Author Archives: gwenhaynes

Spain Bike Trip – Day 19

13 Saturday May 2023

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May 12, 2023. Avila to Segovia. Distance: 60 miles Elevation: 3,830 feet

This was our first really chilly ride with the threat of rain on the horizon. It was a longer ride than the past several days rides but much easier on the tandem. It was also a beautiful ride with new countryside – big rolling hills with new wildflowers along the way. Purple bachelor buttons, yellow mustard, purple thistles and very bright red poppies.

We arrived at our Hotel San Antonio El Real about 2pm. Our afternoon wanderings took us to the Aqueduct of Sedovia.

It was built around the first century AD to channel water from springs in the mountains 11 miles away to the city’s fountains, public baths and private houses and was in use until 1973. Its elevated section, with its complete arcade of 167 arches, is one of the best-preserved Roman aqueduct bridges. It is 2,684 feet long and 95 feet high at its highest point. It is composed of over 25,000 unmortared, brick-like granite blocks.

We walked a short distance from our hotel to near the source of the aqueduct which was at the height of the road

along the wall

and as the ground gave way and the aqueduct continued straight

it continued to grow bigger and bigger.

A very impressive sight.

Spain Bike Ride – Day 18

12 Friday May 2023

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May 11, 2023. San Lorenzo to Avila. Distance: 38 miles. Elevation: 4,070

Today was our first cool day. We wore leggings and jackets and caps under our helmets to keep our head and ears warm. It was sunny all day but a chilly North wind was blowing and by afternoon it was a 20mph cross wind and for a tandem that’s substantial. Here’s a view from along one of the three major climbs today. You can see San Lorenzo (where we started our ride this morning) in the center back and some of the switchbacks on the way up.

Spain has many mountain ranges separated by wide river valleys. Most of our rides consist of climbing up and over a mountain range then crossing the wide flat valleys and repeat.

After stopping for a late mid-day meal we arrived at the Hotel Palacio de los Velada in the late afternoon.

We showered and did a quick tour of the city before our 6pm Happy Hour meeting. Here’s a view over the city. There’s the top a mountain pass in the background and if you look closely you’ll see a line of modern wind turbines lining the crest. We biked by those wind turbines on our way to Avila. And boy were those turbines spinning.

The walled city of Avila is the highest provincial capital in the country at 3,711 feet above sea level. It is famous for its perfectly preserved medieval walls. Built around 1100 its wall is the most complete in all of Spain.

Across the street from the hotel is the Cathedral of the Saviour. It was built in the late Romanesque and Gothic architectural traditions in the 12th century and was planned as a cathedral-fortress, its apse being one of the turrets of the city wall.

As with all Cathedrals throughout Europe the interior is massive.

And I’ll leave you with this. The square in front of the Cathedral was lined with Lions on pedestals but I couldn’t help noticing all the lion butts hanging over the back of each pedestal.

Spain Bike Trip – Day 17

11 Thursday May 2023

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May 10, 2023. Madrid to San Lorenzo del Escorial. Distance: 31 Elevation: 2,585 feet

It was a chilly morning so most of us took our time leaving Madrid as we waited for it to warm up a bit. We had a lovely ride today.

We were feeling a little eleven o’clockish so we wandered off course into the town of Bretta where we found a lovely little bar where we had coca cola, a cortado and a sandwich.

More storks.

We got to our hotel the San Lorenzo del Escorial around 2:30

Here’s the view from our window. If you look closely near the horizon towards the left you can see the tall buildings of Madrid where we started our ride this morning.

After we settled in we walked a couple of blocks to the San Lorenzo de el Escorial, the Capitol of the Inquisition. This is a massive palace.

Note the wall in the foreground in the picture above. This is what was on the other side of that wall.

Since photography was not allowed inside I invite you to watch this short video by Rick Steves, who was allowed to take some photos inside. https://classroom.ricksteves.com/videos/spain-s-el-escorial-capital-of-the-inquisition

After our 6pm Happy Hour where we learned about tomorrow’s ride Chris and I headed out to find some dinner. We found a place that was open and ordered the leek and duck salad. Here it is in all it’s glory. Quite pretty.

Tomorrow is a big day with lots of climbing.

Spain Bike Trip – Day 16

10 Wednesday May 2023

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May 9, 2023 Rest Day #2 in Madrid

After cleaning up the bike and giving it a tune up we took the bus into downtown and walked to the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. We arrived just in time for the 12:45pm showing of the works of Lucian Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud. “Lucian Freud was a British artist, famous for his portraits and self-portraits painted in an expressive neo-figurative style.” He often did portraits of people and their pets. Here’s an example of one of them.

The museum “holds a vast collection that traces the history of European painting from the Middle Ages right through to the late 20th century. Here are a few pieces from other collections in the museum. From one extreme to the other.

Tonight we begin Part 2 of our trip. Six people left after Part 1 and seven new people are joining us for Part 2. Happy hour is at 6:30 and dinner at 7:30 where we’ll all get acquainted. There 30 of us on this trip.

Here’s dinner – tapas style.

Back on the road tomorrow.

Spain Bike Trip – Part 2

09 Tuesday May 2023

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May 8, 2023. Madrid rest day

What a well deserved rest day at last. We slept in (along with everyone else) and had a nice leisurely breakfast (along with everyone else).

After doing some laundry we set off to explore Madrid. After ten miles of walking here are some of the sights we saw.

San Jeronimo el Real or Saint Jerome the Royal is a Roman Catholic Church from the early 16th century. Notice the size of the painting behind the altar.

And the only dark skinned Virgin Mary we’ve seen.

Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena or the Almudena Cathedral is a Catholic church “dedicated to the Virgin Mary”.

Parque del Buen Retiro or simply El Retiro is one of the largest parks in Madrid. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century when it became a public park. It covers over 290 acres and is quite beautiful to wander through.

And one more sighting to share. It’s outing day! You can see the next group coming up behind the first.

Spain Bike Trip – Day 14

08 Monday May 2023

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May 7, 2023. Distance: 61 miles. Elevation: 1,690 feet

Today was a good day for cycling. Perfect temperature. Not too hot. A nice breeze although it was a headwind most of the day. It was a 3 cue sheet day. Mostly a straight shot but LOTS of roundabouts.

Our only stop of the day (besides a quick bathroom and water stop at a petrol station) was at the Royal Site of Aranjuez or the King and Queen’s “summer palace”. Established in the 16th century as a royal hunting lodge, the palace was built by order of Philip II. We only stopped to take a few pictures.

Here we are on the other side of the palace, all hungry and trying to figure out where to get food and water.

Here’s a close up of the roses in these planters.

I forget to mention that we’ve been seeing poppies beside the road for the past several days, just a few here and there. As we got closer to Madrid the poppies were more and more prolific. This pic doesn’t do them justice ’cause I took it on the fly.

Madrid is a HUGE city but amazingly there is a bike path from at least 12 miles out of town all the way into the city center (and maybe beyond). We were biking along this lovely path with highways running this way and that everywhere. It was quite amazing.

We got to our Hotel NH Ribera del Manzanares by 3pm.

After showers and settling in a bit we headed out for some food. Chris found this tiny place several blocks away from the expensive hotel row eateries.

Here Chris had his Radler and I my vino blanco. Since they were known for their burgers we split a bacon burger and had a lovely rest. Here’s something we hadn’t seen before – potato chips with anchovies on top.

And one last tidbit for you. Today is Mothers Day in Spain. Chris pointed out that I get two Mothers Days this year!

Spain Bike Trip – Day 13

07 Sunday May 2023

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May 6, 2023. Rest day in Toledo

I’ve never heard of Toledo Spain before. What a beautiful city to explore. Today’s blog will be mostly pictures. Enjoy.

Before breakfast we wandered around and came upon this surprising sight.

Darn. I took pictures (with Chris’ phone) of a beautiful yellow balloon rising up and floating right towards us but I can’t seem to share them with you.

After breakfast we set off to explore the city. One of the first sites we came upon was Cathedral Primada Comenzada. It is the biggest cathedral I’ve ever seen.

This is a close up of the 3-dimentional features located at the top of the previous photo.

More sites.

And the piece de resistance

Tomorrow we’re off to Madrid, the end of Part I of our 2 part bike ride. Some of the group is continuing on to San Sebastian with us, some are ending their trip here and new folks will be joining us for Part 2.

Stay tuned!

Spain Bike Trip – Day 12

06 Saturday May 2023

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May 5, 2023. Horcajo de los Montes to Toledo. Distance: 61 miles. Elevation: 4,006 feet

Today’s ride started out with two fairly long steep climbs then leveling off for awhile and then one last epic climb that went on for nearly an hour. So many switchbacks. If you look closely you can see some of them below as well as the valley floor we crossed to get here. You can also see some of the forested lands. Once we got to the peak it was a lovely long, long gradual 30 mile descent into Toledo. Perfect for the tandem as we zipped right along.

We arrived at our hotel La Hacienda del Cardenal mid-afternoon. Here’s a picture of our room

and the view from our shower window.

After a quick shower we ventured off to find a good tapas place. There’s a series of six escalators that take you up up up to the old town area. Here’s a view of part of the city below.

Chris is amazing at finding just the right place down a narrow side street where the locals go. This was a very small place but super friendly. We asked for a tapas recommendation and received something like a pork stew with bread for dipping. I had vino blonco and Chris has gotten into Radlers (lemonade and beer). Very light and refreshing. As I was getting ready to take a picture of the place someone there took my phone and told us to get in the picture and so here we are with the bartender (in black shirt) and the owner (white shirt).

I mentioned before that every evening around 6 or 7 we have Happy Hour and presentation at the hotel. After our tapas find we took the escalator back down to the hotel for our evening group Happy Hour and presentation. Here’s the room where we met this time. To the left of the screen is Roxan the tour organizer with the Bicycle Adventure Club. She lives in Anacortes. To the right of the screen in the blue shirt is Simon the tour leader with Iberocycle Bike Tours. Seated to the left are Barbara and David. They live in San Luis Obispo where we first met them in March while we were “training” for this trip.

After Happy Hour we headed out once again to find a place for a light dinner. Here are a few street scenes.

Here’s the little street where Chris found our dinner spot for tonight.

And here’s the House Salad. It doesn’t look that great but it was an amazing salad with lots of Spanish olive oil and balsamic.

And one last view of the city for today.

Spain Bike Trip – Day 11

06 Saturday May 2023

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May 4, 2023. Guadalupe to Horcajo de los Montes. Distance: 64 miles. Elevation: 1,478 feet

Today was a lovely ride with overcast skies(yea!) which kept the temperatures down to a manageable level – except towards the end.

About half the ride was through olive orchards

and as we moved into Castilla La Mancha we were riding in forests of pine trees, eucalyptus and oak. The terrain was mostly rolling hills with the rolling part more substantial than most. Even though we were on two-lane country roads with almost no traffic there were plenty of places to refuel.

The hotel that was booked for tonight suddenly shut down or went bankrupt. With no other hotels for miles around our fearless leader Simon found a campground where we could stay. We all got our own little funky bungalow and had a wonderful dinner right on sight.

And the view from our veranda of the town below at night.

Spain Bike Trip – Day 10

04 Thursday May 2023

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May 3, 2023, Guadalupe

Today is a rest day in Guadalupe. We did a walking tour of the town based on a map from the front desk of the hotel. There were 23 buildings/sights of significance here that we checked out in the morning. Each of these buildings had a plaque with Spanish and English text.

Then it was off to tour the Real Monasterio de Santa Maria de Guadalupe which became a world heritage site in 1993.

Built in the 14th century it has been in constant use since its construction and has buildings of different styles and periods. Inhabited for more than four centuries by the same Order, the Order of St. Jerome, it has undergone restorations and reconstruction works. However, the ensemble retains its original form and appearance. 

According to the unesco World Heritage Convention:

“The Monastery symbolises two significant events in world history that occurred in the same year, 1492, namely the final expulsion of the Muslim power from the Iberian Peninsula and the discovery of the American continent by Christopher Columbus. Its influence on the evangelisation of the Americas was substantial; the statue of Santa María de Guadalupe became a powerful symbol of the Christianisation of much of the New World. The Monastery was, and remains, a centre of pilgrimage for the Western world and Latin America.” 

Here’s a snap of the interior courtyard. No photography allowed inside.

Here are some scenes from our wanderings of Guadalupe.

Very steep cobbled streets down

and steep cobbled streets up.

It was interesting to see how the facades have evolved over time. This looks like concrete blocks cover the old stone wall but it’s just plaster with “caulk” lines painted on to make it look like blocks.

Many old doorways are still intact (more or less) but a wall of some sort has been built on the other side of the door.

Around 7:30 pm we got a table in the town square for dinner. We’d heard that the horses from a festival outside of town called “Romeria de la Cruz” were to parade across the square at 8:00 pm. We waited and watched as the square filled with spectators.

And then at 8:45 the horses came up a side street and raced across the square and on up another side street. (I wish I could have shared the video I took. It was much more exciting.)

After a little while all the horses came back down to the square and got their well deserved drink at the fountain.

Quite the exciting end to a well deserved rest day in Guadalupe.