Uncategorized – gerhardhalder

83-09.08.-Fr-Salamanca-Valladolid

At 10 I had booked the visitation of the cathedral. To be exact the new cathedral.

There were not many visitors and with 6 Euro was cheap.

Inside cathedral one of many entrances to the chorus.

The wooden chorus with the quadrilateral speaker’s desk also called cathedra. In general cathedra is the bishop’s chair.

View to the chorus and the entrance side.

The Roman Bridge over river Tormes. By the way, it was raining 🙂

Tormes in the rain. I believe this is the only day in summer with rain 😉

The altar of Valladolid cathedral less palatial than the one in Salamanca.

80-06.08.-Tu-Lepe-Tavira

Today I hit the road at 8. But 20 km later I saw that I started at 7! After 20 km I passed the boarder to Portugal. There is a time change of 1 hour.

It is nice to start that early. The sun is almost up and it is a moist and fresh air.

To get to Portugal I had to cross over river Guadiana, the border river with its head in Spain and 745 km long.

The Portugiese language sounds crazy and very different to the Spanish one. It sounds more like a Slavic language.

My first impressions: the roads Shoulders are either not there or much bader. The prices in the supermarket seems to be higher. There are three VAT rates: 6 % for food, 13 % for luxury food and 23 % for goods and beverages also for water. The beer in the bar was 1,20 for 0,33 as cheap as in Spain.

In the evening strolling through Tavira I saw a military patrol in their open jeep. Tree soldiers. They behaved friendly but showed their gats and ammunition belts. This is a reminiscent of Naples last year.

I never saw military in the streets of Spain.

At 07:15 from my hotel room. The sun hasn’t yet arose.

From Lepe to Tavira in about 8 hours and 68 km. GT 4.130 km.

71-28.07.-So-El Bujeo – Vejer de la Frontera

After the rain yesterday evening today started cloudy.

After a little climb I made the downhill to Tarifa the most south European point at a latitude of exactly 36°00. Unfortunately the island with the lighthouse in front of Tarifa was closed so a few 100 meters I couldn’t stay there.

The next highlight I planned to see was Bolonia a marvelous beach with a traveling dune and excavations of a Roman village.

But it started with an additional 100 meters climb and so many cars. I couldn’t believe that all these cars can be parked.

After the climb I enjoyed una cerveza sin alcohol in a bar over there 😉

View back from the island to Tarifa. The Atlantic at the left side the Mediterranean to the right.

The kite and wind surf Hotspot at Tarifa.

At the end of the beach the traveling dune.

A view over the excavations of the Roman village Baelo Claudia.

Roman basilica for the administration of justice.

The bathroom. Roman’s got it warm by so called Hypocausten heating. Causten means to burn. Hypo means below. Ancient Greek words. So hot air circulates below the floor.
Therefore Romans fired millions of trees.
2.000 years later Germans fired millions of people. So called HOLOcaust(en). Holo means completely.

One of 3 known aqueducts brought the water from a source 8 kilometers away.

Climb back 200 meters to the pass over there getting tapas and cerveza.

I believe about 700 wind turbines in this area from Tarifa to Cadiz.

From El Bujeo to Vejer de la Frontera 78 km in 8,5 hours. GT 3.694 km.

04-16.05.-Th-Avio-Mantova

Bright sunshine but quite cold in the morning. I started at half past nine am and cicled nine and a half hours and arrived at Mantua at seven pm. I did 105 km. Finally I was really tired.

At Valeggio sul Mincio I asked myself to stay there for the night. But it was to early and I felt strong enough to do the additional nearly 30 km.

The bike path along the Adige channel I like very much because it is plane and wide and about 50 meters above Adige so it offers a wide view.

Arriving at Po Valley it became warm suddenly. About 20 degrees. I enjoyed very much. But in the shadows the temperature was noticeable colder so kept on my primaloft jacket so I sometimes sweated a lot.

Soon I arrived river Mincio and enjoyed ciclying along the marvelous landscape and the green water.

I decided to take the „Dolce“ bike path. Firstly I thought it is named because on this path I could avoid a climb of 100 meters. Then I saw the village named Dolce 🙂

The vineyard looks like a pergola. Going along the smell of the chemicals is in the nose. Very interesting the farmers on their small tractors wearing full-face helmets 😉 while they spray the poisoning chemicals they try to save themselves.

Four windmills. Only one moved. Coming nearer I saw all of them moved but some had to less winds and moved slow-motion.

The Veroneser Klause (pass) looks pretty nice.

View from Adige channel near Bussolengo.

Another grain field with lots of poppies.

River Mincio more a lake (reservoir) next to Mantua.

The little village a few kilometers in the west of Mantua where my B&B is located.

View from my B&B over a grain field with evening mood.

61-28.07.-SA-Stromboli

Syracuse

Stromboli spontaneously

I was a bit confuse where to go next.

On the one hand I would like to make km to arrive at Sicily. On the other hand I had the idea to climb Montalto di Aspramonte (1.956) and go from there directly to Reggio Calabria.

But today I felt to need a pause.

Yesterday a new idea came to my mind: to go to Stromboli by ferry boat and then pass directly on to Sicily. By this way I would save some km and a climb of about 500 meters.

After 24 km pedaling I arrived at Tropea. I went directly to the harbor to ask whether I could get a boat. Fortunately I found a traveling agent that offered today „Stromboli by night“ and carried me and my bike and I could visit Panarea too because this was their first stop.

The Aeolian Islands and the the sea surrounding them are really fantastic. So many different forms of rocks, many rocky islands, a sea that is not that deep so you can see many different colors. Tiny little villages with a special architecture. And myriads of photo scenes.

Tropea from its harbor.

Tropea from the ship.

And another scene.

Our aim Stromboli about 60 km from the continent.

Panarea with the so called finger to see.

The finger again.

View from San Pietro – the main village on Panarea – to Stromboli.

San Pietro

Leafing San Pietro for an extra trip around the island. The island Panarea is 3,4 square km large and about 250 people are living there. The island gets its water by desalination and rain.