Maybe EuroVelo 8

April - July 2023

A 111-day adventure by Jay Read more

25footprints
7countries
111days
385photos
3videos
2.8kmiles
624miles

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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- Apr 25, 2023
- ⛅ 64 °F
- Altitude: Sea level
- Iberian Sea 40.351587, 2.2619340°21’6” N 2°15’43” E
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Day 16
Playing ketchup
April 25, 2023, Iberian Sea ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F
Some sights so far. Started in Malaga, Spain. Terrain is tougher than I thought (climbs, drops, dirt, tunnels, sun). Ground it out to Valencia. Nothing broke or fell off. But, presently on an overnight ferry to Barcelona via Minorca.Read more
Traveler What kind of plant is this ?
4/25/23Reply
Traveler You are looking at an artichoke
4/25/23Reply
Traveler They are very good for you - many natural health benefits eat lots of them
4/26/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- Apr 25, 2023
- ☀️ 84 °F
- Altitude: 20 ft
- Spain Valencia Gandia Puerto de Gandía Barranco de Beniopa 38.97899, -0.1543938°58’44” N 0°9’16” W
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Day 16
To Valencia
April 25, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F
I’ve met funny and kind folks. Usually at campsites at the end of the day. I’m not threatening to begin with and touring cyclists give off that “just passing through” vibe.
The couple is from Manchester. Brits come to Spain like we go to Walmart. Spain is discounted like Walmart too. Food especially is cheaper, a lot!
The guy is Benno from Düsseldorf. Quit his engineering job and has been on the road 7-8 months. This Winter on the Canary Islands.
All this up the coast on the road to Valencia.Read more
Traveler Beautiful couple making the most of it
4/26/23Reply
Traveler A kindred spirit, plain to see. Benno, come see us in Westcliffe!
4/26/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- Apr 26, 2023, 10:47pm
- ☁️ 63 °F
- Altitude: 128 ft
- Spain Catalonia Barcelona Gothic Quarter Plaça de Catalunya 41.386652, 2.16731641°23’12” N 2°10’2” E
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Day 17
The ferry to Barcelona and sights
April 26, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F
Slept in a chair on the overnight ferry. A Spanish soap opera blared all night. 10 hours went fast with earplugs. Checked in first night to a large central city bunkhouse. Assigned an upper bunk, eight to a room, 10 rooms per floor, four floors. I’m way too old in a lot of ways. I may not be able to slide past the discomforts like before.
Mostly nobody speaks English. I smile more, nod more and gesticulate a lot more. Daytime is for tourists. Nighttime is for partying. The chatty, laughing, two beer kind, not the Daytona Beach kind.
Roamed around midtown to see and feel at street level. The architecture seems to have looked to Paris for inspiration. The crazy exceptions are the Antoni Gaudi buildings I stumbled upon. Think Lord of the Rings Hobbiton movie set meets St. Basil’s Cathedral in the Kremlin. My opinion alone, I’m sure.Read more
Traveler You may have been more comfortable as a stow away in one of these
4/27/23Reply
Traveler The water is such a pretty blue
4/27/23Reply
Traveler No pictures of you participating in the Pigeon play ?
4/27/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- Apr 27, 2023, 8:56pm
- 🌙 66 °F
- Altitude: 135 ft
- Spain Catalonia Barcelona Gothic Quarter Plaça de Catalunya 41.386514, 2.16747841°23’11” N 2°10’3” E
Day 18
Recently located maybe oldest synagogue
April 27, 2023 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 66 °F
Sinagoga Major de Barcelona
Today I found the location of a Sephardi synagogue dating to the 3rd or 4th century. That would be years with numbers like 252 or 353. Those dates put the synagogue historically right with the Romans here on the Iberian Peninsula.
Spain, for its own part, been as cruel as anyone in history to Muslims and Jews. Barcelona itself stands out having massacred thousands of Jews in the streets, stealing everything from them and then expelling anybody left in 1391, a good hundred years before of the rest of Spain got around to the same crimes in 1492.
I could go on.
The short story is the research, architecture and archeology all line up for this little hole in the ground with a bar/restaurant on top of it.
The kicker is the magnificent gothic cathedral built down the street used Jewish grave stones, with Hebrew inscriptions, to build the walls.Read more
Traveler This is very interesting - how you ever found it remains a mystery
4/28/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- Apr 27, 2023, 10:05pm
- ⛅ 64 °F
- Altitude: 128 ft
- Spain Catalonia Barcelona Gothic Quarter Plaça de Catalunya 41.386593, 2.16737241°23’12” N 2°10’3” E
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Day 18
Double decker bus tour
April 27, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F
Sat up top for both the red and blue routes. It was a nice day so what the heck. In fact they are all nice days here. Did I also mention it’s cheaper here too?
Anyway, there’s my bunk room, a view inside what they call a carnateria (see the legs..shudder). Then there’s the view of Christopher Columbus’ butt and a bowl of wicked spicy Chinese fish soup. Finally random architecture.
I give this place a solid A for how great it is. There was even a futbol match tonight. Go FC Barcelona!Read more
Traveler Strange sites for a bus tour
4/27/23Reply
Traveler Meats?
4/27/23Reply
Traveler Looks like something you eat at home
4/27/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- Apr 29, 2023, 5:55pm
- ☁️ 61 °F
- Altitude: 118 ft
- Italy Liguria Genoa Oregina Stazione Genova Porta Principe (RFI)44.416169, 8.92347344°24’58” N 8°55’25” E
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Day 20
Buon Giorno Genova
April 29, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F
On the ferry, the dim passenger Jay does not know he is about to be sunburned.

Today, my three Swiss touring friends had a final meal in Genova. A half hour later I’m sitting around just leisuring Italian style leisure. Under the black paper napkins I see Walter left his cell phone! I flash out to the train station in a run. They rode there on their bikes. Whatever train they’re going to Switzerland on leaves at 1:48. That’s all I know. Get to the station, blabbidy 1:48 blabbidy (insert Italian) over the loud speaker. The 1:48 from platform 12 reads the board. Find the platform, jump on the train, work down the isle. There he is. Done. Feeling pretty okay about myself. But after all, he did pay for my lunch.

Pro tips from Espanol
Ground floors start at zero.
A ton more cigarette smoking, the packages are gross.
Bicycles must obey all minor traffic laws (ahem) or get Garda attention.
A bizillion teenagers travel completely safely on their own.
So many languages, all the Romance plus Arabic, Hindi, Ukrainian.
Very many people do not speak English or care that you’re American.
Cooper Minis are midsize cars and command respect.
The euro comes in 1 € and 2 € coins, the five is the first bill, people got over that.
The whole vibe everywhere is more chill. Maybe it’s having national health care.
Can’t wait to ride out of town, up all day hills. Really!Read more
Traveler Looks like the disco lounge on a cruise ship
4/29/23Reply
Traveler Gift shop ?
4/29/23Reply
Traveler Watch the sun - make sure SPF high
4/29/23Reply
Traveler Finally my souvenir LOL
4/29/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- May 4, 2023, 6:40pm
- ☀️ 68 °F
- Altitude: 614 ft
- Italy Lombardy Iseo Clusane 45.665335, 9.98676645°39’55” N 9°59’12” E
Day 25
We’re Number One!
May 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F
If you were wondering how the USA stacks up against Italy in the Urban Graffiti Competition, just take a look. United States “tags”, Italy inspires. Yeah but…as Geo. W. Bush would say, the Italians don’t even have a word for graffiti.Read more
Traveler Cool!
5/4/23Reply
Traveler Where was all the graffiti
5/5/23Reply
Traveler You gotta love it.
5/8/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- May 4, 2023, 7:20pm
- ☀️ 66 °F
- Altitude: 614 ft
- Italy Lombardy Iseo Clusane 45.665344, 9.98682645°39’55” N 9°59’13” E
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Day 25
That is soooo last week!
May 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F
The video is a rocking Saturday night in a neighborhood of Genova. Next, Alex and Luciano in North Milano. We had possibly 20 words on common but talked and laughed for an hour and a half nonetheless. Next, a self portrait. Next, a couple stealth or wild camping sites. Four in a row. No troubles so far. Poppies grow wild and hearty by the roads. To the English they recall fallen war solders and veterans. Here and now, they are a joy. In Spring Cottonwoods let fly clumps of sticky down that stream with the breeze and bed the walkways. Last, another new hostel friend in Genova, from Perugia, who busks accordion by day ($90+), web designs by night.Read more
Traveler Are you north of Milan now, riding from Genoa? You are moving quickly.
5/4/23Reply
Traveler Heading in a straight line from here to Venice. Will meet people from my congregation in Venice then the whole lot of us will train back to Milano to present the Torah scroll..
5/4/23Reply
Traveler They will leave from Milano to go back to Pgh..
5/4/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- May 7, 2023, 8:04am
- ☁️ 59 °F
- Altitude: 604 ft
- Italy Lombardy Iseo Pilzone 45.676185, 10.07626845°40’34” N 10°4’35” E
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Day 28
Dynasty
May 7, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F
You don’t hear Latin anymore, especially after Vatican II. But in every ancient village, now connected by highway, the artifacts of the religious dynasty are in plain sight. The church was the pride of the village, the way high school football is in the South. And forget the Mayor, the Monsignor was the man.

The building style is always Romanesque, squat and chunky, in the tower the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees, to hear the softly spoken magic spells. (Pink Floyd, Time)

The old Papal flag with the red cross on the white field appears now and then. The Crusaders carried it with them on their rampages. Their purpose at the time was mainly to “cleanse” Jerusalem of Muslims. But also, as well, the burning and killing of Jews along the way. A look at the mosaic on the one church reads “Victoria Fides Nostra”. Translation “Faith is Our Victory”. Hmmm…but to be fair, there is a different way to read it nowadays (it’s drawn from the book of John).

Finally, a look at a proper Italian cemetery. PregoRead more
Traveler Wow
5/7/23Reply
Traveler They sure knew how to do pomp and awe.
5/8/23Reply
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Traveler Maybe EuroVelo 8
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- May 7, 2023, 9:18am
- ☁️ 63 °F
- Altitude: 604 ft
- Italy Lombardy Iseo Pilzone 45.676145, 10.0763345°40’34” N 10°4’35” E
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Day 28
Countryside by Boat and Bike
May 7, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F
The town is Iseo, wisely located on the shore of Lake Iseo. It’s got everything, on the right scale. I’d come back just to here for vacation. Glad I skipped Como.
Traveler Beautiful and probably very relaxing - nice change - - what was the water temperature? Could you swim?
5/7/23Reply
Traveler Beautiful!
5/7/23Reply
Traveler I would t be able to chose - all lovely and I am sure very well crafted
5/7/23Reply
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