Francis

This was the last of in total 84 days biking spread over three years, a first year, 2022 from the Belgian Coast to La Rochelle, a second year, 2024 to reprise Normandy and Brittany in more detail, covering some gaps left in the first year, and a final year, this one, from La Rochelle to Santiago de Compostela. Where the total 84 days took some 5400 km to cover, this final year kept us busy for 23 days on the bike and 1700 km. The day itself started with a ride through A Coruña, along the sea front towards the Tower of Hercules, the lighthouse that dominates the entrance to the gulf of A Coruña and stands on the most forward peninsula of the town.. Riding back through the city proved easier than the night before. My dear Komoot found all the bike tracks and also clearly told me where they would merge or split from each other and how to negociate them. The ride through town became almost fun, this way. Galician countryside is green, mostly riding through loaf tree woods, lush and green, and hilly. To go from the coastal area to the plateau on which Compostella sits, a rather steep ascent a 7.5 km average 5% climb, with sections up to 15% and one stretch with 25% (no kidding) provided an opportunity to enjoy a last bit of serious climbing on this overall rather hilly journey. Then came the long descent into Santiago, very much like entering any other city, and this magical moment of entering the Plaza Obradoiro, paved with stones that have seen millions of pilgrims from all over Europe pass here for now over 1000 years, with the impressive cathedral and its two baroque towers overlooking the hundreds of people getting together in the square, arriving from their camino’s, and doing tourist things - taking selfies, taking pictures of each other, getting their sketchbook out and immortalize the thoughts or the view, or just sit on the pavement and all take it in. For people loving Spain or wanting to know more about it, this is a good moment to add in an advertisement -unpaid, only because of enthusiasm : go read Cees Nooteboom’s book Omweg naar Santiago. Or better, take it as your companion when you roadtrip this country. And if you do not fancy biking all the way back, or, why not, onward, call Mail Boxes Etc MBE at This was the last of in total 84 days biking spread over three years, a first year, 2022 from the Belgian Coast to La Rochelle, a second year, 2024 to reprise Normandy and Brittany in more detail, covering some gaps left in the first year, and a final year, this one, from La Rochelle to Santiago de Compostela. Where the total 84 days took some 5400 km to cover, this final year kept us busy for 23 days on the bike and 1700 km. The day itself started with a ride through A Coruña, along the sea front towards the Tower of Hercules, the lighthouse that dominates the entrance to the gulf of A Coruña and stands on the most forward peninsula of the town.. Riding back through the city proved easier than the night before. My dear Komoot found all the bike tracks and also clearly told me where they would merge or split from each other and how to negociate them. The ride through town became almost fun, this way. Galician countryside is green, mostly riding through loaf tree woods, lush and green, and hilly. To go from the coastal area to the plateau on which Compostella sits, a rather steep ascent a 7.5 km average 5% climb, with sections up to 15% and one stretch with 25% (no kidding) provided an opportunity to enjoy a last bit of serious climbing on this overall rather hilly journey. Then came the long descent into Santiago, very much like entering any other city, and this magical moment of entering the Plaza Obradoiro, paved with stones that have seen millions of pilgrims from all over Europe pass here for now over 1000 years, with the impressive cathedral and its two baroque towers overlooking the hundreds of people getting together in the square, arriving from their camino’s, and doing tourist things - taking selfies, taking pictures of each other, getting their sketchbook out and immortalize the thoughts or the view, or just sit on the pavement and all take it in. For people loving Spain or wanting to know more about it, this is a good moment to add in an advertisement -unpaid, only because of enthusiasm : go read Cees Nooteboom’s book Omweg naar Santiago. Or better, take it as your companion when you roadtrip this country.

The trip started the Galician way, good roads, not too busy, courteous Spanish drivers, up and down, left and right, generally over secondary roads with good driving, sometimes smaller asphalted tracks. Also today a cloud deck took half a day to get burned by the sun, with a sombre first half of the ride and bright sunshine the second half. The first meaningful point of the trip was Ferrol, harbor, to be remembered for its murals and large cranes around the harbor. Around Ferrol, also many signs of times changing. Abandoned factories, abandoned businesses, abandoned houses. Once someone’s dream, now perhaps someone’s nightmare. Jewels turning into ruins, villages of ruins. Contrasting with cities with large colorful apartment blocks. Then Komoot’s trip planner started to become over enthusiastic about avoiding secondary roads, which were otherwise perfectly fine to ride on. First it sent me straight up a village, like up a wall, with at times my front wheel detaching from the road, that steep, with as sole purpose draining the battery, then down steep descents where at times it felt like disk brakes would bend, and then over bric and brac tracks full of potholes, gravel, sand and pebbles. Some people programming these track apps should at some point start to understand the difference between walking shoes and a pilgrim staff, and a fully loaded tour bike. Especially the approach to A Coruña proved difficult to handle, with at times overgrown donkey tracks and at times mowed grass fields as suggested track. So I started to rely more on traffic indicators than on routing app, which tells the story. With roads busier and busier the closer getting to metropole A Coruña , the whole affair became more and more tedious.. And when getting into A Coruña center, all the traffic lights that I had not seen in all of Northern Spain appeared to have been planted here. Navigating between busses, cars, pedestrians crossing, complex crossroads, separate bike lanes starting suddenly and ending equally suddenly and high curbstones made it all a lesser experience.

The trip started under a thick low hanging cloud, obscuring both the sun and the hilltops around, that gave way to the usual blue skies and sun later in the afternoon. The road continued along the Galician coast, good roads, mostly along secundary roads but with not too much traffic and ever careful Spanish drivers, usually giving more space than one would experience elsewhere. And at times diverting from that road over small asphalted local streets. Galicia was not at the front row when flat got distributed. It is all up and down. The famous most pretty bench in the world was indeed pretty - overlooking the wide open ocean, the cliffs and capes all around, and right at the edge of the rim. A key decision to be made was in A Ponte de Mera, where I could have taken the road straight to Cedeira, cutting off the Cabo Ortegal peninsula, and getting to destination in 17 km, and 1 hr driving, or driving all up to the Cabo and then at the other side down to Cedeira, a 45 km thing, with 3 hours to go, and with one steep 10 km climb to 600 m altitude, a sort of cat 2 climb in Tour de France lingua. So all those who follow these steps will have the same choice - short and easy or adventurous. I did adventurous and was rewarded by one of the most spectacular views of the entire trip, the Cabo Ortiga with its lighthouse and line up of semi eroded rocks and cliffs trying to extend land into the sea. And thereafter by a climb providing great vistas over the bay of Ortigueira and at the top a long ride through a low hanging cloud, between free roaming cows, with nothing but purple blossoming scrub as companion. And then a 10 km descent into destination of the day, Cedeira.

With Ribadeo behind us, we are now firmly in Galicia, after having crossed Asturias.. The day started under a very hazy sun, and temperatures that were cooler than what one would expect in this time of the year. Most likely the ongoing effects of the bushfires in the north west of Spain, some 150 km salt from here, but still casting it’s shadow forward. The roads were good, generally hugging the coastline, ensuring regularly vistas of pleasant beaches smaller and larger. At other times it would be the cliffs plunging down into the ocean that provided decorum. At one point the road was running along with a small railroad, with fascinating beautiful bridges dating back to times long gone. Destination of the day was Verdeiro and across the bridge sister town Covas. An affair with a medieval gate, an old town with paved small walkways, all pedestrian and houses with balconies, some closed, like verandas, and some the more familiar iron fenced type.. But sll equally inviting to be pictured..

Right after leaving the hotel, the road started climbing and that would be the pattern for most of the day. The terrain was cut through with small rivers, with steep descending of 2-3 km at one side and equally steep ascending. of 2-3 km at the other side. That gave rise to nice sportive bike riding. The climbs were like in the Alps or in the Pyrenees, not like Vuelta climbs, hence good fun to do. The only diversion was when my beloved Komoot wanted me again to go off the main road, which initially looked alright, until it wanted me to cross a grass field and then descent what I can best describe as a cow track, muddy, with stones and steep going down. Quite a pity I was not herding cows I would’ve loved it. With a fully loaded tour bike, the only option was to retract my steps. The first major attraction was harbor and seaside resort town Luarca. It’s harbor looks like a round bassin protected from the effects of the ocean, with fisher boats and tourist craft lined up. Around the harbor, in an amphitheater way, are the colorful houses stacked up against the cliffs, with a wide boardwalk allowing for herds of tourists and locals to stroll from one restaurant to another bar via a couple of tourist shops. To the east of the harbor there is a peninsula that stretches out, with at the end a white church and in front of it a somewhat smaller but equally white lighthouse. Ideal spot to admire the panorama of Luarca. When I got there, on this weekend of August 15, the city was packed with visitors, many dressed in white and red. No way a table could be gotten at any of the restaurants - all occupied and lines of people waiting to get the next available table. Komoot led me onto a steep narrow cobblestoned road to get out of the town. I’d be very surprised if there wouldn’t have been a normal road. Tapa de Casariego was the next seaside town to pass - huge sand beach interlaced with cliffs. From there the route went to Ribadeo, where I had booked accommodation via booking.com - not an easy thing base case on this extended August 15 weekend. Just before noon, while en route, I got a message from the owners that they canceled the booking. I had always been reluctant to book apartments, and preferred hotels, as they are usually more flexible and always have more than one room, unlike apartments. But now I had taken the last available. And it got canceled. I checked booking and other sites again, and apparently in the whole north west of Spain there was nothing available anymore.. Until suddenly one room opened up. 17 km past Ribadeo. So I had secured it and added another 17 km to my already overly ambitious trip plan. This explains the insane 110 km trip for the day. For those that want to follow in my footsteps, I suggest to cover this 110km in two days and try to overnight in Luarca. On the stretch from Ribadeo to the hotel I had an interesting Komoot experience. There were literally three roads running in the same direction and parallel to each other. A nice asphalted secondary road without too much traffic, a smaller asphalted road but with lots of potholes and a broken surface and then next to it a dirt road with plenty of pebbles and also potholes. Komoot selected consistently the dirt road as preference and went to the pothole asphalt road as alternative.. Rather than prioritizing the good alphalt road with nice speeds of 25 km/hr and low use of battery, the slow 15 km/hr rattle and shake and battery eating dirt road is always preferred. There is something devious in this system.

I left Gijon, covered in a thick low hanging cloud deck, but pleasantly warm, around the yacht harbour, thereafter to the old industrial Gjon. Rusted plants, transportation bands for iron ore and coal passing over the road, huge pipelines leading up the hills and cloud covered hills all around. Pretty grim. The air was all grey with light drizzle. Also grim. But probably two grims make one positive.. Some 20 km further, along the coast, the sun finally started to faintly get through the cloud deck. An indication of better to come, while riding along the rugged coast. At Cabo Peñas one can see the dramatic cliff formations that make up the coast.. As well as a lovely white and grey lighthouse.. In Avilés a must see is the Oskar Niemeyer site where the Brazilian architect designed a site with 4 buildings in his iconic style. But the site doesn’t do justice to his work, squeezed between a quasi highway and a harbour industrial site for windmill construction.. Next up was Cudillero, likely the most pretty and photogenic village in Spain.. A must see jewel, comparable with Italy’s Cinque Terre.. Unfortunately no hotels free there, so stayed in one a bit further.. Managed to type the address wrongly so Komoot made me pass in front of the hotel and ride up a 8% 3 km hill to find trees instead of hotels. And then down again.. A matter of adding altitude meters.

The trip started with a ride along the concha of Ribadesella, admiring the long crescent shaped beach at low tide when its yellow sand contrasts with the sea behind, the surfers walking to their daily business, and at the other side the old colonial houses in all their splendid colours. After this the road lead to Asturias countryside. Always hills around. Their heads covered in thick clouds through which the sun could not burn holes. From time to time the road would lead me over small bike tracks through the fields, often over gravel. And at other times along secondary roads that were not not too busy with traffic and thus nice to ride. Komoot really made it optional. You can always see the “yellow“ roads or the one that it selects for you, marked, as always, in blue. Easy to spot when it divert from the yellow road. These diversions are usually up and down left and right, gravel and brick and brack. So after a while I consistently started choosing fast and easy yellow. Maybe we are at the point where destination starts to matter more than route. The last part of the trip were two consecutive climbs from sealevel to some 200 meter, with up there a sort of permanent drizzle and cool 17 degree weather. Time to get the rain jacket out.. Then the descent into Gijon. Dry again, and warmer, and festive. This was the week of the Gijon festa... Music, foodstalls, more music, lots of people out..

The day started at the small village of Pechón, the first village after leaving Cantabria and entering Asturias. Asturias lived up to its reputation because at the end of the day yesterday it started raining, and now although it’s warm, the sky is totally overcast. A little bit Belgian weather. The village is small, it only has 200 or so inhabitants, but it has almost more hotels than inhabitants, all well integrated into the village, no Benidorm like white highrise hotels here. Interesting all these facilities, especially as the hotel barista told me, there is nothing to do here. Just beaches down the hill. It seems that people, especially Spaniards, are more and more coming to the northern coast because although it’s warm here, there is at least a little bit of a breeze to wave the hot hair away Unlike many other coastal areas of Spain. On the way in Colombros passed the monument and museum for emigration, particularly touching in these days. Now, Europe is not about emigration anymore when the poor of Europe left to enrich other countries, but all about immigration. “Los Cubos de la Memoria" is a public art installation created by Basque artist Agustín Ibarrola on the breakwater of the fishing port in Llanes, Asturias, Spain. It consists of concrete blocks painted with colorful images and patterns that interact with the sea and light. The artwork is considered a major work of public art and is known for its vibrant colors and the way the images change with the light and water.  The route continued along not too busy secondary roads, at times veering off to go see a beach tucked in between the cliffs, at times leading one over a steep dirt road where the biketires would loose grip (which I disliked) or past a ruin of a monastry in need of drastic renovation before it can serve as Posada (which I liked) until the destination of the day, a picturesque seaside resort.

Departure was via suburban Santander, wide two lane roads, but not too busy, colourful new apartment blocks, and multi occupant large houses. The people working at the bank need to live somewhere. A separate bike track but with lots of turns and twists when negotiating roundabouts. Not much to see, a bit of a tedious ride. Gradually apartments give way for large surface shops.. The people of the bank need to spend their salaries somewhere.. Only after some 12 km starts green and lush to appear more.. Distant white villages with red roofs occupied the hilltops. The road continuously climbed. or descended,. there is no flat here in this part of the country. Suddenly, Santilana del Mar shows up in front.. Picturesque, like a time capsule to Medieval times, where it not for the many tourists, that attract tourist shops, so it seems. The town is known. for its medieval towers, Renaissance palaces and the Romanesque Santa Juliana Collegiate Church. Nearby is the Cave of Altamira with its prehistoric cave drawings. To the east, Santillana del Mar Zoo has ring-tailed lemurs, snow leopards and tigers. Above San Vincente de la Barquera the hazy contours of the Picos de Europa start to emerge.. If today ‘s ride was hilly, tomorrow’s might be more so. Due to Spain August hotel availability issues the day break was in Pechón, a small but lovely 200 inhabitant village up in the hills next to the coast, on the boarder between Cantabria and Asturias..

The day started with a 2 1/2 km climb some 150 altitude meters, leaving Liendo where I had spent the night. A 6% climb on average to start this Sunday, a bit harsh. From the summit, the road plunged down into Laredo, the first town to be visited on this day. It is from Laredo that Johanna of Castilia embarked for Flanders in 1496 to go marry Philips the Handsome.. Later, their son Charles V returned from Flanders to Laredo to go into retirement in Yuste. A Flemish (he was born in the Prinsenhof in Ghent) retiring in Spain …. he started a trend.. The ferry from Laredo to Santoña proved adventurous. A wooden board way over sand provided access to a beach and then across the beach was a flag planted. indicating that this was the stop place for the ferry. To my surprise effectively a ferry landed on the beach and allowed bikes to be taken on board. My albeit discrete Belgian flag on the bike proved useful, since two fellow travellers realised I was a Belgian too. From Bruges, all the way to Santiago de Compostela, in one trip, staying in hotels overnight as I did. A pleasant encounter. Santoña’s call to fame are its beaches, an ancient Fort reminiscent of Fort Boyard. in France, and most importantly, it is the capital of anchovies. After a stretch through Cantabrian countryside, where people still bring their children in traditional dress to the Sunday folk dance village fest, the route snugged the brutal coastline again, with steep cliffs surrounding lovely crescent shaped beaches.. Another ferry showed up at a spot not expected and sailed the bike across Santander’s huge bay to city center, ready for an afternoon city exploring..