If only
Written on May 22nd , 2026 by Pearl Ryder
If only I lived somewhere with easier access to the outdoors, I’d ride my bike more. Before we moved to Girona, I was hopeful that this would be true, but wary of my “if only” brain. What if we moved (at my insistence) to this much smaller city, only to find that I don’t actually ride more because of xyz factor I hadn’t even considered? Part of my motivation to invest so much energy in moving here to Catalonia was the hope that I would get outdoors more here than I did at home in Atlanta. And I am!
We ride Cassie to school every day, a 45 minute round trip. Her school is south of town and adjacent to endless quiet gravel roads, so I often combine drop off or pick up with an extra 10-20 miles. Getting groceries involves 10 minutes of walking at least, but often 20 (to get to the grocery store that carries my favorite dessert in Spain). I often walk through the hills behind the city or next to the river when I don’t feel like riding, and can easily get 0.5-3 hours of nature immersion without getting in a car. Girona is filled with other expats not working typical hours (or not working at all), so it’s easy to find riding buddies who are also free during the workday when Cass is at school. Everything feels so easy! I’m averaging 8 and a half hours a week on the bike with no special effort – I’m just living my life and the bike is there and the riding is beautiful, relaxed, simple. I rode more in the first 4 months of 2026 than I did in all of 2025.
And there’s more to come! For boring paperwork reasons, we need to leave Spain at the end of May. Craig already had plans to go to Germany at the beginning of June for a bike tour with friends, leaving me and Cassie free for a Mommy & Daughter adventure. I contemplated flying to Albania for a few weeks of pampering at an all inclusive resort, but the lure of the bicycle drew me in again. Why have one long travel day when you can have 18 travel days! We are setting off on a bike tour in just under a week. Finale Ligure, Italy is our destination. Over two and a half weeks, we’ll ride 280 miles in 9 stages plus 2 train days and lots of rest days. We’ll hug the coast of southern France and northern Italy, spending pretty much every day at the beach. Hoping that I’ve learned from previous bike adventures, this time I have every stage planned, train tickets purchased, and all hotels booked. After we finish, Craig will join us for two weeks at a family hotel by the beach in northern Italy to relax and rest. Here’s to the next stage of our adventures together. xoxo Ma Goodness
