On This Day 19th-August-2009

This week’s on this day post comes from the 19th-August-2009. I’m in northern Spain on the last few days of my Portuguese bike ride, trying to get home. But the ferry times are just not working out for me.

It doesn’t seem that long ago, but in 2009 we didn’t have smartphones. If you wanted the internet, you had to find an internet café. And I think Google Maps was in its infancy.

And the only way I had of working out distances was to use a piece of string on a map. Which inevitable was completely wrong!

Wednesday 19th August Santiago de Compostela to Ribadeo. 114 Miles.

Long day today, I was on a mission to catch a train from Ribadeo to Santander so that I could get the ferry home tomorrow, but I missed it!

I’d worked out last night with my magic piece of string that Santander is about 300 miles away and Bilbao 400, the two places where I can catch a ferry back to England. But the ferry from Santander leaves tomorrow, and the ferry from Bilbao leaves on Friday, so I had no chance of catching either one this week! And on the other hand, neither destination is far enough away for a week’s ride! Santander, I would have made it on Saturday, four days before the ferry leaves, and I would have possibly made Bilbao on Sunday or Monday at the latest, again leaving me four days to hang about!

Detour? Not Likely

Now I know I could go on a detour somewhere, but I’m really not very good at going out of my way. If I can get from A to C without going to B, then I will! But after looking at my Thomas Cook European timetable (I always carry the pages I need for the countries I’m travelling in), I saw that there was a train that left Ribadeo this evening. Which would have got me to Santander overnight, allowing me enough time to catch the ferry tomorrow, solving all my problems of having to go on any detours or hanging around.

Old building with turret
Lovely old building in Rabideo

Had I not made a beeline for Ribadeo, I could have cycled up to A Coruna and picked up the coast from there. That would have been a few more miles, but we are where we are. I’ll just have to have another rethink tonight.

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