Owen’s email below is well-timed. It being the 1st September today, the summer is over if you consider the season to be the three months  from June to August. It’s also more or less over if you are a teacher as most of us go back to work next Monday. Much of this summer has been spent getting Good Vibrations out of the starting block but I do need to start to think about 2013 and my plan to cycle from Athens to Cadiz along the Eurovelo 8. In this spirit, I spent a fair amount of time earlier tonight looking at Google maps on my iPad considering possible routes especially at the Athens end. I could, for example, catch a ferry from Greece to Brindisi, pop in to see Basil & Liz again and then catch a second ferry back over the Adriatic from Bari to Dubrovnik in Croatia. The would allow me to avoid the dodgy bits of the fragments of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania. Perhaps, perhaps not. A bit of danger is no bad thing…

Owen’s question is about the Spanish end of the Eurovelo 8;

Hi Andrew,
I see that you plan to cycle Eurovelo 8 in 2013 and wondered if you had any details about the part of the route through spain. I want to go from the north to the south along the west coast of spain as the Eurovelo 8 route does, but frustratingly the European Cycling federation Document details the whole route, except the part through spain. I understand that you’ve still got a long time before 2013, but if you have started to look into it any advice/tips/routes would be really helpful (I’ve never cycled long distance like this before).
Thanks in advance,
Owen

I think Owen means the east coast of Spain. He is correct however when it comes to the lack of detail in the ECF document (you can download it from this site – over there on the right). It presumes the route starts in the Pyrenees and makes little mention of the Spanish part of the route. However, the official description of the route by the ECF does give a few more indications as to which way to cycle;

The route starts in the biggest region of Spain, Andalusia, known for its white villages, huge fields of olive trees and beautiful green mountains and national parks. From Cadiz along the blue sea to Tarifa close to Africa at Gibraltar. The next stages go into the countryside through national parks and up to Ronda, down again to Malaga and up to Granada with the famous Alhambra at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. Further to Murcia and Valencia – here the route has the theme and signs of the Via Augusta and also the pleasure of following some Vias Verdas. It is not easy to follow the coast in a straight line so up to Barcelona the route crosses inland from time to time. Here you should notice several cycle tracks and the Gaudi building, of course! Figueres with Dali Museum is the last station in Spain of a total of about 1,700 km. We pass the Pyrenees through Col de Banyuls (357 m).

The full description can be found here. That’s where I currently am Owen. Please let me know if / when you get any further in your planning.