Westward we go!

We´re 18 days in at this point, sitting in a cafe in Granada, the palaces of Alhambra high above us overlooking the city.  We´re just over 1000kms into our trip, and being on a bike is starting to feel a bit more normal.  The soreness in our backsides is starting to subside to a tender numbness, our backs are less comfortable being upright than hunched over handlebars and our legs, well, they´ve fared pretty well up to this point.  We actually look forward to getting up each morning, packing up the tent and riding away from our camp site before Farmer Manuel (he owns every peice of land we squat in) catches us.  We also look forward to the beautiful and relaxing places we find along the way.

So far, the trip has gone very smoothly.  We´ve paid for four hostel nights (two in Barcelona and two in Valencia).  Other than one free night spent at a bar in a hamlet called ´Casablanca´ (more on that later), we´ve wild camped in the forests, parks and orchards of Spain.  Along the way we saw some really cool places such as the Sagrada Famillia cathedral in Barcelona, an ongoing legacy to the architect Gaudi, and the castle of El Sid in Peniscola (totally stumbled upon!)



Sagrada Famillia

 There´ve been many surprises so far.  The Spanish have the funny habit of saying ´hello´to people as they leave..the same way we might say ´ciao´.  They don´t realize it´s only a greeting, since they use ´olá´ for hello and goodbye.  Also, a can of cold beer from a gas station will cost less than a can of coke, and a delicious espresso will be even cheaper, which we buy a lot more of since we accidently bought the ´extracto cereales´ sitting next to the nescafe.

Even on the tough days, we always manage to find something to laugh at..