Our last bike tour was in the spring of 2019. In the fall of that year we took a repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Sydney for the wedding of our youngest son and his beautiful wife. We felt very fortunate to get away with that wedding. It took place in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney and we were surrounded by fires. 

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Little did we know what was coming!   We had an amazing party for the newlyweds here in Canada on February 29, 2020. Then of course, Covid. So here we are, the night before we leave for Lisbon, Portugal, looking forward to our first bike tour in three years and we are feeling a little out of practice at getting ready. 

We did manage to get the bikes into the bike spa (also known as North Park Bikes) and they were returned to us purring like kittens. I have also switched out my clipless pedals for pedals that are dual purpose. I had been thinking about that for a while. I prefer riding clipped in, but I do a lot of errands on my bike and sometimes changing shoes is just a pain.  The jury is still out on the pedals but I am getting used to them. I always feel like the wrong side is up no matter which shoes I wear. Keith, who has had them for years, says I will adapt. 

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We had our friends and fellow CycleBlazers Dave and Anne Mathers over for coffee this week and they were a wonderful source of great information and good ideas. It was a delightful morning. 

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Our planning for this trip has been in our usual casual style. We have the first three nights booked in Lisbon. We wanted extra time there so we can see the city, but we also want to be very, very flexible in case our bikes don’t arrive with us. Then we’ll see. Our original plan was to head south from Lisbon mainly following the Eurovelo 1 route, then head east across southern Spain to Valencia and then possibly over to Mallorca.  But  depending on the weather primarily, we are considering taking the train north to Porto and starting there. 

The boxes are packed, loosely sealed, as they have to be opened at the airport. Good friends will follow us out there tomorrow and bring our car back. We have a delightful friend of our daughter in law staying in the house and hopefully eating the tomatoes, raspberries, zucchini and grapes in the garden that we are leaving behind. She will be embarking on her own adventure in a few months so this has worked out well for all of us.   

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Tomorrow should be an interesting day. We hope everything goes smoothly but are packing a peck of patience just in case. We have downloaded esims on our phones, and that is a new technology for us. We have heard good things about it. We are also three years older than the last tour, and have chosen a lumpy country, so that should be interesting.   We are excited though. There is nothing quite like bike touring, being outdoors all day, and seeing and learning new things. 

Still, as I write this, I feel that we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is pretty hard to leave. But it will be waiting when we get home…and when we get home winter will be setting in and we will be planning how to escape that!

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