TransIberian Challenge

How to put a bike in a suitcase....

2008-06-22T12:21:00.004+02:00

... in 7 easy steps (not!)

interesting ( or not ) stats

2008-06-21T12:19:00.004+02:00

So as promised here are some stats you might enjoy reading

Travelling info:

-Total distance covered: 1102 Km
-Highest altitude: 1378m ( yes you guessed it right, it was Pajares!!, although Boca del asno was not that far behind)
-Total ascent: 11600m ( yep thats right, almost one and a half times the Everest!!!)
-Total descent: the same, started and finished at sea level ( bummer)
-Provinces crossed: 9 (Asturias, Leon, Zamora, Salamanca, Caceres, Badajoz, Cordoba, Sevilla, Malaga)

Food consumed:
-15 loafs of bread
-1/2 kilo of jamon
-1/2 kilo of cheese
-1 salchichon ( type of sausage, amazing!)
-millions of chocolates, cookies etc that were eaten either as per usual or scooped with a spoon cause of the heat!
-28 litres of fruite juice! ( i think i am sick of zumo de melocoton y uva and piña y uva!!!)

Animals encountered:
-15 snakes (one of which was alive! not so good when you have a fear of snakes!)
-5 hedgehogs
-millions of rabbits
-lots of birds: eagles, storks (seem to be the national bird of Spain), owls, vultures
-some amazing peakocks (ok they were in a park but it still counts!)
-4 lizards (aparently some were quite rare, saw them in Monfrague national park)
-a few million carcasses in different levels of decomposition (nice!)

Finally wanted to give you the moto of this trip which we had to learn the hard way and that is :

THA PAIN IN SPAIN IS IN THE MOUN-TAIN!

Raniska

[Trip log] Day 15: Antequera-Malaga

2008-06-20T20:19:00.007+02:00

Cant believe it! we finally made it!!! after a long long long day we arrived in Malaga. The day started quite lazy from Antequera cause we though we were going to have an easy, i repeat an easy 50Klm ride to Malaga. Problem number one: the wind was so strong that day that instead of our usual 20K/h ( i know we are stars) we were going with a max of 8K/h and the wind was getting stronger and stronger. Have a look at the video! Problem number two: although i was assured that this there was going to be a small uphill for a couple of kilometers and then ALL downhill to Malaga, the road kept going up and up, steeper and steeper!! small parenthesis: the previous day as we were looking around Antequera to see what there is around, we noticed that there was a national park called el Torcal. But when we found out that it was on the mountains and about 15Klm away we decided to give it a miss for obvious reasons, well ... thats what we thought!!! came to realize very soon that we were going up that mountain !!! So its 1pm and we have just finished climbing the mountain ( boca del asno), yes i have admit the el Torcal was great but not worth 900 meters of climbing at 35 degrees! So as we are getting really tired and we think this is the end of the uphills, we decide to have stop and have lunch. There we meet an really nice ( what seemed nice at the time) old man. He was from the area, even gave us water , cause we run out, and told us that there were only a few more hills to go and then it was all downhill to Malaga. Problem number three: that NEVER HAPPENED!! there was NO downhill, it was aLL uphill, well up and down but it felt all up. I really wanted to go back find that lovely old man and give him a piece of my mind!!! So 7 hours later, we finally arrived in Malaga and there just in front of us was the mediterrenean sea!!! mission accomplished: cycling through Spain from the Atlantic to the Med in 15 days (including 2 rest days). i am only going to give one sentence for Malaga cause i dont think it deserved any more than that. Not a pretty city, wouldnt recommend it, horrible beach , avoid at all costs! (although does have really nice seafood, maybe you should go afterall) So i think this is were we have to end this little blog and say a big thank you to everyone that has supported us through out this trip. It has been an amazing experience, both physically and mentally challenging and at the same time got to see a very interesting aspect of Spain. I loved it!!! Also a special thanks to Yari for his help and putting up this site for us :) For those of you that cant get enough of this blog, we have compiled some stats of this trip just for a laugh which we will be posting shortly, so keep looking, Raniska

At Malaga

2008-06-19T00:06:00.001+02:00

Arrived to Malaga 3 hours ago, finally! Last leg of the route was very hard. We'll post some photos if we find internet. Cheers!

Day 15. Malaga is near!

2008-06-18T18:41:00.003+02:00

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Climbed a huge mountain, "el Torcal", only 30 km to go. Cheers!

Unusual photos!

2008-06-17T21:26:00.003+02:00

A little bit of everything

Cheers!

Pedro

Touring Cordoba...

2008-06-17T21:21:00.000+02:00

in a Segway!

A weird photo we forgot to post :-)

[Trip log] Day 14: Puente Genil-Antequera

2008-06-17T21:10:00.004+02:00

Early start to get out of here as soon as possible! Today we reached our 1000Klm mark, only about 100 more to go!!! The route to Antequera was pretty nice, full of sunflowers and olive trees as far as your eyes could see! Arrived at Antequera around lunch time and had a stroll around the town. Its a very nice town as well, takes about an hour to do the touristic tour. can i just also say today was the first time i asked for information at the tourist office and the woman didnt say " do you speak english?" i think after 2 weeks i finally learned how to ask for info and not look like a complete idiot! small tip, if you are visiting Spain and not a native speaker get some quick lessons in advance (or a spanish boyfriend, that works too) or else you might be struggling to even get dinner.

So tomorrow our LAST day!! i cant believe it almost over, but let me tell you its not over until the .... lady sings and in this case thats me ( have been doing lots of practise during this trip, Pedro can verify that!) WE have been thinking of giving you some stats for this trip so keep checking this space.

Raniska

[Trip log] Day 13: Cordoba-Puente Genil

2008-06-17T21:00:00.005+02:00

After a very slow start ( had to recover from previous nights feast!) made our way to Puente Genil. The route was relatively short (62 Klm) however it was very fustrating. There were quite a lot of hills and we had an awful head wind ( thats against us!) that made it SO hard. We had to pedal even at the very few downhills that we had that day. Finally arrived at the hotel, didnt have the best reviews of the world, looked like time had stood still stince the 70´s but we thought for one night´s sleep it should be ok. Until we walked in the room and lets just say the ventilation of the air condition must have been somewhere VERY close to the sewage! Definately dont recommend it (it's called Hotel Xenil, be warned). But we were SO tired and there weren´t that many options in Puente Genil, so we just went to sleep without the air condition and basically fried ourselves to sleep!

I dont think we actually have any photos of Puente Genil, really not impressed! nor by the town or the people, who kept driving through the main square with their sport cars and the loud music over and over and over again!!!! Looking foward to getting out of this s...... ( sorry to the Spaniards :) )

Raniska

[Trip log] Day 12: Cordoba

2008-06-17T20:37:00.005+02:00

A well deserved rest day! Cordoba is a beautifull city. The new town is nothing exiting same as every other city, however the old part of the city is really beautiful. I think Cordoba is a must if you are in this part of the world. Be a bit aware of the tourists though, can get a bit cramped when you are walking down the narrowest street in the entire universe an a group of 50 Japanese appears out of nowhere and they all want to stay together! oh yes! and take the obligatory photos!!!
Anyway, spend the whole day touring around the old part of town, saw the alcazar ( castle), the synagogue, the roman bridge, the traditional Andalucian houses with their typical patios and last but not least the mezquita. Diffuct to explain what that is but lets try: so this used to be a roman church, which was destroyed by the Arabs when they conquered Spain, then they built a mosque on top of the ruins. Then when the Spanish reclaimed that area the decided to built a Cathedral in/with the mosque. The result is something that you HAVE to see! really impressed! Finished a perfect day with a REALLY nice meal, if you are even in Cordoba you have to try the 2 specialities: deep fried aubergines covered with a honey sauce ( still not sure if its savoury or sweet but definetely worth trying) and the "rabo de toro"" ( bull´s tail in a stew!!!). Finally ended up at a maroccan type of cafe for some tea and shishas, by this point i could barely breath from SO much food but it was worth it!

Raniska

Day 14. Going to Antequera

2008-06-17T17:15:00.005+02:00

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On our way to Antequera. Nice weather, not too hot. Crossed the 1000km line. Cheers!

[Trip log] Day 11: Castuera - Cordoba

2008-06-15T14:16:00.005+02:00

Hi there!

So we are finally in Cordoba! what a hard day! we had to cover 160Klm of ups and downs and the weather is not doing us any favours. Left Castuera early ( thats the norm now so we can avoid the heat) but had to cope with 30Klm of uphill before we got into a valley. then the heat got so much we had to stop at the nearest town. In this trip i have been complaining about the lack of people in the small villages, they always seem empty. Let me tell you this village was the loudest busiest village in the entire universre! all i wanted to do was rest for a couple of hours before we head on but it was impossible. So ended up at the front garden of the fire brigade! underneath a tree until 4pm. The next part of the trip was also hard. at some point we got overheated again and stopped at a gas station to get a cold drink and they looked at us like we were aliens! maybe they dont see a lot of cyclists in these parts of spain. Then there was this really big hill, that as we were approaching it, it looked like its was a 50% slope! thank got it was just an optical illusion, but had a small stroke for a moment. Finally arrived at Cordoba at 9pm and headed to our hotel, only to find out that we had put the wrond address on the GPS!!! finally arrived at the hotel and after a quick dinner went straight to bed.

Raniska

[Trip log] Day 10: Trujillo - Castuera

2008-06-15T13:58:00.002+02:00

hola people,

Today we had a relatively short day, however the days are getting harder and harder becase of the heat! I also was so tired last night and missed my dinner, didnt have my breakfast so about 30 min into the ride i almost collapsed, so had to take a break and stuff myself with lots and lots of sugar! although like i said the day was relatively short it seemed to go on for ever. At some point we are going up a hill, the sun is right above us, its 3pm and we are both overheating! we are 4K outside Castuera and there is no way we can make it unless we have a little break, but we cant find a single shade!!! so Pedro luckily found a construction site and we went there and sat under their machines! until a few minutes later the workers came back from their lunch break and had a REALLY good laugh when we told them were we came from and were we are going! i think one of them mamde a comment like, yeah i´ve been to Malaga with the car and it was really far away!! cheers!!!

Finally arrived in Castuera, had the obligatory shower & nap in that order before we could explore the town. It is a nice small town, all white houses and not touristic at all! We had a hard time finding somewhere to eat, so after a stroll around the town and buying some supplies from the supermarket we ended up having dinner at the hostel (which wasn't bad). Taking lessons from the previous night, that I didn't eat enough for dinner, I had the biggest, most humongous steak in the entire universe! (accompanied with some gorgeous garlicy green beans!)

Raniska

[Trip log] Day 9: Plasencia - Trujillo

2008-06-12T21:41:00.003+02:00

Hi guys!,

So today we did Plasencia - Trujillo. We started our day having a humongous breakfast at the Parador. Raniska was more moderate but I had enough breakfast for 2 or 3 people

We did about 80Km, which would have been fine if it wasn't for the incredible heat! The route was a little bumpy, with the some steep hills but beautiful scenery. We crossed a National Park, Monfragüe, which is known for its vulture and eagle colonies. We had an early lunch at the park and continued our way to Trujillo. At this point the heat was starting to become really uncomfortable. After 1pm we had to stop every 10 km more or less (that's about half an hour) to cool ourselves down and avoid to melt the tyres (okay, that might be an exageration but you get the idea)

Finally we arrived to Trujillo at about 4pm. Picture this: sweaty, tired and hot and what is the way to get to the centre of the town?? That's right, a little (not so little) nice (not so nice) uphill!

So that's all for today. Tomorrow we have a long day (about 100km) and we are quite tired, so forgive us for not writing anything else!

Pedro

Some photos of food we have had

2008-06-12T21:24:00.003+02:00

Dedicated to Evangeline! (we had loads of other stuff, but we always forgot to take the photo!)

[Trip log] Day 8 Bejar-Plasencia

2008-06-11T18:42:00.004+02:00

Today also got up early and after a hearty breakfast made our way to Plasencia for what was going to be an easy downhill stroll. One thing we have been wishing all along this trip has been a little bit of sunshine. Today we got our sunshine to the full. We arrived at Plasencia around 1.30 and lets just say a little bit more and we would have looked like the little porklet i ate yesterday! i think for tommorrow we need to make an early start and have a break during the middle of the day.Uunfortunately i cant complain much about the heat because i have been telling Pedro how hot Greece is during the summer months and now i am not allowed to complain! Anyway, Plasencia again is beautifull. We are staying in the Parador, which is an amazing old convent converted to a luxury hotel ( its our treat from this trip, I dont want any comments please:) ) its really beautiful, have been taking lots of photos of it but will post them another day since running out of time. Thats it so far guys, we are almost half way through our trip and so far it has been amazing cycling, scenery and lets not forget the food!
Raniska

[Trip log] Day 7 Salamanca-Bejar

2008-06-11T18:29:00.007+02:00

Today was a medium day, about 90 Klm. Left Salamanca early in the morning in order to get to Bejar before lunch time. However after leaving Salamanca we had to cross a mountain then lots of ups and downs and finally another mountain where Bejar was sitting at the top, so got there more closer to 4ish. The road was really nice and quite and took us through some REALLY small villages. So small they didnt have their own supermarket, so when we run out of water we had to ask for this old granny to fill our bottles from her tap. Bejar is a really nice town, found right at the top of a mountain. I think there are some ski slopes there for the winter, so you can imagine how high up it is. Saw some more cyclists along the way, the all seem to be doing the Ruta de la Plata and going the other direction from where we are going, I wonder if there is a reason that I am going to found out really soon! Had some more tapas in Bejar, tried pigs ears! they are amazing and very soft and juicy!
Raniska

Even more photos from Salamanca!

2008-06-09T21:15:00.004+02:00

As you can see, we've been using the camera! Read about the astronaut here

Food and lodging recommendations

2008-06-09T20:52:00.004+02:00

We thought of posting some recommendations of places we loved to stay and eat. So top marks for accommodation goes to the b&b in Leon (Hostal Casco Antiguo), situated just around the corner of the Cathedral, very nice rooms and very well situated,also at a good price, although 2 star is very nicely decorated.

Second place goes to the b&b in Salamanca (Hostal Concejo ), the rooms are really nice, you get your own private balcony facing the one of the streets in the old town. Again just round the corner of the plaza Mayor( for the non spanish, this is usually the most central point of the town). The rooms are humangous, even our bikes fit in here and there is still plenty of room. Has a nice cafe for breakfast just across the road (Cafeteria Casino).

As for food, major top marks go to Lucia´s recommendation, Tierra Astur in Oviedo (http://www.tierra-astur.com/). AMAZING FOOD! thats all i can say and for those that know me that says a LOT! Second place is a difficult choice, i think it might have to go to la cafeteria Bambu in Salamanca (altough the meat was a little bit over done for our taste, everything else was amazing, recommend the pimientos rellenos (stuffed peppers) http://www.cafeteriabambu.com/.

i think we will leave the bronze metals for some other towns along the way, just thought it might be a good idea to let you know what there is out there in case you are in the area one day.

Raniska

More photos from Salamanca

2008-06-09T20:45:00.002+02:00

[Trip log] Day 6: Salamanca

2008-06-09T20:33:00.006+02:00

Hi there!

Today was our first rest day. We arrived yesterday to Salamanca and we've been eating and drinking ever since! Today we've visited the cathedrals (yes, there are *two of them*) and the historic centre of the city, which is probably my favourite so far.

Right, won't write much more now, here are some photos from today

Pedro

[Trip log] Day 5 Zamora - Salamanca

2008-06-08T21:48:00.006+02:00

Our day started really relaxed, with doing a tourist´s tour around Zamora. It has a really nice cathedral and next to it attached a very interesting museum. Had a look around the old part of town and left for Salamanca. This journey was not too long but the tiredeness is starting show ( at least on me) it was a 70Klm ride, a bit bumpy but had a nice 10K down hill at the end and a tail wind, loved it! Arrived in Salamanca early evening. Our hotel is amazing, right in the centre of the old town. Have had a quick look around the city which is my favourite so far, but we have the whole day tommorow to discover more of it since we are having a rest day.

So far we have covered around 400Klm, which is about a third of the total journey!!!

Raniska

[Trip Log] Day 4 Leon- Zamora

2008-06-08T21:31:00.009+02:00

This was a 165Klm long long day. The journey started really well with a couple of hours on a completely flat road, until i was stupid enough to point out that this was the longest we have been on a flat road and guess what happened? we had to leave this road! the new one we went on was a road so small it didnt even have a name, and i would not even classify it as a road as it was a dirt road connecting 3 houses on one side with 2 houses on the other side via a corn field !!! i was really worried about my bike on this road but it managed well.

Finally came out of the "road" only to have the first heart attack of the day when we caught up with a sheperd and his dogs, which decided it was a good idea to chase me! finally arrived in Benavente for lunch. Nice little town, not much to see. Chained our bikes on a lamp post and went into a bar for some well deserved tapas ( Evangeline, sorry but forgot to take photos, i was so hungry! next time i promise). Suddenly i see a little boy looking at the bikes, and from one second to the other his hand was on the bikes! Pedro had to run out to stop him. Thankfully he didn't have time to take anything. That was heart attack number 2 for the day.

Anyway, second half of the road was really hilly, constantly going up and down small hills which was exhausting and the road surface was pretty bad. Let me just point out that there was grass growing between the cracks in the tarmac! finally arrived at Zamora at 9pm only to find that our 4 star hotel that we had booked was on a high way, had 2 wedding parties going on at the same time and lets just say it was NOT a 4 star hotel. We didnt really have another option, so had some dinner next to all the drunk guests and went to sleep. Not a very exciting day, but saw some lovely scenery of the country side. looking forward to tommorow, going to Salamanca.

Raniska

More photos from Leon

2008-06-06T23:00:00.000+02:00

[Trip Log] Day 3: Villamanin - Leon

2008-06-06T22:56:00.002+02:00

Since we had quite a hard day yesterday , we decided we deserved an relatively easy day. 50 K down hill to the city of Leon.

This is my favorite city so far. we ar staying in a little hostel in the old part of the town, literally facing the famous cathedral of Leon! The cathedral is amazing, full of stained glass windows, about 737 of them, which cover an area of 2000 square meters in total. Sorry folks, thats all i understood from the 30min guided tour in spanish, for more details need to ask Pedro.

Anyway, also visited the Parador of Leon ( again for the non spanish, these tend to be very old buildings that used ti be hotels, or palaces etc and they are today preserved and used as luxury hotels, very nice). We looked a little bit like gipsies as we walked in with our shorts, sandals and red faces but i refuse to carry any more clothes up the f.....ing mountains.

So, thats al for now, have a really big day tommorow, going down to Zamora, looking at 10-12 hour ride (150-something Kms), so straight to bed. will try to keep you updated as much as we can. Hope you havent got too bored. take care

Raniska

[Trip Log] Day 2: Oviedo - Villamanin

2008-06-06T22:50:00.005+02:00

This was a difficult day, we new it was only 70 Klm but had a big climb, so after a harty breakfast, left for the mountains. The scenery was amazing, a lot of green all around and small villages every so often, were we has to stop for some tapas.

So the mountain we had to climb is called Puerto de Pajares. For the non spanish, can i just say a few things about this mountain: aparently this climb is included in one of the etapes for the vuelta de Espana ( like tour de france thing) and it is considered one of the most challenging rides. So I was made to believe, anyway! and it was!

Right. 60 Klm going up hill, first saw a 10% climb, then a 13%, 12%, 2x 10% and the final one to finish us off a 17%!!! At this point we are over 1000m up and there is A LOT of fog, so much that you cant see more than 5 meters ahead. The trucks (oh did i forget to mention that, the road was full of trucks that wanted to avoid the main road so they dont have to pay tolls!) were going super slow with the alarms on and i seriously thought i was going to die.

We decided that it would be a good idea to dress Pedro with all the fluorescent gear possible and put him at the back. Didnt really work, still thought i was going to die. Poor Pedro had to reassure me several times before we got to the top that i am going to live to tell this story. Finally arrived at the top and to our surprise we meet another cyclist coming from the other direction, with no lights, no reflectives on him,nothing. And what is the first thing that he says to us? "oh it is very difficult to see you!". Mate have you seen yourself???? Anyway, he looked a bit arrogant, apparently he does this mountain 4 times a week and wasnt very impressed when we told him were we came from, (that bastard!)

Final 10K were every cyclist's dream, downhill!. Fog cleared very quickly ,as soon as we lost some altitude and arrived at Villamain just in time for dinner.

Raniska

[Trip Log] Day 1: Gijon - Oviedo

2008-06-06T22:46:00.006+02:00

hi everybody,
right, so our little challenge started 3 days ago.

After 3 hours of sleep in order to catch our flight to Gijon, we finally arrived there at 7.30 am. Thankfully we got a lift from some friends to the town centre. Got a bit of a scare when we were dropped of on the pavement of what looked like a highway and were told that this was it, Gijon!

After a small detour we arrived in the town of Gijon. it is a small town, not much to see but has a nice harbour. After the obligatory photos of the atlantic ocean, this is after all the trip starting from the atlantic to the med. By this time it was around 11ish so we thought it would be a good idea to head off and do our small 30Klm trip to Oviedo. We thought it would only take a few hours and it would be an easy ride. Someone however ( we cant say who, or else we might jeopardise this relationship :) ) forgot to check the altitude profile . The road was bumpy as hell, so it took as a little longer than what we thought. I was so tired, we had to keep stopping every 5 K to get a coffee and a coca cola to wake up. Finally arrived at oviedo at 4 in the afternoon and after checking in our hostel went straight to bed!

Woke up after a couple of hours only to have dinner and then go back to bed again. Oviedo is a beautiful city, a bit too wet for my taste but very nice to walk around the old part of the city. Dinner was at an amazing place in the old part of town, thanks to Lucia who reccomemded it to us.

Raniska

Our Bikes

2008-06-06T22:26:00.007+02:00

Hi from Leon!

Raniska will post a huge update on our trip shortly. In the mean time, here are two photos of our bikes. Mine is the green one.

Cheers

Pedro

Gijon to Villamanin

2008-06-06T00:50:00.001+02:00

Hi everybody!

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As long as the intrepid couple is unable to post while riding on bicycles, I'll be posting updates on their journey from time to time. Today's post will cover two days of journey: Oviedo - Gijon and Gijon - Villamanin. Here come the boring GPS values: they have managed to cover 2123 meters of vertical climb. Maximum altitude, 1377 meters at the port of Pajares. 78.5 kilometers covered today, for a total of 116.27 kilometers. Tomorrow they'll be heading to Leon, as Pedro says: "Leon, 48 kilometers, easy". Keep it going friends!

Warming up, engines running, all set

2008-06-06T00:49:00.000+02:00

Hi!

This blog will try to cover the journey of two bicycle maniacs :) across Spain, following the Ruta de la Plata. As long as they're unable to post, I'll be trying to gather updates from them and publish them here. Hope we receive some pictures from them soon to start growing some content... :)