We made it: Kilometer 0

From Zaragoza we headed towards the mountains. Our first 2 goals were Daroca and afterwards Molina de Aragon. We had chosen this direction, because the N II from Zaragoza is only motorway and not usable for us. Therefore we were on our own to come up with a route plan. First we followed the N 330, which brought us closer and closer to the plateaus on a wide road. The landscape is rather barren, every 5 kilometers a village appears. In one of these we stopped for our lunch break. Noon was still very hot and we were happy about taking a break. First, we went to a bar and drank a cool beverage, then we sat down in the shade in front of the casino and then of the town hall to rest further.

After the break, we went on to conquer 2 passes. Afterwards we rolled downwards into Daroca. This small town lies in a valley basin. Most of the houses are historical and covered with clay bricks. We moved into the hostel at the beginning of the village. Then we strolled off to stock up at the grocery store. In the tourist information, we learned some interesting things. To our surprise this was quite a bit. After the shopping we went for a short stroll through the city, before hunger drove us back to our hostal. We decided to eat there. We had to realize that the only choices we had were to select from the daily menu. To Nini’s surprise there was water, mineral water and a bottle of wine (not just one of the three) included. The food was not famous, but the bottle of wine tasted very good.

To continue our journey the next day, we did not choose the direct road through the village, but the bypass road along the city wall - a bit longer, but it had a picturesque view of the village. The next kilometers were very lonely. After a few kilometers we reached a plateau. The three lagoons to the left and to the right, at which one can supposedly also observe birds well, were not visible from the road and we left them behind us. On the plateau we took the less frequented road to Molinas de Aragon. Thus, in the late morning, we arrived on this route through a small village that made a rather sleepy, almost deserted impression. But there was a lot going on at the local innkeeper opposite the church. Not only the whole village seemed to have gathered, but also the relatives seemed to be visiting for summer holidays. We also had some refreshments at that bar, we enjoyed cool drinks and freshly made empanadas. Further lonely, hot kilometers led us down to Molina de Aragon. There we could still feel the aftermath of the annual village festival that took place the day before. We strengthened ourselves once more, this time with patatas bravas. Afterwards we had to go uphill again - with a nice view back to the village - towards Alto Tajo. This stretch of Spain felt very lonely, we met less people on the streets. Apart from hiking friends and kayakers, there were few people. After another ascent we arrived in the small village Taravilla. It was evening and we wanted to look for a hostel. We talked to a group of old people who send us to the bar. This time the rooms above the restaurant were already occupied. The landlord’s daughter took us two streets to the local kayak agency, which has a house for their guests to spend the night in. The employee wanted to send us first some kilometers further on to a nature camping site or still further to the next village. We felt, it was to late, darkness was approaching and we had decided to go any further. Finally the manager gave the okay that we could stay in one of the bedrooms, because the next guests would come only on the following day. We were overjoyed - many thanks - and enjoyed the lovly furnished cottage with a warm shower, a nice kitchen, sofa and beautiful picture books about Alto Tajo. The next day we left Taravilla descending into the valley following a steep road. After reaching the river, we had to pedal up again. We were glad that we had not cycled any further the evening before. After another downhill ride and a leisurely ascent, which only intensified in the mountain village Peñalen, it was time for our first break of the day. The first restaurant on our way had closed or not yet open, so we continued and asked for the way to the local bar. There we were served snacks and chocolate drinks. The father of the bar owner provided us with information and good advice for the coming kilometers.

After a short incline we reached the village end and the promised sloping plateau began. We rolled leisurely through the forest towards Villanueva de Alcorón, where we ate patatas bravas and baked squid rings. The last stage of the day led us to the huge reservoir Embalse de Entrepeñas. There we wanted to spend the night in Duron. But the big, beautiful lake is in no way used for sports or recreation and accordingly the search for accommodation turned out to be a hurdle race. From the few persons to be found in the place we are referred to two private accommodations - one was closed, at the other a confused older woman stepped out after stubborn ringing and knocking, and told us a story about a congress taking place in the neighbourhood, booked out rooms, a lot of guests and cars, why we would not find a room here … We were a little scared and left voluntarily. Next, we headed to a restaurant at the crossroads outside the town, but it did not rent rooms. The landlord tried hard to help us and find someone, but his contacts were not reachable. Finally he sent us to the next side street to the nearby local swimming pool. No sign or other indication suggested that there was such a neat, spacious swimming pool here. Here we were lucky: It was the last day of the season and while the ladies were tidying up, we were allowed to take a free shower and freshen up before we pitched our tent and cooked. When asked if it wasn’t already closing time and we were too late to shower, the cashier said with a mischievous smile that she would decide and as long as she had to clean up anyway, it wouldn’t be a problem.

At the bar we had a goodnight drink and watched the weather glow behind the hill. Katharina first believed she was watching a powerful laser show of a disco. To our chagrin the thunderstorm circled the whole night around us and reduced our sleep. Just in the early hours of the morning, when we wanted to take down the tent, it poured over us and delayed our departure. We left later than planned. On the following ascent we almost missed our turnoff. Katharina recognized our fault in time and we turned around and took the right path. After that we reached the top of the hill and finally we rolled through a beautiful, long brook valley past a few sleepy small villages, where we occasionally saw old people. During the passage through these villages we surprisingly found no open shop or bar, neither in the following town Armuña de Tajuña . Only at the junction of road CM2004 we succeeded and found an open restaurant. We ate fresh bocadillos . Afterwards, we mastered the last ascent of the day. We descended through a leisurely, dry valley towards Ardoz de Torrejon. The entrance to the city was a little bit complicated, because the entrance road resembled a motorway and had an illogical lane guidance. We tried to follow the signs and were honked and insulted by some drivers. We left the motorway and entered a cycle path that followed along the park Parque Europa, which also accommodates many miniature replicas of famous buildings and stories. We arrived at the right moment at Matthias friend Miguel, his wife Amaya and their children, he had just contacted us with WhatsApp. There we spent a wonderful evening with nice conversations, splashing around in the swimming pool, playing with the kids and good food. Afterwards we slept on the couch in the living room - without thunderstorms. The last stage of our cycling tour took us to the capital of Spain, Madrid. Through suburbs, past several subway stations and along big streets we pedaled into the heart of Madrid. Adventurously, a section parallel to the motorway turned out to be marked as a bicycle path in our route planner. But in fact, it was a sandy, littered bumpy road that ended in sand hills and thickets of thorns due to water infiltrations. Over a short push distance we found nevertheless a track back to the road. Afterwards a boulevard, partly even with bicycle path, led us to the Parque Retiro. Past construction sites we rolled to the Plaza del Sol with the Madrid bear and the Punto Zero. This is the origin of many national roads and therefore this point is called kilometer 0. Also the N II starts here and ends at the French border. After the obligatory photo at the finish of our last stage, we spent three days relaxing in Madrid. We enjoyed the hotel swimming pool, visited friends and enjoyed the Spanish food. Many thanks to Lorena and Aida for the nice meetings.

We also had to organize the return flight. We had bought the ticket in the middle of August, now we had to find packaging for Düsi. We went to two bike shops, got an e-bike box and a normal bike box. We still need two bags from the chinese shop to combine 2 bike bags into one item. But the transport to the airport was a logistical challenge. We had decided to split up. Matthias would cycle to the airport with the most bags and düsi, while Nini would cycle to the right terminal with the cartons by underground. Matthias accompanied Nini with the cartons up to the change into the airport underground. Matthias had to ride back to the hostal and pedaled to the airport with Düsi solo. This took longer than expected. In the meantime Katharina had to master the challenge that the subway stop was not in the same terminal as the check-in counter and that she could hardly walk with the big boxes because she could not see anything. A further complication was that the airport was undergoing conversion. So some aisles were hardly passable because of the construction site and with oncoming traffic with the boxes. Our flight was also not shown at first, so that she had to make the detour over the information in order to inquire where we had to check in.

There she waited like sitting on needles for Matthias. He arrived just in time to pack the bike and the panniers. Unfortunately the cheap panniers tore immediately, but heaven sent us an angel in the shape of a packer. He wrapped our bicycle (in the box) thickly in plastic and tape for a pair of euros. We were the last passengers to check in our luggage, the bike was accepted without hesitation, Matthias only had to help by hoisting it onto the rear luggage belt. Now we continued to the controls, and ran towards the announced gate. There we found out that the gate must have changed, because another flight of another line was marked. We tried to find out. It was no easy task, but we succeeded. We walked on to the new designated gate to board and made it on the plane. Barajas is a huge airport, thus, we saw a plane next to ours taking off at the very same time. In Vienna the way to Matthias’ sister did not quite work out. We managed to change trains twice, before we had to wait forever for the last train because of a track closure. We arrived very late at Matthias sister’s, but were greeted there with good food and a warm soup in Austria. We were looking forward to the coming weeks with family and friends.

Finally we give a little summary about our cycling trip and our findings - these may be very subjective - in Spain off the pilgrim routes:

• If you want to have your peace and quiet as a cyclist, Spain is the perfect place. On our entire route from the border to Madrid we met only three touring cyclists and perhaps a hand full of racing cyclists. Furthermore, there are sparsely populated areas such as the Alto Tajo and the plain around Zaragoza.

• Cycle paths are scarce in Spain. In a few motivated places and cities like e.g. Madrid there are these beautifully put on, however, at the latest at the end of the village this is over - and this quite unexpectedly and abruptly, so that we rushed once in full speed almost into the guard rail. The Eurovelo 8 exists therefore in Spain over long distances only theoretically.

• For cycling, national roads parallel to motorways are recommendable if they are toll free and thus deduct the heavy traffic, on the other hand side roads to national roads and motorways have heavy traffic.

• Route planning by Google Maps and Co. should be taken with caution in Spain. Thus, the alleged cycle path turned out to be a rubbish sand road next to the city motorway.

• Cyclist best friends are small local bars, in which one can strengthen oneself wonderfully with cool drinks and patatas bravas. But woe if one place has none or it has closed … the next can be far.

• Campsites are spread along the coast, but otherwise sparsely sown.