Eurovelo 12 St Andrews to Dunfermline

80 km 1100m gained 1050 lost

Technically only half of today's route was on the Eurovelo which I think is Eurovelo madness. Why St Andrews is not on the route seems bonkers, it's on the North Sea (the theme of the Eurovelo 12), it's a beautiful city, and has some great pubs. The only downside is that getting away St Andrews inevitably involves heading west and that tends to be where the wind comes from. Today we had a 20 mph wind in our faces for half the route and, with 1000m of climb to contend with, it made for a tough ride. It's the end of Day 3, we still haven't crossed the Firth of Forth, and we're feeling a little knackered.

I shouldn't complain however. The countryside in Fife, although a little on the bumpy side, is very pretty. Everything is incredibly green, the trees are huge and beautiful, the roadsides are dense with wild flowers, and even with the wind in your face it's hard not to enjoy the ride.

Eurovelo 12 Arbroath to St Andrews

63 kilometres

It's only day 2 of our Eurovelo mini adventure and we've already parted company with the main route. Instead of cutting across the Fife peninsula from the Tay to the Forth, we continued around the coast and tonight we're staying in At Andrews. Last night we belatedly discovered that, apart from one room in the St Andrew's Premier Inn, every hotel and bed and breakfast for miles around is fully booked. At vast expense we reluctantly opted for the Premier Inn in Scotland's premier university city. It means we're now a little off the pace and a day behind our schedule, but we had a lovely day nonetheless.

We got away from Arbroath early and cruised down a glorious bike path along the coast. It was Saturday and everyone seemed to be out - the path was crowded with walkers, joggers and other cyclists. This can sometimes cause friction but not today, quite the opposite, with best wishes and friendly greetings hitting us from all sides. People here are very friendly, take an interest in what we're doing and are quick to offer helpful advice.

Eurovelo 12 Aberdeen to Arbroath

95 kilometres

It's only two weeks since we got back from Spain but we're on the road again, this time heading south from Aberdeen down Britain's east coast. We've completed our first day and are recovering in Arbroath, home of the famous Arbroath Smokies.

It's been a great day and we had glorious weather, but we did have some issues. I blame the train.

Day 32 The Big Iberian Tour - Gijón

80 kms 2304 climb 2605 descent

Guest blog by Christine

Today was immense: a mix of beautiful and awful in equal parts.

A mountainous day's cycling

The first thing we learnt was the importance of conditioning expectations. Neither of us had really studied today's Ruta de la Plata itinerary and I had foolishly assumed, on the basis of yesterday's road signs, that it was a 40k gentle roll downhill to the coast at Gijón. How wrong can you be?
No sooner were we out of the hotel door when we turned off into a tiny side road climbing vertiginously up the mountain side. After a terrible hour of bottom gear (or, in my case, some walking), past tiny mountain hamlets and disused iron mines, we got to the top. A road sign then explained that we were on some mad Spanish cycling endurance route. Thanks for telling us!

Day 31 - The Big Iberian Trip - Pola de Lena

85 kms, height gained 1754m height lost 2276m

What goes up must come down and getting closer to the north coast of Spain we are finally beginning to surrender height we've held onto for the last 10 days. Crossing the Cantabrian Mountains, from Castile y León into Asturias, today's numbers look impressive. But in fact the day turned out to be relatively easy, a long way from the nightmare I was anticipating.

Climbing gently into the mountains

I spent most of yesterday's rest day in Leon worrying about today. The climb looked tough, there are few significant places to hang out, and the weather forecast was dreadful. We have become regular consumers of Spanish weather forecasts and the only conclusion you could draw from last night's was that the chances of significant rain with thunder today were high and it would get worse as we climbed. The only thing that gave us a glimmer of hope was that it was supposed to rain in León and didn't so perhaps the forecasts were a bit on the negative side. The Ruta Vía de la Plata website was also off-putting about this stretch of the route. As well as a massive climb and lightening they had me worrying about tunnels and lorries

Day 30 The Big Iberian Trip - León

99.3km 903m gained 801 lost

Yesterday we arrived in León from Benevante completing a tough but excellent day's cycling. Today we are resting up, doing some sight seeing and resting up for tomorrow and what promises to be the toughest day of trip, the day we cross the Cantabrian Mountains.

Now you can get from Benavente to Leon along the N630, it's not the recommended route, but is shorter. Christine, who prefers the straightest line between two points, had her misgivings. The promise that we would adopt a two stop strategy, one involving a proper lunch, was however enough to clinch the deal.

Day 29 The Big Iberian Trip - Benevante

68kms 700m ascent 620 descent

Benevante isn't in the same cultural heritage league as Zamora or Salamanca but it's a nice place with a Parador.

Paradors are a hotel chain owned by the Spanish state and typically located in beautiful historic buildings which would otherwise perhaps have fallen down. It's almost a Spanish version of National Trust but instead of preserving a building as a visitor attraction they preserve it as a hotel. They can be quite expensive but we noticed that with the long Spanish Easter finally starting to disappear the price had gone down so we've booked our first stay in one, here in Benevante, and have another in León tomorrow.