28 August 2019

Another overcast and humid day. We left after 9am this morning with only a 50km ride today. We cycled through some interesting scenery, mountains on the left and beaches on the right. Today’s town of Colunga is quite small.

27 August 2019

A leisurely start to this morning, rain was threatening but luckily enough we missed it all. A short 50km easy ride to another tourist town along the coast. Temperatures in the early 20’s, a lot lower than we expected. The countryside still very green with mountains of limestone which we have managed to avoid.

26 August 2019

A well earned sleep in this morning, thunderstorms and a little rain overnight. A leisurely day wondering around the tourist sites.

25 August 2019

Our bikes survived the night, pad locked to a tree in the streets as there was no where in the hotel for them. The street was very busy with bars and restaurants and people socializing to very late. A quiet sunday morning as we left Santander. With cloud cover most of the day and cooler temperatures around 20 deg. Lots of short up and down climbs today. Finishing on the coast at the small town of Comillas, lunch of local seafood. Our apartment overlooking the sea.

View from the apartment

24 August 2019

A windy ride to Santander this morning. The scenery has changed again once inland from the coast. Lots of very green farmland. We decided to catch the ferry from Somo to the Port of Santander which reduced our kms considerably. Santander is a big city lots of people and cars. We are staying away from the centre at El Sardinero Beach. Unfortunately the weather has got very overcast and a lot cooler so not such a good beach day. Food along this coast has been awesome. Dinner tonight excellent. Yummy!

23 August 2019

We left Bilbao this morning with another stunning day. The roads were quiet apart from the street cleaners, cleaning up the party remains. We followed a bike path for nearly 30km out of Bilbao which was perfect not having to deal with traffic. Then it was following the N634 around the coast through various beach towns. We have left the Basque country and now in Cantabria. The lush green has gone, now a dryer hotter climate. It was nice getting the sea breezes as we rode. The last hill going into Laredo reached 37 degrees. We walked down to the 5km beach and cooled off in the surf. Another interesting hotel tonight.

22 August 2019

A beautiful morning in Bilbao. We were having breakfast very early by spanish standards no one else in the hotel was up. We walked along the river to the Guggenheim museum which opened at 10am. The building is an amazing piece of architecture. The displays inside so different to what you expect. Our legs were so tired after several hours here. A mandatory early drink and lunch was required. So much to see and watch while sitting at the cafe. Such a busy town so much going on tonight. You could just sit and watch forever. Wow!

21 August 2019

An early start this morning to avoid the traffic into Bilbao. A short 33 km but starting with a 10km climb. Followed by a 2 lane highway fortunately with mostly a shoulder to ride on. We arrived in Bilbao before lunch and met Martin at our hotel. A festival is currently on in Bilbao, so many people everywhere, so much drinking, smoking and dogs everywhere. A nice hotel with plenty of comforts.

20 August 2019

Blog for the second time, seem to have lost the first go, grrr.

We left this morning with our rain coats on and a cool 14 degrees. It had rained overnight and was quite gloomy. Once the traffic had passed we had a enjoyable day of climbing uphill and then good downhills. A lot of hilly scenery with forestry and green countryside. Great food and coffee. We went through a beach town of Deba which was deserted probably due to the cooler temperatures. Kev found an historical bridge under repairs from structural failure. We made it to Guernica in good time and did a quick tour before heading to our rural accomdation. Another great spot and able to have a relaxing bath. Our legs are coping all good so far.

19 July 2019

Very heavy rain over night and accommodation around apartments with lots of people noise. Good sleep was not on the agenda with people arriving loudly at midnight. We left Irun about 8.30 ish trying to avoid what looked like a major motorway, thinking it wasn’t correct we stopped and had to lift the bikes over motorway barrier to get back and avoid on coming traffic. It turned out the GPS was correct. Eventually we found we were right all along and we were biking on a road something like the auckland motorway. Stress was high but the drivers were very tolerant. At some point we followed a cycle track and had to get an elevator down to ground level. Once we got off the busy roads all was good. Zarautz was a lovely town we passed through. Temperature was a bit cooler today around 19 deg and cloudy all day. Good riding conditions for the hills. Our accommodation tonight is like out of a James Bond Movie. We have to wait until 8.30pm for dinner tonight.

Accomodation Zestoa

Buckets of gin