I am just reading this now. Jacinto liked the piri piri sauce, and bought his own personal bottle. He was sad that he couldn't find it in Spain. If we ever run across Portuguese chicken, we will give it a try!

Those poppies were all gone on July 2nd. The olive trees are still there!

Ah! I saw two buildings like that, without with windmill part. I thought perhaps they were odd grain storage bins. Now I will have to think where they were. I'm going to say in Spain . . we haven't spent much time in Portugal.

There is no doubt that leaving bikes with family or friends in Europe is the best way to do it. You travel over there completgely free of bikes and boxes and fees, and you can hop on any low cost local transport (like shuttle out of the airport) with complete freeedom. Also you can leave lots of gear with the bikes, possibly even eliminating the need of one checked bag.
The downsides are that you need to have the second set of bikes to have something to leave in Europe, and that you will always have to leave from and return to the same place. There could be some long train rides if that place is not where you actually want to cycle.

In our case, we left our bikes in Leipzig, telling our friends "we'll be back real soon" for the bikes. That was before Covid, and the bikes have been there 5 years! We are always checking to see if our friends are tired of having those bikes in their spare room!

Leaving the bikes in storage allows a little more flexibility about where you could easily be cycling, year by year. You still have to return to the spot where you last left the bikes, but you could then drop them somewhere entirely different. One problem is that the cost of a two bike sized storage ranges from about 70 euros to over 100, depending on location. Clearly, if you leave them for 3 months but life gets in the way, you could be spending 1000 euros a year on storage. That makes the cost of transporting bikes back and forth by plane look cheap.

Tell us more about the storing the bikes part? I know a couple of people who have family in Europe and leave the bikes with them.

Jacinto and I are curious about our upcoming trip, to see if the effort of air travel with bicycles is worth the experience. Not to mention the cost!

Do you buy travel insurance on your plane ticket? I did for mine, but Jacinto did not. Asking around, it seems that most people don't. We have 20 days until we leave. I'm mentally ready to go! My legs might not be ready for the climbing . . . .

Hi again. I just want to say thank you for your dedication to blogging your trip. It has been really helpful for getting the sense of the road, as I plan my microscopic 10-day tour in the Algarve. I did introduce myself as friend to Anne & Dave, but I see there are more than one of such couples. My Anne & Dave are the Thomson/O'Neills, not the cyclists. Maybe one day I'll meet you two!

I have enjoyed following along!

If you mean southern Portugal and Andalucia, I think February to April would probably work well. Further north though would be too cold still. We’ve only been there in autumn, but from our past experience it’s getting too cold in the interior by about mid-November.

This fall we plan to bike from Bilbao to Valencia, starting in the north in mid-September and moving south with the season. We should reach Malaga around mid-November, which should be perfect.

Not sure what part of Germany you are targeting, but the Tauern Radweg is my all-time favorite. I will be there in bout two weeks for my third trip through the area. The section from Krimml to Salzburg and then back round through Germany to Zell am see is a real winner.

That was his plan all along Steve. Rope Grampie into some bike maintenance, and ride to the ice-cream shop!

Lack of pointy teeth you see in piranhas might be a clue...

I agree with you. ID signs are important, especially in public places and more especially with things not found locally.

Fortunately no Grampies were injured in the entry to the airport.

Grampie grinder :-) I love it. I hope it didn't actually grind any Grampies!

You are right! Strangely we had never quite noticed. But these IATA airport codes are very complex, and even the origin of the "Y" is a story: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IATA_airport_code#:~:text=Predominantly%2C%20airport%20codes%20are%20named,Ata)%2C%20ORK%20for%20Cork%2C

This is the first time I’ve noticed that Canadian airport abbreviations all begin with Y. You know the background on that, I assume. Yes, of course you do.