So I am on big tour. And I should finally post some pics here even though most of them are on mastodon. If you want to check it: https://f.cz/@plactagonic I try to post pretty regular updates from my tour there.
First week I rode from Madrid to Valencia, I had planned to take Camino del Cid but I naively expected that it will be signed. So I quickly get on my own route and had a blast with some hilly sections.
This is Albarracín, nice medival village with castle.
In Valencia I stayed for 2 days to get some rest and at least look around the city center. But it is a pain sometimes to get in and out of cities here, from Madrid I had to take a train and here it was on sometimes missing cycle path. You just see all the faces of the country when you are bikepacking.
When I was leaving Valencia I met Sejdeborns (they have a YT channel) on their tour from Sweden to Morocco. They were on tandem bike so they took path along the coast, let me tell you don’t take the path it is ugly I took only one pick when it was just missing. Go inland!
From there it was pretty much on Via Verde routes that are made from old railways so I have lots of pics of tunnels.
And through olive orchards so it became quite repetitive. I decided in Alicante that because of high headwind forecasted I should go inland. Yeah even inland there was headwind… 3 days of it. But I grinded through this inconvenience and now I am in Seville and next week I should be in Portugal where I will take the Atlantic coast route.
So thats what is going on right now on my tour, it is just a sneak peek, as I write in the beginning I try to post dayli on mastodon. I can tag it that it appears in this community but from my experience it just doesn’t look right (the formatting).
Awesome, how has the food been so far on your tour?
It is mixed somewhere really good somewhere average and I hate to say that but usually when I get to bigger city it is concrete jungle with only fast food. So I literally eat everything I can get my hands on.
Yesterday I had success with Warmshowers so breakfast was nice pitas from wood fired oven with olive oil and honey from my host bees.
Nice. Looking forward to more of your posts!
You can look through the mastodon! I post there more it is better for regular brain diarrhea posting …
Very nice pictures
No pictures of planes from Teruel; I am disappoint.
The tunnels are fun, not just because some are cold and wet but also because surprisingly enough there are motion sensors that turn on/off the light in the tunnel.
In 2023, I made the opposite journey from Valencia to Madrid – except my bike broke down in Guadalajara. So I am quite jealous. The weather appears to be really good too.
I had to take train to Guadalajara, when I tried to ride from Madrid I nearly ended up on highway… So I probably ride quite similar route.
And after I had few really cold nights I just took the shortest route to coast. So I missed Teruel, but to be fair I will definitely return to Spain someday. First I have to learn some Spanish, it is rough to talk through mobile translation.
Since I am someone who doesn’t plan ahead all that much, I likely would have ended up on the highway too. I guess I am lucky, then? Guadalajara is quite a good place to finish too.
Teruel on the other hand was not that exciting. Even the planes – they just stand there, and they’re many but that’s it. While you can see them from the road, it’s probably a lot more exciting to see them from above.