A Train to Valencia and Our Last Cycling Route

In Spain, most train travel eventually routes through Madrid. Our trip from León to Valencia is no exception, but this time we don’t have to change stations, just trains. In the mid-80s, Kelly spent a year studying in Valencia, so it’s fun to come here and see how it has changed and to see her old haunts. We have a few days off from riding but then it’s seven days in a row as we head to our final stop in Barcelona.

Central market — The Mercado Central (central market) in Valencia has an extremely robust market daily and has had for a thousand years.

Day 1: Valencia to Castellón de la Plana, 47.6 miles

This ride is the flattest and easiest we’ve done for a long time. Honestly the only elevation we have are when we go on overpasses. There are no hills. We are also within view of the Mediterranean for much of the day. Total trip miles since Lisbon. 574.2.

Eurovelo 8 sign — We follow the Eurovelo 8 route and this section is well-marked and is about 90% on dedicated bike lanes.

It’s a beautiful day to cycle along the Mediterranean.

Day 2: Castellón de la Plana to Alcalà de Xivert , 34.4 miles

The terrain today is relatively easy, but we have a pretty chilly headwind the last half of the ride. On the road, we’ve learned a lot about how to re-route to cut down mileage or avoid major hills if we need to. Today is an occasion where that has paid off. Total MTD 608.6.

Almonds on tree — We grew up around mostly corn and soybeans, so the variety of things that grow in Spain amaze us. These are almonds.

Cathedral — Even a relatively small town like Alcalà de Xivert has a large cathedral.

Handwritten menu — We have a huge meal at lunch (comida) that involves 4 courses. This is today’s handwritten “menú del día,” a price-conscious way of trying lots of things.

Day 3: Alcalà de Xivert to Amposta, 34.3 miles

We dread today’s ride because we are expecting headwinds. But until the last four miles, when they were awful, this was a pretty, relatively flat ride. When we get to Amposta we treat ourselves to one of the best meals we’ve had on the trip. Total MTD 642.9.

Comida — Another “menú del día” comida today with 2 courses, dessert, wine and café. We are stuffed.

Clothes drying — Today is also wash-our-bike-clothes-in-the-shower day. Fortunately the wind we rode against also helped dry them.

Day 4: Amposta to Hospitalet, 32.3 miles

Sitting in another tapas bar tonight we said for the nth time, “we could live in Spain.” We love the food, we love the schedule (especially siesta), and the people are generally just very friendly. Anyway, our route today brought us to the beach town of Hospitalet. It’s fun being in places like this before the hordes of summer tourists show up. Things are open but the pace isn’t frantic yet. Total MTD 675.2.

Beach lunch — Our stop for lunch could not have come at a prettier location.

Day 5: Hospitalet to Tarragona, 23.3 miles

Today we ride to Tarragona, which is a city of about 135,000 on the Mediterranean coast. We plan a short ride for today so that we have time to check out some of the Roman ruins. Many of them date to the 2nd century. The city is in the Catalonia region of Spain and there are definitely differences between the language and food here and the more southerly cities. Total MTD 698.5.

Robin celebrates his birthday in Tarragona with a Catalan buffet. We can really only name a couple of the dishes, the rest we have no clue.

Roman ruin — The remains of this Roman amphitheatre date to the 2nd century.

Bikes on balcony — Many times on this trip we’ve ended up keeping our bikes in our hotel rooms. Today we have a narrow balcony, so the quick-turn handlebars come in handy.

Day 6: Tarragona to Sitges, 33.8 miles

Sitges (rhymes with beaches) is a beach town that is busy now so we figure it must be a zoo in the summer. It’s a beautiful location and we enjoy wandering around town and, of course, eating tapas. Total trip miles Total MTD 732.3.

We change our route and leave the Eurovelo 8 on the last several miles into Sitges. Even though we ride some gravel, we think this way is much faster than the beach route suggested by Eurovelo.

Sitges coast — Sitges is a gorgeous coastal town southwest of Barcelona.

Sitges tapas — Tonight’s tapas restaurant is self service so we get to examine and pick what we want. Everything with the same size toothpick is the same price so you just pay by the number of toothpicks you have at the end of the evening.

Barcelona

In the spirit of keeping track, we ride all of 2.2 miles today. We decide to take a train from Sitges to Barcelona instead of riding the 22 or so miles. Barcelona is a huge place, but from where we are staying it is very walkable. We’re here for a couple of days and then heading home. Total trip miles 734.5

Today’s highlight is touring La Sagrada Familia, a basilica that was begun in 1882. It was designed by Anton Gaudí and is the largest unfinished Catholic Church in the world. We toured it 22 years ago with other family members and can’t wait to compare our pix then vs now.

Bikes on train — Our train to Barcelona today allows us to roll our bikes on rather than fold them. But it is Friday and the train is crowded. So it is stressful but fortunately we are getting off at the same station everyone else is.

Tapas tour — Our last tapas walking tour includes some Basque dishes we have never tried before.

On our last day, we ride 11.9 miles from Barcelona to a hotel near the airport. Although the route is almost completely on dedicated bike paths, there is a stretch where we’re surrounded by semis. We also have to contend with rain most of the way.

Map Valencia — This is the full route from Valencia to Sitges (near Barcelona) on RideWithGPS with interactive map and elevations.

Krause Travels