Off to the Spanish Pyrenees

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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BeeKeeper
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Re: Off to the Spanish Pyrenees

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Menus have proved a challenge. Now worked out an Amanida is a salad. So we are eating a lot of salads...

At one hotel they didn't have a written menu, it was described verbally to us. Our goldfish impression responses brought out a large English/Catalunian dictionary and we subsequently had a good meal - indeed we haven't had a bad one yet apart from the first one in a tourist rip-off in Girona.
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BeeKeeper
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Joined: 29 Apr 2011, 6:45am
Location: South Devon

Re: Off to the Spanish Pyrenees

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ernest wrote:I may cross your path as I will be taking the ferry to Santander arriving on 19/05 and then cycling along the coast to Bayonne. I then intend to go on through to Lourdes and on to Toulouse. The plan is then to cycle to Bordeaux, via Cahors, take the train to Nantes and the last part of the trip will be along the N-B canal to Carhaix and on to Roscoff for the ferry home.

I really like to have places to visit along the way so am looking forward to visiting the Guggenheim where Yoko Ono has an exhibition, San Sebastian, Lourdes, Toulouse etc as well as cycling through beautiful countryside in-between. I like to plan trips through the winter almost as much as going on them and then get excited / nervous when it is time to go; have I got everything, will the bike/tent be ok and so on. Once there all these anxieties disappear. Do others have the same thoughts.


We will be getting the ferry from Santander on the 21st in the evening and plan to stay in Santander the previous evening. The 19th, we should be in Donastia/San Sebastian.

The N-B canal from Nantes we found interesting as it was still spring when we did it last year so lots of flowers out, but we did do it at the beginning of June. A month earlier and it could be wet - we had pretty rubbish weather for our trip. If you are camping assume most of the sites will be shut, as they are here in Spain.
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BeeKeeper
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Joined: 29 Apr 2011, 6:45am
Location: South Devon

Re: Off to the Spanish Pyrenees

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Just to say we have arrived in Donastia/San Sebastian this afternoon. Getting into the city centre was easier than we feared as we found a bike path running alongside the river.

The journal is largely complete now but over the next week or so I will add more photographs, mostly those taken by my brother. I will also add a page about the birds seen, over 60 species I think and a page on the flowers, assuming I can identify them. I probably should flesh out the equipment page and write some sort of conclusion, including thoughts on stuff taken but the travel stuff and GPS tracks are all now complete. Just the train to get to Santander tomorrow and then the ferry to Plymouth.

This has been a great trip, our best ever I think. We were blessed with 14 days sunshine, did 820 km and 12,150m of ascent. The latter based on a combination of aneroid barometer readings, spot hights on maps and estimates from the daily elevation profiles. Our GPS recorded estimates of ascent we found wildly optimistic.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/spain2014
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