Suddenly we were among them: black tree stumps, often still with crown, but dead. Young plants on the ground indicate the fire was some time ago. The surroundings look bare: few tall trees. If there was forest here, it is gone now. A little further on new planting does take place, again eucalyptus, haven’t they … Flora
In Porto, we booked our train journey back to NL. On October 15th, we take the train from Barcelona to Rotterdam – so the end of this amazing journey is now really in sight. Almost at the same time, Geertrui, my sister, asked what it’s like to be together for 7 months. she adds: although … Collaboration
The day after the night before – we had a cosy dinner together in town and drank 1 glass of which Tessel immediately got a leather tongue – we are woken up by Kasper coming to return the powerbank. Kasper & co are almost ready to leave at 8 am. We have yet to start … Buen Camino
After our thunderstorm adventure in A Fonsagrada, we spent a night in Lugo in an AirBnB where we heard a brief heavy shower come over. For today, thunderstorms are in the forecast again. We don’t know what to expect from it. What are the options really? In Sobrado there is a Cistercian monastery that receives … Mini retreat
There are sometimes days when you really like it all and are having a great time, but have no idea what to put about it in your blog. There are also days when you see and experience more than you can put down. We’ve been having the latter the last few days. So you’ll have … Through Asturias
The weather forecast for the weekend was very bad with rain and thunderstorms all day on both Saturday and Sunday. We decided to deviate from the route and cycle to León and get a flat there. The closer we got to León, the more hikers we saw (heading in the same direction). Apparently, the “Caminio” … Leon
Oscar is our planner. This time he has been studying the upcoming stages for a few days. After 35km we can do some shopping and/or camping after that there is 95km of nothing. We are therefore thinking of 2 stages of 65km, each with about 800 altimeters and a night of wild camping in between. … Skinny dipping
My image of northern Spain consisted of a combination of hills, dry, sunny and hot. To be fair, I knew it could also be quite spooky on the north coast in August, but I didn’t want that and I didn’t imagine much more. Now here, the landscape and weather turn out to be hugely varied. … The Spanish land
It is Thursday 24 August 16:30h, our bike computer indicates it is 43.5 degrees C. Luckily, we decided to “take shelter” at a campsite the day before yesterday, the first real day of cycling in Spain. Secretly, we also like the fact that we have a few more days of real heat. 8 months of … Heat
We had planned it this way, knowing the transition from England to Spain would create a cultureshock but only when you experience it, you really feel it. We got off the boat, always a bit confusing where to go with people giving directions that may or may not be coherent with the former, but felt … Bilbao / Basque Country
1.5 days with Sheila at The Abbots were wonderfully familiar. A quick visit to St Marie’s together to close it for the night; a takeaway; a nice chat. Monday a couple of hours sweating in the ‘vegetable garden’; stopping by Rosemary and Peter’s on the way to Sainsbury’s to drop off a book for the … Memory lane
Those who arrive in Harwich by car get the impression that it is the ugliest corner of England. However, we cycled through the town and found a different version altogether. We had breakfast in a nice “bus shelter” on the seafront overlooking the rising sun (over the sea, what took some getting used to). The … Castles and cottages
We sit in the lobby of the boat waiting to be disembarked and muse for a while about our Norwegian adventure. It’s strange that other cyclists we meet seem to have had much less rain than us, until we consider that they have been cycling much faster (and/or electric) and have done a lap around … Norway
Is it because the weather is finally clearing up, because we really seem to have concerted the stomach flu, or because it really is so beautiful here? Yesterday we were impressed by the dunes that alternated between sand and rocks, but today we cannot stop calling out oh and ah. We cycle in two short … Magma Geoland
The day after our visit to Bergen, it was almost dry in the morning, so we cycled without rainwear for a long time. Just when we were ready for a break, we saw some kind of hardware store with a cafe. We were hardly inside or rain started to pour down. We didn’t want to … From Bergen to Stavanger and beyond
