Spain 2008, 2009 & 2010
Lodging
The "España:
Guía oficial de hoteles
España 2008" (or
current year) published by Instituto de Turismo de España is
an invaluable lodging guide for Spain. The paperback is available in bookstores
for around 14€. We've always
resented the bulk of the inexpensive book, but its completeness is compelling.
Not absolutely every establishment is in the book, but it includes most places
and a lot of specific information. For us, just knowing that there are a number
of places vs none at all in a town is a huge help in route planning.
When Bill
picked up the 2008 edition he was delighted to discover a CD inside, even though
there was no mention of it on the cover. Accolades came pouring out as soon as
he loaded the disk as it ran quickly and he labeled it the most user friendly
reference of its kind that he had ever found. Having hardcopy pages in the handle
bar bag is much easier for finding lodging than having an electronic copy, so he
tore out the pages for the region of Spain we'd be visiting in 2008 and pitched
the book. We'll use the electronic version if our plans for Spain change in
2008.
In 2009 & 2010 we continued using our 2008 electronic "Guia",
supplementing it with online searching for additional hotels and additional
information on hotels in the "Guia". The increasing presence of free wifi in
hotel rooms and more hotels advertising online made it seem unimportant to buy a
new version of the book. Two star hostals continue to be great values for us as
they are generally quite a bit cheaper than actual hotels but have all of the
features and comfort we need.
Barcelona
La Rambla
We spent little time in Barcelona in 2008 though drew heavily
on our experiences from 2003 and 2005. The main pedestrian area, the Rambla, in the the
center of the city is delightful: the energy of the crowds in uplifting and the
architectural details on the flanking buildings a visual delight.
New since we were in Barcelona last time was the welcome
Carrefour Express market on the left side of the street as you head up from the
waterfront. It's nonstop hours make it easy to buy bottled water and general
groceries while in the city center. We also paid a visit to the Anitga Ma
Farmacia a little beyond the Carrefour where we are able to buy syringes
preloaded with epinephrine--something we carry in our first aid kit should one
of us unexpectedly develop a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting or other
agent. And across the street from the farmacia on the left side of the little
street Oscar Colom Canillas is the Self Naturista self-service vegetarian
restaurant we enjoyed before. The food is tasty though not a great bargain but
we appreciate the 'see before you buy' approach that their buffet line provides.
Lodging
Lodging is always a challenge for us in Barcelona.
We'd love to stay close to the center but though we've looked several places and
stayed in 1, we haven't found anything we like. Online reviews of the affordable
centrally located options tend to be rather negative, especially when discussing
the noise level inside the rooms. I'm a very light sleeper and treasure a quiet
room and Spain is one of the noisier country's at night in Europe. The second
round of social life begins about midnight and we've had many a restlessness
night sleep because of the night-owl habits of our neighbors and the people on
the streets.
To solve the lodging problem, we again headed southwest to
the Cornellà de Llobregat suburb for an Ibis hotel
in the Accor chain. We love the cookie-cutter Ibis hotels because part of the
cookie-cutter approach means we always sleep well.
The nearly identical rooms in every country always deliver
very good soundproofing, excellent beds, very reliable plumbing, and light
blocking window coverings. Most of the Ibis rooms are a bit cramped but the ones
at the Fira de Cornellà are a bit larger than most,
have large windows that open (unlike the windows in the Ibis high-rise at the
other end of Barcelona), and have bath tubs instead of the standard Ibis shower
stall. English news stations on the TV were a bonus though their WiFi price was
up to 6.50€ per hour, which must be used continuously. The
69€ price for 2 made this an excellent value for Barcelona. The downside is the
walk to the metro and transferring to a second line to get to the heart of the
city, the Rambla. The industrial park neighborhood and 15 minute walk to a
supermarket also detract a bit. The staff once again reluctantly stored our
bikes in the luggage room. www.ibishotel.com; Tel:
34 93 475 17 77.
Campanile, another French-based hotel chain, had plunked down
a new high-rise hotel right next door to the Ibis we stayed. The Campanile was
79€ for 2 on weekdays, 69€ on weekends and had free WiFi. We've enjoyed
Campanile's motel-styled units in France, which are much more spacious than Ibis
rooms and usually provide a refrigerator, hot pot, and bath tub. The Campanile's
are usually sited near freeway exits, which isn't the greatest for cyclotourists,
though we found ourselves heading for the freeway exits in France just for the
lodging options. We didn't inspect a room at the new Campanile to see how
similar they are to the motel-styled rooms we've enjoyed. Campanile is just
breaking into the Spanish market, so we expect to see more of them. This
location unfortunately couldn't imagine an indoor spot to stash our bikes and
their best offer was for us to paid 6€ a day for a slot in their parking garage.
They've only been open 2 months so perhaps they will yet find a better solution.
www.campanile.com.
Sightseeing
Barcelona is loaded with delights for tourists. Though we didn't do any
sightseeing when there in 2008, we fondly remembered the Maritime Museum, the Miro
Museum, the Picasso Museum, and searching out Gaudi's wonderful architecture.
But Barcelona isn’t an easy city to breeze through in
a couple of days and you can’t count on stumbling across the sights you want to
see. The distances between sights are great enough and the hours of operation
unpredictable enough that it takes planning to sequence your visits to avoid
disappointment. Also be forewarned that Barcelona sightseeing is
expensive, as it was too easy to spend $20 per person per day on our 2003 visit, day after day,
taking in the range of wonderful sights. But only one paid sight didn’t deliver,
and that was the aquarium. The $13 entry fee was many times higher than the
value of the visit--it just didn’t have much that held our attention despite the
rare “excellent” rating given by our Lonely Planet guide book.
Hilltop Montserrat is worth a visit and it can be done as a
day trip from Barcelona without your own wheels. For information:
www.cremallerademontserrat.com;
Tel: 902 31 2020. The train ride there from Placa Espanya is about and hour and
a half, with trains leaving hourly starting at about 8:30 am. The last train
from Montserrat back to the city leaves at 6:15 pm. I'd plan on taking the
first train out in the morning and the last 1 back at night. The package price
starts at about 21€. Look for brochures about the trip
which may only be available from April to October. We stayed there a couple of
nights on our way to Andorra in 2005 and enjoyed the walking.
Bikes in Barcelona 2008
Since our last visit in 2005, Barcelona appears to have
fallen in love with bicycles. The racks and racks of cute "bicing.com"
bikes are "look don't touch" for tourists; they are for Barcelona residents only
for the cool price of 24€/year. But there are at
least a couple of central city options for bike tours or bikes for rent. BarcelonaBici at
www.barcelonaturisme.cat (click on "English", then "Getting around the
city"); Tel: 93 285 38 32. Their meeting point is Mirador
de Colom near the port. They rent out bikes for 4.5€/hr or
15€/day and will give you a map of the city bike lanes and sightseeing
tips. Barcelona Vibes at Rambla 83 offers daily bike tours 18€
and rentals. www.barcelonavibes.com;
Tel: 93 310 3747. We didn't use either of these businesses because we had our
own bikes but loved Barcelona's many new bike lanes.
Costa Brava
This stretch of the Mediterranean coast from Barcelona to
France is a pleasant journey. If you can spare the time, meander along the
bike-friendly beach promenades and search out the inter-town gritty bike paths
for a leisurely look at the entire beach scene. If you aren't in high season,
check for prices at some of the package tourism hotels in the bigger resort
towns. We did that and had a large though spare beach view room with a balcony
for a steal. The buffet breakfast was included and the 7€
buffet dinner was too good to pass up. Our self-prepared dinners are much
cheaper but we enjoyed the cultural experience of dining with the package
tourism folks and getting a glimpse of their travel style.
Empúries Museu d'Arqueologia de
Catalunya on the coast south of Roses is a worthwhile stop for history buffs. It
is the site of a partially excavated 6th c bce Greek colony and a later Roman
city. The small museum presents the finds well and the site itself is pleasingly
presented. When you are through with your visit, drop down to the water's edge
for a nice bike path to continue your journey north.
The Pyrenees
See our separate "Pyrenees" file under "Country Details".
Rio Tinto Mines (near Huelva in the SW)
Check-out
www.parquemineroderiotinto.com
or call 959590025 for information about visiting the now-closed mine complex.
The museum is open 7days a week from 10:30 am- 7:00 pm with an hour closure
being from 3 & 4. The replica of a Roman mine was closed for repairs when we
were there in mid-April 2010 and there wasn't enough English splashed around to
be useful but we still found it interesting. You need your own wheels to travel
the 10 km to do the tour of the mine basins and to get to the start of the
Railway for a trip on the train. We visited as a day trip from Huelva by
departing Huelva at 9:30 by bus, arriving at Rio Tinto at 11:15 and hopped on
our return bus at 2:15. Next time through we'll take the bikes and overnight at
the hotel in town. That way we should be able to get to the mine itself and the
train though we didn't confirm that bikes are allowed on their roads. We were
told that advance reservations are necessary for the train.
Seville 2010
Ciclos Mateos (bike shop), Carretera Carmona,
86B-41008, Sevilla; Tel: 954 35 87 77;
ciclosmateos@telefonica.net;
www.ciclosmateossevilla.com no
English spoken here but Bill took his bike and his pile of high quality parts to
be installed in 2010 (including a new bottom bracket) and came away smiling 24 hrs
later.
Hotel Plaza Santa Lucia,
www.hotelplazasantalucia.com good location on edge of old town, relatively quiet, bikes kept in locked
garage, small rooms, no English on the TV, English spoken at the desk.
Bikes
We enjoyed biking in Spain. The motorists are considerate
and in some areas there are suitably lightly traveled roads.
Bikes can sometimes be put on the trains in Spain, but its
challenging to sort out when and where. In Madrid, bikes can travel on the metro
only on Sunday and only during restricted hours. In Barcelona we could put our
bikes on the commuter lines going in and out of the city without consideration
of the time of day. In Malaga in the south, bikes were never allowed on the
commuter lines. One train clerk gave us a small photocopy of the Spanish
train lines, which was invaluable at ticket windows when trying to determine
which legs of train lines would accept bikes with the non-English speaking
clerks.
In 2009 our understanding of bike/train evolved to: bikes are
never allowed on high speed trains; always allowed on non-high speed (regional) trains.
We weren't however willing to risk a tightly planned schedule on this
understanding. "Ask and ask again" is our approach when contemplating a train
hop.
Spain is very committed to expanding its high-speed train
network, seemingly with the goal to eventually replacing all of the slow
regional trains with them. Unfortunately, bikes cannot board the high speed
trains, so using the trains to escape a high-wind or other urgent situation is
shrinking as an option. For that reason, Spain is becoming a less desirable
cycling venue for us as all of the roads in some areas tend to also be high
speed truck routes with fewer back roads than many countries.
We asked once in 2009 about bikes on buses and we didn't
understand the words but the body language suggested it was up to the driver's
discretion.
Bike Routes in SW Spain, near Huelva 2010
North from Huelva. When we took a
bus from Huelva 70 km north to the Rio Tinto mines, we spotted a bike path. When
inquiring at the tourist info office in Huelva the next day, the best they could
do was give us a glossy brochure of photos about the route but no information on
how to get on it. The cover of the little brochure called it "Vìa
Verde: Los Molinos de Agua." It showed the southern tip of the route at San Juan
del Puerto train station (about 10+ km north east of Huelva) and the northern
end at Valverde del Camino, at 36 km. The glimpses we saw of the path made it
look worth pursuing.
West from Huelva. We rode a
delightful though unsigned route out of Huelva many miles west towards Portugal.
Tourist info in Huelva offered us a glossy brochure entitled "Aljaraque, Plano
Callejero" when we pressed for more information about bike routes and that was
all we had to go on. Follow the green dotted line on this 'map' indicating the
"Via Mulitmodal Huelva-La Bota." Ask about the bridge out of Huelva that has a
bike lane on it to get you started. After leaving the long, low bridge continue
on the water side of the bridge to cross more water on a second, shorter bridge.
Do NOT take the right turn across the road onto the grit path that will lead you
into a village if you then turn left. That is effectively dead-end for bikes.
This route will take you across a wet-lands area to Punta Umbria. Because of
robust headwinds, we short-cutted the route and turned west near Punta del Sebe
instead of going east southeast to Punta Umbria. We were able to turn right onto
an unpainted sidewalk/bike route (vs the green-painted bike route) and be out of
traffic for many more miles as we headed due west.
Dehesas
Just in case you were biking along in central Spain
and noticed all of those relatively neatly spaced oak trees growing in the
grasslands, an article from the US Forest Service will answer most if not all of
your questions about it. We were puzzled as it didn't appear that the trees were
being cut for firewood (no stumps), the trunks didn't seem large enough for
great lumber, the first ones we saw weren't cork oaks, and acorns are marginally
edible but it all looked so intention.
http://gis.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr126/psw_gtr126_05_huntsinger.pdf
General
Bathtubs are the norm if you enjoy a soak but keep testing
the temperature as it fills to make sure there is sufficient hot water.
You can get terrific deals on lovely hotel rooms in the
resort areas in off season.
More Details in Our Travel Logs
2003: 22
2004: 1,2,3,4,16,17,18,19,20
2005: 1,2
2008: 11
2009: 14
