Murkiness before clarity....

I hadn't imagined that UK VISA would take three weeks, cricket world cup happening had increased the number of applicants causing this delay. Relatively easy Schengen VISA was the next, by our schedule we had to go to a European country's consulate which could take another three weeks to process the VISA. Which meant, I would have the VISA post my supposed cycle tour end date. This did make all of us hit the panic button hard. One of my good friends who had been doing these for about 2 decades suggested an easier way out and Voila! the VISA arrived in within 24 hours from the application submission.
Then was the international driver's permit (IDP) to be able to drive a car in Europe. The connections of one to the other and in theory none of it could be done in parallel was giving me signs that I should have started some of these plans much before. IDP when it arrived appeared like a bigger passport :). It is another thing that I realised in Spain and in Norway that you do not need one to rent/hire a car, you would need it when police stop your car LOL!!
With some quick shopping for cycling gear for Europe's supposed cold and rain and to fill the missing items from the comprehensive check list provided by the tour organisers, I was ready to rock and roll. A birthday party marked a family get together at home on the eve of departure, all near and dear had dropped by to wish luck. Couple of friends dropped in to surprise.
The early morning flight from Bengaluru to Dubai was the first international flight after 8 years. There was a little sigh of relief with fewer steps of customs, stamping of the passports. All through I was making notes to help my wife and daughter on their travel a week later. This was a kind of first ever journey for them on their own minus me.
For a change the flight's in-flight entertainment had a host of Kannada movies alongside a big bouquet of good movies from across the world and representation from all Indian movie industries (identified by their languages) which would take you ages to watch!
I had to spend good 12 hours and more in Paris's Charles De Gaulle before my next flight, I was under the impression that it would be a little uncomfortable stay at the airport and wouldn't cause much hassle. I was wrong!. I regretted not booking my accommodation at Paris that night. However, these bitter experiences were eventually learnings for my girls on their travel. A map of different terminals of the airport. Where would they come out, what to expect when they come out. Where to wait, which terminal would my flight arrive at. These were few of the queries,  for which I noted down the answers with the map of the terminals.
Flight from Paris to Bilbao was a short and uneventful one.
My expectation of meeting a few of my fellow cyclists at the Airport and to travel along to the hotel wasn't to be. With my earlier experience of looking for 'i' for information, I managed to find and boarded a bus, which would take me to San Sebastian, the starting point of our tour. It was good distance from the bus station to the hotel and had to take a taxi. Where I met the taxi driver, who wasn't familiar with English at all :) my first such experience in sometime. However, that didn't stop me from conversing and getting to know a few things about him and the city. An elephant's idol was in the dashboard which was bringing good luck to him. Similar to our dashboards here. He was quite helpful and also was telling about how they the taxi drivers in some cities of Spain are keeping Uber away.
At the hotel, I had arrived good 4 hours before the normal check-in time! The receptionist had to do a lot of work checking out the fully booked hotel to get rooms for all of us who were flying in for the tour. About an hour later, I got a room, rather a small 3 roomed studio apartment. The surprises didn't stop. The shower pipe broke as soon as I opened it to take a much needed shower. I finished the shower from the water oozing out of the broken pipe and called for help. A lady plumber, again non-english speaking helped fix the shower pipe and cleaned all soaked bathroom floor too. A few words of Spanish, that I had picked from classes in the flight were of help to convey my gratitude to her.
I quickly realised, my international power socket adapter was of no use, found TV's USB socket to charge my phone and laptop :) Innovation Delivered or Jugaad.
Post that, I thought I could catch some sleep before our 7:30 PM dinner meeting with my fellow travellers' on the tour and dozed off.

An unfamiliar voice calling out my name loud woke me up. It was 7:15 and it was one of the riders whom I was sharing my room with. He told me I was so deep in sleep that he had to try for sometime before I opened my eyes.
I was warmly welcomed to the dinnner table, where I realised most of the riders there knew each other pretty well. Either through earlier tours or they worked together. I did find a bunch of vegetarians/vegans at the table which was surprising and at the same time reassuring :)
My request to gift each of the participants and support crew with Gamosa was warmly welcomed. I had to do a bit of introduction of the fabric too. I recalled Achinta Uncle who had got these arranged from Distant Guwahati, Assam wanted me to make a video of handing over of Gamosa. He had shot and sent out a video on the traditional way of handing it over too. One of my tour mates did help me there with taking video. All in all, this bit of interaction took me a little step closer to all participants. As I needed a bit of coaching from each one there, it was very important that I could connect well and from the word go.
On the other side is the grueling at the same time enchanting ride across Pyrenees...
Hoping to be able to take you there quickly with Christmas and New year break around...
Ciao!