Well, it is time to start planning for my next bike tour. This upcoming Tuesday I will board an Iberia plane in San Jose and take a 10-hour flight to Madrid. I will spend two nights in Hotel Regina, a great little hotel in the center of the city, right across the street from the Four Seasons Hotel. I have stayed at the Hotel Regina twice before and found it to be excellent.

I have not spent a lot of time in Madrid but during my visits, I have enjoyed the city. This time Iberia permitted me a free stopover on the way to Mallorca for a 10-day bicycle ride.

Traveling during Covid always adds a little more stress to the chore of long-distance flying. You have to check with the Spanish government to make sure you have all the right paperwork and vaccinations so when you arrive at the airline check-in counter everything will go smoothly. For Spain, I have to fill in a health form and also apply for a QR code. This can only be completed 48 hrs prior to departure.

For this cycling portion, I will be renting an electric bike in Palma de Mallorca. The daily rate is 20 euros which is not too bad. I paid as high as 55 euros for a bike rental in Puerto Vallarta and the same in Savilla Spain.

My first electric bike tour was an 1100 km circle through eastern Europe. I choose to do an ebike tour because I have taken a bad fall and fractured my hip, broke three ribs, and knocked myself out. This meant that I was not in as good of shape as I would have liked. However, the bike performed well and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

The German tour kind of hooked me on ebikes and since then I have taken an ebike on the Camino de Santiago from Saville, a tour of Texas hill country, three tours in Alberta, and a hub and spoke week in Puerto Vallarta.

One of the strange things I have encountered over the years is the increasing amount of electronic gear and accessories I have to lug around from hotel room to hotel room. First I need my universal plug adapter, then I need my six plug-in adapter in case the hotel room has limited outlets, especially close to the bed. I have to plug in two iPhones, one that goes on the bike for gpx file navigation and one for my pocket so I don’t have to detach the phone on the handlebars every time I want to take a photo. Other things needing plug-ins are of course my bike battery charger, my tail light, my battery pack, my watch, and my headlight. I try to keep it all together so that I don’t forget anything in the morning when I am packing up.

My training has been going well and I have got in some longer distances and completed some longer climbs. This last week saw me do a 23 km climb up to Tilaran, seven km to Quebrada, and a few three km climbs over the escarpment to the beaches

Photos show new pavement, colorful building and an iguana chasing a turtle