Adiós España

As we said farewell to Spain yesterday, it seemed only fitting that we had an amazing experience with our Warm Showers host George in Girona on Saturday night.  When we entered Spain almost five weeks ago, we slept in an old aircraft hanger from another host on the hospitality network for touring cyclists.  We really enjoy the time spent with these hosts who’ve completed tours or have plans to do another one soon like the couple (Ana & Diego) we stayed with in Jerez that will tour Japan for their anniversary this summer.  They often cook for us or we cook for them and we sit around swapping stories upon stories of our journeys on the road, which is quite inspiring and enjoyable.

Spain for me was just as beautiful and stunning as Portugal with the tiles that framed a window or entryway of a home, all the amazing architecture of the Roman Catholic Churches we gazed upon, or the beautiful countryside in full Spring Bloom that took our breath away.  The cities were amazing but a little too busy and touristy at times, as we both appreciate the quiet back roads and less traffic.  Spain sure loves their roundabouts and they can be nerving at times but also quite beautiful with their artistic designs in all of them.  The food was good (although it made me gassy and afraid of being kicked out of the tent some nights),  and I fell in love with the tapas all throughout the country.  Most often I wasn’t sure what I was eating and Tim would say it tasted like chicken and guess what…..the rabbit paella actually did.  I still have a hard time eating anything with eyes still attached but hopefully will get over that soon or just order a pizza or hamburgesa….LOL.  One of the best things about touring is being able to eat anything we want and getting dessert from all the calories we burn each day whether we pedal or walk over 15,000 steps being a tourist on a rest day.  Once we arrived in Valencia, it had a similar feeling to Southern California, and Barcelona had a San Francisco vibe to it.  We both fell in love with the coastal town of Sitges and the riverside town of Girona that is very popular with pro cyclists. 

It doesn’t seem possible that we left San Diego almost two months ago.  We’ve now surpassed the amount of time we spent on our last tour from Canada to Mexico during the summer of 2016 when we  both fell in love with cycle touring.  We’ve pedaled into our third country now and have visited four total with the day trip we took to Tangier, Morocco when we took a couple of rest days in Tarifa, Spain.  

I hope to get better at this blogging thing and continue to post my favorite pictures to Instagram (scubastevecyclist).  I’m looking forward to the crosiants & baguettes and many different cheeses that France will offer and can’t wait for our two rest days when we fly to Paris this weekend.   I also look forward to hearing Tim speak his French fluently that he studied 4 years in high school and one year in college.  

Here are several of my favorite pictures from Spain with some duplicated from Instagram that you might not be on.

Enjoy and Bonne nuit from France.  

The aircraft hanger we slept in on our first night in Spain.  Our lovely warm showers host made us a perfect lentil soup for dinner and she fried us some eggs the next morning from the 10 chickens that wonder the landscape.

Sevilla (our first of many tapas consumed)

Alhambra in Cordoba

Roman Bridge and Ruins in Cordoba

Our climb out of Tarifa

Ronda

View of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on our way to Granada for some rest days. 

Granada

Sunset from the Airbnb Cave we slept in.

Wildflowers

Palm Sunday lunch stop

Valencia

Sitges

Gaudi in Barcelona

Girona River and (a dirty chai latte at the popular cafe for cyclists called La Fabrica)

I fell in love with the stunning doors all throughout Spain and these are just two of my favorites.

and last but not least me being funny when I would see my last name on buildings and menus and asked Tim to take this one.  I’m sure he won’t miss this.