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France/Spain/Portugal
From Berlin. With bike. Start: October 21th
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Luckily, Janina had the contact of Sabrina, the girlfriend of a foodsaver that she met in Berlin. She could host me in her apartment in Barcelona city, where I recovered quickly. Some days later, Janina joined me there after a long bus travel. We stayed for some days before WuppDays at La Experimental were supposed to start.
WuppDays (2017-01-25 to 2017-02-07) were quiet and peaceful, with participation of Chandi, Fritz, Selina, Lara, Adrean, Martin, Janina and me. I was mostly working on the Foodsaving Tool, cracking almonds, preparing meals and cuddling with Janina. I also looked through old PCs that were "recycled" by the squat to build some fast public workstations. The success was limited due to a lack of screens, but at least Chandi and me identified the fastest parts for the audio recording workstation.
After two weeks, it was time for me to leave Barcelona and head to Valencia, where we Janina and me want to start Foodsharing.
(write TBW: about Fabio, Helen, the bike parts)
Stage 9 - Valencia
I embarked late afternoon to cycle 380 km to Valencia, assisted by a tent borrowed from Chandi and a lot of sweet food (Turron, almonds). It was a challenge to find nice camp places when it's already dark - I was sleeping in fruit plantations and in a river bed. It took me a bit more than three days to arrive, a bit more than expected. But I was also working on the foodsaving tool: on long morning in the tent and then in a library in Torredembarra. Also, there was strong head wind while cycling through the Ebro delta, luckily no rain! On the second camping night, I broke one of the poles. The tent was still functioning, albeit with less foot space. I felt disappointed and sorry, but Chandi cheered me up later and said it would be fixable.
After arriving in Valencia, I got the address of the "casa de los payasos", a loosely squatted place in El Cabanyal. I stayed there for about three weeks, mostly working on the foodsaving tool and occasionally going recycling.
Our initial plan to start Foodsharing didn't manifest, partially because we didn't have many local contacts and the few that we knew (Marian and Henning) were busy. I still consider it highly productive and appreciate the disturbance-free environment. Note that the squat didn't have water or a toilet, so that meant to take a 5-minute walk to the next train station to refill water and refresh my body. I washed myself not very often, once I jumped into the Mediterranean at night and another time I could use the shower at Luke's airbnb.
Through yunity's Philip, I got the contact of Robert, who lives and works in Valencia. I stayed at his place for another week, having a great time with him and his flatmate Monique. After some days, also Cille arrived and stayed at their place to visit the Internet Freedom Festival. I left shortly after to finally go south to meet up with Johanna, but before, I wanted to use the chance to meet with Ivan, a software developer and activist who recently moved back from Berlin to his parents' place in Xeraco (Beach), south of Valencia. I really enjoyed the time there, having time to code, to play at the beach, to talk and to do a mountain tour.
Stage 10 - To the south-west
After a huge rainfall that covered almost all of Spain, I started on Tuesday morning on my journey to Algeciras (700 km away), where Johanna would wait for me to cycle together in Morocco. I didn't have a tent and the weather forecast looked rainy and windy, but it seemed to improve. After contacting the few Warmshowers hosts from the closer area (<200 km away) and receiving no reply, I found the profile of Marc & Mallory, who live in Galera, somewhere in the Altiplano of Andalusia. I wrote them and somehow was sure that it would work out, so I started my trip on the next day, also because Ivan had to take a flight back to Berlin.
Cycling went perfectly, with slight clouds and strong tailwind the conditions couldn't be better. I cycled up the mountains with little no effort. After I checked my mails on public wifi in Caudete and saw the positive reply from Marc, I was even more motivated to arrive there - on the next evening. The distance was a bit over 300 km, with 2000 m of climb, so I knew that I would have to spend one night without tent, but at least on my new camping mat. However, it was surprisingly had to find a comfortable place where dogs didn't bark at me all night long...
The next day started with quite low energy, I found it really hard to cycle up the slightest hills. Even after breakfast it didn't get better. The route consisted of a constant climb of 1000 m throughout the day. So I decided to lie down again in the next field and rest for another hour before continuing. After that, I felt much fresher and my condition improved a lot. The day went by amazing and the evening at Marc & Mallories' was great! We ate a rich Raclette dinner, they gave me route recommendations, showed me Mongolian music, told stories about their bike travels and even offered me to borrow their unused tent for my next days (being worried about my lack of good sleep). In review, that was one of the most lucky events during my bike tour...
Instead of starting very early on the next day and cycling to Granada as originally imagined, I rested until noon and went westwards along steep mountains, to the city of Jaen. There, I would take the long "Via verde del aceite" and take another mountain road from Ronda to Algeciras. That means 6000 m of climb and took me 5 days. I arrived happy but exhausted at Javier's house in Algeciras, the Warmshowers host where Johanna already had stayed for one night. I spent all my nights before in the newfound tent, because all last-minute Couchsurfing requests didn't work out. I covered more and more parts of my body to protect them from the constant sunshine and the wind, bought some canned food because my reserves were running low, although I was successfully dumpster diving once!
(cycled roughly 3500 km from Berlin to Algeciras)
Stage 11 - Jumping over the Strait
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Future destinations
Valencia, Spain (January 2017) - 375 km from Barcelona, 3-4 days - approx arrival February 2017
Morocco
Portugal
Edinburgh, UK (May 2017)
...
(to Morocco)
From here on my descriptions are lacking somewhat. It's nice to live in the moment, no need to write everything down.
Without a detailed plan and without time pressure, Johanna and me wanted to try hitchhiking the ferry to Morocco. Trucks are allowed to take another "driver" for free, so that was easy, but the bikes were a problem. After two days of trying to communicate with hands and feet (only common language), getting invited by Moroccan truck drivers for food, dumpster diving in Algeciras and camping close to the beach, we decided to accept our fate and bought return tickets for 30 EUR per person.
We arrived at the Tanger Med port on March 23rd at night time, which meant finding a nice camping place soon. It wasn't easy, given the hilly landscape, the crowded north coast of Morocco and the rain that occurred shortly before, but we managed to sleep on a field close to Ksar Sghir. During the night, it rained again and the tent floor & my mattress got wet, so we used the half-sunny weather on the next day to dry our stuff, before continuing along the hilly coastal road to Tanger city.
(family close to Ksar el Kebir, waterfalls in Akchour, Ahmed in Oued Laou, couchsurfing in Martil and M'Diq, Easter visit in Ceuta)
Roughly 500 km
Stage 12 - Back in Spain
Arrived April 17th?
Coming back from Morocco felt like returning home. Algeciras seemed so familar!
Janina already arrived in South of Spain two days ago. She had a host in Alceidesa named John, who also invited us over. As there was a conflict, we decided to leave on the next day. Johanna to Portual, Janina and me along the coast without clear direction. She didn't have a bike. We first spent two days at the windy beach, then did a mixed walk/cycle trip across the mountains to Barbate. The EuroVelo 8 does not really exist in these regions.
The last night in Chiclana had torrential rain and we didn't have a host. Tent proved to be waterproof! Janina then had to go back to Germany and I wanted to continue to Portugal to meet Johanna again.
135 km walk/cycle with Janina - deepsouth.gpx
Cycling over Sevilla to Portugal
325 km to Portugal
Stage 13 - Portugal
Arrived May 2nd at Jo
Then a long relaxed tour with Johanna along the south coast, along the west coast to Lisboa and to Porto (800 km). Johanna's sister cycled with us for a few days, really nice!
I wanted to reach Germany until July, so we decided to cycle across the country into Spain. Oh so many mountains!
220 km, 3500 hm from Porto to Verin
Stage 14 - Spain and Basque Country
The mountains didn't stop! Well, the Camino de Santiago gave us a nice break between Leon and Burgos. We confused the pilgrims by riding it in the wrong direction 
From Verin to Vitoria-Gasteiz 540 km
Here Johanna and me parted ways, she took a bus to South of Spain and I continued to Germany. But there is another country in the way....
Stage 15 - Racing through France
950 km - first down the Basque mountains, then flat across French countryside
Finished for now!
In Paris I arrived during on noon June 21st and took a bus (that had a bike carrier) to Germany in the evening. That was exactly the right amount of time in the city.
Aftermath
From Braunschweig I cycled 80km in sunny and rainy weather to Harzgerode, where I arrived at night when a thunderstorm was directly over me. That gave quite a motivation to cycle harder up the Harz hills.
Finally replaced my bike chain, it was really saggy!
Some smaller tours followed:
- Finsterwalde to Berlin (120 km)
- Berlin to Wurzen (180 km)
- Wurzen to Neuried (475 km)
= 7825 km