Figures

I am back in Burgos after my lovely 3-day jaunt to Logroño, Vitoria, and Bilbao. Tomorrow, after some rest, I will write a bit more about Bilbao and some more thoughts on this short leg of the journey.

For now, I will leave two thoughts on the page. First, I mentioned earlier that I spend a good amount of the time that I'm on the saddle thinking of inane calculations. What percentage of today's ditance have I covered? How many minutes until the next town? How long will the water I currenlty have last me? In the end, most of these things really don't matter too much. What ends up leaving the biggest impression is not the numbers, but the experience. However, that being said, I have updated my distance log to reflect some of the curious figures of this trip. I have spent over 95 hours on the saddle, my max speed has been a measly 67kph (41mph), and I am closing in on half a million pedal strokes.

Second, and perhaps less inconsequential, another thought that is constantly on my mind is whether or not I'm stopping enough to enjoy the scenery, the little towns that I go through, to meet people, etc. It's a careful balance between two purposes of the trip: to cover some distance of Spain by bike, and also to get an intimate portrait of Spain. Today, as Ana drove me back from Bilbao to Burgos, I was reminded of exactly how impersonal interactions with a landscape can be when you're trapped in a car and the car is trapped in a network of highways. Regardless of how much I stop, which will continue to be on my mind, biking is a unique way of interacting with a landscape, with mountains and valleys, rivers and seas, wind, rain, and sun. I am happy to experience Spain like this.