Bye bye Italy - Hello Slowenia

Italy - it's a marvelous country but we do not really fit in here. We enjoy being here but not as much as we enjoyed Spain. Maybe it is because there are only two months left of our adventure. Now we often speak about our future plans, who we want to visit, where we want to go for a hike or what new things we want to learn or discover. I guess we are not anymore that much on this trip, with our thoughts we seem more and more home.
Nevertheless we make every day new and beautiful experiences. Today we met an Italian senior that cycles along the coast - he is 77 years old and has still power like a young man, he cycles around 80-90km a day (flat coast). Wow
Or yesterday evening we sat at the beach while reading our books and an Italian senior came to us and started talking to us. In 1969 he was skiing at the World Championship in Czechoslovakia and before he went on his bike and a huge backpack to the North cap. Only a few minutes after this sportsman left came another italian to us and he offered us right away a place to sleep and an ice-cold shower. We were very happy about his offer so we went to his holiday house. He explained to us that a year ago he went on a cycling trip to Sicily and many people offered a place to sleep to him and his friends so he wanted to give something back as he saw us. How perfect!

Since we arrived to the east coast of Italy we cycle also many kilometers per day but we also try to enjoy the Adriatic Sea. It gets more hot than ever and we are constantly sweating, never had such experience before. We try to drink a lot and have breaks in the shade of trees but sometimes we long for an icecold drink or ice cream. This weather is crazy for cycling. We try to start very early - yesterday our day started at 5.30 am so we could cycle with fresh air and a bit shade.

Saying goodbye to Spain - after 6.400 km

It's been a while that you have heard from us, that is because we enjoyed the last weeks so much. We made the right decision not to go to Galicia but to cross Extramadura and Castilla La Mancha. Since here is a lot of nature and only a little population lives here (compared to the Spanish east- coastline) these regions are the paradise for bikers. We had so much special moments here, enjoyed the beautiful and fully green landscape with all the colorful flowers around us and the empty streets, cycled along the footsteps of Don Quichote and met such wonderful easygoing farmers. In these regions are still many shepherds with their sheep or goats, it's such a beautiful thing they do! Unfortunately they are getting fewer because of economy and constructions that destroy the marvelous landscapes. But we were told that there is a program for Spanish youngsters to become shepherds. Since in Spain there are way too many unemployed youngsters this might be a good thing :)
Furthermore we visited Valencia again, we spent a whole week there with our old and new friends Miguel, Sonia, Laura and Raoul. We discovered all the nice places in and around this green city and were pretty amazed about this vintage shop, that Sonia and her friend are running. Check it out: https://www.facebook.com/lacasitadepapelvintage?ref=stream
Now we are in Barcelona because we want to take a ferry to Livorno, Italy. Unfortunately we had to cycle back on the east coast which is not so quiet and peaceful anymore as it was in winter time as we headed towards the south. Now it is full of tourists and traffic jams. Especially in Salou we decided to cycle very fast through, too much stress and way too touristic for us. But the more we went inland the more quiet it was so we tried to get to Barcelona through the mountains. Also the way to Barcelona from south along the coast line is way too dangerous to go so if you decide one day to go by bike to Barcelona never take the coast way from the south. Despite steep hills the streets are way too narrow and there are many cars and trucks which might be too dangerous.

The last days we had very strong wind so cycling up north was hard and slow. Since we wanted to obey being pushed by the wind into the cars we had to use the smallest ways we could find. Before Hospitales D'Infant you could decide whether to go by autovia (forbidden for us), use the national street (mucho traffico) or the barely smaller streets so we used also walking paths which were not made for cycling. That's why once we had to walk - steep ways up on rocky grounds so we pushed together one bike after another. Wind was blowing, sometimes it helped us pushing the bikes up the hills but mostly we had to fight against the north west wind. This part of way were only 11 km but it felt like 50km...
In the Ebro Delta the wind was so strong that Eva fell right into the rice fields so her shoes are still covered with all the mud, it's a nice memory ;)
Before Barcelona we visited also Lena and Ramon- we met them at the beginning of our trip. It was so nice to see them again. We had so much to talk about. They have a little holiday house in Bara and live in Barcelona. We were told that it is typical for Spanish people to have a little flat for the week and to go for the weekend to an own weekend house and to have sometimes a third house in the mountains or close to the beach.