The week to forget... June 29 - July 6 2015
We had already decided this part of the coast of northern Spain was not the best for cycle touring. Lumpy, as in up and down roads, too much traffic, touristy and 3 x the price. We took 11 different roads to get around Santandar, checked out five campgrounds, all were full trailer parks which is perfectly fine for those needing to live there, the people are all nice and very quiet considering the amount of people around, it's just not the camping experience we enjoy.
Then onto Larado, although the town was a bit shabby the beach was nice as was the campground.
Next stop Castro Urdiales, lovely old buildings, nice swimming spots and great views out across the Atlantic ocean from the campground which was 3 km up a steep hill from town.
It was also festival week and lots of out of towners around which we did not realise until later.
We left our gear at the campground and headed into town to use the library computers and access the internet. It was my birthday too so we enjoyed a nice 'menu del dia' ( menu of the day) for a long lunch. I also got my haircut, and decided its a good thing my head is usually under a helmet or sunhat during the day as I think it looks its best when I am asleep!
We locked our bikes up together to a power pole with our big thick sturdy lock alongside other bikes. The library was only open from 4 - 6 in the afternoon. About 5.30 someone came upstairs and asked if anyone had left a bicycle outside as some had just been stolen...
Ahh, turned out it was ours. Some elderly men sitting on the park bench next to our bikes had watched as these two guys sawed through the lock and cycled away..11000 km we had ridden them and they were nowhere to be seen.
Not locals, Roma gypsies was what we understood via interpretation and I think the men watching may have been too intimidated to say anything, or maybe just did not want to get involved, who knows. Basically we put too much faith in our lock. A lovely helpful lady who spoke some English took us up to the police station where we waited for a very long time, finally giving a statement and doing the paper work, it was quite comical and totally a waste of time despite having good descriptions of theives and photos of bikes their parting comment was "if you see your bikes give us a call" and I said yes if you see our bikes give us a call!!
So it was a pretty sorry looking couple carrying the shopping bags up the steep hill to the tent that night.
We do have travel insurance but it does not cover bikes or any sporting equipment over 3 years old.
Then all the "what do we do now?" questions arose with many options discussed but we decided we wanted to carry on, on bikes, so sussed out the next morning what was available in town. There were a couple of bikes that were ok, low spec but getting racks in was going to take time and expensive. Even though our bikes were 10 years old and not worth much in NZ it was going to be expensive to replace them ready for touring. Trevor had a sleepless night, but I figured there was not much point in both of us feeling grumpy... So I posted our stranded pic on Facebook - a problem shared is a problem halved.
The positives of social media! Taupo friends had just finished cycling the Pyrenees in France and offered to leave their bikes in Toulouse for us to pick up.
We got that fantastic offer 6 pm Wednesday evening. Grabbed a couple of big plastic zip up bags from the cheap Chinese shop to put our panniers in. We packed up in the rain the next morning, sadly having to leave our chairs behind. The lovely campground owner gave us a lift to the bus station and we headed to Bilbao the nearest big city with transport options. The only really viable option was the overnight bus to Toulouse leaving at 11.30 pm. It was midday, we stored our gear, 4 euro, then explored the city, visiting the Guggenheim museum, wandering along the river, looking at our watches, cafe hopping, looking at our watches... Finally a pizza and beer at a cafe, then bag pick up at 9.30, on the bus at 11.30 , adios Spain,arrived in Toulouse, France at 5.30 am. We literally lugged our bags to the more comfortable train station, waited for Toulouse to wake-up and googled bike shops etc as we needed to get front racks. Bag storage was going to be 19 euro so we looked nearby for a hotel but they were 70 euro and we could not check in till later but a helpful young reception guy said we could store our bags at his hotel. We found our way to the hotel where Maria and Warwick had left their bikes, we had forgotten the bike tools to lower the seats, they are both taller than us, but managed to ride back to our gear, adjust them, then set off around the city looking for what we needed. Navigation is not our strength but on this trip we have discovered Trevor can read maps and I can always find our way back to where we started, like our tent, our hotel, the train station without the map so that's a bonus. But Trevor still follows me calling out, "are you sure you know where you are going?"
We managed to find some front racks, then back to our gear and then Trevor fitted the racks under a tree beside the river. Everytime we left the hotel where our gear was stored the young guy said he wouldn't be there when we got back because his shift was finished but he always was so finally I said, I thought you were going home and he said, "I did but I came back, I'm in love with the waitress" So funny.
Loaded our gear on, cycled down one canal and onto another and 6 km up to the campground. Sounds straight forward when I write it down, but it was anything but. Toulouse was in the middle of a heatwave, it was 42 degrees! Navigating around a strange city was just a tad stressful, we were tired, finally showered, tent up and food purchased by 7.30 pm. I did laugh though when I realised I had not taken my shoes off for 36 hours. But hey we had bikes so it was all good.
We decided to replace the back racks and headed into the city and found this cafe/velo store opposite the train station. An aging hippy guy with bike expertise, parts, tools for anyone to use and a think outside the square mentality. You just rock up, explain what you want to do and if its possible do it. He had some back racks, just 25 euro each and found some brackets to attach them to the frame. Trevor did the work, at least 50 people dropped by with all sorts of broken bikes to work on while we were there. His motto was if you are happy then I am happy. Such a great place. We left him all the spare parts that we didn't need from our other bikes.
We had small front bags that clipped onto our other bikes, the bracket was on the handle bar rendering them now unusable. But we purchased a basket for the front to put one bag in. It would only fit on Trevor's bike. It's so French!
Sunday we finished getting everything ready, speedos, riser bars, grips, pedals etc, bike accessories are a quarter the price here compared to NZ. So many cyclists everywhere, we enjoyed the afternoon exploring downtown central Toulouse around the river, lots of cycle ways and no traffic on Sundays. No shops open just cafes and restaurants.
Monday morning dawned bright and still so hot but we were happy to be 'On the road again.' Pyrenees here we come.
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