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December 4 Sunday Bicycle touring Spain from Malaga Spain to some park outside of Malaga We get up at 5:45 AM. After packing up Susan's bicycle touring tent, we cycle 4 kilometres to the airport. We arrive at 6:30 AM. Susan's flight is still scheduled for 7:30 AM. As long as she hasn't lost her new ticket. I'm sure she hasn't let go of it since she got it. (A weird thing is, Air Iberia was able to check their computer and see that, yes, they have a ticket sold to Susan. She has a passport that says she is Susan. I fail to see the problem here.) While Susan goes to the washroom to put on a pair of jeans, Sharon and I set to work removing the pedals and turning the handlebars on her touring bike. We go to check her in. It's 7:20 AM. The bike has to go to counter 16 they say. We get to counter 16 and they say, "No, this isn't it." It's counter 60! Sharon runs the bike down the terminal so it will hopefully make the flight. Then again, it didn't the first time around ... why would this time be any different? Susan disappears through a metal detector. Sharon and I grab one another and heave a sigh of relief. We did it! It wasn't easy, but we got Susan to her flight on time. If you had asked me two weeks ago, I would have said it was impossible. But we did it. And had an interesting experience and learned a thing or two on the way, too. We already knew it was difficult to meet someone on a certain date when you're not sure where you're going to be for sure. For us fly by the seat of your pants types it makes for a stressful time. And we learned that it is hard to meet someone in a city. Getting into a foreign city on a fully loaded touring bike can be crazy. If the person you want to meet wants to fly to a major centre because it's cheaper, that's fine. But then maybe they could find a way to get out of the city to a smaller place in the countryside to meet. Finally, we have to remember to pick a place
where everyone can meet and still be comfortable if they have
to wait for the other party. Maybe a campground, hotel, or hostel?
It is difficult to pick a meeting place four months in advance
for a place you've never been before. When you're cycling and
you have to be somewhere at an exact time it does not make for
relaxing cycling in the footloose and fancy-free style that we
like best. Obviously, it can be done, but the stress, for us
at least, takes the fun out of it. And isn't that why we love
bicycle touring? I think I have finally learned I can not make someone happy, or have a good time, no matter how hard I try. It is my attitude which counts for everything. I am responsible for my attitude. No one else. And, in the future, I'll try to remember to not blame myself for things that go wrong. Sharon and I pedal our lightweight and free bicycle tourers back to the campground. A couple from Portugal invites us for breakfast. We have cold coffee (surprisingly good!), bread, and fruit. Another camper shows us his map of Morocco and points out highlights around the route he has chosen. He and his wife are going there for three months. We notice that Susan has forgotten her two silver bowls, and her spoon and knife. We have enough to carry already on our fully loaded touring bicycles, so give them to our new friends. We pack up and pedal out of the campground. In town, we pull our touring bicycles to a stop at a store to buy groceries. The sixth of December is a holiday. Spain's Independence Day. Ever since we got stuck in France without food on All Saints Day, we look up each country's calendar and figure out if there are going to be any holidays during our stay there. A fellow on holidays from Quebec tell us the NHL hockey league is on strike. How un-Canadian, we decide! An old fellow with a bike talks my ear off. He is Australian, but he now lives in England for the summers and in the winters he comes to Malaga. He rents a studio apartment for $500 a month. We ride out of town on our heavily loaded touring bicycles until we spot a park in the darkness. After eating at a picnic table, we set up our two-person bicycle touring tent on the grass. Six kids on mopeds are across the park. They send over a scout to check us out before they leave. We have a magnificent view of a lighted castle. There is lots of traffic. We have been cycling on a freeway and there are many exits and entrances onto the freeway which are scary when we have to ride across them. Lots of cars entering and exiting and we literally have to dodge between them. We ride on the paved shoulder, but there is tons of broken bottles. Or, as Sharon says, when we're bicycle touring is Spain at least, "Mucho glassias." The wine we bought is so terrible we can't drink it. Someone once told me that Spanish wine doesn't travel that well ... now I believe it. I leave the bottle of wine over by a doorway where park workers come and go. That should help brighten their day, I figure. |
