About four years ago I decided to renew my interest in bicycling. Got a new bike. Got the wife one. Started riding the greenways and bike paths in northern Georgia. Then it occurred to me to incorporate it into my work travels. Many European cities have guided bike tours. I’ve now been on four with a tour in Madrid Saturday morning. The tour started at 10 a.m., which was a struggle for me as I had sampled the Madrid nightlife a little too hard on Friday night. Nevertheless, I persevered and make it to the tour company, Bravo Bike, on time. It was to be a 3-4 hour tour of the city with five of us in the group. I was the only American. Kaspar, a 60-ish Swiss national, who owns Bravo Bike, was our guide. I had previously done bike tours in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin and there were no hills to speak of in any of them. No so Madrid. At least a third of the ride was on hilly city streets. I should mention that with these tours, you often become part of the city traffic, mixing it up with pedestrians, other cyclists, city buses, cars, motorcycles, scooters and any other mode of transpo the city has to offer.
We hit the high spots of the city during a tour, which included about a half hour stop for coffee. It was a great way to see Madrid and I had mucho fun despite my liquid fun the previous evening. It was also a great workout and not really for the novice biker. I can thank my trainer Shari for getting my quads in sufficient shape to meet this challenge.
As for other city tours, I would rate Paris, which I have done both night and day, and Amsterdam, which I have done twice, as the best of what I have done thus far. London and Barcelona remain on my to-do list and any other city which I might visit that has a tour. I highly recommend this method of touring a city. It beats the heck out of the ubiquitous double-decker tour buses.

A stop at Plaza Mayor during a bike tour of Madrid.