dst. (km) Today 116.3 Trip 3103.5 Stats. Avg ??km/hr Riding ?? An absolutely magical day for my last day of riding in Spain. Blue sky, no wind, and a balmy autumn feel to the air. I left around 9:30 this morning, riding along the beach and my bike felt terrible! It was all twitchy and jumpy since this was the first day in almost six weeks that I’ve ridden with empty panniers!
dst. (km) Today 0 Trip 2711.2 In the morning I walked up the hill and around the castle and fortifications, everything was all very wet and green, water dripping out of stone ceilings, moss growing everywhere.
I was sitting and thinking of all the little things I’ve seen, things I probably haven’t written down, things I’ll probably forget…
the goat giving birth in the pouring rain, with the farmer standing by.
dst. (km) Today 115.38 Trip 2594.0 Stats. Avg 19.3km/hr Riding 7hr 30’ Morning in an inland mountain town, very much like mid-autumn in Canberra where I grew up. For the first time all trip I needed blankets on the bed at night!
Where? Jaca(42.5666667,-0.5500000) Pamplona(42.8166667,-1.6333333)
dst. (km) Today 109.12 Trip 2332.2 Stats. Avg 20.6km/hr Riding 5hr 16’ 22” I managed to leave around 9:30 am this morning and spent the first half of the day riding through flat, ordinary, honest farmland. Mostly piggeries and corn-fields, it was almost pleasant to be just riding — no touristy things to gawk at, no fabulous destination — just riding along, getting gradually closer to Pamplona.
Sticking to the back-roads I had a very quiet day, its feeling very autumnal all of a sudden, after weeks of the south and the coast.
dst. (km) Today 118.3 Trip 2221.8 Stats. Avg 20.7km/hr Riding 5hr 42’ 8.30 am found me sitting half-way up the mountains watching the sun rise up out of the Mediterranean and over Barcelona, gradually lighting up the rocks around me. I left in the dark, coming out at about 7.30 am to climb to the top, but with no map, no light and unmarked tracks criss-crossing the mountain I had only instinct to guide me, so I just kept heading up until I found a good rock to sit on, then sat on it!
dst. (km) Today 63.36 Trip 2103.2 Stats. Avg 13.6km/hr Riding 4hr 37’ 4” Getting out of Barcelona was a bit of a nightmare. None of the minor roads seemed to be signposted and I kept getting directed back towards the Autovias — of course bikes aren’t allowed on the Autovias, so I had to keep turning around and heading back the way I’d come. It took me from 10.15 am to about 12.
dst. (km) Today 0 Trip 2032.9 Another day of being a tourist. I shouldn’t have bothered with the two day bus pass yesterday. There was very little that I felt like seeing today — I was all museumed out. Did a bit of wandering around the shops this morning and saw a reasonable looking leather coat for 55000P, but not good enough to grab me.
I got off the bus at the bottom of Montjuc and found that half the places were closed since it was Monday, the other half were closed since it was siesta time!
dst. (km) Today 0 Trip 2032.9 Spent the day being a tourist on the bus, I should probably have only bought a one-day ticket since I managed to see nearly all the places I was interested in. And that was all the Gaudi buildings and Parc Guell.
I could have bought dozens of books on Gaudi and his works but resisted the lot since I’m not carrying them with me!
dst. (km) Today 0 Trip 2032.9 7.30 am, sitting in Barcelona bus terminal after a horrible night in the bus. The bus was smoky, the guy in front snored and the lady sitting next to me smoked even though it was the non-smoking half. Her reasoning — the smoking half was full and like most Spaniards, she smokes.
Observations from the night: The bike survived but the bar-ends rub on the top tube when all folded back, and the whole Spanish coast is an ugly mass of resort hotels, concrete boxes stretching to infinity.
dst. (km) Today 22.59 Trip 2032.9 Stats. Avg 6.1km/hr Riding 3hr 33’ 33” Happy birthday to me.
Stuck in a town I don’t like, and I can’t really figure out how to get away from quick enough.
11:30 and I’ve been rolling gently around town, I checked out of the hostel and got a pleasant surprise paying the bill, less than I expected, then went back and forth between bus and train stations, neither making very much sense to me so off to the tourist information and found that the next train to Barcelona is on Sunday, so I booked a bus ticket for this evening.
dst. (km) Today 154.02 Trip 1548.5 Stats. Avg 19.4km/hr Riding 7hr 55’ 35” Odometer 8518.3km Photo above is “On the road between Sevilla and Ronda. I didn’t go to Adriano”
Where? Sevilla(37.3772222,-5.9869444), Ronda(37.8833333,-4.7666667).
dst. (km) Today 151.91 Trip 1392.8 Stats. Avg 23.6km/hr Riding 6hr 23’ 49” Time to head off on the bike… It’s around nine in the morning, I’m sitting in a café opposite the Mezquita being smiled at by the girl who works here, sipping an excellent coffee. It’s a tough life…
Compared to yesterday, this morning was bliss. I got up, packed up, put my seat up, then got out without having to break out!
dst. (km) Today 50.05 Trip 1238.3 10 o’clock in the morning and I’m still in the hotel room, apart from my left leg and hip feeling slightly numb and strange from the crash a week ago, I feel fine.
It took me until 10:30 to break out of my room! The strange door handle and combined lock crumbled and broke apart when I tried to open it, leaving me stuck on the inside!
dst. (km) Today 118.6 Trip 890.3 A crisis of conscience this morning; will I ride alone, or will I ride to Toledo with the other four? Nearly drove me crazy yesterday, but they were just too nice to say no to. As a result I ended up riding slower than I would have by myself, sat out the front for the whole day, tried hard not to get too impatient with all their stops, etc.
dst. (km) Today 108.0 Trip 772.5 A big difference riding today, I was riding with four others — the four Americans that I met yesterday. Over an hour of stuffing around getting ready and making sure that everyone was ready and everyone had everything, then a long mother-hen lesson in the correct hand signals to use to indicate small pieces of gravel, minor bumps in the road, corners, etc. Once we were finally out on the road I was then told off for riding too near the traffic, then for riding too fast, etc.
dst. (km) Today 52.0 Trip 662.2 I think I’ve recovered from yesterday… and mostly from Tuesday, although I have a huge bruise on my bum, together with a sore neck, thigh and right shoulder! 9 am and time to get organised and on my way.
I said goodbye to the girls this morning, they’ld been looking at houses for somewhere to live for the next few months, slept through their first appointment but made it to the next few.
dst. (km) Today 0.0 Trip 605.8 Last night I went out to dinner with three English girls who have just come to Cáceres to study Spanish for a year. We had a magnificent meal and then went out for a few beers in a nearby bar. One of the barmen was trying to pick up two of the girls and the drinks just seemed to get cheaper and cheaper, and larger and larger as the night progressed… I didn’t get back to the pensiôn until around 2.
dst. (km) Today 129.76 Trip 605.8 Welcome to Spain; welcome back to the western world!
It rained again all last night, and was damp and foggy as I left this morning. I found it hard to get organized and get on my way.
Soon after I left, the fog got heavier and turned to rain, then it rained steadily all the way to the Spanish border. I was still having a ball though, riding along, singing to myself and being happy.
dist. (km) Today 120.4 Trip 474.7 So many things happened today, and such a long day….
Poured with rain again overnight, but by the time I was leaving it had turned to a heavy mist. Pastries and um Galâo for breakfast.
In the early evening I sat on the rock walls at Castelo de Vide(39.5500000,-8.9833333), gazing off to the north at the most amazing view. Miles and miles of mostly flat cork plantations, farm cottages — white and lived in, or grey and crumbling, the odd town — all on the on the tops of the hills where the forts and castles were built.
dist. (km) Today 86.04 Trip 353.5 Today — off to visit the Knights Templar….
Those church bells that I noticed yesterday woke me with a vengeance this morning. I shall have to try and remember not to stay quite so close to a church on a Saturday night! I’ve no idea when they started calling people to mass, but I’m sure it was still dark.
Rolling hills have a problem when you’re on a touring bike with a tonne of luggage — you just can’t roll up them!
dist. (km) Today 74.8 Trip 264.1 Dinner last night was a bit of a dud, and entirely my fault. I took the easy way out and ordered “Ementa Turistica”. The tourist menu consisted of steak, egg and chips, presumably the only thing that the Portuguese believe that the English will eat… maybe not that far from the truth. I wasn’t confidant enough to try picking anything else, I guess it serves me right!
dist. (km) Today 65.4 Trip 186.9 The weather today conspired to attempt to make me grumpy with the world — but I’m refusing to not enjoy it all!
This morning there was more uncomfortable conversation with Ricardo’s mother in my mutilated Portuguese as I packed up and settled my bill, then — much relieved — left and rode back into Sintra. Most of my clothes from yesterday are still wet and my shoes are soaked.
dist. (km) Today 100.3 Trip 112.9 This morning I rode slowly down through Lisbon, motorists who’ll happily double park and block the trams or go through red lights without batting an eye just lean on the horn if one cyclist slows them down. I’m convinced that I’m the only cyclist in Lisbon anyway…
I made it to the Plaça without too much of a problem and sat down to get my bearings and for some much needed breathing space.
dist. (km) Today 0.0 Trip 8.3 At 7 pm I found myself sitting on the Paseo at Expo ‘98, resting my aching legs and writing about the day. I’d been on my feet since 9 am.
Breakfast was the first priority, pastry e um bica in a café, standing at bar with the rest of the patrons. An ordinary request and a simple one, but buying the breakfast and sipping my coffee increased my confidence 100%.
dst. (km) Today 6.4 Trip 8.3 At some strange time in the morning I was flying over Romania — I think. An hour in Frankfurt and then breakfast on the flight. Somewhere out over the Black Sea there was a magnificent thunderstorm to watch, all the lightning playing around below the plane.
Singapore airport seemed huge, we all had to walk for miles to get from the Qantas flight to the check-in counter, then almost all the way back to get to the departure lounge for the Lufthansa flight.
dst. (km) Today 2.5 Trip 2.5 Woohoo! The adventure begins!!
Evan and I sat around chatting at breakfast then he headed off to work, and I bummed around making time pass for the rest of the morning.
I decided that the easiest way to get myself, bag and bike to the airport was to ride down to Chapell street with my bag on my back, then head to Flinders street before catching a cab to the airport… I made it to the bank, and successfully transferred $1500 into my Visa account, before heading on.
Left Evan’s place around 10 am, then went and payed my last rent for Rosella street, a symbolic thing and especially enjoyable after being ripped off and pushed around by Biggin and Scott in Carnegie — the agents. Then off to breakfast at Rita’s before going home and trying to get some fresh air into the place. It is an absolutely beautiful day — later in the day I sat on the beach at St Kilda, surrounded by hundreds of people all lazing about….
Experiences with Bicycles and Airlines As they say in the classics, Your mileage may vary. Here is a summary of my experiences with taking bicycles on airlines, both within and outside Australia.
In general I’ve found that officially, all the airlines will insist that a bike is boxed. Bikes also count as oversize and fragile items, so if they choose, they can decide not to carry it, and if they damage it, in theory it’s your fault not theirs.
Vanity site? Technology experiment? Learning tool? Blog? Journal? Diary? Photo album? I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…
I experiment. I play. I write and I take pictures. Some of the site is organised around topics, other parts are organized by date, then there’s always the cross-references between them.
Its all been here a fairly long time. Like the papers on my desk, or the books on the bedside table, the pile just grew… and it all grew without much plan or structure. I try not to break URLs, so historical oddities abound.
Long ago it started as a learning experiment with a few static HTML pages, then I added a bit of server-side includes and some very ugly PHP. A hand-built journal/blog on top of that PHP, then a few experiments in moving to various static publishing systems. I’ve never wanted a database-based blogging engine, so over the years I’ve tried PHP, nanoblogger, emacs-muse, silkpage and docbook before settling on Emacs Org mode for writing and jekyll for publishing. But the itch remained… I never really liked jekyll and the ruby underneath always seemed so much black magic. So now the latest incarnation is Org mode and hugo.
