My cousin Shelley picked us up 6:30am and drove us to Whistler to catch the charter shuttle to YVR – 2 adults, 1 toddler, 2 boxed-up bikes and 1 boxed-up trailer, 1 large duffel, 2 carry-on panniers and a small backpack. Thank you, Shelley!
Axel was mesmerized by being on the bus – he loved being up high and looking out the window, seeing a ferry on the sea to sky, driving through the city and arriving at the (much anticipated) airport. We checked in, took our carefully packed bike boxes fully apart to get them checked by security, packed them back up, then made our way to our gate. Axel was pretty wound up at the gate, very excited to look out the window at all the airport activity, play with trucks on the floor and do some “yoga” and running around. We boarded last and Axel was quite worried about how loud take off would be and wanted headphones (we didn’t have any) so I put my hands over his ears and as we taxied prepping for take off – he fell fast asleep with his head in between my hands (very cute! but kind of awkward). So, he missed take off but was excited to be flying when he woke up and we were up in the air. We did make about 7 trips to the bathroom which did finally end in a successful (woo). We also read lots of books and had many snacks, which made for a pretty smooth flight to Toronto and a layover where we found dinner and made a friend to play trucks with at our gate, then boarded at 11pm.
Our red eye to Faro was not very exciting (yay!), no bathroom trips, Axel mostly slept (on Ryley, so Ryley really didn’t), I slept a bit. We all made it. Axel did want to go home to take the bus again but we said it’ll have to wait!
Of note: Ryley and I both opted for a 6am shower – unsure when we’ll see our next one! We’ll check back in on this later
Axel quote of the day: “Axel had a little fart on dada’s penis” – on the bus in the way to the airport
We landed around 2pm local time, rode the “moving stairs” (big highlight), collected our bike boxes and put together 2 bikes and 1 trailer with a tired toddler and 2 tired adults. It was a lowlight for sure but we made it. Once we were ready to ride we stopped multiple times for food and bathroom breaks THEN hit the road.
These first few days (or however long it takes us) we are following the Euro Velo 1 to get to the trailhead of the European Divide Trail (EDT) – about 150km. This takes us along mostly coast and little towns in Southern Portugal.
The Euro Velo 1 route went right by the airport so we were on a cycling route almost immediately, some separated bike route (mix of paved, gravel and trail or questionable single track next to golf courses), some sharing the road. We meandered along just off the coast from Faro Intl Airport to Quarteira. We passed a good looking beach along the way and stopped for me to have a swim. Axel is afraid of the waves but very stoked on playing in the sand!
We carried on into town and found an outdoor store for camping fuel and a little Italian place for dinner. Lobster canneloni and a salad and a beer and bellini. Route finding was a bit tricky so we did a few u-turns but found our “destination” for the night – a park near the beach between towns, a bit near a road and a bit near 2 nightclubs… And a good little nook for a tent. We listened to the waves crash all night (and some bumping music at times). The moon is almost full and very bright and beautiful over the ocean.
We woke up at 7:30, packed up and went in search of coffee and the promised daily croissants. We found Cafe Amar for both and a grocery store across the road, fueled up and headed onwards.
The morning took us on some interesting (and hilly) routes through towns Albufeira, Armação do Pêra and ended in Lagos but the big stop was in between at Paraia dos Salgados – another awesome beach where we stopped for a couple hours, swam, played on the sand, had lunch, and shared an ice cream cone.
We went through Lagoa and stopped just before Portimao at a little café for a long break in the shade and many cold drinks (smoothie for Axel), and then again shortly after at a random park bench area for Axel to with a view of the nice birds (not in the bathroom we’d stopped at 臘♀️). We ran into siesta time (we think) in our hunt for an appropriate dinner, came up empty and ended up cooking up ramen in a random church square at the top of some tiny town we’d bikes to the top of in search of food. It was great. These little towns have tiny one way cobblestone streets and curving interconnected houses, it definitely feels like a very different adventure to home.
We carried on in the sunset (already becoming a theme) to try to find a camp spot before dark. We found an epic spot a short sandy hike a bike, tucked in beside a sand dune above a beach, very secluded and once we’d moved the tent out of the billowing wind we had a great set up and sleep! Listened to the waves crashing under the full moon.
We made oatmeal before packing up and heading to Lagos – found a coffee shop and loaded our maps into my coros watch so we could try my watch for navigating instead of Ryley’s phone – a big improvement! It has a magnified map, so Ryley uses his map for bigger context but my watch helps navigate the twists and turns and has an alert if we go the wrong way.
Today’s highlight was definitely Praia da Boca do Rio – a relatively quiet beach with clear water, no drop off and a stone house ruin that provided shade for Axel to hang and eat and play at (the waves came up to the rocks at this beach so he wasn’t interested in the beach). Great swim for Ryley and I.
Today had some extremely steep climbs to go around cliffs then drop down to the water – and repeat. We made a plan to stop for early dinner and rest before Sagres but shortly after we made that plan ryley’s adductors cramped so plan b was pull over at the nearest parking lot which happened to be a LIDL supermarket, sit in the shade, eat snacks and cool down and recover for an hour. We only had about 10km to go into Sagres – we did make it in around 6, hit the dinner rush at a restaurant and paid our bill at 7:45 (sunset at 7:41) then rolled out about 1km from town to find a campsite. We did and kind of nailed it, out of sight of the road and near the cliffs above the water near our EDT start. Tomorrow!
Axel QotD: me what did we do today? “went for a bike ride!” what was your favourite part? (thinking the snacks or the beach) “the smooth part”
We woke up late (8am) and by the time we made oatmeal and packed up we started our ride at 9:50am. We stopped shortly after for a coffee and finally ordered two of the tarts we kept seeing at cafes – turns out these are Pastel de nata – a Portuguese custard tart and a local delight. (Then, we got another.)
Another short ride for a stop to check out the most southwestern point in mainland Europe, the “Cabo de Sao Vincente”, our official start of the EDT, a popular tourist destination and absolutely stunning 300 degree view of the ocean from the top of spectacular cliffs.
We backtracked a km before heading north along a very hot, exposed desert gravel trail that travels just inland from the coastline. We saw a lot of people out hiking, trail running, and a few cars and vans heading to numerous small beaches that punctuate the cliffy coastline. We did a lot of elevation today dropping down to these beach entrances and then climbing back up to the plateau.
Despite our slow start and not great distance covered we opted to stop around 2 for a dip and it was absolutely stunning, a great beach (Praia de Barriga) and not busy, and Axel had an absolute time playing in the sand (way more Axel friendly than yesterday’s beach).
More hills to tackle but we did get into more forrested terrain so at least there was some shade. Axel was a big fan of the herd of goats taking a nap in the shade.
Our destination for the day was Carrapateira or somewhere nearby that had water. On our way down to the coast for the final time today, we hit some VERY STEEP descents. The first and third ones we walked Ryley’s bike while I helped hold the trailer up/back with Axel in it. The second one was sporty enough that we decided to take Axel out and carry him down, then I climbed up to help Ryley bring the trailer down behind his bike, then I climbed back up to bring down my bike. Axel was a good cheerleader watching us scramble our bikes down!
The views were spectacular from those hills of the coastline and upcoming beach and town of Carrapateira. We ended up at Praia do Amado for a swim, ramen dinner on the beach, and biked off just before sunset to find our first campsite of the trip we set up with some daylight left 🙂
We are camped about 20m from the top of a 50m cliff. The sunset was stunning and the full moon rose at almost the same time the sunset.
Axel loves setting up the tent, wants to be in charge of the headlamp at all times, and takes up 2/3 of the space in our 3 person tent when he’s asleep. He’s been great in the trailer, has had a few meltdowns but overall is happy to be along for the ride “want to go”, “go faster dada”, “go down down down”. We made the mistake of giving him a surprise hot wheels car – it’s small so it slips between the cracks of his seat and he wants us to get it for him ever time he loses it…. Tomorrow’s project might be figuring out a toy holding system so he stops demanding we stop for his blue car… Or, “losing” the blue car 樂 He is very into all the snacks but not so keen on actual meals… 路♀️ But hey it’s not normal routine out here and we’re making it work! His favourite meal so far has definitely been ramen we cooked in the camping stove (clearly he’s ours haha). He definitely loves the beach so he’ll be sad they’re not daily once we start heading inland, but hopefully we’ll find a good replacement.
Axel QotD: “that A has no leg!” to his airplane book where the edge of the A is under a flap
We went to bed on the edge of the cliffs with strong ambitions to get up’n’at ’em early to beat the heat… But 2-and-a-half year olds have their own agenda and they don’t include “packing up camp quickly and getting some early km’s in”. We woke up and Ryley unzipped his east facing tent door to watch the sun rise looking inland over the hills, and it was foggy/cloudy so the sun rose up very red through the haze. After a clifftop breakfast of oatmeal (Ryley remembered the cinnamon today and we’ve sorted the water to oats ratio so this was our most edible pot of oatmeal yet!) with a killer view, we started biking around 9:20am.
We biked 3km before Axel asked to stop to pee. We stopped at some boardwalks of cliff top views of the coastline and Axel was VERY into the boardwalks, running up and down them and making up stories and items to collect to run up and down to the platforms, climbing up on the benches, watching the birds and listening to their funny cries, and generally just having a hoot. It’s the most he’s run around yet this trip so we were all in despite wanting to get going. It was also the coolest morning we’ve had yet, a bit overcast and foggy.
We spent about 45 minutes there before descending (a short ways) into Carrapateira for coffee and second breakfast at a little single owned/run farm to table cafe. Savory breakfast of cheeses, fried peppers, beet coleslaw and a boiled egg, and French toast with fruit. We headed on into town to the minimercado to pick up lunch supplies. It was a big climb out of Carrapateira, in the middle of which Axel declared he needed to poop (we had just left two places with bathrooms but he is digging nature poops on this trip). We’ve logged about 12km, it’s almost 1pm and nap time – Axel fell asleep. It’s the hottest time of day but we ride when Axel naps, which is our usual conundrum.
This coastline is hilly! We’ve been passing a LOT of hikers going the other direction on the Fisherman’s Trail. They look about as hot as I feel as it’s pretty hot, dry and exposed on the stretches between towns. The trail today was mostly gravel and red sand in places, with some dry pine forest sections offering a bit of shade but not a lot. Axel’s nap was short as we had a very steep bumpy ride down to a Praia do Canal, a very rocky beach with straight up/down 4×4 access on both sides. We stopped at the beach (beautiful but not a swimming beach), sat in the shade of an old stone house and made pb+j’s. Axel is so into everything at these beaches – demands to unload all 5 of his trucks he brought to line them up and drive them around and chooses the perfect* sitting rocks for everybody.
The climb out was a straight up 100m elevation hike a bike, then we meandered into Praia da Arrifana around 3pm and decided today was a day to charge up devices, have a shower (woo! see note from day 1!), do laundry and give Axel a break from the trailer. We stopped at a Hostel International with a family room (4 single beds) and Axel just bounced off the walls in excitement claiming every bed for himself (I had to give him a wipe down and change his clothes so he’d stop just rolling dirt onto every surface). We put on his bathing suit and Ryley took him out to the pool – his bathing suit promptly made it into the laundry pile, too, after a wee poop incident (not in the pool don’t worry).
We had a chill afternoon at the hostel, went for dinner a short walk away and opted not to walk down the very long steep path to the beach, got Axel to bed and hit the hay.
*perfect is not the same definition for all heights/bums
We woke up in our hostel, packed up and were en route just after 8am. We backtracked slightly into Vale de Talhe to “The Bakery” for breakfast, where Axel carefully ate all the blueberries and spooned the mascarpone off waffles but didn’t actually eat any waffles – he found a communal toy bin and was busy playing with a giant model horse and bulldozer. We stopped in at a minimercado but it really was mini so we got a plum and a red pepper and moved onwards.
It was about 10km to our first of 3 beaches, and then after today we move off the coast away from. These beaches were gems. We were hoping to hike our bikes across the beach to avoid a 10km detour around an estuary (clearly not doable for a car but we though we might cross it on bikes) but when we got there we realized it was a decent cliff drop off down to the river crossing. So, we enjoyed the view of the other side (~1km) and biked around through the town of Aljezur. We stopped in Aljezur for a grocery bump (and a charging cable we forgot) and headed back to the beach. The way back was actually relatively flat (Woo) along the river valley floor. We stopped for a swim (Ryley and I – “Mama jump over the waves!” says Axel), sand session (Axel) and lunch (cheese and jam sandwiches with a glass-sized carton of wine). These beaches all have big surf schools and lessons happening – the waves look more fun for learning than Tofino. A family from Porto with a toddler came over to chat, saw our wine carton and made some wine recommendations for us – cheap but good, they said!
After lunch and beaching we climbed out of Praia da Amoreira and biked through a town called Rogil – just a water fill up – then we stayed high and relatively flat biking along a single track section next to an irrigation canal. The trail was narrow with these cement bumps and very spiky bushes on the sides so even though it was a very interesting route away from roads and through more farmland, we spent quite a bit of focus looking where we were going and not so much around.
Our last beach of the day was Praia de Odeceixe and when we descended (very) steeply down to the water we saw it was going to be a hit with Axel – a big inlet came in around the beach with its own sandy beach that had no waves. Axel started off playing in the sand but finally found his water bravery and once he was in had a great time playing in the water and sand.
We packed up before sunset to find dinner in Odeceixe – like many of these little towns, restaurants are in a town centre “square”. Simple but great meal of veggie pizza and caprese salad and a little bottle of the rosé our lunchtime friends had recommended.
We stopped about 3km outside of town, just before dark and set up our tent next to our route but just inside a cow “fence” – hoping no one brings in their animals for the night! Axel only had a 1/2h nap today so he was out pretty quickly!
I’m sad to be heading inland, these beaches along the coast have been beautiful, great swim breaks for us and beach breaks for Axel. But, I’m interested to see what a change in the trail brings as we head East!
We biked 2km into a wee town (São Miguel) for 8:30am coffee and pastel de nata…and a second coffee to allow the mini-mercado to open for lunch fortifications. Then we headed out of town and into a steep and loose rollercoaster section with some very punchy hike-a-biking and steep descents.
Spicy
We lunched a bit early today (ie at lunch time) on the side of the trail – definitely our best DIY lunch of meat, cheese and red pepper sandwiches.
We’d made it under 20km by ~2pm – not for lack of trying, just very slow going today. We made a quick stop for a coke and refilled water then headed onwards on mostly paved road to Sabóia where we tried to blend with the locals (we can’t but we can try!), drinking Sagres beers under the bar awning on the side of the narrow cobblestone street, watching the town and its people come and go. They had rollerskating hockey on tv inside the bar which looked pretty sporty and the locals seemed to be quite into. 4 beers, a bag of chips and a snickers bar, (and milk for Axel on the house) cost 7€ (~$11CAD). Things aren’t typically cheaper here but the beer sure is!
Santa Clara-a-Velha
We toodled along a short ways to Santa Clara-a-Velha where we found pad Thai and pizza, charged up devices and found a playground for Axel. The next decision was whether to camp before or after the next 150m climb – we didn’t the like camping options pre so we opted to crush it as our last objective of the day, and found a nice camp spot as the sun was setting above our first lake – Albufeira de Santa Clara – which we’ll descend down to tomorrow morning and cross a Dam.
Camp for the night!
Today was hard! We were very glad it was cloudy most of the day, it made a huge difference to the effort level needed!
We had camp oatmeal for breakfast, packed up and headed out to start our day with a steep hike up a short hill, way above the lake, then a sporty descent down to the dam which we rode across. It is just a Dam to keep the lake, so it had a park on the opposite side – a bit weird to us who are used to hydro-electric dams in Canada. The lake is called Albufeira de Santa Clara and looks like a dragon to me, branching off in sharp spiky spines in all directions. There is apparently a little pool right near the dam but no beach or other lake access, at least not near our bike route, so no swimming in this one.
We climbed above the lake and up to ridge riding in forest /farm country – it was very undulating with punchy climbs and descents. We are both feeling pretty tired from yesterday’s hard day and today didn’t feel easy. Axel gets into regular grooves mid-ride, singing to Ryley (go-to’s include: Old MacDonald, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Skinnamirink, and the zoom zoom rocket song), telling us stories, talking to himself or his trucks, taking his shoes off and putting his feet up on Ryley’s strapped on gear bag (this looks like he is hilariously chillin’, big smile on his face). It tends to the positive and happy, but is also interspersed with many (often whiny) demands for snacks, breaks, needing to pee, needing us pick up his dropped car/cracker/container. He’s way more capable than last year’s ride (of course) and can mostly reach all the things he needs/wants which is definitely helpful. This morning he made up a song that went “oat bar oat bar, pouch, pouch, pouch, tells Ryley to “get moving, dada” when he’s taking a break, and has been reminding everyone (including himself) to drink our water.
We moved pretty steadily with the normal breaks for Axel and us and managed a possible record slow distance of ~15km by 11am, when we did a huge descent-climb/hike-descent into a little ‘town’ called Monte da Ribeira. The locals were sitting out in the cafe chairs but no sign of any coffee being made or drank, so we joined the sitting, made some pb-j’s, made 8 trips to the bathroom for Axel to not poop, then headed onwards (a big downhill then another big climb so we could stop shortly for Axel to sort out his call of nature on the side of the road). Anyways, sorted it was and on we went.
The afternoon was much more chill, thankfully, with more mellow terrain (some paved) and hills. We rolled into Santana da Serra around 2pm,found a spot for coffee and what turned out to NOT be custard pastries (very disappointing) and Axel and I walked into town to find the mercado for a snack resupply, but it was closed. We did find another (closed) cafe in an alley under a bunch of colourful hung umbrellas which was very pretty.
The next section was downright pleasant, more rolling and we got better mileage in. Of note, it’s overcast today! A bit muggy but makes for a nice break from the very hot days we had on the coast. We even had a sprinkle of rain – we coulant decide if we didn’t feel like dealing with a downpour or if we’d welcome it, but it didn’t pour so we didn’t have to figure that out. We passed several big puddles on the road later in the day so it obviously did really rain just not on us.
We crossed paths with 2 bikers going the other direction – they were finishing up the whole EDT staring in June and are about 4 days from the end. We told them to enjoy the beaches! They told us that they swam everyday in the Swedish section but recommended avoiding Sweden in the spring if we didn’t like mosquitos!
We made it to Aldeia dos Palheiros around 5:30, struck out at 3 restaurants (all closed or kitchen not open till 7) grabbed a snack, made ramen in the parking lot and let Axel go wild on a slide in a derelict playground (Axel said the broken swing “needs some bandaids and some goopy cream” to fix it). We biked a couple km out of town and found a hayfield beside the trail to call it for the night!
We packed up in heavy fog in our hayfield campspot, convinced Axel to get riding with the last Oaty Chomps oat bar in the bag and ride the 5k into Ourique for coffee.
No pastel de nata’s at this Café (!?) so we headed to a grocery store and picked up lunch supplies and breakfast baked goods at the grocery store bakery – their chocolate hazelnut croissants were on par with most cafés so far!
The signs said “10min to Castro Verde” by car but we had 25km to bike on gravel farm roads so off we went. The fog burned off but it stayed overcast and a bit breezy. The hills were constant but rolling and we moved through mostly farmland – lots of sheep, cows, many many barking dogs mostly fenced, and even one farm with chickens, turkeys and a goose! Axel was into it all but really into the sheep.
This was a way more chill day knowing we had about 30km to go to a planned stop at 4b’s – the BnB run by the couple who created the EDT alternate route we are following. Compared to the last 2 days of 1000m climbing each, 400m over 34km felt pretty breezy! It was overcast again and cooler than when we were on the coast which is nice for riding.
We stopped under a tree for a lunch break, stopped to chat with two Dutch cyclists finishing the EDT, and made it to our bnb around 2:45pm.
We hung out on a pedestrian only street at the entrance waiting for our hosts, and chatted with 2 more cyclists from Colorado also staying at 4b’s.
Our hosts arrived around 4pm, we got settled (showered!) and did a “short” walk (1km) to do laundry at the intermarchè. 1km is short for a motivated adult but long for a non-motivated toddler so it was a bit of a trip. We got back to our bnb around 6:45pm then went looking for dinner.
It’s hard to find a restaurant open before 7pm! We ended up very near our accommodation at Páteo da Villa, where we had a mixed charcuterie board, Black Pork steak with prawns, Bulhão Pato mushrooms (mushrooms and garlic in broth), and a glass of house red. It was all amazing and the meal of the trip so far I think.
Despite the late dinner and Axel hitting the end of his rope, he was very into dinner when it arrived. We hopped across the lane back to our bnb, put Axel to bed, drank some rosé then followed shortly!
Ryley woke Axel and I up in our black out room at 7:45am as we’d asked for breakfast at 8. Axel is a delight in the morning – he always wakes up with a smile on his face, proclaims loudly some random fact “Axel’s sleeping bag is in his bed!” then rolls around in bed giving us a string of kisses.
Our 4b’s hosts Suzanna and Ruí were lovely, breakfast was great (coffee, homemade oat muffins, bread with Pb and homemade veggie spreads). They had a bike pump and set of hex keys for any bike fixings, and a wealth of knowledge of biking in Portugal. They run a gravel bike race every spring – there’s 750km version and a 270km version (no, thanks!). Suzanna also runs a vegetarian restaurant out the opposite side of the BnB, lunch only.
We pumped up our tires (Woo!) and rode out at 11am. It is wild how quickly you are out of town here. The town residential is so dense and the surrounding area is almost immediately agriculture. We meandered through open farmland most of the day today, heading through 3 little towns along the way.
We stopped at a shady picnic area/bird habitat (ie teeny pond) for lunch before heading into Entradas for a cold drink stop and water refill. There were several locals at the Café Centro, as usual, and our Portuguese was poor, as usual. As I went to pay and leave, the Café owner asked if I spoke French. I said yes and proceeded to try to communicate in a jumble of French, Spanish, Portuguese and English. But after a few sentences my French won through and we had a fairly good chat about where we were from, our bike trip and appreciating the friendliness of the locals.
After lunch, we went through our first Olive orchard (Grove? It didn’t feel like a Grove, though). Ryley “choo-choo’d” before a big down hill and I asked Axel, “if dada is the train engine what does that make Axel?” and he answered, “the little red caboose!”. Then he gleefully started singing the little red caboose song on repeat and we dubbed him Little Red Caboose for the rest of the day.
Next up was a big climb up to a tiny church way up on a hill (Ermida de Nossa Senhora de Aracelis). It was hot and hard, and Axel was asleep so we didn’t stop, just huffed and puffed up and over. At least the climb on the ascent was paved, although the descent was not – a bit steep, loose and washboardy.
We got some beautiful clouds for our afternoon ride while Axel napped. We’ve gone through quite a few gates and cattle guards the last 2 days, too. I’m the gate opener as it’s not very doable for Ryley with the trailer. When Axel is asleep we try to get through a gate without Ryley ever really stopping so that Axel doesn’t wake up – a bit of a challenge!
We had a trail-side break in a patch of shade just before 5 when Axel woke up, and he walked a chunk of the trail, before riding up into Alcaria Ruíva to find a restaurant for a beer and maybe dinner.
While enjoying said beer, a woman walked up chatting to Axel in Portuguese. She switched to ok English for us and translated to the restaurant owner that we’d like to eat – he said he’d already offered but in Portuguese so we had no idea 路♀️. She was quite taken with Axel and asked me where we were staying tonight, I said camping and she offered to host us saying she used to run a guest house. I said maybe as I wasn’t sure if we were going to get some cool evening km’s in, but she gave me some rough instructions to her house “the white wall, the green gate” (almost every house has white walls and a green gate, for the record) and told me her name is Anna. A minute later she walked by saying she was going to pick up milk for breakfast (I assume for Axel/us).
We had our dinner at the restaurant and it felt very authentic in this tiny town. We sat and food was brought out, we didn’t really know what. Bread, cheese a sausage to start, then tomato & onion salad in Olive oil, a bowl of olives, a basket of fries and a plate of meat, mostly ribs. And, vinho tinto! We ate our fill but it was a lot of food for 2 adults and a toddler!
The sun was setting and we heading off in the direction of Anna’s house. We found it (we think) and knocked and buzzed, we even tried the gate despite the very barky dog on the other side but it was locked. At this point Axel is fired up and saying “want to stay in Anna’s house” on repeat. It did look very nice, with a beautiful courtyard and a pool. But, no one answered and we didn’t know how else to track down Anna, so we headed out of town to find a spot to camp before it got dark. The sunset was beautiful as we rode down from the town and Axel forgot about Anna’s house in the excitement of setting up the tent and winding down after another big day. I feel bad we didn’t connect with Anna, I think she was excited to host us. Ryley was all for staying with Anna, he said “oh yes, she reminds me of my mom, but with fewer teeth”.
A climb to start the day…so, same as most days. Our goal was 25ish km into Mertola and we knew it would be on mostly paved roads. We were serenaded to baa baa black sheep, the wheels on the bus, just the ‘put on your boots’ part of Looking for Dracula, and a new one that went “put on Axel’s mountain shoes” (out of his Nike Velcro shoes). I think we stopped for 6 false alarm poop requests over the course of the day plus a few at actual bathrooms. The highs and lows
The first few big climbs were on gravel but the switch to pavement was quite welcome. We did opt to stick on route despite an avoidable 4km side trip that we knew from the map was a huge descent to the river by Mertola then a massive climb back up to the city, probably for a questionable gravel experience and view. But, I think it was worth the view!
We are on a birding route so have been going by lots of birds signage for it and keeping our eyes peeled for interesting birds. We’ve seen some but aren’t savvy enough to identify anything interesting, just to point out birds we aren’t familiar with that look neat.
Mértola was indeed very cool, with a narrow bridge entrance and exit, city wall and mideival castle. Typical narrow streets and compact infrastructure – although some light googling tells me that Mértola is less denser than most. We found a Café for late morning coffee and pastel de nata, then decided it was lunch time so found a vegetarian restaurant that could’ve been a spot in Victoria. We had a local draft beer, ménu lunch whose main was beet pancakes with some delightful sauce and baked chick peas. It was a great combo of nourishing and tasty. Axel loved the beet pancake and chick peas so that was also a win (he hasn’t had the most vegetables this trip!).
As we do, we headed out of town in the blazing heat of day, promptly opted out of what looked like a black Diamond mtn bike descent trail (our intended track) for a wind around ride on the road (a plus of riding in the heat during siesta time is that the roads are pretty quiet). Axel had been a bit of a bear at the restaurant but was asleep within about 10min of leaving town.
We looped back to our trail for a bit, had another nice rolling (big rolls, nothing is flat around here!) section of very quiet paved road, then bumped onto a rocky rough trail that took us to some scenic ruins but also had these very old destroyed rock bridges that were disconnected and had horrible walk-arounds. The road woke Axel up, we breaked in the shade of the ruins then kicked back into a detour of smooth road to our next destination – a lake with a beach!
It was amazing to have a swim in fresh water and Axel definitely loves a sandy beach. He also was running into the lake up to his chest and did a face plant at one point but wasn’t too fussed. They had pizza and beer at the lake so we did that for dinner then carried on a few km out of town to camp for the night just out of Mina da São Domingas (a mine town – we went by a full size wall art of a miner holding a rat, it was weird).
https://strava.app.link/VP54kGh9aNb
Axel quotes today:
Me telling Axel Auntie JJ’s birthday is in two days. “My birthday is in two days”. No, your birthday is in a little while. How old are you going to be? You’re two right now. One, two… what comes after two? “Big!”
Axel playing in the ruins at our break today: “I need to have another bath!” (he’d already had one pretend bath). Are you dirty? “Yes!” What are you dirty from? “From biking!”
We made it to Spain! Ryley has read some ride reports of cyclists doing the whole European Divide Trail or sections of it (Norway to Portugal) North to South who said Portugal took them about 3 days to bike through and they don’t really remember it. Here we are getting close to 2 weeks in, I think we’ll remember it!
We woke up to a very light rain (a spit, really) packed up and rode out around 8:30.
It was about 5km into Corte do Pinto for coffee and some breakfast (no food at the cafe so pastries and snacks were procured from the minimercado). Somehow it is always up into town, descend from town then climb up immediately afterwards. It’s hilly and everyone has built their town on top of a hill, too! After a long climb away from town we biked along a park on one side of the trail, before a long descent to cross a (dry) river which was also the Portugal/Spain border. This feat was slightly overshadowed by Axel setting some kind of record on asking for poop stops with no evidence of the big show. He did a big section of walking up a hill and seemed to forget about it for a bit. We biked through a massive orange orchard, maybe for 5km or so with the orchard stretching a ways on both sides of the road, it seemed massive. It also felt weirdly quiet – we didn’t notice a single person working anywhere for such a big production, but maybe it’s just not orange tending season. We’re near Seville so I was wondering if these are Seville oranges? We didn’t pick one to find out how bitter or sweet they are…
We rolled into our first Spanish town (Paymogo) and also the end of the EDT Alternate route made by the 4B’s owners that we’ve been following for 360km from Sagres – so that felt like an accomplishment!. We realized we bumped forward an hour in time, which also put us into town at mid-siesta time and very little was open. We didn’t find any public bathrooms which we’ve gotten used to finding and using for water fill ups from the tap. We’re thankful all the water is potable here, although apparently most locals choose to drink bottled water because of the taste.
We found a playground, picked up lunch items from a mercado (shortly before it closed) and made sandwiches while Axel had a good play session.
The afternoon was spent rolling over a mixed bag of gravel quality through mostly farmland again. Axel fell asleep right before we went from decent gravel to very rough gravel and so only had a 13-minute nap. There were lots of animals to see and big sections smelled strongly of pigs (not in a good way). “Axel saw lots of horses, Mama!” Axel yells at me from the trailer when we go by horses. We made it to Santa Bárbara for dinner (around 5:30pm) but again struck out – nothing was open except the bar and when I asked if any restaurants would open the answer was “la mañana”.
And again, no public restroom to refill water but the bar obliged. We tucked around the corner to a playground – we were originally the only ones there but soon many local families with kids arrived. Axel was mesmerized by 2 toy strollers and all the kids and mostly just walked around as close to the strollers as they’d let him get. He also did lots of laps of the slide, came over and slurped up some ramen for dinner, then headed back to play. He was reluctant to leave but we got him into the trailer and singing us a tune up our last (big) climb of the day to another beautiful camp spot at the top of a big cut block.
As Ryley tried to get the 6 ground wasps out of our semi-erected tent, Axel was very intent on playing rock-stick (a delightful game you can ask Roger about if you’re intrigued) and stick-stick (a slight variation). He announced finding rocks for this game as “going on a big bear hunt, mama”. I said – oh, are we looking for bears? “Big ones!” Did we find any? “Lots!” How many? “One, two, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, fourteen, fourteen, fourteen.” and as we walked back towards the tent: “DADA! Axel and Mama went on a big bear hunt!”
Buenas noches!
https://strava.app.link/G6yvUy5NbNb
General musing on camping with Axel: he is VERY excited to help select the tent spot (inevitably not the same criteria Ryley and I use) and where our heads should go, rolling out the tent, and putting the poles together. We have one short top pole that is “Axel’s pole” when we pull the tent out, for “on top of the mountain” (it hooks lover the top and holds up the fly).
From blowing up air mattresses and mama’s pillow, rolling out all our sleeping bags, setting up Axel’s spot and getting out his books – the whole show is a hit end to end. Ryley came up with a great game of “find what’s in Axel’s teeth” one day when Axel didn’t really want to brush, and now teeth brushing is a mix of drool and giggles as we “find” all the food he ate that day.
When we pack up in the morning, he’s varies from happy to sit in my lap to stay warm and cozy while I do nothing and Ryley’s makes breakfast or packs up to jumping out of bed, saying “time to wake up, mama!” and wanting to go outside to play. He LOVES helping deflate our air mattresses by jumping on us and lying on us lengthwise to add his weight to ours to let out all the air . He also wants to help roll up everything and put it in its stuff sacks and bags. Not particularly helpful but very cute and we love the stoke!
We started with a big bear hunt this morning while Ryley made oatmeal, then we ate, packed up and rode 35km to the next town and also stopped there for the night.
I was very intrigued riding through the logging section, where land prep involves mini terraces for pine. There is very little undergrowth so it looks very manicured, beautiful and green but also very weird compared to the messy cut blocks and forests in BC. The deciduous trees are qll💩😉😉that grow up in the cleared blocks are mainly eucalyptus – the mature ones were wafting eucalyptus smell at us for most of our morning ride today which I found quite delightful (but also a hit like you have a cold, since that’s the main thing I associate with the smell of eucalyptus). Also, a nice change from the cow and pig smells of the farmlands. We climbed up to our highest point today and really did get a stunning view of the surroundings.
We lunched up near the top in the shade of a pine, and happened to have stopped just in sight of a clearing machine that was sawing and de-branching trees. Axel was incredibly into it. He also found a stone monument he thought was cool which he made sure to pee right next to.
A bit of trail dirt… First round of adjusting Ryley’s brakes for the day, Axel is helping by fixing his trailer
Ryley had looked up a hotel with a pool in the next town, Aroche, and asked if we wanted to do showers and laundry tonight. I said yes, probably. Then it started to rain lightly, we stopped for Axel to go to the bathroom and he also wanted to walk. We wanted to make some progress but are trying to balance that with his requests. As we started our Axel walk, Ryley rode 10 feet forward and realized that despite several adjustments tightening his brake cables, he had essentially no brakes, front or rear, so as it continued to rain he changed out his front brake pads with the non-help of Axel being an assistant mechanic plus rain and dirt getting into everything. But, success! Brake pads changed and braking power for our last two long and steep descents to Aroche. We were soaked by the time we got to town and very sold on a hotel stop for the night.
We had a hard time winding our way to the top of town to find the hotel in the rain and we were so wet it was hard to navigate using our phones. Hotel Casa Palacio is a restored 18th century Palace House and it was beautiful, quiet, dry and warm when we stepped in, with very much a feeling of entering a spa. We were welcomed warmly despite being soaking wet and filthy, and the only hotel staff who spoke some English acted as our hoat/guide/server and all things helpful for the evening. They had a room for us and assured us we could walk our wet bikes through the hotel and into the courtyard of the second floor for safe storage (which did take a bit of doing). We checked in at 5pm and were informed the kitchen opens for dinner at 9pm and breakfast at 8:30am. We asked if there was somewhere in town we could find food earlier than 9pm for Axel and they said “umm, no, we’ll try to make you some toast”.
Not sure what or how we’ll find Axel dinner but he was pretty into eating chips in bed watching Spanish news on TV. When on vacation!
We went and showered and came back to the restaurant for 6pm coffees, toast, a muffin and a piece of carrot cake – dinner for Axel. We did Axel’s bedtime then left a phone in the room on a one-way call as a monitor and went and had dinner at 10pm. We hadn’t seen anyone all day but the restaurant was full at 10pm. This is giving us a lot of insight into Selena’s inborn schedule
We were recommended an excellent dinner and wine by our server and had a great meal, ending in chocolate lava cake around 11pm, and bed. We decided to stay a second night and have a day off tomorrow as we’re feeling pretty tired, and to give Axel a break day, too.
https://strava.app.link/h8Uj8H6CeNb
Poop story (at the end so skip if you want! It’s funny not gross): as we’ve already pointed out Axel is much more comfortable having nature poops then using toilets. We have a trowel for digging holes if it’s that kind of ground and if we’re pretty far out, we also have a roll of doggie bags so we just scoop it up if it’s not a very appropriate place to dig a hole and bury it. Today he picked a spot beside the trial way out but it was very Rocky and raining, so we bagged it. But, it was also the first time we put the rain cover on the trailer, and we’d previously been stashing any bagged poops in the rolled up rain cover above his trailer until we found a garbage bag. We tucked it in in the usual spot and part way down the hill Axel was clquite upset saying “Poop fall on Axel! Poop fall on Axel!” we didn’t really get it but his poop had indeed fallen on him in his trailer (it stayed bagged, not to worry!). Fairly, he wasn’t that into it.
Ryley, Axel and I all shared a queen size bed which sounds roomy but with a rolly, flaily 2 year old it is NOT and neither Ryley or I got a great sleep. Axel even rolled himself off the bed and Ryley caught him by his ankle before he hit the ground – quite impressive!
View from our room
Hotel breakfast was included – coffee and toast with jamõn (ham/prosciutto), olive oil and tomato sauce. It was interesting/good although not very filling. We ventured out into town mid-morning to find more breakfast but the cafés only sell coffee and more white toast with jamõn.
Aroche church just beside our hotel
Axel found a playground and we found Ryley a pair of boxers to serve as shorts as his shorts fell off the trailer and he just has rain pants as back up. We hung out at the saline pool with Axel then tried town again for lunch, but were told no one serves food until night time. It seems everyone just survives on coffee and cigarettes until 9pm every night! We found a mercado and stocked up on lunch stuff and snacks and had a picnic lunch in “the nook” back at the hotel, then a nap for everyone.
Picnic lunch with wine and olives from the bar in “the nook”
We went into an ALDI grocery store in Ourique, Portugal that had carts for littles to push around and Axel has asked to find one every town we stop in since – “Axel wants a small cart”. Possibly the trip highlight for him, it really stuck! So he was pretty stoked on this push cart at the el jamõn mercado today.
Post nap was more time at the pool, then a makeshift dinner for Axel and bedtime, and a late night dinner again for Ryley and I. Axel’s dinner was: an orange, a small yogurt, pistachios, a few bites of a Pb and kiwi jam bun-which, a kiwi, and the last of the pb out of the jar. I can’t say Axel is generally awake to experience much of Spain’s food but neither are Ryley and I it seems!
We’ve decided to wrap up the bikepacking part of our trip and pivot to part 2: get our bikes to Barcelona, and, find some good food/beach/hang time. This is a combo of Ryley and I finding the EDT pretty hard and a bit too much work on our parts to convince Axel to be biking. It was always intended to be (mostly) type 1 fun for everyone. On our day off, Axel demanded to go bike riding (on a smooth road)…and that’s part of the plan.
Heading out of Aroche
Today’s experiment was to test ride the (smooth) state highway to see how busy/hot/safe we found it. The state highway intersects our original route in Aracena, so we can kick back into gravel if it’s a no go. Then, we decide based on how it went whether we gravel bike 5 more days to Cordoba, or, state highway 1 more day to Seville. It went great, actually – not too hot, the roads were fairly busy but didn’t feel unsafe, and it was very satisfying to make good progress despite 800m of climbing to Aracena.
Smooth road day!
We decided we’ll continue on to Seville and see what vacationing looks like on our vacation – hey, maybe we’ll even like it.
Despite going through several towns on the main road, we still found very little open during the day so made our own lunch at closed restaurant beside a gas station. We found the town square in Aracena so Axel could play on the playground and actually a bunch of the restaurants were quite busy, so we checked a few out but they were so busy we couldn’t get seating. Then, when we did, we got a drink but when we tried to order food we were told the kitchen was closed until dinner (this was around 4). Just adding to our pile of evidence that Spanish people survive on coffee, beer and cigarettes 路♀️
It was a bit harder to find camping tonight but we tucked into a side road and set up camp, made ramen, went on a couple big bear hunts, had another nice sunset, and Axel finally fell asleep just before 10pm…oh my.
Looking for a camp spot round 1Looking for noodles in our teethMaybe our last tent set up of the trip, complete with sunset and eucalyptus trees
Today we head to Seville, 75km away but mostly downhill! I feel bittersweet about it as I love the camping aspect and Axel’s delight at our spots we find in the wild. But, I’m ready for some good food and a break for my butt 🙂
Ryley and Axel fixing a flat on the trailer – that we managed to get on our only day of road riding 路♀️
We had camp breakfast then stopped in Valdeflores for coffee and a treat (their version of a Boston Cream donut, pretty good!). The café was absolutely packed – we can’t tell whether it was because it’s Sunday or were just getting closer to the city (or both, or some other reason entirely).
Pee stop for Axel at a roadside bus station
We’d only done about 35km by lunch time, but stopped in El Garrobo and found 2 bars open, one which wasn’t serving food at 1pm,and one which was serving tapas (hurray!). This is one of the first times we’ve successfully been able to eat lunch in a town! And it was very good – home stew, an egg/pepper/potato/pork dish, and “lizard” (direct translation), we don’t think it was actually lizard but we don’t know it wasn’t!
El Garrobo tapas (starts with olives)
Then we followed Google maps bike suggestion off the state highway to avoid the interstate into Seville. It surprised us by taking us on some very rough gravel side road single track (which Axel fell asleep through) and on and off some very gravely backroads dirt and gravel options to avoid major roads. That part was a success but it slowed our cruisy road riding pace to a crawl. We biked by a massive solar farm which Ryley and I were quite interested to see. We had to cross a (small) river – it is just strange to see running water here at all.
Gas station coke, snack and shade stop
To its credit, we did very little riding on main roads for the 40km from El Garrobo into Seville.
Riding into Seville along the Guadalquivir riverThe street outside our apartment near Sevilla Centro
We checked into our booked apartment near the city center, showered then wandered around and found gelato, new shorts for Ryley and the Decathlon, tapas for dinner and my first glass of Sangria of the trip (finally!). Axel found a playground then we headed back to our apartment for a much needed sleep!
https://strava.app.link/gxExwdIjiNb
Total distance: 747km, total elevation:10, 479m ️
This was a bit of a circus! We biked into Seville on Sep 29th and our flight home from Barcelona is on Oct 6th. There’s a fast train from Seville>Madrid>Barcelona. But, the fast train in Spain isn’t always tolerant of bikes. We scoured the internet and a local bike store for advice, and also went to the post office to inquire about shipping them via post to Barcelona. We narrowed it down to these options:
Option 1) buy bike boxes from the post office and carry our packed up bikes onto the train with us – but, it’s not 100% clear the fast train will allow us to bring full bike boxes
Option 2) buy bike bags (most compact than boxes) from a sport store and carry the bikes on the train with us, but we’ll still have to get bike boxes for our flight home – we did look into this option but didn’t find any stores nearby that we could buy the bags from
Option 3) buy bike boxes and ship our bikes via post to a post office in Barcelona, then pick them up by Friday (post offices are closed on weekends), get them from the post to our hotel then again to the airport on Sunday for our flight (which will require many taxis or shuttles back and forth)
We went with Option 1! Ryley 2ent to the post office and purchased and carried 3 empty bike boxes back to our apartment in Seville and we packed up our bikes Monday night. We ordered a taxi at 11am for our 1:30pm train to Barcelona. 1 group cab didn’t fit all three bike boxes and the taxi driver was VERY annoyed with us, but she did take 2 boxes plus Axel and I to the train station. Ryley tried just hailing a cab for the 3rd box but no one would pick him up, so he had to order another group cab for himself and the 3rd box (Axel’s trailer).
Round 1 of us arriving at our train station… When we still had hope option 1 would pan out!
At the train station, I went to pick up Axel’s (free) train ticket and ask about how/where we load bikes on the train. The info agent said bikes?! And I said “in boxes” so she said oh ok no problem. They go in the luggage area, you’ll see. Ryley was still worried they didn’t quite know what we meant so he flagged down another info agent and showed him our bike boxes. He took one look and said “no WAY”.
Ok – option 2! It’s now 12:20pm, our train leaves at 1:37pm. Ryley runs all 3 boxes back out to the taxi area and tries unsuccessfully to fit them into 1 taxi. A second (and third, even!) taxi jump in offering to help, so a second taxi brings the 3rd box to the post office. Ryley stood in a 15 person-deep line up waiting for his turn while the clock is ticking. The plan is if he doesn’t make it back in time, he’ll catch a later train and meet us in Barcelona. Luckily, most people waiting were there for pick up and not shipping. He got the bikes shipped while his taxi driver (insisted) on waiting outside for him (we thought that might be expensive but not as expensive as a whole new train ticket to Barcelona!). Boxes successfully shipped and Ryley made it back to the train station at 1:15pm. Phewph! That was ~: €50 in cab rides, €45 to buy the boxes, €100 shipping and a few wrinkles in stress. This saga to continue as we’re now in Barcelona and haven’t retrieved our bikes yet or know how good of shape the boxes will be in to take them as luggage on our flight…
Axel was actually great in the morning during these logistics. He LOVED the taxi ride through the city to the train station sitting on my lap. He was originally very excited about the trains but the novelty wore off and he actually wasn’t that into it once we were on the train for a bit.
Down to 3 bags and Axel, bike boxes are now at the post office to be shipped to Barcelona
He didn’t nap on our train to Madrid, became a bit of a bear from Madrid to Barcelona, and fell asleep in Ryley’s arms at 7:17pm (our train arrived at 7:37pm). We’ll take a 20 min nap, I guess!
We unloaded a sleepy kid off the train but he perked up through the station and into our taxi, and then was VERY into the ~30min taxi ride to our hotel, sitting on Ryley’s lap. (Although, after we loaded our bags and ourselves into the taxi Axel declared he had to pee, so Ryley jumped out with him and the taxi driver tried to drive away without them, with the door open – oops).
We arrived at our hotel, complete with a 10th floor view of the Mediterranean, a view of the city including many taxis, city buses and emergency vehicles (Axel loves it), and a rooftop infinity pool (to check out tomorrow!).
We have a tracking number for our bikes so we’re hoping we see them soon!
Oct 3 (Thurs)
We received a notification that our parcels had arrived, but when we went to the post office at 12:30 only two of three at the boxes had actually made it. We were able to pick up both Ryley’s and my bikes but the bike trailer was still MIA. It was only 450 meters from the correos to our hotel, so we hauled our bikes back to our hotel and up onto the porch of our room. Hopefully our last box arrives tomorrow (Friday, before the postboffice closes for the weekend) so that we can get everything to the airport and back home with us in one go!
Bike retrieval Thursday morning!
Axel had a solid 2h nap where Ryley and I unboxed and rebuilt our bikes (with plans to go to the beach, plus some cheap but decent grocery store wine) but when Axel woke up we were just as happy to take the convenient choice of going up to the pool and that’s what we did. We had tapas, live music on the rooftop, and a beautiful view of the sunset over the city as we wound down another day.
We got a notification that Axel’s trailer arrived so we’ll be able to pick it up tomorrow morning (Woo!).
We will use them in Barcelona then re-box them for our trip home. We’re going to pay for a private shuttle from the hotel to the airport to be sure we get everything there in one go and in time for our flight.
The traveling bike saga obviously started before we even left and won’t wrap until all bikes (and humans) are back in Pemberton! The logistics on the leaving end were to ask cousin Shelley to load us up in her truck and drive us from Pemby to a whistler to catch the airport shuttle from Whistler to YVR. Luggage wasn’t included in our Porter airline flights so the bikes cost about $300 to fly. On the way home we fly WestJet with 3 included bags, but tbd what the oversize baggage costs will be. Gran-Jan has graciously agreed to drive down from 100 Mile to pick us up in Pop-Pop’s truck (with Claire’s car seat for Axel) from the airport to transport all humans and bikes back to Pemberton Sunday night (our flight lands too late for the last shuttle to Whistler).
Worth it? Well, we think so…
Everything boxed and bagged at the Barcelona airportBoxes are a bit worse for wear but the bikes seem ok! Landed at YVR and on our way to meet Gran-Gran for the last leg home to a Pemberton.
We stayed 2 nights in a little apartment right near the old town Centro and it was very entertaining. We mostly walked around and tried to go see the Real Alcàzar de Sevilla but tickets were sold out to get in and there’s not much to see from outside. Later in the day we went on a bike tour of the Plaza de España and surrounding park. A surprise was a 200yr celebration of the Spanish Police with a helicopter exhibit, and also a robot police dog – this was a huge hit with Axel.
I really enjoyed checking out a big city by bicycle instead of by foot or bus, especially with a toddler in tow, even if it does include many stops at fairly terrible playgrounds (the one Axel insisted we stop at today had many mosquitos, but also a slide toy in the shape of a train, so who can argue with that kind of trade off?). It lets us cover more ground and check out the biking infrastructure of new cities, with the freedom to choose our own adventure versus bus or train. It has drawbacks of course, like not being able to eat inside or stray too far from our bikes, ever, as we don’t have locks. Most places have patios and we prefer eating outside in the nice weather. Axel has delighted in running around bringing us “thingies” while at restaurants, and hauling one of us off on any mission to look for playgrounds or parks.
We had some good coffee and found some good tapas in Seville, too. Our favourite was a restaurant that just had a tapas taster menu, so at a set price you just got to try many of the dishes, which was great. We did try to go to El Rancillo, the oldest restaurant in Seville which was highly recommended, but it opened at 8pm and had too long of a line up to justify with a 2 year old. Another time, maybe?
And in the big picture, we were able to find restaurants that served us food in this town! Hurray!
Tapas dinner night #1Found a local bike shopAxel thrilled with a bouncy horse ride at this tiny grubby park Foot tourists Axel was very into playing ‘Superpoly’ back at our apartmentTourists by bike! 200 yr Policia exhibit with helicopter exhibit (huge hit) Biking along the Dársena del Guadalquivir (Guadalquivir channel)
We spent a good chunk of time at the rooftop pool, made it to beach, had a couple of good meals out, a couple of so so meals put, and many DIY lunches at the hotel.
On Friday morning, we took the metro and bus (Axel’s first city train and bus rides!) to Park Guëll, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (it was very cool).
Once we had all 3 bikes and our trailer we did a few trips to the beach and went on a bike tour into the city to see the Basílica de la Sagrada Família (we didn’t get tickets to go in, although we will try to if we come again!) then to Bogatell beach. The beaches are beautiful and the water is warm!
We also had a great paella dinner Friday night that Axel was actually very into, including deshelling and eating the claims, mussels, prawns and crayfish! They had great Sangria, seafood croquettes and patates de bravas as well (honestly the fried potatoes stole the show for me on this one!).
Park GuëllMaybe Axel’s favourite part of Park Guëll – the little sitting spot under the slide at the playgroundWe found the beach!Axel putting his shoes away when we get homeBarcelona by bike – this was a fully segregated bike and pedestrian route between the trams and roads. Avinguda Diagonal, a wide and heavily transited avenue, cuts Barcelona in two diagonally with respect to the grid pattern of the surrounding city streetsBasílica de la Sagrada FamíliaMore beach time
