Yet another night of full sleep and no distractions sees me wake up like a freshly born baby. Ahh!
My day starts around 0830 – heading out to the square just a few steps away from my hotel I sit at a small bar and order the usual set everybody else around me is also having.
Besides the very buttery croissant that is distinctly different to the ones in France, having a freshly pressed orange juice and a cafe con leche does make the day start very smoothly. Especially if consumed slowly and whilst watching life go by on the square.
I have my laptop with me to read some news and start writing on an entry for this blog.
Time just flies by and it is time to get back to the hotel, check out of my comfy room and pack my TWIKE for a very short (compared to my last few days) trip to Miranda de Ebro. The route I’ve chosen for today will take me along Spain’s northern shore to Bilbao and then cross the foothills of the Pyrenees to the plateau on which Miranda de Ebro is located.
Off we go! The day promises to be beautiful!
Within a few km I’m cruising along the coast and am already in maximum relaxation mode.
On days and driving along roads like this it is really difficult not to stop every few km to take pictures.
Eventually, I take a hard left turn and it’s time to start climbing from 0m ASL to around 900m
Today I’ve decided to see how much serious pedaling will contribute to my overall consumption – #gogogo!
See me pedaling and pushing hard in the video below! I was drenched in sweat but a happy camper nevertheless.
Eventually, I reached the first, higher plateau and decided to head to Ullibari Gamboa Lake and get a small helping of single-lane roads today. It was really worth it! Beautiful views and photo opportunities everywhere.
Just showing one of the photo opportunities here:
Perfect weather, perfect location and another iconic pic of TW560.
The village of Ullibari with the old church is definitely worth a visit.
Without any time pressure, heading towards Miranda sees me driving through a landscape that looks like >1500m in Switzerland…at ~700m – air temperature remains high and above 30°C but is much less humid than closer to the sea.
On the last 20 km, the road is at a slight incline and takes me back down to around 500m above sea level.
I check into my hotel, set up my charge and take a well-earned shower after all the pedaling and associated sweating.
With over 3 hours left until my family arrives – they are driving here directly from Switzerland – I start my evening in the hotel lounge with a generous amount of water and add a G&T to support my creativity whilst writing another entry for this blog.
The TV in the lobby did give me an idea that my wife and I will have to expect 35-36°C tomorrow when driving toward Portugal’s border. We haven’t planned yet to where exactly we will be driving but it will be a longer distance above 350km in any case.
Eventually, with some delay, my family arrives. They check-in and freshen up. Our young adults veg-out on the surprisingly fast hotel WiFi whilst my wife and I drink our first G&T of our vacation.
We then coax our young ones out of their rooms to join us for some local food in town.
Miranda de Ebro turns out to be quite beautiful – especially in the fading light of the day.
We find a small and local place that serves tapas and other local specialties at acceptable prices and settle for some more drinks and food.
For me and my wife Boquerones are a must – we used to eat them 24 years ago when we lived in Spain and still love them today. We associate them with careless life in summer.
We stay out late and get back to our room tired and ready for a new TWIKE adventure together: the first leg of our drive to Southern Portugal tomorrow morning.
With this, let’s get to the stats and GPS track for today.
…all the pedaling really paid off! >500m higher than the start and still at 36Wh/km!
