Tag: Spain

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 bicycle touring in Spain

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Travelsonabike2 This Day 20th June 2008

Bicycle Touring This Day 20th-June-2008 Man on bike

Bicycle Touring Spain

This week’s Travelsonabike2 bicycle touring on this day post comes from Spain on the 20th of June 2008. And it’s the first day of cycling as I embark on my first-ever long-distance bicycle tour.

There is a more embellished version of this post, along with all the posts from my first long-distance bicycle ride, in my “Bilbao to Bognor” tour book, available to buy from Amazon.

Friday 20th June. In Spain Santuritzi to Zarautz. 91 miles.

It was a much smoother night last night, and I got my first sighting of the Spanish coastline when I woke up and looked out of my porthole. It seemed very hilly.

Wind farm by water
My first view of the ride ahead

After filling up with a full English breakfast onboard the Pride of Bilbao, it was time to disembark. Now, the hard work begins.

The temperature was a pleasant twenty-five degrees with a gentle breeze as I cycled off the ferry. Once off the ferry and out of the terminal, I didn’t get off to the best of starts. I got lost in Bilbao, and it took me two hours to find my way out. Then, I ended up cycling on a motorway for four miles. I’m not too sure if it was me not reading the signs properly or if they’re not very clear. But the road I was cycling on, which wasn’t a motorway, just turned into one.

Eventually, I found my way to the right road. And found myself in the thick of the hills I saw from the ferry. But despite getting lost and having plenty of hills to cycle up. It’s been a good day, and it felt good to be cycling again after three days at sea.

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where you’ll find pictures from all my tours, along with a monthly photo update that I publish each month.

If you want to find out if Garry’s away touring at the moment and check his location, visit the Where’s Garry page.

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Travelsonabike2 This Day 9th-May-2015

Bicycle Touring This Day 9th-May-2015 Touring bike by road sign

Bicycle Touring Spain

This week’s Travelsonabike2 bicycle touring on this day post comes from Spain on the 9th-May-2015. A tough day in the mountains of Spain.

Saturday, 9th-May-2015. Sagovia to Pelayos de la Presa. 80 miles.

What a day to decide to do my usual mileage. I certainly didn’t intend to. I was all set to stop after 40 miles. I’d looked at the map and saw there was a campsite in Avila, which is where I was, and the next campsite wasn’t for another twenty miles. Not much in the scheme of things; the only trouble was that I saw a big climb between me and the campsite so I thought I’d have a short day and stop here in Avila.

As I came into town, I stopped at a supermarket to stock up for the night (mainly beer.) Once I’d stocked up I went to find the campsite only to find that there wasn’t one. As I said earlier, the next campsite was twenty miles away up that big climb, which was only 1300m. But at least the campsite was only just over the summit. So once I’d done the climb, it would be downhill, and I could rest afterwards.

Garry McGivern in sunglasses
Going up yet another mountain

It was a fairly hard climb but very scenic. Once at the top, it was a nice downhill, as predicted, into the small town of Barraco, where the campsite was. Unfortunately, again I found out that there wasn’t a campsite. But there was in the next town another twenty miles away. So off I set once more with more big climbs; surely it’s got to be third time lucky. I couldn’t believe it once again, there was no campsite; however, there was one about 7km away in the wrong direction. With no hotels about and if I stuck with my route it would have meant another big climb. I took the rare decision to detour. Thankfully, it was all downhill to the campsite. The only trouble is I’ve got to go back up it again tomorrow!

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where you’ll find pictures from all my tours, along with a monthly photo update that I publish each month.

If you want to find out if Garry’s away touring at the moment and check his location, visit the Where’s Garry page.

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Andalucia

Spain and Portugal May 2015

After spending a couple of weeks cycling through Spain it was now time to reach the Mediterranean coast in Andalucia and it was downhill all the way from Ventas de Zafarraya at 920m down to Velez-Malaga at sea level. The videos a bit long and boring, it’s not been edited just speeded up! It was originally 20 minutes long but by speeding it up its only 4 minutes long now! It’s a bit like watching paint dry; Garry got bored sitting on his bicycle when he was doing it!

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Bicycle Touring Spain 1st-June-2015

Green hills

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is bicycle touring in Spain on Monday, 1st-June-2015. Santander to somewhere in the Bay of Biscay. That was definitely a good idea to stop in a hotel last night. It started to rain around 1 am and was still raining when I went down for breakfast at 7.30.

Grass water bridge
Looking down on Ribadesella yesterday

The last two days of riding have been more challenging and painful than people realise, hills aside! On Saturday morning, as I was loading my bike, I tripped and fell onto the concrete ground! (#ClumsyGarry) Unfortunately, when I fell, I managed to somehow fall onto my clenched fist, which went into my ribs! Crack, I felt my ribs go! I was pretty winded and had a grazed knee, but my ribs were killing me! These last few days of cycling have been excruciatingly painful, especially with all the hills! Cycling along the flat was bad enough! But when it came to even the slightest climbs, and my breathing increased, it became unbearable!

Tent on grass
Scene of the accident- before I fell over!

Things haven’t been much better today, and I’m only sitting around! Every time I take a deep breath, twist, turn or laugh, it hurts! Not that I do laugh very often! But at least now I’ve got a good excuse not to laugh, and I can be Mr Grumpy all the time! I’m just grateful that I’m already taking strong painkillers. I don’t think I could have continued without them! And luckily, it happened at the end of my tour!

That’s It

I spent this morning milling around the hotel as it was still raining. Although I did pop out to the local barbers for a haircut. After lunch, I checked out of the hotel and went to the ferry terminal. The ferry left Spain at about 3.15 pm local time.

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where I’ll publish the photos from this tour once I’m home. Pictures from all my tours and monthly photos can also be found on Flickr.

You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.

Follow Garry on his travels

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