clairedavieswriter

It turned out to be quite hard to take a rest day in Mérida. Those pesky Romans just left too much interesting stuff behind. The whole set, in fact, commensurate with the status of Augusta Emerita (from which the name Mérida derives) as the capital of Lusitania and a hub for communication with the rest…

Our destination today was once a major Roman city, and someone must have left an offering for us with the cycling gods. First, they provided shelter, in the form of Cáceres’ train station, from a sudden downpour. And after that, good signs and portents came thick and fast (word of the day: glorieta – roundabout):…

Today we returned to the trusty N-630, but unfortunately someone had mislaid the memo requesting sunshine, downhills and a following wind. The scenery wasn’t quite as pretty as other days. We were either sandwiched between the motorway and the new high speed rail line (of which, more later)… Or riding through miles of scrubland After…

So children, do you want to find out about Plasencia? Let’s go through the arched window… It’s a town about the size of Fleet, but there the similarity ends. For starters, it has some impressive medieval walls, built to defend against the moors in the 12th century: And some equally impressive gates. The Puerta de…

It’s a bit misleading to talk about how far we climbed today because the more important figure was the 1,045m we descended. Sometimes we freewheeled for so long it felt like cheating: There were some amazing views on the way down: But long steep descents have a drawback: we were chilled to the bone by…

The streets of Salamanca were deserted at 8.30 this morning, which had us seriously questioning the locals’ work ethic, until we discovered that April 23rd is Día de Castilla y León. Of course it is. Fortunately we found one bar open – a versatile business, where we could have chosen kebabs, cocktails or churros con…

Six days of riding have brought us from the north coast to within sight of the mountains west of Madrid. And if we’re not mistaken, it looks like they may have snow on them. Which is a little concerning, given that our route tomorrow climbs to a height of 1,100m above sea level. But what…

As we had our breakfast – coffee, juice and a foot long slice of baguette slathered with butter and jam – the sun was just rising, and it was a cold 5 degrees when we set off. The lads were a little grumpy about spending the night in a loo But their mood was improved…

Last night, we learned that the troglodyte houses we’d seen on the way into Baltanás were part of an entire neighbourhood of underground bodegas, which have been used to make and store wine since the mid-16th century. Every chimney denotes a bodega: In total, there are 374 bodegas, some of which are still used for…

In anticipation of a bracing start this morning… Last night, we went in search of the necessary fortification against the cold. We found it in a popular tapas bar, recommended to us in a timely exchange with our hosts from Rublacedo (thanks David and Paula!). Notwithstanding the extra padding provided by our dinner of croquetas…