🇪🇸🧳Wrapping Up for the Trip Home🏡🇺🇸

Our final day in Spain began with a bit more work than planned: my eSIM had run out of days, leaving me without cellular service or WiFi. With no way to get connected, we needed to find a solution to book our Uber. Luckily, Google Maps was still working offline, and it led us to the city library. The slight crisis averted! With the phone up and running again, we scheduled an Uber to pick us up at 6:15 AM the next day, a big van that (fingers crossed) would fit both us and our bikes.

After that was sorted, we spent the morning strolling around El Prat picking up some last-minute food souvenirs to bring back home to friends and family. Spain had been good to us in that department, and we wanted to share a bit of that goodness. Then it was back to Abraham’s (our Warmshower host who left us the key to his flat as he is in Japan), where the real work awaited: packing.

Lisa dove into organizing our bags and tackling the task of disassembling parts of the bikes, while I sat down to work on our travel blog, reflecting on these incredible past six weeks. Things were moving along until we hit a snag: a stuck pedal. We didn’t have a long enough 8mm hex wrench to remove it, and with siesta time upon us, most stores were closed. After a brief walk around town to see if we could find a tool, we decided to improvise instead. Before we returned to Abraham’s to rig up a solution, we treated ourselves to some ice cream. Ice cream fixes a lot, but unfortunately, not stuck pedals.

Eventually, we managed to get everything packed up and organized by 6:00 PM. Despite our confidence that we were ready for the airport, we were still a bit nervous about whether the 6-person van we had ordered would be able to accommodate the bicycle boxes. Hopefully, it would all come together in the morning.

After a quick FaceTime call with Sebastian, we headed out for an early dinner at Bar Tíboli the same bar/restaurant we had been to the night before. We loved the place, and why not repeat a good thing? As we sat outside on the empty patio, lit by the soft orange glow of the streetlights, we enjoyed the sound of light sprinkles falling on the cobblestones. It was the perfect backdrop for reminiscing about the journey we had just completed. We laughed about the quirky things that happened, talked about how, despite being practically inseparable for the entire trip, we never got tired of each other, and discussed the places we’d like to return to one day and other places to explore: Japan, Southern Spain, Portugal, and definitely some time in the Basque region of the Pyrenees.

We couldn't help but start thinking about the things we'd have to do once we got home, but quickly agreed to stop that train of thought. This moment was too perfect to ruin with to-do lists. Instead, we shifted to talking about the food we were going to miss and, on the flip side, how we wouldn’t miss the constant smoking and vaping in public spaces. I swear, I’ve inhaled more secondhand smoke in the last six weeks than in the last six years, and it continues at the Chicago airport as I write this.

The rain picked up just as we decided to head back to the flat, and I joked that it was only fitting, given the amount of rainy weather we had encountered during the trip. But honestly, it felt like the perfect way to end the day—a soft, quiet rain to close out this unforgettable adventure. We went to bed early, ready for the journey home but not quite ready to leave this part of Europe.Lue lisää