Bienvenidos a España

It's time to use that interrail ticket again to cross the bottom of France. I have mixed feeling of combining bike trekking with interrailing. Bike trekking is meant to be slow travel and only being able to 'escape' the weather or get to the next destination under your own power. This means that you have a lot less control of the situation and you just have to suck it up. Another downside is taking the early trains in order to have space for the bike and less hassle from the train conductors. Some times there are logistical issues, such as needing a seat reservation (eg Spain) which ties you to taking a certain train: not so flexible after all. On the flip side, it does give you more flexibility and crossing all of Europe with bike/ train combination is possible within weeks: 1000km is easily possible by train in Western Europe. On top of this, when the weather is particularly horrendous, it probably is better a train ride away: no need to book the train in advance, just use the Rail Planner (interrail) app to select that day as one of your 10 days within 2 months. However, I do think that interrailing these distances and with this ease is only possible in Western Europe. This flexibility of rail travel is only possible using a bike bag - otherwise it takes a lot more logistics to book a bike in the various countries, which all have different rules and fees to transport "whole bikes". 

it is also fun sometimes to optimise the rail travel experience: minimum changing of trains, minimum seat reservations possible, maximum distance. Just like today, which will involve only two trains to cover the southern border of France. 

Sometimes the rail network, even in Western Europe, is a weird relic of the past and makes little sense. For example, many rail networks were built radially from the capital city, eg Paris, and do not easily allow for the travel on the transverse travel within that country. Another example is the travel between bordering countries: travelling from the west coast of France to northern Spain is only possible taking a very circuitous detour via Barcelona and Madrid. This is relevant to me today, but luckily I have the bike to cross borders and take a major shortcut. I take the train to Bayonne and bike the 55km south to San Sebastian in Spain... It is a little hilly, but there is no reason that a rail track cannot cross the border at this point. This bike route along the Atlantic Coast of Europe is the Eurovelo 1 and extends all the way up the coast of Norway. 

The weather is quite rainy with thumder showers predicted for the coming days, so I press "escape", using my interrail powers and intend to get the train tomorrow to the west coast of Spain. I find a wild camping spot high on the hills overlooking the town and enjoy a long night's rest among the trees.