Dream Catcher

We had just returned from our glorious trip to Greece and France and had no intentions of starting to plan a new adventure. And then, on their twice annual float through Vero Beach, our friends Jim and Cristine started asking us about the Backroads bicycling trip we took back in 2018....what did we think, how did we do, and what other areas might we suggest? Pretty soon we said, well, what if we join you on this adventure and there we were discussing a Backroads cycling excursion in the Basque Region of France & Spain the following May. Deposits were sent, forms were completed, and so began the planning for another fabulous European vacation!

According to our master planner (Greg) if we're taking all the time and spending all that money to get there, we really must add other fun things to do. This led to a flight from Miami to Barcelona the first week of May, even though Barcelona was on the other side of the country from the bike route!

Everyone we know who has been to Barcelona loved their visit. We were doubly looking forward to it since we have a friend there whom we had met years ago in Anguilla and hadn't seen for years. While there we walked and walked, we checked out the America's Cup Village as it prepared for the upcoming 2024 races in August, we spent time in the Picasso Museum, La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and shared time with our wonderful friend Sandy and his son, Peter. All of it was so cool. Barcelona is an easy town to get around with many iconic neighborhoods and notable monuments within walking distance from our hotel or from a short taxi ride.

All the above are shots from our walkabout

Nothing like the markets in European cities

America's Cup Village and the docks

This guy was pointing to the West?
Who do you suppose he was?

Our friend Sandy made sure we got great tapas at one of his favorite spots

After a few days in the city, we rented a car and headed north west to join our cycling group in Biarritz, France ~ almost 400 miles away. We drove into the Pyrenees along the north side of this mountain range still capped in snow, then headed west toward the Atlantic. Once we got out of Barcelona the drive was pretty easy with beautiful scenery, well maintained roadways, and we didn't even have to stop at the border to show documents. (People told us that is true for most EU countries.) We'll let the photos tell the story here.

There were many tunnels cut through the mountains

Traffic stopped as cattle ruled!

100 miles short of Biarritz we spent a night in Lourdes, France. It is such a famous destination that we just couldn't be so close and not stop. It was a strange and unique experience. Most Christians know Lourdes as the location that Our Lady of Lourdes appeared in 1858 to a young woman several times. That woman was Bernadette Soubirous.

"Saint Bernadette came from a very poor family in France and was the oldest of nine children. Our Lady appeared to Bernadette, 14 years old at the time, beginning on February 11, 1858. At the Grotto of Massabielle, Bernadette saw “a small lady in white” who asked her to return each day, to receive a series of 18 visions. Her family and townspeople were divided over what was happening: some believed that it was a miraculous vision of the Virgin Mary, while others demanded that Bernadette be institutionalized. She was arrested at one point and interrogated, but Bernadette remained calm and was consistent in her telling of what was happening."

"On February 24th, Saint Bernadette received a message from the Lady: “Penance, penance, penance…” During the following few days, she was commanded to dig at the grotto and then a spring of clear water began to flow. During the next few visions, the Lady told Bernadette to go to the Parish Priest and ask that he build her a Chapel at the Grotto. The Priest in turn commanded Bernadette to ask the Lady her name and also to ask for a sign. Finally, on March 25th, the Lady declared to Saint Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Four years earlier, Pope Pius IX had declared the infallible dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Bernadette’s family, Priest, and friends all later testified that she would never have heard the term before in her life."

This town has become a sad commercial extravaganza wrapped around a religious monument. From what we saw, the church, rather than denouncing the commercialism, was right in the middle of the profit taking. Greg grew up very Catholic and this was too much. Super upsetting.

There were organized groups and tours from all over the world with flags and banners, dressed in their own colors walking to the cathedral.

The town was crowded with every street filled with "souvenir booths" selling holy water and religious artifacts that looked like they were made in China.

Balance this off with a beautiful Basilica....geez!

A house for the bees!

Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

We stayed only one night then completed our drive to the coast where we would begin our Backroads Cycling trip. That day, we arrived in Biarritz and connected with our friends Jim and Cristine. What a beautiful city Biarritz is, right by the sea. We wished we had left ourselves more time to spend there. Here is why - images should grow if you click them.

Our friends Jim, Cristine, Greg and Sharon

We continued our journey by car to the lovely little village of St Jean du Luz, just south of Biarritz and right on the coast. This is where the Backroads gang spent the first night of the trip - so we added one extra night before the trip start, to make things a bit easier for us, and see the town.

We took a 10 minute train ride the following morning (you've gotta' love European rail systems!) to meet up with our group. There were about 20 of us on the ride, hailing from all parts of the US, including Hawaii. We had three guides, all from the Basque region of Spain. Backroads does an amazing job in all parts of their tours. Each leader is highly skilled, knowledgable, kind, and friendly. It's amazing to watch them in action.

We were fitted for our bicycles early on the first day. We met our tour group members, shared a picnic lunch and generally started the adjustment to spending each day on the bicycle seat.

After researching the terrain and learning that this is the most challenging trip in the Backroads cycling portfolio we opted for e-bikes.

Every day, whether climbing the foothills of the Pyrenees or "pedaling downhill" against very strong winds, we remained thrilled that we chose e-bikes for this trip (imagine having to peddle hard to get downhill!). The last trip we took with Backroads charged an additional fee for e-bikes. No longer so. Their e-bikes are custom made for them by a company in the Netherlands. They are very high quality bicycles. To operate them, you must always exert significant effort to pedal. However, you have choices: you have an off button for no electric assist, or you can use one of four modes to assist your pedaling - Eco, Tour, Sport, Turbo.

There were also seven mechanical gears to work through, and each time you shifted you would feel the extra assist once you started pedaling. Sharon can say wholeheartedly that she would not have enjoyed the trip nearly as much if she hadn't had that extra assist up those hills. By the end of the trip - Turbo was the way to go up all those super-steep hills.

Ready for lunch and a discussion of the afternoon's route.

Lunch the first day

Each morning, the group receives an overview of
what the day will hold. Here is Carlos giving us the overview

Many street signs and large-scale signs such as this
were written in Basque and French.

Click to enlarge

The bikes come equipped with a small computer containing each day's route. You simply turn it on, choose your route and follow the arrows at each turn. There is usually an offering of two morning routes and two afternoon routes, some long and difficult, and some easier....but here in the Pyrenees none were really easy. The van parked at strategic locations along the route to offer a snack break, a water refill, or a repair if needed. Each day there was a group lunch stop where everyone gathered. At the end of the day we all gathered again for a wonderful gourmet dinner.

This is a very special way to see a country. We covered about 30 to 60 kilometers (about 25-40 miles) a day in three different sections of Northwest Spain: the Northwest coast, the Western Pyrenees, and Rioja wine country closer to the north central part of Spain. These are not long distances on a flat route, but these hills added challenge (and beauty), even on the e-bikes.

While preparing for this trip Greg over-did his exercise by cycling too much! His knees are becoming arthritic and this more intense routine inflamed them. E-bikes saved the day (he called just a few days before the trip to change to one). He still took Wednesday off to heal. We also had three medical practitioners in our group, all offering Aleve and Ibuprofen!

Here are photos from the trip. Click to enlarge.

The Town of Espelette (like the pepper)

The route computers

The hillside Mountain Lodge required golf carts to get from
our room to the restaurant and morning meeting area.

Sheep at pasture and view from the patio.

Calla Lilies grow along the roads

Basque Pigs, native to the area

Carranzana Sheep - native to the Basque Region

The sign of the Camino de Santiago hiking route

We crossed the Camino de Santiago
pilgrimage route several times

Trip Leader Gorka in the back behind Sharon and Cristine

Walking down into a deep wine cellar

Hotel Marques de Riscal a Frank Gehry design -
our accommodations for the last two nights of the trip!

The very friendly bicycle group

Cycling though a small town

and a long country road...

Ours always enthusiastic third trip leader -
Andrea (pronounced Ahndrrrreeaa, roll that R)

Overlooking the town of Elciego

The terrain was steep and winding, the views absolutely spectacular, the wind was strong enough to force us to pedal even when descending steep hills, and the days ended with feeling great satisfaction from our efforts. We highly recommend Backroads for a very fulfilling and interesting cultural trip.

After the Backroads trip ended we spent several days exploring the Rioja region of Spain from a lovely hotel in the town of Logrono. Like Napa, Sonoma and Yountville, Logrono is surrounded by vineyards for miles around. Like Barcelona, it has an outsized number of ancient cathedrals, beautiful architecture and parks, incredible restaurants and unique Spanish culture.

We were thrilled to have this opportunity to hang out among the locals at tapas bars for dinner each evening. But, we tried as hard as we could to fit into the daily time schedule....dinner starts at 9pm!

There are two neighborhoods in the city that have developed into little restaurant havens featuring Spanish tapas, known locally as pinxos, where you can get a glass of good wine and a small plate for less 10 to 15 Euros. Most vendors offer only one or two items, like beef, grilled mushrooms, or small sandwiches. Our hotel was situated between these two neighborhoods, just a few blocks from one another. Dinner was always amazing! We had so much fun walking the streets in the evening and just popping in when we saw something we liked, then, moving on to the next one.

A variety of small sandwiches

The beef place! Excellent!

Mama, stepping out for a bite with her baba

The street scene

Very fun fresco alongside a bar/restaurant.
She's checking her poker hand!

A school trip

Church or Cathedral? Western Europe!

Lost track of which church was which....so many!

And then there is the food market!

Snouts anyone?

The beautiful roses in one of the city squares

A protest against Israel in
front of the government buildings.
Global reality in wine country.

Evaluating Rioja wines. I know this was a vacation, but after the previous
shot I feel so unattached to current events of immense proportion.

Greg found a couple wine tasting rooms in the town of Haro (sort of the Spanish version of Yountville) so off we went. We were able to taste at Cvne, Gomez Cruzado and La Rioja. We enjoyed everything we tasted. The whites were especially good. The reds were, well, good! In the end Greg said he hadn't had a spectacular red anywhere in Spain, but he also never have a bad red. All very drinkable wine! The Spanish wine industry seems to be built for volume and in-country consumption more than high quality, but the quality has to be good enough to sell and drink soon after release. French wine, the global standard for high quality wine, stays in barrels or bottles for years before consumption. I expect, with time, Rioja will mature, as will the wine.

Unfortunately, these vineyards were not set up to ship wine to the states like France, so we snuck one bottle of white and one of red into our checkable suitcases and will have to see what we can find at Total Wine.

The drive back to Barcelona was again spectacular - another 350 mile drive across the entire country. The views across the plains were beautiful with a lot of open land. We saw hundreds, if not thousands, of wind turbines all across the plains. In 2013, Spain became the first country in the world to claim wind power as its main source of energy. 2013!

Spanish: El Toro de Osborne is a black silhouetted image of a bull in semi-profile. Erected as either 14-meter-tall (46 ft) or seven-meter-tall (23 ft) billboards, as of July 2022 there are 92 of them installed on hilltops and along roadways throughout much of Spain. They were originally advertisements for an alcoholic beverage. Later they were so loved that locals now maintain them.

Exiting our hotel's garage elevator.
Yup, you very carefully drive into a box with 12 inches to spare along each side, it descends, then you drive out of the box into a larger one, where you grease the sides of the car to fit into your parking spot. Practice your K turns!