Jon

The ~1.5km section from the zoological gardens to the peak is steep... If it's hot, I'd recommend taking the tram (in both directions).

The first half and last quarter are mostly off-road (reasonable surfaces... completed on a touring bike in March). Some busier roads in the third quarter of the route, as I ran out of time and had to make a short cut.



Great little cafe outside Kent House station, and Merton Abbey Mills is a nice stop

The Basque country broke us, so we took the train to as close to the port as possible!



The bikes were secured in a designated area on the car deck.



The ferry journey Bilbao-Portsmouth was long but we actually enjoyed it... there's airline-style films on demand in the room, the beds were pretty comfortable

Our original plan was to complete our journey to Bilbao, but our host at Aristieta suggested to head to Bermeo to relax a bit. We didn't need much convincing.



The route wasn't "nearly flat" and the road was busy (although there were long sections on a segregated cycle lane). The little town was worth

Wow, what a day this was! Incredible scenery along basically the whole route.



But oh how you pay for it! We just don't have hills like this where we live.



Note we found nowhere to get food or water between approximately Mutriku and Aulesti.



I planned our original route to avoid the larger roads as I knew

First full day in the Basque country. Plenty of hills. Generally on the roads, and slightly busier than France (although still pretty quiet).



Eat at the grill in Orio, and drink plenty of cider.

Rained hard without stopping all day... The route felt as if it would have been superb in better weather.



Both boat crossings were good fun (although there was absolutely zero help given with loading the bikes on board).



Would recommend taking the main road out of Hondarribia to the Jaizkabel climb (it

Fantastic route along the coast.



Touristy so plenty of places to get refreshments. In early September it wasn't at all busy however - lovely!



The ups-and-downs of Biarritz were a bit of a shock after the previous days!

Today's route could be split into thirds... Leaving Hostens, the first third is largely what appears to be a tree farm. It was just after 'harvest' and possibly a controlled burn when we passed, and looked quite eerie!



Then, the area between approimately Le Muret and Ychoux is flat boring farmland. This

Bit of rain today so didn't take too many photos of the route, but it was largely on dedicated cycle paths.



We came across several teams of people cutting back the summer growth to ensure the path was clear. Being from the UK, this was very unexpected!



Note the road section between Castre-Gironde and