Day: July 12

Spain 7 – Valencia

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The next day I got up early so I would not be discovered camping in the forest. To my knowledge wild camping is generally allowed in Spain but there are exceptions like in national parks, close to military bases, on beaches, next to roads or in bird protective zones. Since I wasn’t sure what my location qualified as I wanted to stay low. That didn’t really work out though as my location was probably passed by ten jeeps and 50 cyclists after sunrise. Nobody said anything though. If anything they greeted me friendly.

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The place where I had ended up was actually a beautiful spot by daylight. Would make for a great bonfire place but of course that was unthinkable considering the extreme heat and risk of fire throughout the region and much of Europe for that matter.

After I had packed the bike I left the forest again and went back to onto the regular roads.

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Towards Valencia always searching for the next place to take a break and escape the heat I found a little town with a nice beach where I made a stop to cool off and go for a swim.

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Refreshed and relaxed I continued my journey …

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… and reached Valencia in the evening.

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There I stayed at a hostel for the first time on this trip. Two nights at the hostel elevated my costs for accommodation since the beginning of the trip from 0 to a grand total of 30Euros. Wild camping makes for a cheap holiday. Still, staying at a hostel once a week is a welcome change. Getting a real shower instead of relying on the sea, lakes and shower facilities at the beaches is a welcome luxury. Also getting to charge all batteries of my electronic devices was convenient. Not to mention proper toilets.
Charging my devices on the road actually worked very well though. The only thing I can not charge well on the road is my high capacity battery bank. But more about that in a dedicated gear post later.

In Valencia I ate my first Paella. I didn’t even have a vague idea of what Paella was made of. Also I only discovered by accident that the Paella comes from Valencia. Honestly I was a bit underwhelmed when I found out that one variation is basically just pasta with cheese. Nonetheless it tasted great and the shrimp and the mussel on top was a welcome change from my usual -lets call it cost effective- travel diet. Besides this actually was cheap too. 3.50Euros and I was really full after. London take note.

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For me the best food I have had in Spain though so far is the pastries. They are fantastic. Any and all of them. They are not drenched in sugar like in many other countries. It’s just a hint of sweetness. The real taste comes from the baking ingredients. No matter where you go a bakery, cafe or supermarket they are always delicious and not expensive either. Even at Lidl I had amazing fresh pastries. For me the pastries are on par with the ones from Sweden which have so far taken number two on my list after Austrias baked goods. Pastries have become a big part of my diet here in Spain. Because they don’t taste extremely sweet you can actually eat a lot of them without getting sick of them. Anyway enough with the pastries.

Here is one of the many old churches in Valencia.

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I liked Valencia more than Barcelona. It’s smaller and felt more homely to me.

More impressions of Valencia:

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Before leaving Valencia after my two days stay in the morning I stopped at the stadium of FC Valencia. Like in Barcelona I only saw it from the outside as I did not want to pay 15 Euros for an inside tour considering that that could also be one night at a hostel. I like football and these clubs are the spearhead of world football but that was not worth it for me.

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Spain 6 – Maintenance

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I saw everything in Barcelona that I wanted to see except the Picasso museum. Instead of visiting the museum I spent half a day looking for a motorcycle mechanic where I could get new break pads for the front wheel of my bike. Since on a bike you use the front break a good 95% of your breaking time thus wearing down the front pads a lot faster than the rear ones. Especially if you are riding lots of little curved roads where you break frequently as I did. As far as I know break pads should be changed every 15000 miles. My bike has now 18000 miles.
I found out though that on Fridays half of the city seems to shuts down at noon. Small non tourist shops close during noon and sometimes don’t open again until Monday next week. I had found one shop that would do the work but they wouldn’t do it before the weekend. Carrying out this kind of work myself is something that I wanted to avoid under the circumstances that my bike is essential for the whole journey and there was no time for mistakes.
A review of Barcelona on the internet had said that driving through the little lanes of the city was so much fun. I didn’t experience that. It was annoying. Traffic is extremely heavy almost all the time except after 10pm. You stop and wait a lot more than you move. All that while being exposed to direct sunlight at around 35 degrees or more. Additionally the traffic rules don’t seem as important as in the UK for example. People cut you off or completely block the lane next to the parking lane. There are always cars stopping right in front of you for no apparent reason. Often the lane on the right is not usable because there are so many cars parked there. Exploring the city on foot was more comfortable anyway though. Despite the fact that you could actually drive through the tiny little lanes where people usually walk. This seems to be common throughout Spain.
For the time being when I was stuck in traffic I gave up my self imposed ATGATT rule for a little while. The heat was so bad that I felt it was a bigger risk to be stationary in the glaring heat baking in my cloths then riding without my jacket. Of course I could have stopped and parked the bike for the day but I figured at the speed we were moving the risk was minimal and I didn’t want to lose another day.

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After having checked all the accessible shops I realized that I would not get new pads in Barcelona. There was still some bike maintenance that could and had to be done though. And that was lubricating the chain. It was bone dry. Riding many miles and the heat together made the oil evaporate extremely quickly.

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I spent the rest of the day with more sightseeing and headed towards Valencia late afternoon. I wanted to get to Valencia the same day but everything went slower than I had hoped. Riding off the highways slowed me down as well. It was getting dark and I was still not close enough to Valencia to make the decision to push through.

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So I started going further and further away from the main roads trying to find a good camp site. Finally after an hour I discovered a forest with a path through it. I rode 10min into the forest and found a nice spot next to a dried up river where I set up my tent in the light beam of my bike.

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As expected this night would be a little cooler since I was a bit elevated and in the forest and in the middle of the night I actually had to get my down sleeping bag out. Usually I either don’t use any at all or just a very thin single cloth layer sleeping bag.