This has been a really fantastic bike ride. It has had tremendous variety from the rocky and historic beaches of Normandy, the lovely Nantes Brest canal of Britany, the grapes of the Medoc, the sandy beaches and camping grounds of the Vende , the endless pine forests of the Landes, the steep hills of Northern Spain, the plains of the Meseta, the hills of Galacia and Northern Portugal then the beaches south of Porto. Although we have only ridden in three countries this year we have found very many cultural differences. It has been the hardest ride we have done and this wasn’t helped by the fact that at the start of the trip I certainly was not fit enough. Parts of course were easy and flat or gently undulating. Instead of following river valleys this year we were going across the grain of the country and the constant up and down we found more difficult than crossing the Alps as we have done on previous trips.

Putting bikes together at Gatwick Airport is very easy. There is plenty of space to do it in the baggage claim area and the staff are happy for you to do it and then remove your used bike boxes etc, there is very easy access from terminal A to the bike trck that goes under the airport either to London or south towards Brighton. As we have found with most Sustrans bike routes these are generally poorly signed.

We always find France a great place to ride in. This is helped by the fact that we both speak some French. The drivers are extremely aware of cyclists and the people very helpful and charming. In Normandy we rode mainly on small roads using Michelin maps to navigate with, we really had no problems with navigation at all. I was surprised by the hills along the Normandy Coast . This was probably largely due to the fact I was not fit enough. Once in Brittany as well as our Michelin Maps we had a great guide book 'La Bretagne a Velo Tomme 1' ISBN 978-2-7373-5062-7. Much of the riding was on Voie Verts , usually Rail Trails and this took us all the way to where we met the Velodysee which we would largely follow to the Spanish border. The books we used were 'La Veloroute Atlantic de Roscoff a Nantes' ISBN 978-2-9541994-0-5 and 'De la Loire a la Gironde a Velo' ISBN 978-2-7373-5639-1 . The Velodysee is a route rather than one cycle track. What it has done is to link up a number of existing cycle tracks eg the Nantes Brest Canal, part of the Loire a Velo, the Veloocean, the Vedee a Velo etc. There are two problems with it. The first is that some of the links are not yet finished (the most noticeable being the part before la Rochelle going South, said to be being completed in September 2013) . The second is that some of these started as convenient day trips for campers, they tend to wander along rather than taking a direct route and this can be frustrating if you are on a long distance tour – but there are always suitable D roads that you can use. Riding in this area in mid summer as we did is a bit of a problem for accommodation if you don’t intend camping. There are lots and lots of camp grounds and these are good. We prefer not to camp and finding other accommodation can be a problem (we had to camp 3 times) and at this time of the year accommodation apart from camping is fairly expensive. The food of course is delicious and we really enjoyed the Cidre in Normandy and Brittany. Internet access always available and always free but often pretty slow.

When reading this you need to remember that across Spain we were riding on pilgrim routes going to Santiago. We started at Irun and had Michelin maps and a Northern Pilgrim Route Guide Book (designed for walkers). Although the road to San Sabastian was spectacular and we loved it we realized that it was going to be hard for me and that we would have to do very short days and probably run out of time. Subsequently we have found we had done the worst day so maybe it would have been OK. Getting a train with bikes to Burgos was easy – only some trains take bikes and then a limited number so we booked the day before. Think from what I heard that bikes on trains is not a major problem in Spain. From Burgos we rode the Camino Francais. There is a road route for cyclists, often parallel to the walking route, it is marked but not in the way that walking one is. Having previously walked this I have very strong feelings that cyclists should if possible keep off the walking route as this is fairly crowded and it is very frustrating and annoying for walkers to have bikes coming past. Also it is often very rough so would be very hard on loaded bikes, we met cyclists on lightly loaded bikes who had been riding the walking route – they were looking for a bike shop to fix broken spokes. We had a wonderful book that gave us the cycling route 'El Camino de Santiago en Bici' ISBN 978-84-8216-390-1 (it was in Spanish) We also had the Michelin ‘Camino de Santiago’ it is number160 the ISBN is978-2-06-714805-5 (we found these two in a bookshop in San Sebastian. Using the two together worked perfectly. Accommodation was very cheap we stayed mainly in Hostals or Hotels rather than Pilgrim Albergues and they were unfailing very good and rarely cost over 35E for two. Three course pilgrim meals with wine are very substantial and cost between 8E and 12E. Roads are fantastic, often with very little traffic and all had great hard shoulders. As you approach Galacia things get hilly and continue like that all the way. This didn’t particularly bother us as we were not in the position of having to cover big distances. The sociability along the route is fantastic and we really enjoyed the people we met. Internet access is always available and generally a bit faster than in France.

We really like Portugal but it is not a particularly easy country to tour in. We had intended following the Portuguese Camino backwards from Santiago to Lisbon. We had Michelin Maps of North and Central Portugal and John Brieleys ‘Camino Portugues’. The maps of Portugal are frustratingly inaccurate with many roads omitted and fictitious ones put in, they have few place names. With these and John Brieley’s book we got fairly easily to Porto (apart from the last nightmare few kilometers). Northern Portugal has lots of hills. From there we deserted the Camino Portugues and took to the coast. This is a fantastic ride although it does have its moments. To navigate we used our maps (mainly to find place names) in conjunction with a Garmin etrex Vista GPS loaded with European Maps. This worked very well and the GPS has redeemed itself from the previous grief it has given us. Roads are not as good as the ones we encountered in Spain and with largish roads you can’t be sure they will have a hard shoulders. We also didn’t feel as confident of the drivers. In parts there are amazing cycle paths but these usually have no signage. Actually we found road signage in general poor in Portugal. Portugal is a country of amazing contrasts from very traditional activity in smaller towns and rural areas to the sophistication of the Oriente area of Lisbon. It is obviously still suffering from its economic problems and it is in the small rural towns that this is so obvious. Prices there are embarrassingly low. We found without exception people eager to help these strange cyclists with no Portuguese language. Portugal had the best and fastest internet we encountered. Train travel in Portugal is very very easy on Suburban and Regional Trains – you just have to roll on your fully loaded bikes onto the clearly labeled carriages and the conductors are helpful and pleasant. Apparently on long distance trains things are more difficult and you have to pack up your bike. We are very glad we chose to ride in Portugal.

Virtually all our maps and guide books have been sourced online either from the Stanfords Web site (London) or from a French web site Cartovelo.