Beware

March 25th-April 3rd 2022

Roaming the world in Europe.

Living in the moment is living on the move on the road- feet on the pedals -even though the movements are repetitively predictable.

We pedaled our way down the Portuguese coast to Sagres. My mom on the phone said “your Berlin dialect is stronger than ever….why do you “berlinerst” so much?” I had to think about  that….

Well, I haven’t seen (and heard) so many Germans on a daily basis in a very long time. In fact, I haven’t been home to my birth country in longer than ever. (4years!) I guess I wanted to make sure that “ich bin ein Berliner” is clear to me and others for what -ever- reason.

Lots of European People are hiking this stretch along the Atlantic - I am very happy on my bike…even happier when I see happy people walking. All the power to them…I am staying on my Gurly. Just love that smooth gliding where only one pedal stroke takes me at least 10 steps ahead.  I read that cycling is the most efficient self powered way of moving forward. Not just because I read it…feels that way! Though, we are not in a hurry - in fact we don’t really know where we are going - exactly. Compare to riding the Americas north to south it is a somewhat unsettling feeling not having an  honest- to- god direction (Mongolia could be… or is….. or was one, but we are trying our new over 60 year old bodies out in “easy” Europe where we can find food, good water and shelter in a more (or less) predictable way……also Russia is not a country we want to ride through right now.

In the mean time another big rain chased us to another fancy place.

Quinta do Mel:

The day after…

..and it was good!

Now we are in Spain and today is a very different day  - after days and days of gusty head wind at 18mp/h and campgrounds that remind me of fancy slums. 

One trailer to the next patched together with tape and tarps for the winter…I don’t think I want to be here for the summer. In the morning you see the snow birds filing out of their patched up tents and trailers - heading to the bathrooms with a role of toilette paper in their hands (no tp in the bathrooms - ever! But always plenty of solar powered hot water, mind you). BTW, I prefer my water splash rinse since I have traveled through countries where there was no tp available at all. Water was always the cleaner option and I am sticking to it. (pun intended) 

Don’t let the sunny pictures fool ya….

Right now …..a few days later  I am quite fed up with the wind and the cold weather! (Southern Spain in April- what is happening?) Here in Huelva (100km south/west of Seville) I found a new emotion: Missing my familiar places and faces in a big way. It’s not homesickness …more like a deep exhaustion fighting the never wanting to end headwinds, trying to figure out the roads, the language, the people, places to camp, eat…the weather…THE WIND is absolutely driving me bananas and I want to go home!!! Feeling overwhelmed  not seeing enough smiling faces (maybe everybody is fed up with this week old arctic wind…I guess one doesn’t even have to be pounded by it on a bicycle to get annoyed by the fight to stay upright?) 

We were called “loco” today - seriously- because we were walking too far into the street.

A promise of two more days of rain coming up starting tomorrow, so, for now its another sweet budget hotel with lots of chocolate and cookies - ending the day hiding from the next days to come.