Europe Archives - Page 11 of 15

Day 22 Tudela to Zaragoza Airport Lifeday 25,271

Posted on October 6, 2016October 6, 2016

A good early start at 8am from the Hotel Tudela Bardenas after an excellent breakfast. I zoomed along the NA-126 with pleasant views over the Rio Ebro plains, fascinating to see the cliffs made out of ancient mud. All went well, apart from lack of places to buy drink until just after Tauste where the road was blocked with warning signs about the Puente across the Ebro being closed. I decided to take heed, after the railway crossing fiasco and followed the diversion over the nearby bridge.

This diversion then put me on a very busy road 🙁 At Cabanas de Ebro I at last managed to escape the road and find a very disguised shop to get some much needed drink. Whilst stopped I researched Gmaps and true to form they came to the rescue and sorted a route down very stony farm tracks, poor for the touring bike, but much better for me 🙂 even so I had to ignore a few Privado warnings but I finally made it to the airport.

Tickets for the 5pm Ryanair Stansted flight were no longer available online but after 3pm you could buy them at the airport at some inflated price 🙁 so at some large cost I bought a ticket. With the ticket at least I could make it back to Kings Lynn by 9pm to take Sally out for her birthday meal 🙂

The next problem was where to leave the bike and my assorted bags etc. Booking.com came up with the nearby new Hotel Diagonal Plaza so I pedalled around, they agreed to look after my bike in their office for a couple of days and then for me to stay the night on Thursday before continuing my tour 🙂

The only problem left was then how to return to the airport – turned out a 30 minute walk did the trick – walking along the road, good job it wasn’t busy 🙂

Ryanair, as usual was on time, landing early, however the mega queues at passport control are ridiculous the software on the new auto gates is abysmal very slow with no visual feedback. Why not fit them with a video screen showing the image of your passport with an overlay of the correct position then to revert the screen to an image of your eye with overlay of the correct position.

Finally made it to Lynn station at ten past nine 🙂 unfortunately Marriotts couldn’t be bothered to cook a meal – such inflexibility is mind blowing to me 🙁 However, Prezzo was open 🙂 so the day ended well 🙂

Oh and I almost forgot my heart rate data taken via the Gyroscope app:

Day 21 Pamplona to Tudela. LivingDay 25,270

Posted on October 3, 2016October 3, 2016

I must have been tired! I didn’t wake up till 8.15 and then the Blaze decided it’s battery was empty after 6 days use 🙁 So I at to hang around to give it some electrons and then unbelievably after I was ready to go I discovered I had packed my cycling socks right at the bottom of the saddle bag 🙁

Eventually at 9.42 I started biking after a coffee and croissant next door. It was pretty well straight into a 500 foot climb out of Pamplona. I soon found myself with the juggernauts on the N-121 certainly not my idea of fun 🙁 DEfintley a fail on the cyclena.ps plug in routing software, obviously way to simplistic. After 10 miles I pulled in and set the maps.me app to work, it might take 5mins to grind away but it came up with a route down a stony track to a delightful village and then on quiet roads until Villafranca where I took some of the GMaps Koolaid to find myself on 10 miles of stony tracks by the river.

It wouldnt have been so bad except earlier on I suddenly though I hadn’t seen my pump for a while 🙁 I inspected the bike to find not only the pump was gone but its plastic mounting bracket had sheared off 🙁 Probably up that big hill yesterday when my foot slipped out of the cleat 🙁 So I was now really worried to be on a stony track miles from anywhere 🙁 Fortunately all went well and there is even a Specialized shop right next to the hotel in Tudela so a new pump was purchased and now kept in my bar bag 🙂

An excellent biking day overall apart from the wretched South wind in my faee all afternoon with the temperature hitting 30deg according to one sign.

The Tudela Bardenas is excellent with an awesome shower, Dinner is only served after 8.30pm the meal itself was very nouveau in portion sizes but very tasty. The price is incredibly reasonable too 🙂

Strava says I did 64.8 miles and 1598 feet of climbing

The photos on Dropbox here

and what a delight to be on real internet with 44 meg upload speeds 🙂

and nearly forgot the heart rate,the Blaze decided not to capture first hour 🙁

Day 20 Espelett to Pamplona Lifeday 25,269

Posted on October 2, 2016April 13, 2021

The evening meal at Chilhar was magnificent way more than my stomach, used to its simple life, could handle so I had a disturbed night’s sleep 🙁

Breakfast was equally outstanding, which was good as today was crossing The Pyrenees so I needed to be fit. Whilst loading up the bike the hotel’s cycling neighbour and the hotelier proceeded to muse about which way I should go 🙂

In the end I settled for the route generated by Strava. The first 500ft climb awaited me round the corner 🙂 Dropping down to the Spanish border at Dantxaria I noticed large groups of cyclists heading into the Venta Paco cafe, so I joined them. Crikey was it crowded with very fit men (no women) on their expensive bikes. I had my Coke and just as well as it was the last cafe for a while. Then it was up the 1800ft climb (I thought i was the main climb 🙁 ) which I did OK with a long drop down to Truita. In the square there was a old fashioned village shop where I could buy a coke and crisps. Thinking to myself that was easy…

Alas, the 3000 foot brute was still to come, a never ending zig zag climb up the Erreka valley finally ending at The Arteslaga Col at 984 metres a 2 hour climb without seeing a single cyclist.

The downhill is clearly magnificent and one of the reasons I love cycling so much over walking. Although the red/white markings where the GR12 crossed at the col made me feel nostalgic.

Even more nostalgia as I crossed into Pamplona on the same Camino bridge which I used exactly 12 years ago when I walked The Camino to celebrate my retirement and my first long walk.

Tonight I’m in the budget Alojamientos Olga to try and average out last nights splurge 🙂

Strava reveals the facts of my mega day 6,692 feet of ascent! in 57.8 miles and 6hr 15min 🙂 which compares very favourably to our Teide ascent of 8,806ft in 51.1mi in 5hr 45min.

My poor heart suffered and you can see it peaked at 135bpm. I managed to get the Blaze to stay on for the whole activity too:

My heart rate crossing Pyrenees

compare to elevation profile

Elevation profile

A few pics are here

Day 19 Leon to to Espelette Lifeday 25,268

Posted on October 1, 2016

The thunder, lightening and torrential rain kept me waking up through the night 🙁 Fortunately the rain had stopped in the morning but the clouds still looked threatening.

No chance of overeating at this breakfast! one small croissant 1/4 of a baguette a bit of butter and some jam plus a black coffee and a drop of orange juice was the order of the day.

I extra carefully packed all the bags as it was obvious rain was on the menu plus unbelievably I booked the nights accomodation before departing! such organisation.

Cycling was easy to begin with hitting an average of 14mph for the first hour 🙂 I really like the CycleMa.ps plugin, its excellent, very simple. It shows you the gpx route previously entered but as a bonus shows you the neighbouring official cycle tracks too, very handy and well used today. Another feature is the map can be made so the direction of travel is always up. useful for dyslexics like me. However, things went pear shaped when i fell of trying to navigate a sharp right turn with diagonal bollards fitted to make it that bit harder 🙁 No long term damage the iphone broke of at the ball joint so was easy to plug in and start of again.

Not many stops today, a short one for a tartiflette in Capbreton then a longer one in Bayonne for some Macaroni, I’m trying to cut down on eating when riding. The weather suddenly turned cold so I disappeared inside for a coffee when I came out it was hammering it down 🙁 the first test for the iPhone7 🙂 It worked OK although it needs a sponge to wipe the screen as once its covered in rain swiping doesn’t really work.

I continued in the wet hugging the bank of the Nive River, interesting to see the Eights with a guy in a powerboat shouting orders rather than the Cambridge cyclist. Eventually at the first weir I left the river and started climbing up to Espelette and the previously booked Chilhar Hotel arriving at the early time of 3.24pm. The town is on a very steep hill and seems to be based, historically anyway, on chillies. Now its a bit like a film set with decorated houses all very much a pastiche and a tourist honeypot. But I must say arriving at 3.30ish is to be preferred.

I had an excellent meal in the restaurant downstairs and the room is great with views, now the rain has cleared, of the hills to climb tomorrow something like one mile of vertical ascent 🙂 to get me into Spain

The Strava of the 52.6 miles is here

and a few pics are here

The Blaze conked out again although it managed to work on me climbing up the hills at the end: