Bicycle Riding in Spain

I'm a pretty lucky guy, I know that.  I might not have the perfect life, but I've got my health, a roof over my head, a full belly each night, a hot missus, and a couple of very cute dogs.  A few weeks ago, I got extra lucky, and was able to shoot off to Spain to hang out with a good buddy who has moved there for work, and soak up the Spanish sunshine.

 

Typical way of getting more water for the bidon in Spain

 

Now this is probably stating the obvious, but just for the slow ones - life in Spain is not exactly the same as life back home here in Brisbane.  From an outsider looking in, the Spanish really seem to have gotten their priorities right.  Granted, some of this may have been because of the language barrier, but I really don't think so.  I mean I can order a bowl of Paella with the best of them!  I did however need to adapt to their way of life.  A typical day was as follows:

1. Wake up at 9am
2. Drink a few Nespresso (no good coffee available anywhere else)
3. Have some muesli at home for breakfast.  No chance of going out for breakfast, because you would be wasting your time.  Nothing will be open.
4. Drink 2 and 3 above with long life milk (ewwww), there didn't appear to be such a thing as fresh milk anywhere either
5. Roll out the door at about 10am on the bike.  Cruise through a little bit of traffic to get out of town, clear the outskirts of town by 10.30
6. Once out of town, you feel like you have the whole country to yourself

   

   Local dog that wanted to keep me

7. Take a few photos while out riding

   

   Standard photo op in standard sleepy Spanish village

8. Ride up some crazy steep hills, but then get to eventually go down them!
9. Pull into the next nearest town at about 1pm to refill your water bottles and grab some food.
   

   

   
   

   

   Everyone knows B&W is more artistic

10. As per 3, nothing will be open.
11. Curse your stupidity.
12. Manage to find one café that has not closed yet.  Stumble through the language barrier, manage to order yourself and your mate an awful coffee and maybe a croissant if they have them.  There will be no other food around, it's siesta, which means everything is closed from 12pm to 4pm.  Everyone goes to their homes for lunch.
13. Overestimate how much the above will cost, offer shop keeper multiple coins until they look happy.
14. Get back home to basecamp at about 5pm.
15. Wait.
16. Wait
17. Wait
18. Hopefully by now you are still awake, it's now 8pm-ish, and things are starting to open.  Still an hour of light left in the Spanish sky.

    

    Barcelona

    
    

    

    Girona

19. Roll back outside in your finest dinner attire
20. Find restaurant that is hopefully open, it's now 9pm.  Said restaurant is full of families just starting to eat.
21. Eat and drink a lot
22. Stumble back home
23. Watch TV for a bit, typically some Simpsons dubbed into Spanish.  Odd.
24. Go to sleep at about 1am.

    

    Just the local castle down at the beach.  No biggie.

25. Repeat.

Clearly the main differences for a gringo from Brisvegas was the eating time.  Normally I'm eating dinner by 6pm and am in bed by 8.30pm, so I can be up at 5am.  This would not work very well in Spain. It does take a bit to adapt to.  My mate had been living there for a few months, and would still struggle with it.

 

Spain definitely suits getting around by bike though.  You see stuff that you would not otherwise see because you are going that bit slower than a car.  The roads are extremely quiet and of good quality, so you can pull over to stop whenever you like.  In every direction there is a new amazing vista - good and bad if you want to ever get home because of all the photos you inevitably take.  The drivers are extremely friendly and patient, and not begrudgingly so either.  They don't do it because they worry about getting a fine from la policia, they do it because it's natural to do so, because you are just another road user with every right to be there.  The drivers just sit back and wait until they have a safe time to overtake, no stress.

 

And that's the thing, no one over there ever appeared to be stressed out, or in a rush.  They had all the time in the world to do what they needed to do, and just weren't in a hurry to get it done.  It seemed - healthy.  The copious amounts of good olive oil probably didn't hurt either.  Everything just seemed to happen when it needed to, it looked like a pretty good way to live.  However, now that I am back home, I can at least drink a quality Campos coffee again.



Mmmmm Campos
 

The Strava Files - for those that are in to that kinda thing:
15/06 - Terrassa short return
16/06 - Exploring a bit further around Terrassa
17/06 - Bit more exploring...
18/06 - The first big day
20/06 - Climbing up Montserrat
22/06 - Back to exploring
26/06 - The day I died a slow, horrible death