Music — BOWIE BLOG — A BIKE RIDE WITH DAVID BOWIE

After a sun-scorched ride through Catalonia I land in Figueres, the home of Salvador Dali, to explore how his surrealist art influenced and inspired David Bowie, that and got trapped in a tidal wave of old French women at the Dali museum.

Cycling, David Bowie, Life on Mars, Salvador DaliJames BriggsJuly 22, 2021David Bowie, Salvador Dali, Dali, Surrealism, art, Life on Mars, cycling, Figueres, Spain, Music

The pain in Southern Spain

As I leave Barcelona under the blaze of midday sun and set out along cycling along the Costa Brava searching for David Bowie and his legacy

From Ibiza....

Off the plane into 36 degree heat. One faulty water bottle, 13 miles of motorways and one nervous dehydrated wreck later, I channel Bowie’s early bohemian phase and stumble into La Playa, Ibiza’s original hippy campsite.

IbizaJames BriggsApril 5, 2021From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads, Life on Mars, David Bowie, Hunky Dory, Cycling, Backpacking, Bike touring, Ibiza, Spain, Balaeric, Camping, Skiffle, Music, Travel, hippy

It's a god awful small affair

In 1969 David Robert Jones went to the Beckenham Recreation Ground bandstand and sat down to write a song. Life on Mars? would go on to become one of his most iconic songs and one of the greatest of the 20th century. It would also inspire me to cycle one of its lyrics, ‘From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads.’ The following pictures and diary entries are the story of that trip.