🎶 E I E I O 🎶

Off at 9am a nice 22C straight through the rural areas and farmland. The cycle paths are great and well signposted, although Garmin is taking the lead. A few riders and walkers in these outer suburbs later small villages? We stop to take a pic of a senior in horse and cart and a horse following also getting a workout, dragging a weight. A rider stops, we have been leapfrogging with him for some time, I think he asks us where we are going … with a mixture of fingers, my map on my phone and charades. I think the message was it will be hot today for a long ride, you need plenty of water.

There are kilometres of orange orchards and naked fields separated by canals. There are a few riders around going in both directions, we leapfrog a young couple with a toddler in a bike seat; at our last passing … the mother is singing E I E I O to the familiar tune of Old MacDonald … as we pass I join in … putting smiles on all dials. That is the beauty of tour cycling … simple moments like that.

We are approaching the village of Sullana, John called for a coffee stop. Crossing the railway line we take a guess … which way? The streets are deserted but we take a punt and go right … a few blocks and a little activity, a bell tower and council offices … tables and chairs on all corners and in the median street. Here will do … seems this is the towns meeting spot … it’s 11.30am. This is considered morning tea time, beer, wine, coffee, soft drinks and light snacks. We are gradually coming in sync with the Spanish meal times … lunch mid afternoon and dinner around 8-9pm.

Back on the bikes, it is a good surface although it’s getting warm around 30C no shade now as we are in the farming areas, the farmers are busy ploughing … its very flat, reminiscent of Holland, in the distance you can see scattered plumes of dust, indicative of ploughs at work. The hills are slowly getting bigger a sea breeze is refreshing but also tiring as it’sin our faces. In the distance we see evidence of a beachside community, large population of multi storey apartments/hotels. Finally after 60km we arrive at our hotel around 2pm … good timing …

It’s Sunday … the beaches are full, umbrellas everywhere, there is a fresh breeze that doesn’t stop the multiples sunbathing and dipping into the sea. Along the promenade and nearby streets the restaurateurs are enjoying a booming trade. This must be a popular place for a holiday apartment for the Valencian.

High above us is a church on a hill, we have a map … 1.6km on the switchback road … we were glad we walked and not rode, however the road did level out eventually … it was worth the view.

Side note: the bike tour guide remarked yesterday on a construction zone in the centre of the city … it was a roundabout for cars; however since covid the city and has made more pedestrian areas in the old town … where we stood was new paving a few months old. Some planters and palms that had just appeared 5 days ago … the ever changing face of Valencia.

When is a river not a river?

It’s a Saturday morning and we are on our way to the city centre to go on a city bike tour.  Komoot is showing the way to the bike shop.  An easy 10km …. very quiet roads at 9am … as we approach the city we are lead onto a large park, later to learn that this is the river!! The roads are quiet because most of the population are out and about exercising on this wonderful day.  Summer has come, and the morning is still a comfortable temperature.  There are many paths to choose … is it a park run? There are cyclists, but the bulk of the population here are jogging. A group of girls jog with a trainer leading.  Just before me a few cyclists cut across my path and park their bikes … a fitness session is about to start.  In the middle section is an athletics track.  Further up men shooting hoops then a warm up on a mini soccer pitch.  This is the ‘river’ … terrible floods in 1957 lead to building a canal, now this riverbed is a 9km green park with lots of shady trees, grassed areas and tracks for all uses. 

Our bike tour begins we are the only ones here today for this city tour, our leader is an Argentinean young man who is doing his PhD at a Uni in Valencia.  He is particularly knowledgeable and very personable.  We ride through many city attractions in the old town, learn a lot about the history and culture of this amazing city. 

The old city is a labyrinth of streets … we realise later when we try to get back on our way home. It was easy with Komoot and a guide.

From history we go to the latest and greatest the city has to offer – the City of Arts and Sciences precinct.  We were in awe at these magnificent futuristic structures.  Something photos could not possible portray.

As John would say, ‘I had a bee in my bonnet’ and wanted to go into Valencia tonight to see the City Arts and Sciences Centre at night. He was finally convinced … the train station only 500m away but the machine was difficult to work. A young lad about 15yo helped us using his phone and google translate … and gave us the Metro card he had and we topped it up for our tickets. He probably spent 20 minutes with us and wouldn’t leave until we were sorted. What a trooper he was … his mother should be proud. We gave him a couple of euros for his trouble.

Meanwhile, the sun doesn’t set until 9.15pm … back on the river paths at 7.30pm, it’s still busy, it has cooled off from the 30+C today, families out relaxing with picnics. Joggers, walkers, birthday parties … it’s all happening. There is an event at the Opera house as people arrive in their finery.

The sun is slowly sinking as we wait in anticipation … a restaurant in the precinct has outside tables … we order a drink each … probably the best rosé I have had. We can see reflections starting to appear as dusk creeps in. Time to cycle around for photo opportunities … we are not alone … it is a paradise for group pics along with selfies. The lights in the buildings reflecting in the water pools are amazing and take on a new level of imagination.

I wonder what temperature it is? (I had just looked on garmin) … 28.9C but we just went up on the bridge … closer to the sun … must be more now...

An early start … never know what happens when you go into the big towns, however we are staying in Manises, near the airport … it’s a weekend and prices in Valencia are astronomical … we got a good price. 

First up we go inland for 7km to see the Sagunto Castle.  A straight road with cycle lane at the side and flat.  There before us, the castle ruins get closer.  We find our way through the old city streets quite a busy town at 9am … a coffee and croissant then we head upwards towards the castle.  I think we were a little too early for the tourists … the odd delivery van restocking restaurants and a few local cars going about their business … people live around these hilly streets.  Time to get off the bikes and walk … we are laden with panniers.  The castle walls rise above us.  Too far to ride too many steps … ‘they are just ruins’ says John, ‘yes but that is history!’, I say.

We admire the view that we have and decide to get on our way … no interest in exploring ‘ruins’.

We are still in awe with the cycle paths here, an almost straight line through to Valencia passing through a couple of towns and agricultural areas, stone walled terraced orange orchards look impressive on a small hill. There is a good deal of bike and foot traffic … a great path to go out with your mates.

Paddocks ploughed and ready to be ploughed.  The path didn’t disappoint and neither did Komoot as we were flawlessly directed to our accommodation. 

We are 10km from the Valencia centre and have a bike tour booked for tomorrow.  Local supermarkets here Lidl and Mercadona … 500g strawberries 0.99€ how can I resist … yes please (Ci por favor!) … they are amazing!

Manises is famous for its pottery and tiles and being the location of the airport. There is a School of Art and Superior Ceramics. The historic pottery influence is evident by the appearance of ceramic tiles decorating buildings.

We have spent a good part of the afternoon mapping the route to Alicante. We finally decide that a walk is needed, 8pm and the bars are all busy, Friday night? … a hot day? Who knows but the tables and chairs are out on the side streets by bars and the beers are flowing.

I’m getting my shoes wet ….

Leaving Benicassim along the beaches, we pass a golf course hotel on our right then and see an arena on the left … it appears that the disused arena has been converted into a hotel … I found that impressive.  

Heading inland towards Castello de la Plana. An attractive city … a cathedral and octagonal bell tower stands in the square.  As always further on there were some very shady gardens.  The Spanish never cease to amaze … a lot of emphasis on gardens in this warm climate. 

Back towards the coast … my route took us towards the city centre of Borriana however I chose to go directly to the coast …WRONG!!! This way was very uninspiring we could not get close to the coast … where were the paved promenades that we are used to? 

Back on route through the green way was agricultural areas much more exciting than the coastal route.  However in front of us a possible leak in the irrigation and we were riding through water.

Only a few kms to our accommodation and onto the beach path … the paving became more colourful and inviting, a beach promenade, beachside cafes and the beach was quite popular.  That’s more like it!

The highlight of the day was meeting up with Ivan, who we had briefly met in Japan 3 years ago.  Ivan, from England has been travelling since then, now coming up to 3.5 years and he’s still bike touring.  He’s been to places far and wide through Covid times in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and more, now set homeward bound.

If you guestimate your ETA add 1- 2 hours …

Johnny had a spring in his step even before he got out of bed … Booking.com had offered some accommodation he had been looking at for 12€ a night. It was short lived; by the time we arrived in our hotel that afternoon, he had been notified there had been a mistake … round 2 … find some other accommodation.

Vinaros was very quiet as we left this morning at 9am … not far into our ride we were riding through market gardens … a field of artichokes on one side and tomatoes on the other. It wasn’t long before we were back down to the coast to Benicarlo. The beaches were lovely, walkers everywhere, great cycle paths.

A continuous beach for about 10km the hotels, apartment buildings and hotels became denser as we approached Peniscola, on the point is a castle. It’s 10am and the cafe’s are starting to do their pre clean before opening for the day. We ride part by the way along the castle wall … lovely views of the beaches and high rise accommodation.

Further around the point and more stunning views. Our route now takes us through the Serra d’Natural Parc. Wow factor in many ways … the hardened dirt road was challenging while navigating around small rocks and soft surface. It was very bumpy at times and we had to walk the bikes. Many mountain bikes we on the road, a perfect surface for wide tyres. The reward was at the crest of hills as the views along the coast were spectacular … a very rugged coastline. The park was very pretty, colours of yellow, pink and purple splatterings of flowers, the low shrubs in various shades of green. We were happy to see another tour cyclist, she was on her way to Switzerland. Further on we meet a guy from Holland who informs us there is a German couple very close. He asks how much further on this shitty road, we tell him 15km; his face fell! The German couple catch up and soon the guy from Holland takes of saying he has a long way to go today … very despondent at hearing he was only 3km into the rough road. The German couple were off to Greece eventually … away for 5 months. We all went our ways and we continued the last 3kms of rough road.

Back on the coast road again and lunch at Torriblanca; more nice coastline then back and forth on green ways. Some towns look almost forgotten … foundations of streets and cycleways little buildings, then around the next beach was Oropesa … my goodness a cut above … hotels, restaurants but where are the tourists… coming in July.

A disused rail trail lead us into Benicassim for the last 6km avoiding a decent hill. 3 cuts into the hills and 2 tunnels made the way easier to finish our 73km day with the weather heating up to around 30C.

I’m so happy, I haven’t seen an Australian for over 2 years …

No cycling required … a walk along the promenade … the beach has just had the tractor through so the sand is all smooth ready for the first sun lovers. It’s a bit hazy on the horizon, no breeze … looking good to be a perfect day if not a little warm until the breeze comes in.

The tourist office is open at 9.45am earlier than the advertised time of 10am … that suits us. The assistant was so excited that we were from Australia … ‘I haven’t seen any Australians for over 2 years’ she was very helpful and we walked away with maps of the local attractions and recommendations for the next days ahead.

Today couldn’t possibly be without the bikes all day … a short climb to a Catholic temple ‘Hermitage of Our Lady of Mercy’ notwithstanding it was sitting on the highest point of a hill A great cycle path all the way. With views of orange orchards, olive groves and market gardens. Although there was a bit of haze, the coast was visible. The return trip was a quick downhill.

Off to visit the bull ring, originally wooden … building started in 1863 and it was inaugurated in 1867; it’s last renovation was 2003 as it stands today. It is now used for events.

We have just about exhausted the tour maps of things to see, time for a swim at the beach, the water was cool, clean and refreshing.

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Sue: about the ride tomorrow … I don’t want to do those hills but Komoot says

The breakfast was buffet style and we overdid it again. Everything imaginable for breakfast.

6km into today’s ride and it was time to do a reconnaissance of the track before us … a hiking track yes but not for our tourers. The first obstacle was walking the bikes down over a crevice … John nearly lost himself and his bike. Then a rough hiking track towards a beach. Off came the panniers and we both carried the bikes over tree roots and the rough path. Panniers on and down the track to a road … there was no opportunity to take pics as we were both taken up with the lifting. The hard part is not over … a very steep hill which had to be walked up. We are happy that is over … it’s warming up today and only about 11am.

Soon were at a small fishing village … it’s a Monday there are not many people around … we are out of the tourist area and in low density housing … possibly holiday houses. Diverting away from the coast as we approach a very flat agricultural area. Phew!!!! the unforgettable smell of ‘dynamic lifter’ fills the air … sure enough there is a tractor spilling some sort of manure on a paddock. This area is known as the Ebro Delta (Ebro del Delta); we are riding through large sectioned areas some are dry some are filled with water … a bit like a rice paddy. Canals irrigate the paddocks. Closer to the coast it is a nature reserve. Given that we live in Ebro Way, we are interested in the name … Ebro is the English translation and Ebre is the Spanish … we are glad that is sorted … some confusion when searching on google.

We travel over the Rui Ebre (Ebro River) Bridge, a very narrow walking path … very tricky to navigate the fully laden bikes … we can’t look around … we may go into the side of the bridge rails..

Heading to the coast along a canal into a decent head wind … not nice. We reach the coast to find another marina, have a beer at a little beachside drink stop … the owner in his broken English gave us the impression that the beaches in Vinaros were ‘different’ … umm … had we made the right decision to stay there 2 nights?

Heading coastal: on the left beaches and on the right market gardens. An unfenced orange orchard … John is in his element taking some oranges that had fallen from the trees, the thought of getting a bargain ;). We were soon in Vinaros at our accommodation. The old town is beautiful and beaches lovely the promenade is super wide and very attractive. A G&T at a beachside bar was welcome.

A nice dinner alfresco style and walk around the attractive lit up streets.

You won’t get there if you keep taking photos ….

First up, on the road before we get to the coast, it is Sunday and the roads are quiet at 9am as we leave, in the distance we see some strange arrangements of metal structures … closer on we see it is an adventure park … it must opening soon as we see families head in that direction while we head to the beach. I take a pic of the deserted restaurants and stalls soon to be opening. An English couple tell me I’ll never get there if I keep taking photos … they are here for 3 days from London … they come a couple of times a year … it’s cheaper than going ‘down south’ why wouldn’t you.

The promenade is wide and the beaches have a scattering of beach goers baking in the morning sun. There are lots of street sellers with fully laden trolleys vying for their spot to set up their pavement stalls. From handbags, shoes, beach umbrellas to hairbraiding. We are lucky today it is early enough to avoid too many people … mainly joggers and walkers keeping to the walking path. We, on the other hand have a dedicated cycle path along side. We stop to get some air for my very very slow leak 0.50€ per tyre … tomorrow I won’t forget to check. John says it keeps getting better as we near to the mountains in the background.

1 hour on the beaches, a nice conversation with a German man also cycling it’s his place to be at least once a year. Then the road and green path along olives groves; a nice mix today, then on the road and a real miss mash of bumps and hilly … we leave the apartments for a while as a large stretch of national parks take up the coast a 2km climb (it was called a ‘Coll’ so I guess it’s classified as a mountain) then the suburbs of single storey housing. We ride through the fishing village before we are at our destination at 2.15pm … John got a good deal at a resort. Wow … I’m not sure what the reception staff thought when we rocked up looking bedraggled.

A shower then into the town a 20 min walk for lunch … tapas of grilled sardines, fried squid and patatas bravos.

The town is very quiet being a Sunday. There is more action at the resort … families and bus groups are checking in … 3 pools surrounded by sunbathers. I was determined to put my foot in the sea … so went for a swim in the hotels private beach then finished off in the pool.

A lovely relaxing afternoon … buffet dinner at the resort … we well and truly get our 17€ worth of the buffet.

It’s BINGO night 9.30pm we are in the bar area … all the oldies are grouped up at tables enjoying the commentary of the bingo caller … we were offered a ticket … he calls it out in Spanish … no chance. The crowd are going wild … heavens knows what is going on apart from number calling … haha.

Side note:

• There is no bad coffee in Spain … lovely coffee here
• The Aussie government must have done some serious work overseas; everyone we talk to know Australia is open and we were locked up for 2 and a half years …

When is lunch not lunch …

Very sad to leave Sitges this morning … it deserves more than a one night stay … breakfast at a local bakery. Leaving Sitges we head around a few hills away from the coast … garmin is talking to me today, it was a Bluetooth problem … along the back of town we see 8 paddel ball courts … it must be pennants day as all players appear to be warming up … then onto the green path; a nice break from the coast that lead us on backroads alongside vineyards and olive groves. One and a half hours later we eventually come to the beach … it is Saturday at 11.30am the beaches are filling up with sunbathers, kids playing racket ball, beach umbrellas speckled through the sand. As we get closer to the town centre the cafe’s and restaurants are getting ready for today’s trading. It’s getting busy as we weave through the walkers on the wide promenade … we get some funny looks … not sure if we are not welcome on bikes or we just look strange with our laden bike in this area.

The wide beaches are set up for beach volleyball, seniors playing bocce. It’s a family affair at the beach today.

Back on the green path and then on the main road for a while, John is getting hungry so made a quick decision and said ‘this corner’ at about 2.30pm … we saw a menu, ordered a beer each … it was going down well then we asked if we could order … ‘sorry no menu’. Ummm … off we go to somewhere else … some tapas – squid and patatas bravos … and a beer! Back on our bikes … 20km to go and hoping we didn’t fall off … some hills coming up and once again towards the coast for beautiful beaches and long promenades … I still haven’t got my feet wet. We are too far from the beach today but maybe tomorrow.

Strange what you eat on holidays … tonight a lovely pizza … the waiter was from Rome and very proud that we chose his favourite topping … also we were talked into a typical Italian dessert.

Cerveza por favor

A lovely night stay at the mountain … basic breakfast in the cafeteria included in our accommodation it opens at 8.30am. 

I was feeling a bit rubbish this morning… Johnny’s ghastly red wine he bought a bottle a few nights ago. It’s hard to get an early start; however it is fun ‘people watching’ the population has increased 10 fold in half an hour.  Crowds appearing from nowhere, individuals of all ages with walking sticks and backpacks … today’s clear skies prove a good day of hiking among the many trails the area provides. One young man had climbing ropes … eek I hope he knows what he’s doing. We took the train only 100m from our hostel (where should have finished yesterday) the views from the train were breathtaking much better than the chairlift.

We alighted at Martorell to ride to Sitges … we won’t talk about garmin. The ride was through industrial towns, however the centres were very leafy with manicured gardens and clean road … most of all very good cycleways. We were stop start as I navigated with my mobile in my handlebar bag.

We stopped for a very unhealthy lunch in Sant Boi … John order a beer, when a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice appeared his face was aghast, I on the other hand tried to hide the smile. Time to learn some Spanish … cerveza por favor (beer please) haha.

Travelling with only one water bottle which we are sharing today … John lost his … we came to the coast … lovely beaches then above us the cliffs … yes we have to go up there!

We were out of water and a beach bar insisted we couldn’t have tap water so 2€ later a 500ml of water was purchased … we pay less for a beer and bought a 1ltr from the supermarket for 0.65€ they saw us coming … I’ve been drinking tap water since I’ve been here. You have to laugh!

So up over the cliffs … it just gets better … views are breathtaking and we are able to stop intermittently to take pics and admire the views … 1.5 hrs later our hill climbing is over and we are in Sitges, the beach actually has some swimmers … our quaint hotel room is lovely small balcony overlooking the street but looking like a Chinese laundry at the moment.

Good news, John has called the bank and all is good the fraud has been stopped. It was done through Perth and other attempts had been made.

A lovely walk to the beach to see the sun setting … a beautiful evening strolling on the beachfront and to the church by the sea. It’s 9pm and the restaurant are just starting to get busy as we are looking for a place to eat. It’s Italian tonight a lovely seafood pasta.

What a lovely town this is … such a shame we leave tomorrow.