Backstory - Bicycle travel from London, UK to Lisbon, Portugal

I'm writing this blog to document our journey and keep family and friends abreast of another grand cycling adventure.  During the peak of Covid in 2021, my son Jake (middle son) and I cycled across the U.S., which I also blogged and you can check at this link https://zeteticadventure.blogspot.com/  

This time, my oldest son, Alex and I will be taking bicycles to Europe for our adventure.  Alex just completed his PhD this summer and is taking some time off before he begins his career.  Originally, we had planned a trip from Dublin to Copenhagen.  However our available timeline would have put us in Copenhagen during late October.  We were worried that maybe the weather would be tough.  So, we decided to Start in London and go south where we'd find (hopefully) warmer, dryer days.  

The general route will be London, UK - Lisbon, Portugal.  The plan is to arrive in London Sept. 12, 2024 and stay 2 nights so that we can re-assemble our bikes and acclimate to the time change.  Pedaling begins Sept. 14.  Our stay in England will be short, but we will ride through Canterbury (remember Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" from high school Karen James in Jerome), which will be exciting!   At Dover, we will catch a ferry and cross to Calais, France.  Essentially, we will ride through the middle of France.  I'm excited to see what is in Tours and the wine giant of the world - Bordeaux.  Of course all the things in-between that bring surprise is why we do this.  This is the adventure, the unknown, the diamond in the rough beautiful things that you see that are fully unexpected.  I don't know what those things are today, but I'll let you know when they arrive!  :)

After France, we will cycle into northern Spain via San Sebastian, Basque country!  We plan to eat some amazing food at Burgos, the UNESCO proclaimed "City of Gastronomy" and I believe where we marry up with the Camino.  Though we may be traveling with different purpose than the people of the pilgrimages, I'm sure we share many, many thoughts and feelings along the way.   We pedal through historic Leon, where we will likely listen to a few Kings of Leon songs even if they are in no way related to Leon Spain!   Or maybe they are!   We will have to deal with quite a bit of elevation in northern Spain, but by then we will have legs of steel and should not be a problem.  

Our final country will be Portugal.  We cross from Spain to Portugal at Salvaterra de Mino via Minho river which is essentially the Spain/Portugal norther border.  We ride the coast of Portugal, expecting tail winds the whole way.  We are exited to meet the amazing people of Portugal, eat delicious food, travel through Porto and eventually finish our journey in Lisbon.  Can't wait!  And won't have to much longer :)

I welcome any questions or thoughts, suggestions, recommendations.... please post to the blog!

Cheers!  ~Camron and Alex Hirst

Here is the ridewithgps link to the route.

https://ridewithgps.com/collections/2414406?privacy_code=37XN65AKyb9WzaLsIFfNADoo1tcbT1kG