Day 1: 11th July 2026
The journey from England to Bilbao had been very smooth with calm seas. On arrival it was very enjoyable talking to other cyclists in the passport queue. They were departing in all sorts of directions. A number were following a similar route to mine up in to France. But nevertheless, I was concerned about my onward journey, as my route took me into Bilbao and then out across the steep hills to Guernica, which was my first stop. As it turns out, the way into Bilbao is very good for cyclists. There is a cycleway almost all the way into the centre.
I stopped at the Guggenheim Museum, which is one of the most significant buildings in the city. The cycle path took me straight there.
On the way in, over a distance of probably about 10 miles, you pass by very old industrial buildings, some of which are still in a state of decay, whereas others have been cleared and new buildings put up. Some of the old architecture, including cranes on the dockside, have been preserved. I had breakfast on the way in, which consisted of a café con leche and a bocadillo, as well as a freshly made glass of orange juice. When I got to the Guggenheim Museum, I took the chance to have a coffee overlooking the park which surrounds it. There were many tourists there. Still a very popular place. By now the weather’s hotting up, and temperatures reached at least 33 C.
I was most concerned about how I would get from here to Guernica, because I knew that the only way would be on a main road for about 15miles. But luckily enough, it was a Saturday, and there were hardly any big lorries and, to be honest, very little traffic. But what there were, was lots of cyclists. It’s obviously a very popular sport around here, and you could see lots of groups cycling along in their super Lycra uniforms.
After some long while, I take the turning to Guernica, and this is a much quieter road, but this is where the hills are, which was concerning. My Garmin device showed me some steep hills, and I was concerned about not being able to restart if I stopped on a hairpin bend, of which there were many. As it turned out, it wasn’t as bad as I feared, and I crested the hill with only one small ascent to come, and mostly downhill to Guernica.
The journey:
The whole journey was completed between about 9:00 a.m. and 2:30, so I had the rest of the day to visit Guernica, which was an important objective on this charity mission for Ukraine.
