Adventures, expected and unexpected

When we set off on a cycling trip in Spain and Portugal we knew it would be an adventure. We stayed on the Wind Spirit, a motorized yacht that holds 140 people, at least, there were 140 tandem cyclists aboard on our trip.

This was the first time Santana Cycles had run the Spain/ Portugal trip so there were a few kinks to be ironed out. Bill McCready, the leader of the trip and owner of Santana Cycles, is very good at getting things back on track when they look like they're about to go sideways. There was the time that the ship couldn't get into the port and we were all on shore with our bikes. Bill arranged to rent a tent where he and a couple of other Santana stalwarts spent the night with the bikes. The rest of us were tendered to the ship. Bill then managed to rent a truck to transport the bikes to the next port so they would meet us.

Another time the Spanish authorities got a little nervous because they thought that our group would be like the Tour de France closing down roads and disrupting traffic. With the help of a volunteer translator from among the cyclists, Bill managed to allay the governor's fears and we were off the next morning as planned, albeit with a fairly heavy police presence at the pier where we started.

Our last stop was Lisbon, during the NATO summit. All cars were being searched on the way into Portugal and a number of roads that we would have taken were closed. We ended up doing quite a bit of riding in traffic to get to our ship, not our favourite thing to do, but at least we've done it before and know how to do it.

All in all, the cycling wasn't the highlight of the trip for us, a few too many unknowns and a bit too much time pressure. We broke a chain the first day and that put us behind so that we missed a winery tour which, apparently, had fantastic architecture. We rode like crazy one day to make sure we got to the ship in time only to discover that we had the wrong time in our minds and the ship hadn't even arrived when we got there.

Richard says he saw a lot of Spanish pavement as we didn't really take much time in stops. The weather was perfect, for us, highs in the low 20's. Some folks from warmer climes found it chilly but I had my tights on for all of five minutes one morning before getting too hot and taking them off. We rode mostly in shorts and short-sleeved jerseys, although the wind jackets were handy first thing in the morning. The only time we used insulation clothing and our rain jackets was in Tangier where it had rained and was cooler than most of the other places we stopped. Who would have expected that?

Gibraltar was fascinating and I would like to go back and spend more time touring the tunnels. We had a wonderful storyteller/ guide whose grandfather had worked in the facility after WWII. The apes came out to show off on our way to the tour. They weren't used to visitors that early and the van drivers came equipped with goodies to feed them out the window.

Much to my delight, we had two bird surprises. In Barcelona I elected to stay in the hotel room and get some extra sleep to help me deal with a cold. When I felt better, I went wandering around the area by the hotel. I heard a squawk I recognized coming from one of the palm trees. I followed the noise and discovered the first of many Quaker nests. I spent a wonderful hour or so tracking Quakers and watching them go in and out of the huge communal nests.

On the Danube trip two years ago, I was disappointed when we elected to stay on board one day and missed seeing storks. Well, this time we saw storks in Portimao. They really are as large as people have told me!

All in all the trip was enjoyable. We'd like to return to some of the places we saw and spend time to hiking and taking photographs.

The next adventure awaits.