Madrid Bound

May 7, 2024

Here we are in Madrid, after a long day of travel yesterday. I’ll combine two days into one as we were absolutely knackered when we arrived yesterday and I fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow at 9:30pm. Let’s start at the beginning, though.

An Idea is Hatched

I often get asked how I come up with the ideas to do the things I do. I think it comes down to constantly observing and taking note of things in everyday life. These become the seeds that hatch from time to time. In this case, the idea to explore southern Spain came from friends who have explored Andalusia by bike and raved about it. Because of that, it’s been on our minds for several years as a must-try. In fact, it was a Spanish dinner party hosted by our friends, Charlie and Marie, following their bike trip to Andalucia that remains forever etched in our memories. They plied us with course after course of dishes they had experienced on their tour and re-counted their trip to us in great detail. And, of course, we have followed our fellow Cycleblaze family members as they have ridden through southern Spain. It left us wanting to see and enjoy southern Spain first-hand.

Then, in November last year, British Airways posted some amazing, rarely-seen, prices from YVR to MAD and it. I snapped them up and the planning was underway. Honestly, I had no sense of the lay of the land nor where anything was in the south of Spain so I began by trying to answer the question: how far could we venture on two wheels in five weeks? I opened up the Ride with GPS app and started with a quick ‘here-to-there’ route that went from west to east, the predominant wind direction in this area and came up with Jerez de la Frontera to Valencia as a good possibility. So that was the starting point and after months of researching and playing with various mapping apps, I fleshed out a fairly detailed 1200+ km route. Trains will help fill in the gaps between the start and finish of the cycling portion.

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Of course, it remains to be seen how viable this will be when local conditions and weather are factored in. After all, how can I predict what it will be like from my living room, 8000km away? We will remain flexible and deal with it situations if and when they arise.

The Lead Up

There is always plenty to keep us busy in the lead up to a trip like this, aside from the actual itinerary. As always, it starts in January with diet and exercise, so that we are ready to sit on the saddle for 5 hours at gobbling up whatever terrain emerges along the way. We enjoy hill riding so we strive to minimize the weight we carry and that goes for the weight on our own frames too. Of course, we have to make room for all that food we will be eating so there’s that motivation too. So, diet and exercise become the main driving factors for our everyday routine for the next four months. Exercise in the form of indoor and outdoor riding, gradually increasing the distance each week, then fitness or yoga three times a week, and dog walking daily. Diet, in the form good quality calories only.

The view from Cordova Ridge before we plunge back down to the Lochside Trail, with Mt. baker in the distance.

Aside from the ups and downs of everyday living, I have a garden to raise from its winter stupor, seeds to sprout and plants to plant by the beginning of May. Thank goodness for the iPad calendar as I couldn’t possibly fit it all in without it.

Carrots and cilantro were well on their way when we departed.

Transportation

Our flight from YVR to London Heathrow was scheduled to depart Monday at 8:55 pm so we had plenty of time to get to the airport via the BC Ferry. Our good friends, the Classens, kindly offered to drive us out to the ferry so we gladly took them up on it. Monday is a quiet day for travel and it so happens that Monday is Senior’s day on the BC Ferries, so we travelled for free. The trip is quite beautiful as ferries go and today, we were treated to a whale show as we passed Pender Island. That’s a good omen any time you come across it.

There’s no denying the BCFerry trip to Tsawwassen is very scenic.

We ubered to YVR from the Tsawwassen terminal in a Tesla, a first for both of us. I’m not a car lover (nor a fan of Elon), but this ride gets top marks. Such a smooth and quiet drive and what a sleek interior design! We arrived with lots of time before the flight so we lounged in the YVR international lounge for a couple of hours, chatting with other travellers to pass the time. Our BA flight left on time at 8:55 pm and it wasn’t long before we were at 37,000 feet, chasing the fiery purple orange sunrise all the way across the polar route.

We haven't been to Heathrow in many years so didn’t know whether 2hrs would be enough to change planes. To make a long story short, it was adequate. However, we got to see all three buildings of sprawling Terminal 5 in that time. We had landed at 5B and after a 30 minute wait they told us it would leave from 5A, delayed by 20 minutes. But that’s not what happened. As we arrived at the 5A gate they split out the 3:55pm Madrid flight listing into two different planes with different codeshare groupings, leaving us to discover after chatting with another traveller, that our plane would leave from 5C, the furthest away from 5A. It was a shell game, with 70 passengers scurrying this way and that. Sheesh, guys! Atleast the security check was painless and they gave us a brand new aircraft, this being its second day in the fleet.

From there, it was smooth sailing. The flight to Madrid was 1h50min, with a good view of Madrid as we approached. Our bikes arrived quickly and we were in a taxi on our way to our hotel in no time. We could have taken a bus, the metro, the train, or any number of ride-share cars but the taxi was worth every last euro as we were both nodding off at this point and in no shape to lug our 50lb suitcases anywhere. We checked in to the hotel and had our heads on the pillow by 9:30.

Welcome to Madrid

We both woke up at 8:00, having slept all but a few minutes in the middle of the night. That’s a good 10 1/2 hrs of sleep, the best we have ever managed after a flight to Europe! Maybe the late departure from YVR is a good thing? We will know in a couple of days from now.

The first order of the day was a coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice, then a short walk to the Plaza del Sol.

Street art. En route to the Plaza del Sol.

Here was where our pre-booked Food Tour was to begin at 10:15. We met our guide, David, and the other eight members of the tour and learned that the tour would have twelve stops and we’d be finished in about four hours. We were all pumped to get moving and so began the food crawl.

I will let the photos tell the story here after a brief overview of what we ate and drank.

Here’s the list: churros and hot chocolate, a freshly baked sourdough bun stuffed with Spanish chorizo sausage, olive tasting with six types of olives, anchovy and potato chips, serrano and Iberico ham, Spanish EV olive oil with bread, croquettes and beer, wine and cheese tasting with six cheeses and two wines, octopus sandwich, cake and coffee.

For comparison, at home I would have had a bowl of porridge with yogurt, half an orange and half a banana, coffee, a leftover and an apple.it sounds sounds like we are a lot of food on the tour, but it was well-spaced out with walking and taking in the charms of Madrid. It was a great introduction to the city and the typical foods of Madrid.

Churros… not as greasy or sweet as I imagined. It was yummy dipped in chocolate.

Churros come with a generous serving of dark chocolate.

A tiny bakery, eeking out an existence in a city where bread baking was decimated by big grocery supermarkets in the 80’s.

Many of our stops were at places that have been in business for over 100 years, with colourful histories.

These street plaques indicate the business has operated for over 100 years.

Anchovies in brine, not salted. Much nicer than the super salty oil packed variety.

The more varieties of olives I taste, the more I like them.

This octopus sandwich place is very popular. We didn’t wait in line, our order was waiting for us.

David, passionately explaining the ham selection.

Those hams are very special, particularly the ones with the black hooves. Those belong to the Iberico pigs that are fed acorns.

After the tour, we said hasta luego to everyone and headed back to the hotel for a cat nap.

I had snapped up a booking for dinner at Fismuler restaurant after hearing a couple in the food tour rave about their meal last night, so after our rest we headed out for a stroll to the Royal Palace, then on to the restaurant for our 8pm reservation.

A literary monument to Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, in Plaza d’Espagna. It was commissioned in 1916 on the 300th anniversary of the publication of part 2 of the novel.

The meal was sublime, one of those places where the chefs just know how to combine flavours, textures, and colours while we, the diners, ask ourselves how the heck they did that.

Fismuler has seating at group and individual tables. We sat with another foodie at a group table and enjoyed comparing notes on what we had ordered.

We were grinning ear to ear after it was all said and done, as we enjoyed a stroll back to our hotel. Madrid, I think I love you!

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Steve Miller/GrampiesWe are jealous of you being in Spain. We are just back from our three month journey through Spain, Portugal and France and are already plotting a return. Looking forward to following your adventures.
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6 months ago

Scott AndersonSo you’re really going to do it! Can’t wait to follow along and compare experiences.
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6 months ago

Patrick O'HaraWow. Now you're on tour, too! Looking forward to following along. Another journal to add to my bedtime reading!
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6 months ago

Debbie BriggsLooking forward to your next adventure have fun .sitting in the garden already 13 degrees 7.30am 👍
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6 months ago

Patty BarronWhat an awesome start to your newest cycle expeditions! You are well on your way to another fantastic adventure! Cycle well, ride safe & enjoy those downhill thrills! ( I am looking at you Anne! ) 🤗, P&T
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6 months ago

Barbara HarrisonA smooth start to your trip! We are looking forward to travelling along with you.
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6 months ago

Janice BranhamThank you taking us back to Madrid with you. I look forward to following your story once I come up for air on the my journal backlog.
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6 months ago