We drove to Valencia for part of Calico’s Fall break. It was a nice break, full of sunshine and good food (although I was working).

It got up to 80+ degrees the first few days, and we even went swimming in the Mediterranean. Lindsey rented a bike and rode out to the beach. She did great, and I captured this beautiful shot of her waving hello at me 🤣.  Calico and I had a blast playing in the waves (he did great as his swimming skills are growing). Followed by some AMAZING Mexican food.

And finally, some shots of the Via Verde route that leads past the Zoo and out to the countryside. Last year’s flood utterly destroyed it, and the path is just gone. It is sad, as this was one of my favorite bike routes, and I hope they can improve and rebuild it.

Calico did such an amazing job with his costume this year. It blows me away how much work he put into this one. He wore it to his school costume day, went trick-or-treating, and visited a friend’s house to play on Halloween.

We had a fair number of trick-or-treaters (and saw many kids out). It is cool to see this holiday grow in France.

We had a great visit with my dad in Bordeaux. He did a super chill pacing, which worked out really well over a month. I am so glad he has found a newfound love for the French after a few bad experiences historically :).

We had a lot of fun afternoon-to-evening game nights and dinners. I took him to the sub pens and a few bike/walking rambles, and we all went to a nearby beach (with great ice cream). Lindsey took him all over as well! Plus, he and I did our biking trip to Puglia (need another one!).

One day, I hope he can see Valencia and Spain, as I think he would really like it, and he hasn’t seen it since the 1970s.

The picture with Calico and him cracks me up, they were having a discussion about something :)

Totals?

• 389km
• 19.5 hours of riding
• 2,838m of altitude gain
• 7 days of riding (no rest)
• Average km/h of 20

Fun ride, but some wild weather :).

And unfortunately, both my dad and I got a cold. My dad’s cold faded toward the middle of the ride and was relatively mild. I got struck the night before our last riding day. And that made my last few days rough because I was not feeling well. That is a bummer, as I really wanted to see more of Lecee, and I will have to go back. It is hard to bike for 3 hours when you feel so bad. And then my flight home was rough as the pressure exploded my sinuses (still recovering).

The food was AMAZING and I love focaccia (among many other things). It was fun to introduce my dad to some different foods :).

Italy is beautiful, and I’d love to come back to Puglia one of these days. We got to see vast swaths of countryside and small cities. I especially want to spend more time in Lecee and Matera to see more of the history and sites. Taranto also looks interesting.

That said, Puglia is one of the poorest areas of Italy, and I think my dad might have enjoyed a ride in Spain or France more. Puglia had a lot of trash on the side of the road, and the community is working to rebuild and showcase its history. I think my dad might have liked some routes in Spain or France that are just stuffed with historical sites.

What would I do differently next time?

• Take my own bike :). My rental bike was really bad. I wasn’t expecting much, but it shouldn’t be rented out. The front hub broke the last day, the chain came off once, when it went over any bump, the derailer would shift gears, and I couldn’t use the top or bottom seven gears because the chain would come off. Given that 70% of the route was super rough, it should have been a mountain bike or a well-built, sturdy touring bike.
• I would plan the route and stops myself. The tour company made some weird choices for stops (tied to some of their hotel choices). The hard part is how to get luggage from hotel A to B if you are not packing all your own stuff (which I understand most tourists wouldn’t be comfortable with).
• Add a rest day, going a straight 7 days is tough. A rest day after 4 days would have been nice for our bodies.

54km / 3 hours  2 min / 243m gain

I am posting this late, as I got sick and am slowly recovering.

Our last riding day was gorgeous, but a bit hard as I caught a cold that my dad had and was feeling super run-down. Then my front hub broke, and the wheel wouldn’t spin easily (so a bit more effort to get to the last hotel). I wish I had been feeling better because I wanted to go swimming, but the weather had prevented it until today. Oh well, next time Italy!

Day 5:

58km / 2 hours  48 min / 369m gain

A beautiful day with very high winds, but luckily pushing us to the side or from behind. We had one 5-minute surprise rain shower that was ice cold; otherwise, it was smooth sailing.

For lunch, we got some stuff from the grocery store as no restaurants were open (end of season). And for dinner, we had some snacks as we didn’t feel like going out. Dad has a bit of a cough and has been fighting a cold.

We stayed the night in a small town up at the top of this area. It was a converted farmhouse, and we both slept well. Breakfast was delicious, featuring a variety of homemade items!

Day 6: 

48km / 2 hours  45 min / 527m gain

We turned North along the Adriatic and started heading directly into the wind. The first couple of hours were not terrible, but the last 40 minutes were an intense wind experience. We cut 8km from the route, as Dad is recovering from a cold, and with the high winds, that made sense.

Lunch was at a fantastic seafood restaurant. Dad had Octopus, I had a seafood risotto, and we split some anchovies.  Dad joined me for gelato later in the day. Dinner was a simple meatball sandwich, as we are both pretty stuffed (or at least I am).

Tomorrow is our last day! I hope to find a place to swim along the way, as it should be nice.

58km / 2 hours  37 min / 229m gain

A beautiful day of sunshine as we make our way down to the coast and around it.

The town we are staying in is gorgeous, and we had some good food for lunch (Dad got an octopus salad). It is very windy, but luckily the wind is moving with us (we shall see how long that lasts).  And we washed our clothes in the laundry mat.

I wandered around town in the late afternoon and ended up at a small fort in the old city. It had some cool art exhibits and spaces to explore. I am hoping my back feels better tomorrow as I did something to tweak it yesterday. It is better today so hopefully its “perfect” tomrrow.

62km / 2 hours  57 min / 245m gain

We started a little earlier so that we might avoid the coming rain. That worked out for us, as a small shower hit about 30 minutes after we arrived, and more is expected. Luckily, our ride was sunny with a bit of wind. We passed numerous olive trees on a mix of rural roads and busier backcountry roads.

We are staying out in a big olive tree grove a few kilometers outside of town, so dinner will be here tonight. Lunch for me was a few focaccia I stuffed in my bag, and for my dad a coffee and a creme croissant.

39km / 1 hour  52 min / 491m gain

Today started cold and overcast, but we eventually hit sunshine. That was a nice change after the frigid and soaked previous day. It was a nice, easy day after a pretty intense one.

Lunch was amazing, I had an Octopus ragu with pasta. Preceded by cheese, bread, honey, fruit, and olive oil. Yum! And later, I had the best pistachio ice cream ever (tied with a spot in France). Lindsey would LOVE this ice cream place.

With my phone in my bag most of the time, I am not taking a ton of pictures of the journey.

70km / 3 hours  29 min / 734m gain

Today was a baptism of fire for my dad :)

The wind was off the charts, and it was cold. With the wind, the wind chill was 35 degrees!!! Wild! We had hoped to avoid the rain, but it hit hard in the second half of the ride. My dad has my rain gear on, so he stayed pretty warm. I got soaked and was almost to the point where I needed to put on my waterproof socks and another jacket (almost).

It was one of the wettest, windiest, coldest rides I’ve ever done. I’d put it in my top 10 with those 3. Dad did great, and tomorrow is going to be much nicer. Today was also the longest ride of our trip.

Lunch was quick, as we thought we could get to our hotel before the rain hit. I managed to get my dad to eat a sandwich standing up :) And I had this excellent fish focaccia. We had also stopped for some tea and a coffee just to warm up a bit.

We had a bit of a mess up with the bags, as someone didn’t pick them up. But it got fixed and only took an hour or two. Hopefully things smooth out after this with logistics.

Dinner was at an amazing local pasta place where they make all their own pasta (watched them make it).  I really wanted a gelato, but with the rain and wind, I gave up quickly.

Not many pictures today with the rain :)

We found some shelter behind the bus shelter, as the wind was blowing so hard the actual shelter part didn’t help, only the back wall.

I love it! He wanted to wear a tux :)

He took this selfie on Lindsey’s phone without telling us. But he did come up before he left for school to show me, and do a little dance. I sure do love him, what a character :).

My dad and I are in Puglia, Italy, for a 7-day bike tour! He is on an e-bike, and I’ve got a basic touring bike (the kind of bike that is 10 days away from being sold to the flue factor :)…).

The weather has been a bit wild for the first few days (should warm up after that and see some sun soon, I hope).

We flew from Bordeaux and arrived late at night. We took a taxi into Bari and slept. The next morning, we went back to the airport and took a bus to Matera. Southern Italy is a bit like the Middle East with its high efficiency, dedication to clear and complete signage, and competency at every turn. It was “very easy” to find the bus, and the tourism official was “incredibly helpful and not rude in the least.” All joking aside, it is a beautiful place, with mouth-watering food, and 99.9% of the people we encountered are lovely.

Matera is stunning! One of the three oldest constantly inhabited towns in the world (per Wikipedia). On our first day, we had a tasting menu, which was a fun experience; neither of us ate dinner. We rambled around a bit, but with the weather, we didn’t do as much as we would have liked. I did manage a big hike to the opposing mountain, down to the river, and then back up into the city.

I love focaccia and pizza, I am in heaven.

I finished my trip in Nimes, France, and what a fantastic city!

It had a population of 50,000 to 60,000 during the Roman Empire and is an amazing place to visit. The weather was glorious, and they were about to start their city’s version of Oktoberfest, so it was very festive.

I am a bit bummed that the Gladiator arena was closed both days I was here, but that gives me a good reason to go back.

I was able to visit the Maison Carrée, one of the best-preserved Roman temples, and the ruins of the Temple of Diana (although the identity of its patron is unknown, it sounds like). And the Roman / Celtic tower at the top of the hill. Imagining this place back then was incredible and the Roman museum was one of the best I’ve ever visited.

Totals?

• 1,269km
• ~72 hours of riding
• 16,456m of altitude gain
• 18 days of riding (4 rest days)
• Average km/h of 17.7
• Average daily ride distance was 71km
• Average daily ride length was 4 hours (11 days over 4 hours). The longest was 5 hours and 12 minutes.
• 12 days with rides over 700m in elevation gain, and 5 with over 1,500m.

This tour differed from the others in that I made it a bigger physical challenge. Not only did I plan to ride for longer, but the route had a ton of altitude.

Why did I try this change?

I really need significant physical challenges, as my body gets bored and I miss the physical/mental challenge of it. With health concerns, I have to be careful how much I push, though. I am still so happy that I found this type of biking, as when I first got hit with health challenges, it sounded like I wouldn’t be able to do any endurance athletics. I can’t push as hard as I would like to, but this is good.

And the good news is my body feels good. It was a hard challenge, and I think I could have moved up to 80km to 100km a day this week and felt great (and I’ll need to hit further for a Silk Road ride I want to do down the road a bit with a group). I was also in excellent shape to take this on, as I spent July in the Black Forest biking.

Anyway, it was a good trip, and incredible to see some parts of Europe I haven’t seen :).

Notes to self:

• Rain is fun, but rain every day sucks. I forget how demoralizing that can be. I do like sunny dry routes :).
• I’m considering a route next year along the Via Domitia.
• The one change I would make is up in the mountains, I would have taken a second rest day on those stops to let my legs fully recharge. And from past notes, that is something I’ve thought about doing after week #1 as I need it.
• Next time, I think I want to do something more history-focused, where I make sure I hit spots on the right days.
• Switzerland is too expensive; I’ll never go there again.
• I didn’t need my long pants. But if I had gotten stuck outside one night, I would have. The houses on this ride are better made than the ones I stayed in during my trip to Spain last May (where I did need them).
• I’d love to bring better shoes for hiking. I couldn’t do some big hikes in Switzerland as these shoes can do that.
• I was so happy to have my waterproof gloves and socks. Always bring them.
• I need a better sweatband hat. I love it, but it doesn’t fit me. I might go back to my running visor, but it’s too long and cricks my neck on long rides. Maybe I can cut this new hat up to make it fit my enormous noggin. Or glue the hat to my helmet.
• I might need to bring a sweatband + hat.
• I need to learn how to prevent my glasses from fogging up on cold days. It doesn’t happen often, but when I am really pedaling uphill and my body is a sauna, they would fog up a little.
• I didn’t need my 3rd water bottle 80% of the time. I should bring a collapsible 1L to 1.4L water bladder for those long days.
• Food planning is more complex on gravel. You usually don’t go through towns as often, and you frequently find yourself in small towns with no grocery options. I had a lot of dinners with just nuts and bread. I need to think on that.

71km / 4 hours  21 min / 543m gain

It felt good to feel rested. I could power up hills again!

Today was very wild. The path was covered in super chunky gravel, and I spent the first 40km just watching it intensely as it was rough. I also ended up on some streambed and hiking trails, with a fair bit of bike hiking. Good times!

I stopped midday at Pont du Gard, which is one of the best-preserved Roman aqueduct bridges. It was AMAZING!!!!

• When it ran, it carried 11 million gallons of water a day over 50km to Nimes!!!
• The average gradient was 1cm every 600 feet.
• One of the most visited sites in France (which surprised me, but it was very cool to see all the people there).
• The estimate is that it took 15 years to build the entire aqueduct and 800 to 1,000 workers (I don’t know how accurate this is).

This thing is 2,000 years old. Mind-blowing!