Bilbao

June 15, 2014

End of the line

Our tour ended with yet another great day of cycling along the Basque coast. We were once more lucky with the weather - dry, mild, partly cloudy - not too hot for comfortable cycling, but clear enough to enjoy the sights.

The highlight of the day was our visit to the hermitage at San Juan de Gaztelugatxe - the premier destination on this part of the coast, and one of the most photographed locations in Spain. Situated at the top of a small rock that is so thinly connected to the shore as to nearly be an island, I is remarkable to look at and to experience. The hermitage itself, a small chapel at the top, is not particularly exciting, but the walk is the thing. It's a 241 stair climb to the top, up a jagged staircase that rises up along the leading ridge of the rock. The views looking up ahead and back down the way you've come are exceptional.

Like the day before, the route plays tag with the coast, touching the shore at various attractive villages and beaches and then veering inland again for a ridge climb and descent. At one of these towns, Plentxa, we found another graceful white bridge designed by Calatrava, the one who designed yesterday's lovely bridge in Ondarroa.

At Getxo we reached the mouth of the Nevion and turned east and upriver for the flat final miles to Bilboa. Before long we came across one more great attraction, fascinating enough to rival San Juan de Gaztelugatxe: the Vascaya Bridge. This is an amazing engineering masterpiece, and exceptional enough that it has been declared a world heritage site - and the only engineering site on the list, worldwide. Designed by an apprentice of Eiffel, it was built in the early 1890's as a solution to providing traffic across the mouth of the river while still providing clearance for the tall masted ships still sailing the seas then. It's solution is a gondola suspended by cables from the bridge structure far above. It is wonderful to watch the gondola shuttle back and forth between banks, appearing to almost soar across the water.

The ride upriver was very enjoyable, and much quieter and relaxing than we had expected. From this direction at least, Bilbao is a surprisingly easy city to cycle into. Once within the city, there is a very well developed network of bicycle paths paralleling the river.

At the hotel, we were pleased to find our suitcases waiting for our arrival. Success!

Net elevation gain: 3,500' today, 110,200' total.

Net elevation gain: 4,800' today, 106,700' total.