New Zealand

The rain, the dense forest along the road, the bird songs, all that reminded me more of touring New Zealand and not a sunny Spain. Staying the night close to A Coruna and will be close to Cabo Fisterra tomorrow probably. Two nights in Santiago, a detour to the mountains north of Braga and on Sunday night in Porto. Two full days for exploring Porto and packing my bike.

Rain again - Galicia

I was already awake for 30min and could have packed earlier... but it did not look like rain in the next hour... but when I came back from my morning routine the tent was wet... very cloudy all day rain only for an hour or so. I am now in my last Spanish region: Galicia. O Vicedo, a small coastal town. 

Jakobsweg

With my stays in albuerges I got quite a few stamps in my pilgrims passport and will this time probably apply for my Compostela. Windy, cool, lots of hills but no rain. Sometimes the trail for the pilgrims is not suitable to cycle, even the national road here is quit calm and making a detour just for a Kilometer may be appropriate when on foot, or a steep shortcut,  but sometimes the normal road is the better choice for a cyclist. Just 93km today, no rush and my bike needed new brake pads. 

Sunshine again

Spain delivers: sunshine from dusk til dawn. Quite cold in the morning though. Not many highlights except Gijon. No luck with camping again, the favorite opens in June, the other one is just open during the weekend...

Asturia

Next Spanish province/department: Asturia. The night had rain showers and the day started cloudy with some rain from time to time, temperatures about 12 degrees Celsius. Wanted to do a shorter day, about 80km, checked the webpage of the camp site, all seemed to hint for "open" but then the closed gate said that they will be opening at Jun 15th... oh well.

At the beach

Rain from the early morning. Cycling via Santander along the coast, did not see much of the sea except in Santander,  most of the times some hills between us. Camping at the beach, water a wee bit cold.

Bilbao/Bilbo

Just when I got used to say "aupa" to racing cyclists instead of "hola" I left Basque province... Bilbao today and a few very busy touristic places along the shore. The smaller coastal roads are not flat along the shore but climb many (steep) hills.