I am writing this from Gatwick on a Sunday morning after a 5am start.  We are waiting to catch a plane to Spain to start our next cycling adventure, and of course we got to the airport far too early.  It is an invariable rule that, regardless of the time of day, the M25 is only busy with traffic jams when we are in a hurry.  If we leave plenty of time, we sail around the motorway at 60mph!

Over the next 2 and a half weeks we are planning to cycle the Ruta Via de la Plata, starting in Seville and working our way north to Merida, Grimaldo, Salamanca, Zamora, Benavente, Leon, Oviedo and ending at the coast near Gijon (which I cannot pronounce properly yet – and possibly never will be able to pronounce that town like a Spaniard).

We are using our touring bikes but, as a nod to our advancing ages and my heart condition, will not be trying to cycle as many km per day as before.  We are on our touring bikes because we cannot fly with batteries for the trikes, and will average about 70km per day with plenty of rest days. 

 And we are not taking camping stuff with us but are staying in apartments and hotels instead.  What decadence, I hear you say and you are right of course.  No sitting in a tent when the rain comes down outside (or putting up the tent in the rain), no blow up mats going down in the middle of the night and no communal showers (or no showers at all).  We are getting a bit soft in our old age but maybe it is just a case having more options and going for the less burdensome options.

We leave the UK in political turmoil after the local election results, and so this feels like quite a good time to be away whilst events work themselves out.  We are back at the end of the month and I have a feeling that things will be no clearer then, but I may be wrong.

The weather should be in the middle twenties degrees (or middle 70s degrees for any US readers), so pleasant but not too hot – or we hope at least.

We are particularly looking forward to seeing the architecture of the towns along the way, with buildings from Spain’s long and diverse history        from the Romans, the Moorish centuries and buildings built with the wealth from the New World. 

We will try to blog regularly with photos – if we can remember how to make the technology work!  I hope you enjoy reading.