Spain Bike trip

June 27 - July 4

We pick up the journey in the city of Bilbao, Spain.  

I. Bilbao, Spain to Deba, Spain

Hospital/immediate care center on the way to Bilbao (Chicago Bulls??):

Some cool photos of Bilbao:

Two days in a row I stumbled upon "street music." This was some sort of fundraiser for the "Walk on Project." Not sure what that is.  But they had a whole riverfront fair with games, food, a zip line and this 10 piece jazz band (in the distance).  

Cool spider outside Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum. 

Some great graffiti/street art, including this 3-4 story high piece. 

Bilbao has a free architecture museum which has a glass bottom swimming pool on the top floor that looks down at the first floor.  My pictures do not do it justice, use your imagination. 

Lots of gay pride posters and banners.  I am unsure if this is in response to the Orlando shooting or there is always this display. 

Love old churches and cemeteries.  This said it was the entrance to a cemetery...but there was no cemetery.  Maybe there used to be one. 

This is what happens when I order lunch in Spanish.  Thought I ordered a hamburger.  In their defense, there is a hamburger included with this heart attack plate.  Also came with ice cream. #fatamerican

Nice balls:

Marlene, Brian and Julie arrived.  3 more bikes to assemble.  Julie's bike with Brian coaching from couch of our AirBnB. 

Brian tackling Marlene's bike: 

Our AirBnB in Bilbao had these umbrella/canopies to hang drying laundry under.  Funny to see laundry hanging out 6 floors up. 

Beers in Bilbao with Brian and a member of some boy band in the background: 

Some large flower-dog-statue in Bilbao, Spain. 

Possibly the coolest merry-go-round ever! Notice the hand crank to operate it.  

Cool house on the Bay of Biscay, only had a footpath to it...what a view they wake up to. 

Bike repair near the Bay of Biscay.  The first two days saw us repair/adjust Julie's headset (handlebars), gearing, switch seats, remove a fender that was rubbing and I ripped off some piece of plastic near the rear cassette that was also rubbing.  Think we got the bike in proper working order....

View from our campground outside Deba, Spain - over looking the Bay of Biscay.  

II. Deba, Spain to San Sebastián, Spain

If you look closely, France is in sight.  This turned to be a very steep ride.  We did the first 40ish kilometers in one day and then finished the ride to San Sebastián on the next day (which turned out to be rainy).  

Some photos from this stretch: 

Stopped in this seaside town (Getaria) for a rest.  

Resting by a bank:

Julie and Brian looking for the nearest bar: 

First injury: Julie fell and skinned her knee on day 2 riding as a group.  But..she got back on and rode another 25 miles (mostly uphill).  #spiritaward

Marlene pointing to yet another church. No shortages of churches and cathedrals in Spain.  

Look how angelic my sister is in the church.  

A unique depiction of Jesus - speared and curly hair.  Never seen this version.  

Donkey close-up...he was laughing at us as we tried to biked up a steep hill. 

Rainy but short bike ride into San Sebastián. 

We heard music upon getting into San Sebastián.  Turns out there was a Crossfit competition going on by the beach....with a wedding in the background....with a motorcycle rally driving by.  The wedding party was not happy with the music and noise from the Crossfit competition.  But it was good people watching for us. 

After camping and biking in the rain, we checked into Hotel Terminus in San Sebastián.  Here are the bikes lined up outside the hotel while we check in...Marlene and Brian in the back.

Intimate street art in San Sebastián. 

Bike parking only:

We visited a really cool wooden boat building museum.  http://www.albaola.com/en

Back story:  Brian is a shipwright who does a lot of work at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle.  A few years ago, he met a guy named Markos who was from San Sebastián, Spain and was interested in starting a similar museum in San Sebastián. 

Well the museum is in existence and they are currently involved with a lengthy project (years) to recreate a whaling ship from the 1500s.  We visited (unfortunately Markos was out of town - coincidentally in the U.S.) The whaling ship used to sail from northern Spain to New Foundland to hunt whales and bring the whale oil back.  It sunk in the late 1500s near Canada.  

The guys at the boat center are building an exact replica (down to the rope, fasteners, etc...) and plan to sail it to New Foundland when complete.  They will sail it as it was in the 1500s (clothes, food, etc...).  The scale of the project is huge.  Here are some pictures of what it looks like:  

Brian talking to Peter who is a carpenter from Florida.  Peter has been volunteering/working on the boat for two years. 

The hull/frame

Museum sign:

Bird's eye view of the work area:

Poster of original ship

Scale model of the original ship.  Hard to imagine they are going to create a huge version of this:

Look alike alert: 

Walking back from the boat museum, I spotted this poster in an alley...

...which looks exactly like Phil, the life partner of my niece Laurie.  The "real" Phil:

"real" Phil and Laurie together:

Waves crashing onto the sidewalk in San Sebastián.

More graffiti/art. 

III. San Sebastián, Spain to Bidart, France

Looking down at some city on the way to Bidart. 

Jules after a long climb....

Marlene seeking shade...

That is France across the river!!!

We took a short, 5 minute ferry across some water way to enter France.  No immigration or passport check in Europe.  

Morocco Bike trip - part 2

June 19 - June 23

While in Meknes, I met a guy on the street who insisted on inviting me to dinner.  I politely took his phone number and he left.  I was staying with my bike traveling host (see previous post).  This guy came back and found the apartment building and insisted we come to his house for dinner.  So we went.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.  So I do not have pictures of a great evening.  

But...he and his wife told me I looked like a Turkish actor named Halit Ergenc, who plays Sultan Suleyman in a soap opera.  They took a video of me and about 20 pictures.  

Here are two pictures of him in the show, judge for yourself (recent photo of me later in this post): 

Also while in Meknes, I spotted a satellite campus of Trump University: 

Loaded up and ready to leave Meknes.  Traveling solo, I do not get into a lot of the pictures.  But I had my host in Meknes take this one: 

I. Meknes to Chefchaouen

I had to use a taxi to cover some of this distance due to time and mountains. 

Chefchaouen was one of the cities I was most looking forward to visiting in Morocco.  It is famous for having blue buildings.  Chefchaouen lived up to its billing visually - very beautiful.  However, the people and the atmosphere were very disappointing.  In addition to the blue buildings, Chefchaouen is known for handmade Berber products (rugs, blankets) and marijuana.  Evidently the hills around Chefchaouen are one of the larger marijuana producing regions in the world.  This coupled with the proximity to Europe, gives the town the feel of a Mexican resort town.  

Too many "touts" trying to sell me rugs, restaurants and marijuana.  Within 30 minutes of walking out of my hotel, I had been offered marijuana 5-6 times.  This is in addition to numerous overtures to "just come look in my shop." I could not even sit in the town square for one minute without being bothered.  Also, after 11 days in Morocco, I had my first unsettling moment:

Since the town caters to so many Europeans, there are restaurants open and people eating, despite the Ramadan fast.  Also, as I mentioned, there are locals begging me to enter their restaurant.  I had bought a bottle of water for the next day's bike ride.  I planned to leave early and no shops will be open.  Some local sees me walking with the bottle in my hand and comes across the street yelling at me for having water during Ramadan.   "Are you American?  You think you are bigger and better than everyone?  Don't you know what Ramadan is? Why do you have water?"  He was really pissed off. 

Part of me wanted to ask why his countrymen were trying to sell me weed and food at their restaurants.  But I used my best Arabic to tell him I respect Ramadan and I bought the water for later.  He calmed down a little and said thank you. But the whole thing was a little unnerving.  Not a good feeling being yelled at for being American in a Muslim country.  However, this has been the only such moment in 10 days in Morocco.  

Anyways, onto the scenery of the town: 

Chefchaouen call to prayer, I can't get enough of these calls to prayer: https://youtu.be/OWHQf3yI5-8

II. Chefchaouen to Tetaoun 

If you look closely out your windows, you can see Spain!

Not much eventful happened on this portion of the trip.  I left Chefchaouen at 5 a.m. to beat the heat and the traffic.  I was aiming for Tetouan.  But in the back of my mind, I thought maybe I would make it all the way to Ceuta, which is Spanish territory.  The wind and the mountains had other ideas.  I still covered 45 miles.  

The wind was so strong, that even when I was going downhill, I had to pedal!  I tried to take a picture to show the wind, see the trees bending below:

Not much scenery on this stretch ....

From where I came and where I was heading.  There are many of these types of signs indicating where cities are all over Morocco.  Very easy to navigate.  

A little flora....

This was a really cool bridge, I am mad I did not get a better photo.  It was hard to see using my iPad against glare of the sun.  The lake in the background is man-made.  There was a big dam.  

Hotel room in Tetouan had this under glass on the desk.  I assume it is pointing to Mecca indicating which way to face when Muslims pray.

Many restaurants in Morocco tried to be overly fancy, with minimal offerings.  This one gave me a menu and the first 5 things I asked for, they said they did not have.  Ended up with this Tuna salad.  

... and this fancy tea set:

III. Tetouan, Morocco to Ceuta, Spain

As mentioned before, Ceuta is Spanish territory, set on "main land" Morocco.  I was looking forward to this ride as it took me down the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  My first view of the water:

Am I in Portland?  Marked bike lanes for the last 25-30 miles of my ride.  So nice after a week on the shoulder of Moroccan roads. 

Stopping for a break along the water. 

A close up map of Ceuta. 

This is a stock photo of the Ceuta border crossing.  I wanted to take a picture, but there were "no photo" signs.  It was chaotic - Moroccans who live in the north of Morocco are free to enter and exit Ceuta.  Many do for work and to buy things to resell in Morocco.  The crossing was a mass of humanity.  But being on a bike I just weaved to the front of the line and I was through customs and into Spain in under 5 minutes. 

My first view of Ceuta, Spain. I immediately saw people jogging with their shirt off, drinking beer, etc... Quite a difference from a few feet away in Morocco. 

IV.  Ceuta, Spain to Algeciras, Spain (via ferry)

My ferry to main-land Spain coming in to dock. Some people who traveled Morocco by motorcycle are in the shot. 

Above motorcycle people took a photo of me.  Last day wearing man-capris (pants were required in Morocco).  

The underbirth of the ferry.  Two other people traveling by bicycle also boarded.  They are going Morocco to England.  They were not talkative...maybe they had a long day. One of their bikes is on the left, mine on the right.  

My ferry docked at Algeciras, Spain.  One great part of traveling by bike is that you often encounter the unexpected.  Algeciras was having a huge street festival.  Poster for the festival:

Young kids gathering a few blocks from the festival....probably too cool to go where the adults are. 

First post-Morocco beer. 

Pictures of the festival.  I did not do a good job of capturing the crowds.  They had many tents set up as bars.  People waited in line to get into these tents.  I estimate 30,000 people in the center of town.   Loud music, liquor, etc...

Ceremoniously tossing my map of Morocco...

Funny hotel sign.  Do I really need to ask reception to live?

The next update will be from Northern Spain where I meet up with life partner Julie, sister Marlene and her life partner Brian.