Northern Spain

In 1906, two Englishmen mount their bicycles and set off into Northern Spain, chasing something that no longer exists. Edgar Wigram and his companion trade letters proposing their journey, buoyed by optimism despite the ominous warnings about Spanish roads, bandits, and the general difficulties of travel. They arrive in Bilbao to find a place caught between old and new: charming cobblestone streets beside smoking factories, the first stirrings of modernity bleeding into a medieval way of life. From there, they pedal along the northern coast to places like Castro Urdiales, navigating both cultural and culinary challenges with varying degrees of success. Wigram's prose captures what later tourists would never see: a Spain of small-town rituals, of locals who had never encountered English cyclists, of landscape so dramatic it stops you cold. The bicycle is not merely transportation here but a philosophy. It demands slowness, rewards the curious, and opens doors that trains and tour buses slam shut. A century-plus later, this remains a portal to a vanished world, written with genuine wonder and a traveler's appetite for the unknown. For readers who believe the journey matters more than the destination.