Toulose to Lisbon, Initial Thoughts and an Overview

Hello everyone!

This year we are looking forward to traveling back to Europe for a ride that starts in Toulouse in late August. As much as we have enjoyed cycling in Canada and in the northwestern US in recent years, we really enjoy riding in Europe.  We enjoy the people we meet along the way, in coffee shops, camp grounds, pensiones and where ever we might be.  The roads tend to be easier to ride, with more bike paths and, in our experience at least, drivers that are more accustomed to seeing riders on the road than they are in the US and Canada.  We get lost every day and meet a lot of people when we're lost; we just stop by the side of the road and open a (paper) map.  Inevitably, a car stops and helps us out.  And we really enjoy the history, the old cities and villages, the food and wine and beer and the slower pace.

Our ride starts in Toulouse.  After assembling the bike we'll head southwest into the Pyrenees for a few days in the mountains, riding over the Col du Tourmalet, Col d'Aubisque, Col du Soulor and Col du Portalet. It'll take a few days to get over these hills and to make them a bit easier (and slower going up, as if we aren’t slow enough already), I've re-geared the bike.  Lorie worries about getting over the cols but she's our main engine and we'll be fine.

Once we make it through the Pyrenees and over the Col du Portalet we ride into Spain and head west through Pamplona, turning north to San Sebastian and Bilbao. Exploring the Basque country will be an adventure because neither of us of have been there.  Hilly for sure.  But beautiful and great food and beaches (we hear).  And Donastia (San Sebastian) and Bilbao ought to be great!

We continue west and will stop for a few days in Cangas de Onis in the Asturias region to watch a few stages of the Vuelta a Espana. After our break to watch the bike race we continue westward toward the Atlantic coast where we turn left and ride south along the coast and into Portugal. We'll detour up the Douro River for a few days (on a ferry), then ride south again to Lisbon.  It is important to make time for port!

We plan on camping as often as possible.  When we cannot camp we'll stay in pensiones, AirBnBs, hostels, under bridges.  Whatever we find.  That's part of the fun. We've been at this for many years and we've always figured it out.

Before we head home we fly (or train or drive, we’re not sure yet) from Lisbon to Alicante on Spain’s Mediterranean coast to visit friends for a few days. Then it is back home.

We hope that you enjoy our stories from this year’s ride! There are so many great things to see along the way and we are looking forward to seeing and meeting them. We will post daily blogs as often as we have access to Wi-Fi.

We had some worry that road on the Col d'Aubisque might be closed because some of the road washed out in late June:

Ooops...."The access road to Gourette has collapsed.,,"

But since this road was part of the last mountain day of the Tour de France there must have been a fair amount of pressure to get the road work done.  Happily, it has been repaired!

Each day's post will include a map showing the day's travels.  Play around with the map if you're inclined.  You can select sections of the vertical profile (at the bottom of the map) to drill into that section and see what Lorie pushed us up, or which I navigated down.  Have fun with it, as we will with posting photos when we can.

Enjoy the ride.

Doug and Lorie
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