Reflections on a Group Bicycle Tour of Southern Spain, Fall 2008

December 12, 2008

Bike and the Like is a bicycle touring company operated by a lady and her husband whose home is in suburban Baltimore. I learned of them in February 2006 at a birthday party in Iowa City for a local bicyclist and her friends.

My informant was an acquaintance, a member of the local bicycle club, and a lady approaching retirement from a long career as physician assistant and office nurse to a group of orthopedic surgeons.

That fall I applied and was accepted to ride with Bike and the Like on their annual Cape Cod tour. This was an excellent experience, causing me to apply and get accepted for the 2007 northern California ride and for the 2007 Ontario ride.

Soon after the Ontario ride, Bike and the Like invited several of their earlier clients to join them for a ride in Andalucia, the southern part of Spain.

Although Bike and the Like has for several years led tours in the Low Countries of Europe, this was their first in Spain. Having never been to Spain, and having enjoyed the manner in which the tours were managed, not to mention their good value, when I was invited, I promptly sent a down payment.

I was fortunate to find that a gentleman whom I had met on the Ontario tour was also invited. We agreed to be roommates for the Spain tour. At the time of the invitation the tour of southern Spain was a work in progress.

Many arrangements were necessary and accomplishing everything consumed most of the 11 months between the initial announcement and the actual beginning of the tour.

Initially the plan encompassed a relatively short tour in miles, but included the famous Moorish cities of Granada, Cordoba and Sevilla, the places that the typical US tourist might see on a bus tour of Spain.

The distances covered required five days of riding. For several of us it seemed that going all the way to Spain warranted more days on the bicycle.

Adding another leg of four days to take us from Sevilla back to the Mediterranean coastal city of Malaga was not easy, especially since arrangements did not begin until well into 2008.

But of the 22 riders for the original ride, 12 requested the additional leg, and Bike and the Like put it together.

There were loose ends. Hotels were not available in at least two of the small towns, but rental houses were reserved, and a good deal of flying by the seat of the pants was required.

For me this was a positive thing. It added a bit of adventure, and revealed a lot of flexibility and creative management on the part of both the leaders and the riders.

Solving these problems together created friendships that will long outlast the tour.

The bicycle ride was challenging for all riders. Thanks to brilliant, warm sunshine four of the riding days were just outstanding, both a cyclist’s and a photographer’s paradise. Long climbs demanding maximum effort in 32-inch gear were followed by exhilarating long, high-speed descents, requiring almost continuous braking.

Dramatic views from mountain-top towns and villages of the endless surrounding olive groves kept the camera shutters clicking.

I found the roads better than ours in the US. Dramatic views from mountain-top towns and villages of the endless surrounding olive groves kept the camera shutters clicking. 40 to 50 miles per day over this topography left no one begging for more.

A total of nine riding days had been scheduled for those taking the original plus the add-on leg.

Heavy rain drove all but five intrepid bikers onto a bus for the ride into Cordoba. Days later a wrong turn took us into the beautiful resort city of Ronda, but this routing mistake increased the distance to Malaga too much for a single day’s ride. We enjoyed sightseeing Ronda on foot, and the group took a public bus into Malaga late in the afternoon.

So except for the five above mentioned riders, we pedaled and pedaled hard a total seven days.

Aside from the exceptional congeniality of our group, two things stand out in my mind that made the Spain tour the best tour that I have experienced.

I had not realized the historical importance of the Islamic domination of Spain for seven centuries (711-1492), nor the relative benevolence of this domination, nor the many contributions to architecture and general culture during this period when northern Europe was submerged in the Dark Ages.

Secondly, I had no idea of the beautiful natural scenery of mountainous Andalucia, which provided many dramatic photo ops for those riders like me, whose camera is almost as much fun as my bicycle.

Bike and the Like provided excellent guided tours during our bicycle-free days in Granada, home of the famous Alhambra, Cordoba, the capital of Moorish Spain, Sevilla, the city on the Guadalquivir River from which Columbus sailed to America in 1492, and the white hills resort city of Ronda.

Our tour included an evening of flamenco dance in Sevilla. The meals were without exception very good. The evening meal in Sevilla on the last day of the original ride was the finest banquet I can ever remember.

When Americans think of Europe, they typically think of France and England, perhaps Italy and Scandinavia. Think again. Spain, and particularly Moorish Spain, officially called Andalucia, has much to offer and is not that far off the beaten path.

Some would call our tour a blast, and I cannot disagree.

By Oscar Beasley, Iowa City, Iowa