The End of Our Cycling Journey

After nearly 800 kms of riding, up and over many hills and through a varied cross section of the geography and scenery of northern Spain – with the Picos de Europa a real highlight – we have finally arrived at the coast.  Our last serious day of riding was preceded by an ascent of a section of the Picos de Europa in a Funicular, followed by a walk up to a look-out point for an impressive view of the Naranjo de Bulnes (see photo below)  This spectacular rock face looks very much like Federation Peak. Then the final 37 kms to Llanes taking in one more 400 metre hill and avoiding a second one.  And, finally, the sea and the end of a journey.

As always, when you travel in a foreign country, you only skim the surface but we do feel that travelling on the bikes has brought us into closer contact with locals and put us in a position where we have observed a way of life that does seem to have remained the same for a long time.  We have done a lot of sitting in bars making a beer or a glass of wine last a long time, just like the old men playing cards to while away the long afternoons.  Even the older women seem to frequent the bars, which are often more like cafes serving alcohol, and essential social hubs in every town and village.  The women are usually dressed in their best, their hair coiffed and stiffened with hair spray, and drinking coffee and chatting.

The small shops are also a source of fascination; they have small fronts that seem to disappear behind doors and shutters when they close for the long afternoons of siesta.  Small Charcuteries (delicatessens), Carnicerias (butchers), Panaderias (bakers), Pescaderos (fishmongers) are tucked in next to houses and when their doors are open they’re crammed with lots of enticing food items.  The variety of meats, sausages and cheeses are amazing and a lot of it is incorporated into their cooking for flavour.  And the bread, fifty varieties of sliced loaves in Australia but here it’s pan – crispy crusted breadsticks – and everyone buys it and carries it about and eats it and they serve it in thick slices in restaurants as part of every meal.  The only variety seems to be in length, and an occasional ciabatta  style alternative.  Not good for the waistline!!  The three course menus in the evening, with wine and food included (about $30 for two) have also done some damage there.  Sadly, all the bike riding doesn’t seem to have worked it off.

We have been surprised that the beaches at Llanes are only a couple of tiny sandy coves, but the cliffs that stretch either side are very impressive and the spray from the pounding waves quite spectacular.  Our hotel room also looks down on one of the small beaches and it’s been pleasant to listen to the waves and watch the tourists determined to sunbathe and swim even though it’s cloudy and quite cool.  Onwards now to Bilbao by bus and then San Sebastian where we pick up a hire car and do some driving and walking in the Pyrenees.

Naranjo de Bulnes (in the Picos de Europa)

Arriving in Llanes

La Playa de Sablon (Our hotel window looked down on this beach and the painted blocks are huge cubes of cement keeping the sea from eroding the harbour)

Bev’s Post Birthday Blog

After the fantastic day over the pass we settled in the village of Potes for three nights.  We rested through a day of rain then had a day ride from Potes to a funicular hoping for close-up views of the peaks, but all we saw was swirling mist.  The next day we woke to more rain which had become heavier by the time we’d finished breakfast.  We had said we wouldn’t ride in the rain but there wasn’t much choice as we’d booked a hotel at Arenas de Cabrales.  The first part of the ride included 22 km on a narrow road with no cycling verge through the spectacular Hermida Gorge – what we could see of it. This was then followed by another 23 km up the very impressive Cares valley to Arenas de Cabrales.  The river, which tumbled along next to us, was very fast and racy, swelled no doubt by the rain that was running into our shoes and soaking us through.  I did change into my Gortex parka which kept my upper half reasonably dry but we were two very soggy cyclists when we arrived at our hotel – Hotel Rivera in Arenas.  It was a very nice hotel with a big bathroom and a bath so we were soon warm and ready for a walk around the town, a much newer town than we have been experiencing.

The next day sun was promised – a nice birthday present – so we rode the 6 km up to Poncebos, the start of the “Ruta del Cares” walk, one of Spain’s classics. This is a path constructed to service a canal, starting at a place called Cain and bringing water from the Rio Cares to Poncebos.  We followed this most spectacular path the 12 km to Cain taking all of the estimated 3 hours because there were so many photo opportunities.  The Picos towered above us and were very clear and stark after the morning cloud lifted.  The rocky path was cut into the cliff wall most of the way and, at times, took us through caves and overhangs with water dripping through.  After eating our lunch, cheese and bread, bought hot in the town that morning, we walked the 12 km back taking 7 hours to walk both ways.  It ranks among one of the best day walks we have ever done (and we have done quite a few over the past 40 years). It is a most spectacular gorge and must have taken a back breaking effort to carve the path into the side of the gorge.

Then to continue a very good birthday we had chosen a more upmarket restaurant to celebrate.  We were the only ones dining but the owner/waiter was attentive and we thoroughly enjoyed our huge plate of regional cheeses (traditional cheese manufacturing is very big here) followed by, for me, an excellent feed of grilled monk fish and prawns.  Chris also had fish, grilled Sea bass.  We were too full for dessert but, as we had mentioned it was my birthday, the waiter appeared with a candle on a piece of cheesecake and they sang happy birthday to me in Spanish.  The music which had been on the CD player during our meal, to accompany this romantic meal for two, was a compilation of sixties love songs.  A very good day.  Just two more days of riding left – to Llanes on the coast and then possibly a day riding west along the coast before our bikes are collected.

One of the Best Days

I’m mainly letting the photos say what a great day this was: perfect sunny weather, only 300 m of climbing and a 1000 m downhill run into a village in a valley where we will now actually pause for a day of rest.  

The Squiggle on the Map

 

Our journey from Madrid to San Domingo de la Calzada was much as described in the book Cycle Touring in Spain.  We had followed Route 6 up to this point which then continued north to Bilbao.  Instead we had decided to head west then north into the Picos de Europa which is Route 8 in the book.  So Chris took over from Harry Dowdell, the author, and plotted his own route across from San Domingo to Calzada to Potes just on the edge of the Picos de Europa National Park, where we would do a version of Harry’s route.

The first day on our own route finding was more of the gorgeous farmland,which i think I’ve already described: the fields of wheat, the wildflowers and the distant mountains, all under a clear blue sky.  And with only two short sharp hills.  The next day’s riding, under unexpected grey skies, had an unusual squiggly line on Bing Maps.  ‘We’ll bypass that village up there (Poza de la Sal).  There must be a lookout point past it that the map is taking us too,’ said Chris.  But we didn’t bypass it; the road took us up and up to the town, which seemed to be built into a cliff.  After a coffee in the town square and a glimpse at the historical wonders, we continued to climb up and up.  The ruins of a 12^th century castle provided an opportunity to have a lunch break to eat our bread and cheese before continuing on and up.  It was quite apparent that the squiggle on the map wasn’t taking us around a gorge – Chris’s second optimistic interpretation – which might have been winding and flattish, but up and over a small craggy mountain.  At no point were we lost, just uninformed about the contours.  This information has been the benefit of Harry Dowdell’s route descriptions so far.

Anyway, if you keep pedalling you do eventually get there and the castle had been very impressive; it had been possible to climb up steep stone steps and in through a door and finally up more steps onto the ramparts.  The view from this high point was spectacular.  You looked down on the rooftops of Poza de la Sal and beyond to the patchwork fields of the plains.  The view was inclined to fade into the mist, but still impressive.

When we finally struggled up to the top of the ridge, with a few bright patches being offered by the yellow flowers of the gorse, we were in the mist with the wind turbines – the second time we have seen whole ‘farms’ of these.  After this it was across a high flat plain, on a narrow road, before eventually descending to Montorio where we had booked our hotel ahead fearing that, if there had been no accommodation available, we would have needed to ride another 30 kilometres to Burgos, a major regional town.  It was a long day – 57 kilometres and 6 hours of riding.  The interesting, and obvious thing about riding, as opposed to walking, is that you cover the downhill kilometres very quickly – 6 kilometres might only take 6 minutes on a steep descent – but the uphill can be very slow.  The squiggle on the map was about 6 kilometres and, in riding time, took about an hour and a half!

And today there were no small, quiet roads to follow, just a main highway coming through from Madrid to Bilbao.  Lots of trucks and some very big ones too.  The distance was 46 kilometres but we covered it in four ours because it was fairly gentle up and down and there was less to distract us.  So we’ve ridden for eleven days; some stormy weather is forecast for Monday and Tuesday we’ve booked a nice place in the mountains and will actually rest up.

On the Road

Our only glimpse of wildlife.

South to North

We have now ridden over 350 kilometres but I don’t like to think how many metres I’ve struggled uphill.  The encouraging thing is that I’m no longer getting off the bike when it becomes steep so I must be getting fitter.  Still the 71 kilometres we did yesterday, despite 46 of it being downhill, was a very long and tiring day.  The downhill stretch was exhilarating.  Uphill was mature pine forest but then downhill was a racy ride along a treed gorge and then around a huge dam.  The weather was cloudy but so much warmer than the two cold grey days that went before.  And today was gentler, only 40 kilometres, and sunnier and so scenic all day: along a river valley at first then out amongst undulating hills of  fertile farmland, so many patches of different greens with the occasional squares of young vines, lots of red poppies along the road and the Pyrenees a distant blue.

We rode into a large village called San Millan de la Cogolla where there was an impressive monastery then onto our days destination, San Domingo de la Calzada which is part of the Camino de la Compastella.  After being the only tourists in the villages, and the only guests in the hotels, we found it quite strange to see so many tourists/pilgrims.  We rejected the pilgrim accommodation with the dorm rooms and found a nice hotel for our standard 50 Euro price.

We also hope to enjoy a better meal tonight.  We’re struggling with the menu language – one low point was forgetting to take the phone dictionary and relying on the waiter’s verbal description.  I didn’t enjoy the stew of pig’s innards in a salty chorizo sauce very much.  Paella, bean soup, fish soup, have been highlights but they’re not always on the menu and when you order meat or fish or chicken that’s what you seem to get and lots of it.  Still the set menus come with bread, a bottle of wine and dessert and are good value.  And we did find a fruit and vegetable shop today and have just feasted on cherries and strawberries.  Today’s picnic lunch of bread and cheese was also great.

Tomorrow we start to ride west towards the Picos de Europa.

 

After Five Days

It’s a wet grey afternoon and we’re at the end of our fifth day of riding staying in a small town called San Leonardo de Yague.  Our route has taken us through an ever changing landscape: high scrubby plains, fields of green wheat and ploughed stubble, a ridge of wind farms – the modern equivalent of Don Quixote’s windmills,  limestone country and another area of unusual pink rock pocked with small caves.  Often when you struggle over the crest of a hill or ridge there’s a picturesque village below with a church towering above a cluster of rustic houses but many of these have turned out to be virtually ghost towns with only a few elderly people poking their heads out to peer at the crazy cyclists.  One elderly man did pause in his wood chopping and told us his wife had moved to the coast because it was too cold and he was renovating a ruined house for his son.  Most of the young people have moved away to the bigger towns and this is obviously a very sparsely populated area of Spain.

Our third and fourth days had some really long uphill sections and I will admit to getting off and walking when my legs simply wouldn’t push the pedals anymore.  The third day we climbed over a thousand metres!!  Still, it’s nice walking for a change and the views of mountains in the distance and valleys and fields below kept it from being boring.  We’re also having lots of stops for photos and to admire the wildflowers and poppies along the edge of the road.  Part of the route today took us away from the sealed roads, which have been excellent, and onto a ‘grit’ road for several kms.  This was interesting because we saw lots of old vines, cut right back and looking like gnarled gnomes and our first bit of wildlife, a deer.  There are heaps of signs warning you that a deer might be about to bound across the road in front of you, but no real deer up until this point.

Our two star hotels have been excellent, all with good bathrooms and comfortable beds and our bikes have also been well accommodated.  Weather started out bright and sunny but the last couple of days have been grey with a few rain squalls.  The forecast for Monday promises better weather.

The First Two Days

The panniers are loaded

On the Road

I felt a bit nervous about actually riding – the riding through Spain concept was very nice as an idea but the reality seemed a bit different.  Anyway, once the panniers were loaded and we were on the road it was just like riding anywhere except for strange road signs like a picture of a cow (I thought it was a bull) to indicate ‘cows crossing’.  There was even a bike path leading out of Alcala de Henares so we didn’t have to contend with traffic until about 8 kms out.  So after two days we’ve ridden about 65 kms and stayed in two villages, Yunquero de Henares and Cogolludo.  We are the only two mad touring cyclists on the road and so far have had hotels to ourselves.  No-one speaks much English so Chris has had to negotiate booking into the hotels and storing our bikes and I just stand back and listen.  I am hoping to gain a bit more confidence with this.

The village of Cogolludo, where we stayed last night, is very beautiful with a restored Renaissance palace in the square, then two churches positioned dramatically above and a ruined castle on the top of the very hill.  The view from here showed the route we’d come and where we’re going next as well as a patchwork of rusty red rooftops below and fields beyond.  All the villages have old churches at their heart and squares in the centre and winding cobble-stoned streets and are all very picturesque.  The real hills start today.

Sightseeing in Madrid

What’s interesting about arriving in a new city is how confusing everything can seem then, after agonising over whether to buy a tourist metro card or not and staring at maps of railway lines and metros, it all suddenly makes sense.  Madrid is a sprawling spider-web of a city where no road goes in a straight line and there seems to be small odd shaped plazas at every turn.  The main plaza, Plaza Mayor actually manages to be a huge rectangle.  It all seems so old; magnificent, grand, imposing facades.  We travelled three times into the centre of Madrid from Alcala de Hernares and quickly became experts on a very efficient and frequent train and metro system.  Sightseeing highlights were just wandering the streets and observing everyone else wandering the streets and visiting two of the big art galleries, Museo del Prado and Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.  The masterpieces in the Prado – paintings by Goya, Velasquez, Bosch etc. – are all so familiar but breathtaking when you see them for real.  Picasso’s Guernica, in with the modern art in Reina Sofia, is such a complex painting and said so much about the Spanish Civil War, it needed about half an hour of contemplation.  Churches, gardens, small Tapas bars tucked in side streets – it’s all here and we put in the leg work to see it.  We’ve adjusted to eating all our meals later and have been amazed by the way Madridians spend so much of the evening dressed up and strolling the streets and standing in groups chatting.  This was especially apparent on the weekend in Alcala de Hernares.  I guess it is a very cheap and social form of entertainment.  The train trips into and out of the centre have also been interesting.  A particular style of begging is for an unemployed person to move through the carriage handing out a card explaining their plight then returning to collect money or standing in the middle of the carriage and telling everyone about their straightened circumstances then moving around for donations.  Our fourth day was spent closer to our hotel and taking our bikes for a test ride.  A bike path leads out of the centre and starts about 500 metres from our hotel so we can avoid the busy roads in the morning.  Chris is coping well with the Spanish and I’m gathering confidence.  There’s so much of it we can read and understand but so little we can say!!  Chris has started his own blog and will, no doubt, provide more technical information on the riding.