Gail and I have been friends for over 20 years. We both retired within the past year. Or mostly retired - I work a bit, and Gail is planning to do some contract work in 2023. With new found time on our hands, we plotted an escape for me from the rainy season in the mountains of BC, and for Gail, an escape from possible winter in Alberta (that could be any month). But as it turns out, we left warm and sunny weather behind.  Gail is also leaving behind her still-working husband. 

The general plan is a one month-ish long clockwise loop around Andalucia, including Malaga, Ronda, Jerez, Cadiz, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, and points in between. Only the start and end hotel in Malaga and a stay in Granada/tickets to the Alhambra have been booked. We’ll make everything else up as we go along. There will be hills.  And hopefully a few via verde bike routes away from traffic. We each have bikes equipped with gravel tires.  

Gail has done lots of touring in Europe and North America, mostly with camping gear.  I’ve spent a lot of time on bikes, and have road biked in Europe and lots of places in North America, and done a guided cycling trip in Myanmar too. But this is my first longer self-organized tour. She’s a fan of Michelin paper maps, which provide a great view of the big picture, and I like my Garmin Edge 530 providing turn-by-turn directions.  Gail has studied Spanish for several years.  I learned my first Spanish words beyond 'hola' and 'gracias' using Duo Lingo starting in June, so won't be much help, but I'm happy to try.  We both love to eat and drink.  We’ll see how it goes! 

Here’s the general route we planned out.  

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In the end, it was slightly modified, and ended up being slightly longer and considerably hilly-er than planned.  For details, see the final entry in this journal.  We added a really great loop south of Ronda, went straight from Jerez to Seville (didn't bike to Cadiz) and finished the trip with a couple of beach days by heading straight south from Granada and then west along the coast.