Bilbao-Victoria Gastiez-Estella-Desert-Zaragoza

Hola from Zaragoza! (Make sure you lisp those Z´s!) Brian and I have made serious headway on this journey and we will continue to make serious distance with the aid of train tomorrow, but more on that later!

Last I wrote, we were in Bilbao experiencing the exciting architecture of the city. We went to the Guggenheim and took in some incredible works of art in two exhibitions: Juan Munoz and the surrealists. Juan Munoz I knew and recognized from works at the Hirshhorn in Washington. His work makes the viewer feel an outsider to another world. Our afternoon strolling through these works of art was extremely pleasant and we ended our Bilbao day with the Spanish semifinal in which they destroyed Russia. As in Basque country, Brian and I were the only ones cheering on the national team!!! A thunderstorm to end the day made me happy to be out of the weather in our Hostal, too.

We left the next morning, gear dry, and ready to take on the road once again. Brian climbed his first pass at 645 meters and we ended the day dry and in good spirits. On Saturday, we rode through Victoria- Gastiez with its University and saw lots of young people. It was a very new extremely clean city with enormous development projects at its edge. Brian commented that it may remind him of Dubai! Dozens of tall structures with accompanying cranes protruded from the hills. In town, we ate grand pasteries in the excessive sun and heat and then took off again down the road without an internet connection. With a box of bad but good red wine in an orchard in the sunset, we spent our last night informal camping before reaching Estella. Our tents were ignored by the local farmer, or he didn´t see us in his orchard! We finished the stretch to Estella the next morning and watched the Spanish final in the small town with locals and some Aussies and Kiwis. The heat really began this Sunday. We could not stand the hours between 12 and 5- even at the pool. A sign of things to come.

The scorching, dry heat pressed and increased as we rode out of the hills finally and into the Spanish plain, nay, desert. For the next two days, Brian and I could not bike from 1PM to 6PM. If we did, we got very overheated in a matter of minutes and the continuous sun began to break us. We saw beautiful landscapes reminding Brian of the Mexican Pleatea and ruins and the sun. White houses with residents cooling themselves in the shade of their cool homes when we reached the unusual small town. The sun is the most memorable part of the past two days. It was, however, two days of centuries. The heat may have hit and destroyed the century mark for fahrenheit, but we also rode at least two kilometer centuries. In fact, yesterday, Brian and I rode approximately 120 km to reach the campsite in Zaragoza. We rode 80 km of that after 6 PM! We are certainly getting strong and increasing our endurance drastically. Riding at the right time of day is critical. The Spanish siesta is suddenly very sensible to us.

Before last night which we spent in the Expo campsite- the campsite for the world´s fair entitled ¨Water and Sustainable Development¨. We slept in the desert, after cooling our sun-overheated bodies in a cold, blue canal. It was amazingly refreshing dunking in 50 degree mountain water, but sleeping was not as refreshing. A thunderstorm blew over to our east and we experienced major winds for several hours. Brian and my presence in the tents alone anchored them.

Today, though, we explored the Expo and found it disturbingly unsustainable. I am questioning the use of the spaces, the future use of the site, and the actual water sustainability of the site itself! Watering planted sod in the middle of a 90 degree day and spraying mist into the arid desert air lacks what I would consider a sustainable angle. Brian and I have studied all this at some length and may even coordinate to write a piece on what we´ve witnessed here at the Unsustainable Expo.

Tomorrow is exciting! We will ride a local train to Barcelona! I have not ridden European rail for many years and we can even bring our bikes aboard! No more desert riding. And a serious rest after 220km in 2 days. Our bodies are ready for it. The rest of today we will explore this desert city and retire to the campsite and prepare for a new form of travel!

For those who have emailed and left comments I am wholly appreciative. Your thoughts and comments place my daily activities and current life in a beautiful perspective. Shannon, I hope the delivery is perfect when it happens and I can´t wait to have a new first-cousin-once-removed! Love and miss you all.