New Directions: Valencia, Spain (September 2016 - ???)

Bodhi on Wheels is taking a breather!  Yes, faced with the choice of cycling to the Black Sea (followed by improvising another wintertime) or moving to Spain, we chose the latter.  Word is out on the wisdom of this decision - but three things were evident: 1) the absolute idiocy of Brexit forced us to solidify our political situation a bit 2) we were ready for a break from hard travelling for some months and 3) we wanted Bo to get some socialization and start in on Spanish language skills.

Why Valencia?  It is one of the cheapest large cities in Europe; it is small enough to be able to do everything on bicycle and cross the entire city in less than 30 minutes; it has a mild climate all winter and plenty of sunshine; it has a good food and art culture; it is NOT full of tourists and expats (like Barcelona for example) and retains a Spanish regional flavor; and it has a 10km-long recreational gardens and green space cutting through the center of the capital with bike lanes, jogging lanes, walking trails, parks, playgrounds and exercise stations.

Heading out of Barcelona - our last stop before Valencia - look who leads the charge!

In Valencia, we have the good fortune of having a dear friend, Manuel, whom we met on the Camino de Santiago in 2015.

Valencia has the distinction of being home to paella, Spain's national dish and a culinary tour-de-force, with its colors, aromas, varied textures, and ultimate improvisational potential.  

Tasteful graffiti abounds,...

... amidst medieval towers...

... and Calatrava oddities.

Home also to one of Spain's (and the world's) great parties: Fallas! (held in March every year)

Bodhi rode his bike properly for the first time at the age of 3 years, 4 months and 2 weeks.  (Pictured with Tomek, a Warm Showers guest of ours.)  Since then he has steadily improved - even managing to do 9km in one go on one day in November!  Valencia is somewhat of a biker's haven: mostly-respectful drivers, bike lanes everywhere, few taxis and motorcycles, and no real traffic snarls.  It is also a paradise for young children: free playgrounds everywhere, extensive pedestrianized zones, and a culture which loves and appreciates children.   

Jam session in our flat!  Bo on tin whistle, Connie on harmonica, and Richie on guitar!  (Jeff and Richie are old friends from Barcelona 2007-9)

Building sand castles on the beach in Malvarrosa in late October - just several kilometers from the center.

Katy and Bo pictured with Romain - another Warm Showers guest of ours.   Along with his partner, Elodie, they are on a one-year cycling adventure on the bike seen here: a tandem with the front rider recumbent.

Jeff accompanies Bo on his first day of "school" at La Aurora. 

Bo, fourth from the left, with his class of 3-4 year-olds.

Doing yoga in the Rio Turia park!  Bodhi is assisted by his Uncle Ben and taught by Ben's girlfriend Claire, on a visit in mid-December.  

And so, for the foreseeable future (at least until the end of this school year), we will be in Valencia, Spain.  Family, friends, long-distance cyclists, pilgrims and travellers are all welcome to come visit.  Meanwhile, this will be the last post for the time being - as we will be taking a deserved break from blogging and spending more time cooking, playing music, reading books, practicing kung fu (at least in Bodhi's case), micro-gardening, teaching English, and seeking solutions, amongst other things...

In Sardinia: Island of A Thousand Beaches (18-28 August 2016)

Our next destination - Sardinia - came about almost by accident.  While still in Switzerland - and trying to figure out the most enjoyable way to transport our bikes, trailers and gear to Spain - it became clear that boat travel would be the winner, and as chance would have it, most boats going from Italy to Spain pass by Sardinia.  Having no particular hurry to reach Spain, we decided to explore Sardinia for 10 days on bike.  A fantastic plan, given the quantity of world-class beaches all over the island.  Only, we hadn't calculated that half of Italy would be there in August: the island becomes a chaotic storm of Italian vacationers during this time!

We headed to Sardinia from the Mediterranean port city of Genoa (origin of none-other-than-the genocidal Christopher Columbus).

Tirrenia was our ferry company: they transported us and all of our gear for 80 Euros.  

After a 10-hour trip, arriving in the waters near Olbia, one of Sardinia's primary ports.

Our stealth camp on the outskirts of Olbia... a late ferry arrival left us barely enough time to escape the snarled traffic in Olbia and find this campsite.

Our first of many beach stops on the island, Lido del Sole.  

Launching off a Stand-Up Paddle...

... and paddling around the bay on a kayak leant to us by a friendly local.

Full-moon seen from our wild campsite in arid scrubland.

Near the mega-touristy San Teodoro, we made a pause at Spiaggia Isuledda...

... which featured buoyant, crystal-clear, turquoise, bath-water-temperature, PERFECT water.

Our formula (worked out on the fly) in Sardinia was quite simple:  since the temperatures were 35-38 degrees, no shade, and traffic was heavy, we would cycle short morning stretches (15-20 km), find a nice beach to spend the day on, and cycle another 10-15 km in late afternoon/evening to find a wild campsite somewhere.  Perhaps not a very intense cycling plan, but it did maximize Bodhi's (and our) time-in-the-sea - one of his favorite things on the planet.  To pull this off, we purchased a beach umbrella and some beach toys and hauled them around on the B.O.B. trailer (along with everything else)!

The beach at La Caletta...

.... where we did some fine sand castle construction...

... and gave Bodhi a proper sand burial.

Evening fishing scene in Santa Lucia.

Bo explores the scene...

... before a pizza dinner on the seafront.  The near one is Jeff's seafood pizza.

Local Sardine beer, a treat for us after the hot days...

... while Bodhi settles for some strawberry gelato.

At play in a campground in Santa Lucia, as we desperately needed showers and laundry.  Just to give you an idea of prices in Sardinia in high season: one night with one tent, two aduilts + one child =  38 Euros!  Most expensive camping we've ever heard of.  

Naturally, we happily resumed wild camping.

This time in an abandoned orchard.  

Interior Sardinia is like another planet compared to the coast/beaches: arid, somewhat cooler, no tourists, no traffic.

Jeff and Bo descending towards Bosa on the west side of the island.

We found Bosa to be a lovely spot...

... Bo sipping juice on the cobbled colonial streets.

Katy heading down towards Spiaggia S'Abba Druche just north of Bosa.

Katy shows off some battle scars from a hopeless tussle with her bike chain.

S'Abba Druche: Here the crowds were lesser, costs were lower, and the scene was absolutely magnificent.

Bo in paradise.

Enticing water...

Jeff and Bo chilling after a long swim session.

The coastline on the dramatic road between Bosa and Alghero, our favorite cycling highlight from Sardinia by far.

Katy soaks it all in...

Early morning up in the cliffs.

Jeff and Bo enjoying the curves...

In Bosa we had met two Dutch cyclists (the only other cyclists we saw in Sardinia!) who caught up with us again just south of Alghero.

Uhh... this adds a little excitement to your dip.  Especially with a 3-yr.old at your side.  

Bo had no trouble adapting to our beach nomad life in Sardinia...

... right up to the fabulous sunset.

...followed of course, by deep sleep.

Katy glides ahead while sublime views open up all the while...

Jeff and Bodhi just before Alghero...

... which we spot from a distance.

Bo had a fine time in Alghero with its colonial center by the sea...

Here he chooses to ride out himself.

Full-scale catapult on display in Alghero's fort.  Alghero has loose cultural ties with Cataloña: it was part of the kingdom of Aragon in medieval times, and to this day about 15% of the population speak Catalan as a native language.  Having said that, the overall "feel" was much more Sardinian and Italian to us than it was Catalan.  

Another day, another beach: this time Maria Pia on the northern outskirts of Alghero.  Once again, shockingly amazing water given the hordes of vacationers.    

Bo clowns around with some local boys.

From Alghero we headed north to Porto Torres from where our next ferry would depart.  Once again we crossed some interior island landscapes which are like night-and-day compared to the coast.  Sparsely inhabited with extensive dryland agriculture practice, as seen in the sheep grazing above.  

Quiet country roads far from the tourist cars.

The beach at Porto Torres, our last beach on this visit (8 in 9 days!)

Bo spent about a half-hour in this beach shower.

A twilight view towards the famed Stintino peninsula from Porto Torres.  

A 6:30 ferry departure meant we had to be on the docks at 5:30 AM.  

An entire city of automobiles and trucks were vomited from the massive ferry before we were able to board!

The Porto Torres-Barcelona ferry was operated by Grimaldi Lines, and featured a swimming pool on the deck.  

Katy and Bo contemplate the endless reaches of the Mediterranean, a fitting setting for closing this chapter.

13 hours later, we would arrive in Barcelona.  This would effectively end our spring/summer's travels (begun in Brittany) and also an often-punctuated longer journey begun 26 months earlier in Newcastle, U.K..  Next stop: Valencia, Spain... and not as tourists!