June 2014 - Goodbye Singapore, Hello Spain

Leaving Singapore after 15 years was going to be hard. I knew that.  So I figured an extraordinary adventure to take my mind off the sadness of leaving great friends and a country that felt like home seemed like the right thing to do.
 
It had been 16 years since I last biked along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain and I couldn't wait to do it again.  This time on a tandem.  It turned out to be the perfect distraction for me.  And Andrew loved it, as well.  But of course, Andrew would have fun wherever he was.

For 8 days we rode along 850 kilometers of dirt paths, side roads and highways through the beautiful Spanish countryside.  We took long lunches, frequent butt breaks and chatted with anyone who had the time to entertain us.

Of course I was in heaven speaking Spanish.  And you can imagine Andrew's delight when he ordered  a 'menu del día' (menu of the day) for €10 that included enough food to satisfy even his appetite.  For me, it was the entire bottle of wine they plopped down in front of you in addition to 2 dishes, bread and a dessert.  You gotta love a country like that!

Every year thousands of pilgrims walk or bike the Camino.  Some for religious reasons, others for the 'fun' of it.   Andrew and I fell into the latter category joining the 12% of roughly 216,000 people who bike the trail.  Call us crazy, but for us this is FUN!

The best part of traveling through Spain, besides the history and architecture, is the frequency of villages, towns and cities.  You're never farther than a few kilometers to the next restaurant or hostel.

The characters you meet along the trail also spice up the adventure.  If we lived in Amsterdam we might not blink an eye at the cyclists in their 60's on fully loaded touring bikes.  Many of them had cycled from Holland just to bike the 850 kms of the Camino de Santiago.  Biking back to Holland an additional 900 kms from Spain was part of the itinerary for many as well. And you thought we were crazy!

By the end of June we had finished our first adventure and were on our way to visit family before heading to Mexico in October. Stay tuned for the next adventure.