Greetings from Valancia

Early departure from Alarcon as we had a long way to go today. For reasons better known to Chris who had planned this fantastic route for us, we had kept the longest day 140 miles / 225km until last.

Early Start

We headed out along the N-111 the old main road East which runs parallel with the motorway. this took us some distance before we headed south on smaller country roads. After a brief lunch we got to Casas Del Rio by about 14:30. wonderful cascades and waterfalls -good place for a brief break.

Photo opportunity at Casas Del Rio

The afternoon was wet again as we started the long slow down hill towards the coast. country and mountains were beautiful all be it under increasingly threatening skies.

Down through the mountains, rain on the way

Valencia is a beautiful city that unique blend of ancient and modern that you only seem to find in older European cities and by the time we got towards the city centre, it had turned into a lovely evening. In the 1960s the Turia River which used to run through the centre of the city was diverted after severe flooding. The old riverbed was converted into the Turia gardens, an amazing collection of gardens, playgrounds, fountains and sports fields. Its incredible to cycle through the city along this riverbed, through gardens and under bridges, with architecture both ancient and modern looming over you on either side.

Turia Gardens

Needless to say as the afternoon wore on into evening we were still several miles from our destination, the trip computers had more or less given up and we had to rely on Graham's innate sense of direction. Eventually, after picking our way through the cobbled streets of Valencia old town, packed with revellers coming out for the evening we found our hotel. And guess what! Mrs Bell and family were there to meet us! Next time, more wives! After what turned out to be nearly 150 miles, there was not much to be done but eat and sleep.

Another great adventure comes to a close. all that remains is to pack up the bikes and return to our various lives  - until the next time. I wonder where next...

Bikes all packed, ready to go. Where next I wonder?

So that we 145 miles - the longest day!

GPX file of today's route
Alarcon to Valancia

Greetings from Alarcon

We left the hotel after a leisurely breakfast at about 08:30 and headed off east. We were in the plains in the middle of the country and consequently had long flat roads which allowed us to do 70 miles before lunch at an average speed of nearly 20 miles an hour. Lunch in Las Mesas very much a one horse town with one cafe serving bread, eggs and something that had once been chicken.

Lunch in Las Mesas - all a bit grumpy!

  The afternoon was on smaller country roads as we began to climb through rolling hills covered in fields of wheat poppies and lavender. A wonderful warm afternoon with big fluffy clouds and the road stretching out for miles in front of you - a wonderful feeling of freedom and space.

Come on Graham, do try and keep up

Freedom and space

Jeremy was following our route in the car, the prognosis was that he'd live, in reality he'd had a bug before we'd departed and his system was not sufficiently recovered for this ordeal. He would appear from time to time filming us as we peddled along. Due to the good speed we accomplished, we got to the hotel, a wonderful 8th century Arabic castle by 6:30.

Parador de Alarcon - proper castle

117 miles (188km) at 18.5 mph. 2500 feet of climb.

Last day tomorrow!

GPX file of today's route
Almagro to Alarcon

Greetings from Almagro

Left Guadalupe at 7 before the hotel was open for breakfast. Climbed up into the hills for an hour in the rain before stopping at a small cafe for breakfast. Small coffees and not enough rolls so we ended up with an intense game of cards to decide who would go without. They tell me I lost

After breakfast the rain eased and route took us along completely empty roads along the side of a lake for 40 miles as we headed south east. The only struggle was the road surface had broken up and made for rather uncomfortable riding. Stopped at Corcajo los Montes for a lunch of huge hamburgers and ham sandwiches.

A brighter afternoon

Better roads in the afternoon and the sun came out. Wide open planes as we headed for Ciudad Real. We then got the call from Jeremy to say he'd see us at the hotel. In fact there was a strange man in a car lurking by the side of the road taking pictures a few kilometers outside Almagro. Jeremy had clearly got board of his nurse and decided to rejoin the party.  Got to hotel at 8:30. 126 miles (201km) 8000ft climbing.

Harley, complete with camera helmet. More attractive than the nurse?

Keep you posted

GPX file of today's route
Guadalupe to Almagro

Greetings from Guadalupe

Eventful day, got in late to Guadalupe having left Cacares at 'sparrow fart'. It has to be said that Jeremy was not looking all too bright when we left the hotel; our mistake was putting this down to a rare combination of beer and tapas that he'd been rather keen on the previous evening. His complexion matched the grey clouds and his athletic prowess, was closer to that of your aged grandmother. After about 10 miles Jeremy came to a collapsing kind of a halt and started coughing up blood.

Whilst on these occasions we try to observe the 'Top Gear' protocol of checking for signs of life and if present, offering modest sympathy before wishing the victim well before peddling off, we thought on this occasion we should at least get him to a hospital. A taxi was summoned, a rather dishevelled Mr. Gittins was loaded in with bike and off he went to the local hospital.

We got a text from from him some hours later saying something along the lines of "There I told you I was ill" and that he had spent a day in the hospital at Caceres explaining to a petite blond nurse just what an important man he was. He says he´s going to find a car and try and catch up with us but we all suspect that he and the nurse have other plans... Graham got a puncture in the middle of nowhere - par for the course. An excellent lunch in the historic square at Trujillo where the refreshment bill seemed disproportionately cheaper with only the four of us.

In the afternoon the rain came down like stair rods for hours, everything got soaked. What we could see of the countryside and mountains through the driving rain seemed pleasant enough but to be honest we were all feeling pretty damp, miserable and concerned that we seemed to have lost one of our number. Got to the hotel about 8 O'Clock. 90 very damp miles, 7,000 feet of climbing

Keep you posted.

GPX file of today's route
Caceres to Guadalupe

Greetings from Caceres

The Parador we stayed in in Zafra was wonderful. Long stone corridors big open courtyards and that sense of Don Quixote echoing from the castle walls. We were reflecting on the ride today the effect of travelling across a country with all you have in the world packed into a small black bag. Given the rather complex lives we all lead, this kind of break makes for a real escape.

Flat lands

Anyway breakfast was uneventful, plenty of rolls this time and we set off through a rich countryside of long rolling hills, olive trees and vineyards with the colour of the landscape changing every mile.Today our route took us North with our final destination being Caceres, an ancient walled city and world heritage site in the central wine growing region of Spain. This first part of the day was a great ride, good tarmac and nothing else on the road, after 30 miles we stopped for a coffee in a sleepy village and them onto Merida, our half way point for lunch. We stopped in the town square for a lunch of Tapas, cheese, anchovies great sausage and lots of bread. My companions I have come to understand, are a bunch of Philistines, they didn't like the food, didn't like the price and I distinctly saw them keeping an eye out for McDonalds as we left the town over an old Roman bridge.

Being Storked

Never let it be said that the EU has lost its touch for funding pointless civil engineering projects. You see our road north continued along the N 630, a beautiful, wide, empty carefully maintained road on which we could happily ride five abreast as we didn't see a single car. Running in parallel to this road was a shiny new EU funded motorway on which we did see the occasional car but frankly, we wouldn't have got in anyone's way if we had cycled on that instead. Chris was muttering darkly about use of tax payers money under the watchful eyes of nesting storks as the rain began to fall.Rain jackets on and eyes out for a place to stop for tea.

We stopped for tea in the village of Torrequemada where Jeremy was delighted to discover they apparently served Green Tea. he spent most of the rest of the ride extolling the virtues of the health giving and life enhancing properties of this beverage to Harley who it has to be said, was looking increasingly board.

We got into Caceres about six thirty. In trepidation, no one had mentioned Graham's usual Day 3 crisis, but when he sped off through the town muttering something about trusting his own instincts rather than those damn computers, we knew it didn't bode well. The four of us got to the hotel, Graham wasn't there, but thankfully was in a good humour when he did arrive some minutes later having got directions from a nice young Spanish lady who apparently had taken a shine to this nice old man in lycra.

Anyway 106 miles (170km) and a modest 3000 ft of climbing

Keep you posted  

GPX files for today's route
Zafra to Merida
Marida to Caceres

Greetings from Zafra

Thankfully we were the first down to breakfast as there was a bit of a shortage of bread rolls and by the time we had eaten our fill and stuffed our pockets for the ride there were not really very many left. Jeremy thought it safer to wear his helmet for the remainder of the meal as slowly the frustration of the other hungry residents turned to anger.

Playing it safe

We escaped and headed east for the Spanish boarder.On the way to Reguengos de Monsaraz, our first scheduled coffee stop, we experienced the great digital divide.Jeremy and my trip computer dictated that we should navigate through a small village in one direction, Graham's finely honed analogue sense of direction, felt that we should pursue an alternative, Chris and Harley looked confused. After we had circled the village several times, Jeremy finally resolved the issue by shouting at an old Portuguese woman... Which way to Spain... in French, for reasons we didn't fully understand, still it made him feel better.

The road to Spain

There was a good straight road to the boarder and Chris led us off at a frightening pace leaving confused BMW drivers in our wake as we sped past. Not much to report about the boarder crossing, an empty checkpoint and a bullet hole and that's about it. Our first stop in Spain was Villanue del Fresno. Nice cafe in the square there which sold good custard tarts and coffee, nearly as good as that to be found in Sudan only without the ginger. we consumed our food under the watchful gaze of an enormous number of very old men all wandering about the square, presumably waiting for something exciting to happen and I think we were as good as it got. Then deeper into Spain wonderful scenery, a landscape changing in colour and shape all the time. The long road to Zafra though was a real killer. Sharp descents and long slow climbs. we got in about 7. Large G and T's in this wonderful old castle where we are staying. Off into the town for Paella then home and bed.

105 miles \ 167km and 6,600 feet of climbing and looking at something similar tomorrow.

Keep you posted

Link to GPX file of route
Evora to Zafra Day 2

Greetings from Evora

Here we are in the ancient walled city of Evora, a world heritage site that thankfully is not too grand to sell extremely large glasses of cold beer, just what the Doctor ordered  after 108 miles (175km) of cycling through the beautiful Portuguese countryside.

Ready for the off...

Our day started with breakfast at 06:30 after which we picked our way through the streets of Lisbon trying to avoid getting our wheels stuck in tram tracks - death to cyclists. I am reminded of when one of our number got his front wheel stuck in some metalwork on a road in Italy which resulted in him describing a gentle arc over the handlebars onto the cobbled street below. We reached the ferry and crossed over to Cacihas from where we started our cycle along the coast. We had two hours to cover the 35 miles and 400 meters of climb through the Parque Natural da Serra da Arrabida to Setubal where we planned to catch the second ferry to Troia. Beautful hills, covered in mist and cloud with stunning scenery over the Atlantic.

Whilst we were busy missing the ferry due to Graham's disappearance down a side street, we met a rather a nice uber nerd from Califorian with Parkinson's called Bart. He had also left Lisbon that morning on his way to Geneva.

Jeremy, ya man Bart and Harley on the ferry to Troia

We then followed the flat straight road along the coast and then off into the countryside that reminded one of  'ranching' country; huge wide rolling fields full of cattle. After about 60 miles we stopped at Alcacer do Sal for lunch. I'm afraid most of the rest of the day was overshadowed by 'Ricegate'. Whilst Graham was enjoying a protracted visit to the cloak room, someone stole his rice. An afternoon of interrogation failed to produce a culprit.

Beer...

Beers when we got in and then off to a great pasta restaurant, just off the town square. Lots of spaghetti, good carbs for tomorrow.

Keep you posted

Links to GPX flies of the route
Lisbon to Evora Day 1 a
Lisbon to Evora Day 1 b