Huge hugs and kisses. This is how the reunion took place, of course, at Valencia airport.

Marie flew here so that we could be reunited in our adventure towards South Africa.

Kenneth had gone to the trouble of booking a hotel that would suit Marie's romantic taste. The choice was exquisite – a hotel with a bicycle workshop in the basement, so we had plenty of space to assemble Marie's bicycle!

It's not hard to impress your girlfriend when you have that kind of attention to detail.

In addition to the bicycle cellar, we lived in an area with really good places to eat. We sought out the best place to get the local Paella Valenciana with rabbit. And it certainly did not disappoint. Paella is originally from Valencia and there are annual cooking competitions to make the best of the kind. The rice used is grown just outside the city. Another local specialty is Orxata. A drink that resembles a milkshake, but is made from a kind of tuber with a nut flavor. There are several Horchaterias scattered around the city, where you can have the drink served, preferably with cake.

Valencia is a nice city, with good delicacies. Along with a fair amount of good and cheap espresso, we ate our way through a few rest days before jumping on the bikes and pointing our noses at the mountains.

All in all, the food, and especially the aesthetics, must be said to mean a lot in Spain. It's amazing how cycling through an orange grove can fill you with a very special sense of beauty. There is something very special about how beautiful it is when the sun falls on the fruits, which ripen slowly on the tree, which is planted in the rocky soil of the hilly landscape. Even if it's just an orange grove, we still rejoice.

Orange groves gave way to olives as we moved up into the mountains. Our route went through Andalusia. A fantastic mountain landscape with a jumble of peaks and valleys, with old, beautiful, white villages scattered on the hillsides. When you take the time to be in the villages, you discover the aesthetics. Everything is neat and tidy. The road signs are in clinker, the pavements laid out in beautiful formations with different stones, trees that provide shade from the harsh sun. Good craftsmanship and natural materials characterize the cityscape, rather than mass production and cheap materials.

Andalusia is basically a large olive plantation. It is so incredibly beautiful to see. We stayed one night with Enrique, a nice man who has an olive plantation. He told us about the production. He sells his olives to the cooperative, which presses the olive oil. Andalusia accounts for approximately 35% of the world's olive oil production. A number we could feel very concretely as we cycled for days through endless plantations as far as the eye could see.

Every town called us to stop, sit in the square, at the water source and enjoy life. Or go into the local bar and order a cheap espresso. In both places there was life and conversation.

There is something special about Spain. There is a pride and respect between people. Perhaps it is connected with the historical wealth. Perhaps it is simply derived from the courtesy people show each other.

On the street you don't have to be afraid of the traffic, because all drivers are super attentive and very respectful of cyclists and pedestrians. Motorists like to hold back, whether it is their right or not.

Nah - what you have to be afraid of in traffic is elderly ladies on foot! There is an unconditional right of way for them! Without exception. You are promptly scolded and considered a bad person if you don't move out of the way immediately so they can get to you. It is quite amusing to observe, seen in a Danish context. But on the other hand, it also contains a respect for the elderly, which is fine and clear. Every woman should enjoy her retirement in Spain.

The politeness is also felt in the bars. Somewhere there was a sign:

Un cafe! = €1.80
Good slide. Un café solo, por favor = €1.20

...specifically, you save €60 cents by placing your order politely and conversationally.

We also feel how time is more important to people here. The long siestas in the middle of the day are a chapter in themselves, and not always convenient for the traveling cyclist who arrives in a small town hungry for lunch, half an hour after the supermarket has closed for siesta. But nevertheless, it is an expression that quality of life and enjoyment are higher than efficiency. And, admittedly, we'll probably make it anyway.

In the supermarkets, it is more important to pack your bag in peace while you chat with the cashier than it is to throw your things out of the way while you run the visa card through your teeth so that the next customer can get to you in a hurry.

In this way, we constantly experience that here there is a calmness and a presence between people. You don't feel like a bother to each other, but you talk and engage with each other. It is very beautiful. Once you surrender to it.

Our trip through the European continent has been divided into several stages, which overall have been a bit abrupt. But it does not matter. Most importantly, the adventure survived and the dream is lived. We are glad that we did not let the many obstacles that could have kept us at home stop us, but found a way through where it could be done anyway.

A few days ago we had a beautiful evening in a crazy storm in a fantastic city, Ronda. It was that evening that the 100-year storm also hit Denmark. In Ronda, everything was closed, except for a small pizzeria where we sat with a few other tourists. When we had to go back to our hotel, we had to take a detour through the driving rain. The streets were flooded with 30-40cm of water. There was fountain water coming out of the manhole covers. It was crazy.

The next morning it was sunny, and we cycled down from the mountains – down towards the coast. We passed Gibraltar but continued towards Tarifa, the southernmost city in Spain.

The last 20km to Tarifa we cycled on a broken dirt road, along the water. On the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar we saw the coast of Morocco. A tall mountain loomed up. We cycled the stretch in the last rays of the sun. It was incredibly beautiful and touching. Suddenly it became very real to us that in a few days we will be standing on a new continent. The adventure will enter a new phase.

Europe has been incredibly easy to travel in. Africa will certainly offer many more challenges and experiences that we are not prepared for. We will face prosperity and adversity in completely new ways. And we will meet people who live a life very different from our everyday life in Denmark. It gives a sick feeling in the stomach to think about. And that is where the adventure lives. Where we don't quite know what awaits us.

We are ready for Africa…