Spain (local)

The report of a one-month, 3018km tour of Spain, beautifully illustrated.

Includes Logistics, a Map, and reports of tours Barcelona-Valencia, the Pyrenees, Malaga-Alicante and Granada-Gibralter.

With its sunny climate, fantastic coasts and mountains, one really can't go wrong with a bicycle tour of Spain. Since 1993, I've made three trips there and this web page is a conglomeration of those adventures. Aside from a short tour through the Pyrenees, most of the cycling I've done has been along the coast -- from the French border all the way down to Gibralter [...] Cycling the Mediterranean coast is a lot like biking the famed Pacific Coast highway in the US -- great views, fantastic beaches, stunning headlands, and not much traffic. Moreover, there are plenty of interesting historical and cultural sites to visit along the way, such as ancient forts and castles, cathedrals, old fishing villages, and the Salvador Dali museum.

Pour renouer avec le voyage itinérant à vélo, nous avions choisi une destination qui nous offrirait les meilleurs ingrédients selon nous : du relief et du dépaysement, et de la chaleur. Pour les premiers points, nous ne fûmes pas déçus, nous n'imaginions pas par contre devoir lutter contre le froid?et même la neige !

Les îles Canaries, au nombre de sept, forment un archipel au large des côtes marocaines. Nous visiterons les trois îles situées le plus à l'ouest : La Palma, la Gomera et Tenerife, la plus étendue, et sans conteste la plus connue et fréquentée (un peu trop d'ailleurs sur la côte?).

Ces îles sont d'origine volcanique, et offrent parmi les paysages les plus spectaculaires au monde.

A Fantastic Journey is the only real description of this ride, because that is exactly what it was. A journey into territory far away from the normal tourist routes. Where the only indication of the 21st century was the motor car. And where English is rarely been heard, let alone spoken.

Following our long cycle rides of the previous two years and because bad weather caused us to call a halt last year near Bayonne, we decided to continue our ride to Gibraltar. However we decided to change the route to take in more of the real Spain. It may not appear to some to be the best route. It certainly was not the quickest. It did however encompass many places we wanted to see. Some were Towns and Cities, some were geographic places such as Parque Naturals and Mountain Ranges. Our route took us through the following major cities and towns: San Sebastian; Vitoria; Burgos; Palencia; Toro; Salamanca; Bejar; Trujillo; Merida; Constantina; Seville; Arcos de la Frontera; Tarifa; Gibraltar.

An information site in various languages run by the Xunta de Galicia. Annoying Flash animations all over the place.

The suggested itinerary follows the spanish part of the ``Camino de Santiago'' from the Ibaneta Pass (Roncesvalles) on the frontier between France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. It's 850 kilometres wich cross the whole northern side of Spain, from Pyrenees as far as the Atlantic region. 8 stages will be provided. The itinerary goes over an ancient pilgrinage route connected with the Catholic tradition of the veneration to the apostle St. James (Santiago), evangelizer of Spain, whose grave would have been discovered by a hermit in 813 d.c. in a place showed by a star rain (campus stellae).

Read also the minutes of the Spanish Senate session in which the law was discussed (in Spanish).

El Camino de santiago is the most important pilgrimage trail all over Europe. Gotescalco, Bishop of Le Puy, was one of the first pilgrims as far as we know, he did the trail in 950 AD (more than 1000 years ago!!). The first guide of the CdS was written by Aymeric Picaud, priest of Potou, in the XIIht century: Codex Calixtinus. Today, the CdS is called also GR-65 in the International Code, GR means Gran Recorrido or Grand Randonne. It starts in France and ends in Santiago de Compostela.

llega a Espa?a una herramienta que facilitar? a todos los aficionados al ciclismo la localizaci?n de cualquier informaci?n disponible en internet relacionada con el ciclismo, as? como su publicaci?n, prestando una especial atenci?n a todos aquellos recursos que se encuentren en lengua castellana.

More than 7000km of abandoned rail tracks have been converted to bicycle touring routes.

Has plenty of useful information, and links to some reports.

Un espacio dinámico y completamente abierto, un lugar para la unión de todos los aficionados al ciclismo, con especial atención a su faceta recreativa, al descubrimiento y aprecio de la naturaleza y al encuentro con otros amigos.

This group is ``geared'' to those who have ridden, or who are planning to ride, the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across northern Spain, or any of the connecting routes. The group is planned to collect and share information about this tour and act as a resource for those who are contemplating it. The list is more intended for cyclists who will be using roads for most of their journey, perhaps with some short sections on the hiking path, as opposed to those on mountain bikes who are using the path the entire way.