I like Spain!

What isn't there to like in a country of beautiful scenery, where the cafe and bar have been taken to an art form, there's culture and history wherever you look, the weather is (mostly) warm, the people extrovertly friendly, the motorcycle is king of the streets in the towns and there are some of the best biking roads I have come across.

My trip through Spain has been a bit of an eye-opener because for me the country has always been associated with the Costa Brava (think Gold Coast on steroids for my Australian readers) and cheap package holidays.  As alluded to above it turned out to be much more than that - and i by-passed the Costa Brava for good measure.  My first stop virtually as soon as I crossed the border was the small town of Figueres - today its claim to fame is it was the birthplace and final home of Salvador Dali - he of all the dripping watches and other surrealist paintings that all good students had a poster example of on their wall in the seventies.  Salvador Dali's house in Figueres was an old theatre which he turned into an exhibition space come surrealist piece of art in its own right an now draws in the crowds - me included.

[caption id="attachment_711" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="This is part of the interior - full of odd mannequin statues and other oddities too hard to photo.  Great fun to while away an hour or two wandering around."][/caption]

Figueres was also a pretty little town and a good introduction to Spain.  The difference to France was sharp - a bit noisier, smellier, more cramped feeling; just a bit more life being lived on the streets.

 

From Figueres it was on to Barcelona where my chief reason for visiting was to see some of the modernist architecture of Antoni Gaudi.

[caption id="attachment_712" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The entrance  gates to Park Guere - an early example of his work, but it gives an indication of his style"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_713" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="La Pederera - a more extreme example."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_714" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Sagrada Familia - started 1882, estimated completion 2026."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_715" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="and by night."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_717" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The interior is what sets it apart though.  Here you can forget about the outrageous decoration of the outside and instead admire the forest of trunks and leaves created in stone.  It really was an incredibly beautiful space."][/caption]

The Sagrada Familia cathedral is an amazing piece of work especially when you consider its a work in progress with currently only 8 of the 18 towers completed.  Whether Spain (or even Barcelona, which already has a beautiful 11-13th century one), needs another cathedral is a moot point though - and in fact this one feels much more like a Disney tourist draw card than any place of worship.

As well as monuments though Barcelona is all about the cafe/bar/restaurant culture:

[caption id="attachment_716" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="After a tough day being a tourist..."][/caption]

And as I said earlier:

[caption id="attachment_718" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The motorcycle (okay scooter) is king - every change of the lights is the chance for another grand-prix start."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_719" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And the bikes are ridden by everyone, men and women, young and old.  For some, safety gear tends to go more for style than practicality - but hey who am I to complain."][/caption]

From Barcelona the plan was to ride to Bilbao in the North West corner of Spain via the famed 9at least to bike riders) roads in the foothills of the Pyrennees.  The plan did not get off to a good start though - twenty kilometres out of Barcelona whilst still on the autoroute out of town I picked up a screw in the back tyre causing a rapid puncture.

[caption id="attachment_720" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The offending screw - it projected 20-30mm into the tyre which is what did the damage."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_721" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The "Oh Bugger" moment - what do I do next?"][/caption]

Now this is normally no drama; but this time because I had to ride on the flat tyre at speed until I got to somewhere I could pull in without being killed by the time I stopped the tube was destroyed - and I had no spare.  In the end I had to ride along the metre wide hard shoulder on the completely flat tyre until I could exit - then I limped into the town of Terrassa. Here I spotted a small hotel/bar with a couple of bikes outside:

[caption id="attachment_722" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And met Vincent - who (rapidly) couriered me up to the local bike shop to buy a new tube."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_723" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and Joy and "the boss""][/caption]

Joy was a waiter at the bar, Taiwanese by birth, who acted as my friend and translator and "the boss" was the hotel owner (sorry never caught his name).  Everyone was incredibly friendly and needless to say I spent the night at the hotel (and a long enjoyable evening in the bar).  the puncture was one of those events that as it first started to unfold was a real annoyance - but as it worked out the friendship of everyone who helped me out will make it one of the great memories of the trip.

Anyway I did finally get away to the Pyrennees and the roads were everything I had been led to believe.  The N260 it was called and it snaked its way over hills and though sheer sided gorges for several hundred kilometres.  Some of the riding was up with the most spectacular I've ever done - there was one gorge where you switched sides several times and all the time the road was literally just clinging onto the cliff face with a sheer drop down to a river far below, other times there were rides up through twisting hairpins sometimes in the clouds before suddenly bursting out onto summits with glorious views.

 

[caption id="attachment_724" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="I rode up hills with abandoned villages on the tops"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_725" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and get summits with views like this"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_726" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="or this."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_727" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And when  the day warmed up and the clouds disappeared I found myself riding hairpin littered roads past villages like this."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_728" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="As I got higher it did get cold again though! (This is mid-afternoon)"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_729" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="I knew I was in for a cold night when ice started to form on my damp tent flysheet as soon as I erected it."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_730" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="But this was the view from  the camp site ."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_731" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A quintessential Spanish village.  Find a hill on a flat piece of  land then..."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_732" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A lot had not survived the passing of time."][/caption]

 

When I reached the Atlantic coast it was time for lunch - so having learnt the Spanish way, I looked for a restaurant with a reasonably priced "menu du jour" (OK I know that's French but I can't remember the Spanish equivalent).  Here I struck gold - a little restaurant in a side street where on learning I was Australian and seeing the bike outside treated me famously - lots of little extra titbits from the chef and an aperitif on the house to wash it down.

[caption id="attachment_733" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="My hosts"][/caption]

 

Onto Bilbao, where the goal was the Guggenheim Museum.

[caption id="attachment_734" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="This is a museum where the building is more famous than its contents."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_735" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="the skin is titanium."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_736" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The interior equally spectacular."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_737" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The art(?) works sometimes mammoth.  This is the centrepiece one by Richard Serri - the skill of the workers who made it impressed me much more than the thoughts of the man who created it."][/caption]

 

Well Spain is now nearly over.  I have a 100km ride this morning to Santander where I catch the ferry this afternoon to Portsmouth in the UK.

And for those interested I have done almost exactly 24,000 km getting to this point.

A dash across Europe

With time counting down I decided I needed to up my pace - so in the space of the last  fortnight I've been in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany again, France and now I've arrived in Spain.

Poland was my first stop after Germany - only a flying visit and only staying overnight in one town - but enough to know its worth coming back.  Looks like an interesting halfway house between Europe and Russia in its attitudes and some of its developments.  In many places it looks like what I think Germany around East Berlin might have looked like 10-15 years ago.

[caption id="attachment_697" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Wrocklow Poland - a gorgeous city square - the finest completely intact one I've seen."][/caption]

Riding around was fun quiet but interesting roads and lots of small villages

[caption id="attachment_700" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Typical village scene"][/caption]

- and many with a huge church or castle or something interesting.

[caption id="attachment_698" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A small village somewhere in southern  Poland - with a massive castle on a hill top (looked more impressive in reality than the photo seems)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_699" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Poland does however win the prize for the country with the most sign posts - the roads were massively lined with them -most of course telling you the obvious and of course with the critical direction one usually missing."][/caption]

From Poland it was on to the Czech Republic and Prague.

[caption id="attachment_701" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="All day it looked like this and struggled to get to 2 degrees."][/caption]

 

The main reason to visit Prague was to get a taste of the changes that happened there since 1983 when I hitch hiked there as part of my trip that eventually finished in Australia.  I remember Prague as a beautiful, uncrowded city.  Well its still beautiful but the uncrowded has gone - even in what is the low season you could hardly move in the old city (and some of the beauty is now well hidden under the selling of universal tourist tat).  A worthwhile experience but after a few days I was ready to move on.

[caption id="attachment_702" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Night, the old Townhall - and crowds"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_703" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="There were still some quiet spots - if you got there early enough in the day."][/caption]

 

Near Prague is Kutna Hora what is now a smallish town but 500 years ago apparently outshone Prague.  Because of that it has more than its fair share of huge churches and the like.

[caption id="attachment_704" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Pretty and quiet - much more relaxing if less dramatic than Prague"][/caption]

But what draws people there are not the cathederals - but a bone ossurary (place where the bones which are removed from graves when they are re-cycled are stored).  Ossuraries are apparently reasonably common in Europe - but what is special about Kutna Hora's is the way its bones have been used to decorate the crypt of a small church:

[caption id="attachment_705" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A general view"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_706" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The church's sponsors coat of arms - and a very large pile of bones behind (one of 6 pyramids of them)"][/caption]

And if you think the above looks familiar - yes this place featured in the "Long way round" video.

After several weeks of being cold I decided it was now time to get warm - so decided to go to Spain.  Eighteen hundred kilometres in 3 days and that was achieved.  The first part of the trip was German motorways very efficient, straight and boring and lots of fog then onto the French equivalent which were lots more scenic (and enlivened by sometimes being beside the TGV train track - and when comes past at 250km hour its worth seeing).

The only flaw in the plan is almost as I reached the Spanish border I kept seeing electronic warning signs saying something I couldn't  - but was obviously to do with the weather - I found out as I was enveloped in a massive thunderstorm - thunder and lightning crashing around, rain at the "where's the road" level etc..

[caption id="attachment_707" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Fortunately a hotel appeared out of the murk - so bike and I hid there for a night."][/caption]

And then next day it was on to sunshine and Spain - but that will be my next post.

Onward - Sweden, Denmark (briefly) and now Germany.

After leaving Norway headed south for about 500 km straight down the west coast of Sweden before turning west into Denmark.  On the first day all the run was on motorway type road and I ended up thinking what a boring looking country Sweden was.  But I wasn't really doing it justice because the next day when, in frustration, I turned off the highway onto the minor roads I found lovely gentle rolling roads passing through neat and tidy farming communities - all of which I then forgot to photograph.  The only one I have is the one below which does tend to more support my initial view - a seriously over-tidy village without a leaf out of place.

 

One of the joys of Europe is the bits of history just lying around the place, almost unnoticed and unloved.  Here on a back road with no warning or marking of any kind I came across this marker.  No idea of its significance - but a lot must of passed it by since its erection in 1666.



Just before the border with denmark was the little city of Lund.  In many ways it is nothing particularly special now, just a university and rural town of quite small size - but in the 1200's it was a bit more important; the largest "Bishopric" in Europe with a cathedral to match.  Now the cathedral, whilst impressive enough, doesn't have the size and majesty to compare with some of the later ones in Europe but it was still worth a side trip to see.

[caption id="attachment_674" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Lund Cathedral"][/caption]

 

As I mentioned earlier Lund is now primarily a university city and the buzz of students everywhere combined with a lot of old buildings and streets gave it a lovely feel.  Definitely my favourite Swedish town (albeit out of a very small sample).

[caption id="attachment_673" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Bikes everywhere - what strikes you throughout Scandinavia (and also now here in Germany) is how much the bike is used and how well the road systems are set up to allow this the occur safely.  There's a lot we could do well to copy."][/caption]

 

A minor repair to the bike was required just before i left Sweden.

[caption id="attachment_694" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Coming down the motorway I felt vibration which I traced to a failing rear wheel bearing.  This fortunately was one of the few spares I'm carrying so an hours work at the roadside had it changed and on our way again."][/caption]

From Sweden, after a nights camping near the border it was a quick run through Denmark to get to Germany.  in fact the run was so quick it was a case of breakfast in Sweden, lunch in Denmark and afternoon tea in Germany.  The ride wasn't without interest though - for a start the crossing between the two countries is a 16 km long bridge (with a $30 toll - ouch), then continuing the theme there was a 23 km bridge (with a similar toll) between the first part of Denmark and the next.

[caption id="attachment_676" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Part of the second bridge.  This was scary riding crossing it as there was a howling gale blowing in from the side."][/caption]

So on into Germany where my first target was Berlin, about 500 km from the border.  Why Berlin? Well really because it and East Germany were one of two European communist country I didn't get to when I hitch-hiked towards Australia in '83.  Also because it is so wrapped up with the Soviet communist era history that I've been intrigued by over the last few months.

First stop on the way into Berlin was the town of Oranienburg, not that noteworthy in its own right but just outside it was located one of the first of the Nazi concentration camps - in fact their one which became the model for all future camps.  I walked around it for a few hours and there's not much I can say other than as I read the text on some of the museum pieces and looked at the photographs I was as near to be physically sick as I've been in a long time.  The ability of man to murder, torture and exterminate fellow man and justify it by demonising groups is truly frightening.  Germany is at least facing this part of its history in a way I think future other nations have attempted.

[caption id="attachment_677" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Two barrack huts at Sachenhausen Concentration Camp - looking innocuous until you read the stories of the horrors that went on inside the camp."][/caption]

 

When I got to Be.rlin I also went to the Holocaust memorial and the Jewish Museum which obviously both deal with the same issues and tell similar stories.  Both are impressive pieces of modern architecture; but for me I worry they are too clever for their content, overwhelming it with their feeling of being an event in their own right and from both I went away from them with more memory of the building rather than the events they are meant to be illuminating.

[caption id="attachment_678" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Inside of the Jewish Museum - all sloping corridors at odd angles, dead ends, slit windows - designed to destabilise and disorientate you."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_679" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Holocaust Memorial - for me more successful but still feeling like it is more about itself than the event it is supposed to remember ."][/caption]

 

Among the other places I wanted to visit in Berlin was obviously part of the infamous wall itself - although now only a few short sections remain of the 161km structure.

[caption id="attachment_680" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The largest remaining section of the wall is about 1 km long.  the "West" side was always used for graffiti and this has been preserved."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_681" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Immediately after the wall came down parts left standing  was used for art works commenting on the wall and its effect. The ones on this section have recently been re-painted by the original artists and many were poignant, a few just plain strange and this was my favourite"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_687" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="A foot in East and West Berlin.  Where the wall is gone its place is now often marked by a  double row of bricks on the ground."][/caption]

The other must visit for me was "Checkpoint Charlie" - the crossing between West and East Berlin in the American sector.  If you've ever read any John LeCarre novels its a place that seeps into your memory.  Its now a cheesily commercial re-enactment of the immediate post war crossing point but it good fun - and for a small fee they even use the original tools to stamp your passport.  i also quite like the fact that McDonalds have taken the prime East Berlin real estate just behind the post.

 

 

One interesting fact thats apparent around Berlin is there is a degree of nostalgia for the artefacts of the East.  This is known as "Ostalgia" as East Germans were "Ossies" (Ost = East) and the hostel i'm staying in plays on this theme;

[caption id="attachment_688" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Original communist era housing block - although not the original colour scheme."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_689" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Room furnished with communist era furniture."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_690" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A "Trabbi" (more correctly a Trabant). Zero to 1ookmh in 21 seconds ( and 110 kmh - never).  I actually saw, and smelt one (for they were two strokes) still out on the road as I was driving to Berlin"][/caption]

Well that is probably enough about Berlin.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Tomorrow I'm off to ?.  Actually I haven't quite decided. I'd like to go briefly in to Poland but the weather forecasts suggest this might not be a wise idea since they are predicting a high of 2 degrees for the next few days  so you'll have to wait and find out whether I brave this or turn west again.

 

PS - Its late and I'm feeling too tired to proof read this - so you are getting it as written.  Please excuse spelling and grammer mistakes etc.