Jönköping - Gibraltar 2007 »

18 August | Ryd (Jönköping - Jkpg)-Göteborg
141 km
Raining, about 2 h, cloudy, quite windy, cold
Rather rough
A bit stressy, had to make it to the ferry.

19 August | Kiel-Cuxhaven
131 km
Mix of sun and clouds, some rain
Flat like a pancake
We stayed at Björn’s uncle, nice.

20 August | Cuxhaven - Bad Zwischenahn
120 km
Through the german countryside
No hills at all.
Rain in the afternoon.
Nice youth hostel with good breakfast.

21 August | Bad Zwischenahn - Almelo
162 km
Entered Holland, better cycle roads, sometimes traffic.
Flat flat
All we found was an all-inclusive hotel. Strange phenomena, we ate a lot and did some bowling before we went to bed.

22 August | Almelo - Venlo
147 km
Like yesterday.
No rain!
Cosy B&B i Venlo.

23 August | Venlo - Werbomont
153 km
To start with we cycled on a bad cycling road beside a road with heavy traffic. Millions of short stops for red lights, trains, pavements etc. When we came to Belgium and the Ardennes it was amazingly beautiful but hilly, no more cycle roads and NO traffic.
Found a small motel with a strange old man (Motel Montana)

24 August | Werbomont - Verdun
172 km
Through the Ardennes. Fantastic day. So beautiful.
1700 height metres. Fantastic 7 km downhill to breakfast.
Only 2 drops of rain!!!!
Hotel in Verdun city.

25 August | Verdun - Bar-Sur-Aube
133 km
1300 height m
Tiring sinusoidal roads, up and down all the time
Sunny and hot.
French countryisde
Cosy hotel with a nice french old lady
Drank champagne since we were in the province.

26 August | Bar-Sur-Aube - Nuit St George
155 km
Sunny, hot and humid.
1400 m up hill
Fantastic day. Rocks, fields, deep forests.
Nice hotel with an intense owner, a mix of Danny Devito and John Cleese in Faulty Towers.

27 August | Nuit St George
0 km
Resting day. Did not do much. We visited Chateau du Clos de Vogeout, took it soft and had a siesta. Picnic with a view over vineyards and the village.

28 August | Nuit St George - VilleFranche sur Saone
160 km
At first some traffic but after that a good day through vineyards. Lunch in Cluny. Cycle roads (!!!) for about 20 km that went through a long railway tunnel. Cool.

29 August | Villefrance sur Saone - Tournon sur Rhone
128 km
A really shitty day through Lyon and roads with heavy traffic. Luckily we found a road beside the motorway that followed the Rhone. A heavy thunderstorm forced us to stop for an hour.

30 August | - Tournon sur Rhone - Avignon
150 km
What a terrific day. The mistral wind in the back, and we followed the Rhone down. Very beautiful. We drove on a road near the river without cars for almost 20 km.

31 August | Avignon - Le Grau du Roi
96 km
Sunny, wind from the side, hard to ride
rather flat

1 September | Le Grau du Roi - La Palme
159 km
Sunny, only a bit windy. Perfect weather.
Rather flat, some hills in the end. At 15.30 we decided to go for La Palme and a B&B there, had a hard time to get there in time but we succeeded. The B&B was lovely, we joined the owners for dinner at a nice restaurant.

2 September | La Palme - Port de la Selva
120 km
Sun and slight wind from the sea. Flat until we came to the Pyrinees.

3 September | Puerto de la Selva - Tosse del Mar
120 km
1000 m uphill, the first and the last hour
Mostly sunny
1 flat tire!

4 september | Tossa de Mar - Sitges
120 km
Lots of big roads and settlements all over. We went through Barcelona. Puh!
Uphill at start and end.
Sunny and cloudy.
Lunch with tortilla and gazpatcho by La Sagrada Familia i Barcelona

5 September | Sitges
0 km
Mix of sun and clouds.
Wonderful to have a day off the cycle and be a normal tourist.
6 September | Sitges - Amposta
150 km
Sunny.
Uphill after lunch but when we came to the river delta, flat again. Scary moment when the small bridge to Amposta was closed and we had to take the highway.

7 September | Amposta - Almenarda
156 km
First everything was great. 50 km before ten o’clock. Then 20 km av gravel road, after that a big road with heavy traffic and no verge. To end with a sudden closed road, had to walk at the beach with the bikes. Hard to find hotel, found one at 20.53 in darkness.

8September | Almenarda - Xabia
145 km
Cloudy at start, then HOT!
2^nd breakfast in Valencia.

9 September | Xabia - Torre de la Horadada
165 km
Sunny.
Good day, found small roads with no traffic through fruit farms. Lots of cars near Alicante.
Ok hostel, I think the only one in town among all tourist apartments for golfers.

10 September | Horadada - Mojacar
160 km
Warm, sunny.
Very hilly and tiring at the end. A mix of small and bigger roads, we ride the small ones where it is possible but it is so many mountains inland, we have to go near the sea. We got a very cool view of the Spanish countryside, felt almost like we were biking in the desert. In the middle of nowhere we found a nice restaurant that served us a four meal course for 8 euros.

11 September | Mojacar - Adra
148 km
12 September | Adra - Malaga
145 km
No rain but cloudy.
Finally we made it to Malaga. Tiring and scary with all the traffic, almost no small roads to go for. More and more traffic the more south we come.

13 September | Malaga - La Linea
70 km bike 70 km bus
Cloudy and rainy.
No of flat tires 1
At three o’clock we gave up. There are no alternative roads to the motorway. We were allowed to go there but the rain was heavy and it would be too dangerous. We cried a bit first but then we decided that we got it all the way and that we should be proud of ourselves.

14 September | La Linea - Gibraltar - La Linea
20 km
No of flat tires 1
Sunny
Uphill to Europa point. Once there we looked at Africa and felt happy. We had made it!!
Afterwards we were having english breakfast!

14 September | Malaga – Stockholm
3500 km airplane
4 hours…

Photos
Unfortunately we lost our camera in south of France and therefore we have only photos shot from our cell phones dated after that.

Björn's bike

Another view, same bike

Hanna's bike

Nice sign, note the fork, found in Sete, France

Still in France

Going in to Spain

Another hill

Empuriabrava

Lunch in Pals, Spain

At the beach...

One example of many "second breakfasts"

La Sagrada Familia

Nice tan?

Day off in Sitges

Oh nooo, 20 km of gravel :-(

At the river delta

Almost desert and almost alone, going up

And Hanna, same mountain

Going down again

Somewhere in Spain

Another breakfast in Lance on our way to Malaga

Finally in Gibraltar

At Europe's point

Photos: Hanna and Björn 2007