Category: Spain
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Off to Portugal!
We left Cadiz on the first of 2 trains to get to Huelva, though Seville. There was no space for “bikes” on the trains (the limit is 3) but there was unlimited room for bikes in bags, as long as the bags conformed to the size requirements. We learn something every trip about how to…
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Cadiz
Cadiz is old. Cadiz is believed to be the oldest city still standing in Europe. The settlement was founded by Phoenicians from Tyre (modern day Lebanon) following the Trojan War in 1104 BC. It was 700 years old when Hannibal started the Second Punic War. Around 1,000 BC, Phoenicians settled on Erytheia and Kotinoussa, two…
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Jerez = Sherry and Flamenco!
We started our day in Arcos de la Frontera with an amazing breakfast made by our hosts Isabelle and Jim, served on the patio just as the sun lit the town below us. It was a great start to the day! After breakfast we headed out of town to the west through the narrow streets,…
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Out of the mountains of Andalusia, towards Cadiz
We left Grazalema to begin descending towards the coast, planning to stay in Arcos de la Frontera and Jerez de la Frontera along the way before ending in Cadiz, where we will take a train to Huelva. There, we’ll begin the last part of this trip, ending in Lisbon where we’ll start our air journey…
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A beautiful day! Ronda to Grazalema through a cork forest
We woke up around 8AM, since the sun only comes up at 8:09 here at this time! We are close to the equinox, so the sunset is about 12 hours later, at 8:23. We had a short day today, less than 18 miles with less than 2,000 feet of climbing and so we took our…
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Ronda! Amazing bridges!
Ronda is simply beautiful. Unlike Seville or Madrid that could easily take weeks to explore, Ronda is simple in that it can be explored in a day, Its 3 amazing bridges define it, spanning the El Tajo Gorge, a 329-foot deep rocky canyon carved into the mountains by the River Guadalevin. The highest is New…
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What we came for: Pueblos Blancos!
We woke today to the unexpected noise of rain outside, fat raindrops that were forecast to stop about 10:30AM. What a surprise! We had somehow resigned ourselves to hot and dry while down south but cooler and even somewhat wet was OK for us and certainly for the farmers around us. Today was deliberately a…
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Fabulous! 30 Tunnels on the Via Verde!
I had some concerns about today’s ride, since our GPS maps showed an elevation gain of over 4,500 feet in 23 miles on the Via Verde! But, my concerns evaporated when I found that there are 30 tunnels on the former train line route, going through all the hills along the way. Some are unlit…
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Out of Seville, towards the Pueblos Blancos of Andalusia
We bid Katherine and Andrew hasta luego in Seville, as they headed to Lisbon by plane while we biked southeast to Montellano, our first Pueblo Blanco of this little tour of Andalusia. Getting out of Seville took a bit of time with lots of twists and turns, but the route thankfully was mostly bike paths,…
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Seville
Seville is the 4th largest town in Spain, about double the size of Córdoba, but it seems much larger. It was also unimaginably rich with its “discovery” of the Americas, and Seville shows the evidence of that wealth with an incredible density of grand, ornate, beautiful and well maintained palaces, churches, monuments and plazas. It’s…