Now that we’re back in Europe, our destination is clear: home. Although the idea of this part of the trip ending soon stressed us out, we tried not to rush. We spent several days in Spain, taking advantage of the warm weather and good infrastructure. At first, our route followed the Mediterranean coastline. This part of Spain seems to be very popular, as it was densely populated with several villages and cities connected to each other.
For this reason, at some point, we chose to leave the seaside for a while and take a route a little further inland. After riding for more than a hundred kilometers between olive plantations, we realized that we were on Spain’s olive highway. We thought it was crazy how far those monocultures stretched.
On our way back to the coast, we found a fruit originating from South America that was cultivated and sold seasonally in Spain at a supermarket. Cherimoya. We liked its exotic taste, which we would describe as a cross between lychee and mango. There was just one disadvantage: eating it resulted in surgery due to the large number of poisonous seeds. Another culinary experience was the bean soup that some German campers offered us. Although we discussed some of the ingredients in advance, we were surprised by the added bacon. We usually don’t eat meat, except in situations where refusing it might offend others.
The next curiosity was the beach itself. We realized that they were usually covered by stones, which is nothing remarkable. What we wondered about was the impression that a huge effort had been made to remove the stones from the underlying sand, as well as to transport sand. Heavy machinery drove along the beach several times, and the few off-season visitors appeared to be used to it. We found this whole beach maintenance thing to be a very first world problem.