Here it is, five days after returning to the U.S., and we are back to the usual routine. It's cold and cloudy. The drivers are lazy. Coffee is $4 and beer is $6. On the plus side, I know where all the light switches are, there is always toilet paper when and where you need it, I have real tools and a bike stand. Traffic lights don't take forever to change (well, most of them). Speed bumps are gentle enough to roll over without shattering my teeth. I have to go out of my way to find cobblestone. The streets names are all marked.

I put on a new chain. My gauge showed that the old one was stretched out just enough to warrant replacement. I cleaned up both bikes and lubed the chains. They are starting to look and ride better, but I still need to bring them into the shop for work I'm clueless about, like truing the wheels.

The process of disassembling and reassembling the bikes several times made me start thinking about upgrades. A front rack that fits without using a bunch of spacers. Better brakes. Fenders with more clearance. For Sunyoung, shifters that don't constantly hit her legs. These urges are starting to dissipate. What we have is more than adequate. We're lucky to be able to afford good gear. We had no major mechanical issues during the trip. This speaks towards the durability of our current setup.

Also, there were no physical problems other than my bout of dehydration. The bikes fit us well and the gearing is adequate. We just need to stay on pavement or hard pack, and we and the bikes will be fine on any trip. I think at some point we will need to start looking at bikes that break down into a smaller package for ease of transport. I also don't know how many years we have left of fully-loaded touring. Credit card tours are starting to sound very appealing, although we both agree that camping has its conveniences. There's always room for the bikes, we can cook, and it's a good shelter of last resort, as we found out in Villanueva del Arzobispo.

Overall, this trip turned out as well as we expected. There were plenty of surprises, but most of them were positive. I think we would like to return and explore more of the country, and also visit Portugal. I'm impressed with the diversity of culture and landscape even within the limited area we toured. In some ways we avoided "real Spain." We found ourselves shopping at Lidl, Aldi, and Carrefour as much as Mercadona and Dia (although it turns out that Dia was bought out by Carrefour in 2014). From Sevilla onwards, there was a lot more access to the English language, and we embraced it. I said I would forego my vegetarian diet so as to not make waves, but I couldn't. But I'm very thankful for the time we spent embedded deep in the agricultural heart of the country. We learned more about daily life from three days staying with Warmshowers hosts, than the rest of the trip combined.

We allowed airfare to determine the grand arc of our route. I wonder what it would have been like if we flew in and out of Madrid, or had Lisbon or Mallorca as one of our end points. But I'm so happy with the experience we had that the only purpose of speculating is to create the spark that will lead to a future tour.