biking to work

This summer, when I first found out that I was going to be working in Santanyí and S'Alqueria Blanca, I immediately got on Google Street View to check out my two towns. Exploring around the outskirts of Santanyí, I discovered a backroad set between honey-colored stone walls, passing by almond trees and cacti. S’Alqueria Blanca is only 5K from Santanyí, and so I decided that as soon as I got to Spain I was going to buy/rent/find a bike, and then ride my bike along this beautiful-looking road to get to work every day.

When I got here, I did indeed find a bike—my roommate has a friend who lives in Germany in the winter, and she just so happens to leave her bike here—but I never rode the bike out of town!

Yesterday, after another sleepless night (I really, REALLY am starting to dislike jet lag) I decided that good way to jazz myself up for the day would be to ride my bike to work in S’Alqueria Blanca! The main road is 5K, but since I haven’t bought myself a helmet yet and there are virtually no road shoulders, I took that back road, which is about 7K.

I set off an hour early, just in case I got lost or it took me a lot longer than I expected… good thing I did! I didn’t take any photos, but to commemorate this beautiful ride, and my first exposure to Santanyí via the internet, here’s a Street View version of my journey.

Setting off from Santanyí: left or right? Knowing the map in my head and getting to the actual intersection are two different things. Hmm...

Heading out of town. Check out the enormous cactus!

The almond trees are in full blossom right now. The Google team's car must have come by here in January or February of last year. Street View (which is amazing!) was created when Google mounted cameras on top of cars and then drove all over the world, adding this feature to their Google Maps program.

That blurry thing at the bottom of the screen is Google's car.

Hmm... the road is getting much narrower.

And I've arrived at the beach! This is a problem, because S'Alqueria Blanca is NOT on the coast.

I guessed I missed this intersection waaaay back here...

Ah, well, back on the road again!

Coming into S'Alqueria Blanca. I knew I'd get there eventually!

So, instead of being a quick 7K up a gentle hill, I ended up going about 14K with several ups and downs—down to sea level and then back up again. It was absolutely worth it, and I got to work just on time. Now that I know the route, more or less, this will be my preferred mode of transportation! :)