Marseille-Provence Airport you can go south along a main road for a km or two until the exit lane for the town of Marignane or go north to Rognac. While both routes re on busy roads for a short while, about 10-15 min riding, it's pretty quiet after you leave them.