I promise not a rendition of a Beatles Abbey Road melody here, but more an old adage of flying verses sailing, in which sailing wins hands down-as cyclists know the weight of stress and the hassle airports put a cyclist under.

I did have a look on-line, but can the figures be right, a eleven-hundred Euros one-way on British Airways, their cheapest economy class. And KLM's equivalent lowest price is six-hundred and forty-eight. Outrageous prices. It is a lot more than what I've spent in the last two and a half months. Yes, their are low price carriers around but they fly from some godforsaken package-tour destination, so I didn't look any more for now.

Friday morning came in which I had intended taking the train to Madrid while I considered the alternatives. But it being such good weather and there being no hurry back yet, I resolved to cycle instead, so left Granada cycling north on the busy highway toward Cordoba, intent on reaching Madrid by the middle of the following week, and told a French cycling couple I met around noon (the same couple whom I met on the first day in Spain) as much: yes I'm cycling to Madrid..., I told them.

During the afternoon however while stopped resting and pondering the map, I came to the view that if I cycled into Madrid, I may just regret having gone home so soon and not having seen a little more of Spain. I made a decision therefore to cycle to the port-city Santander where I would take the ferry to English Channel port-city, Plymouth.

No more searching on-line then, and stressing over getting to an airport at the appointed two-hour before take-off time not to mention getting a bike-box to pack it up in beforehand. No! I just turn up, buy a ticket of a human across a desk and ride onto the ferry ready to ride-off the other side. Yes, given savings can be made by On-line booking of ferry tickets too, but that means stress, stress in getting to the port by that sailing date and on time.

So I set my sights on Santander and the ferry, calculating it would take roughly a eleven days to cycle there which I'll write a little on in the concluding page of this journal.