Day 6. Monreal del Campo to Teruel.

This was a longish day in the saddle for those who do not ride regularly, and the warm weather added to the challenge. In the end it was probably "a hill too far" for some but we all made it!

A farmer moves a flock of sheep past an irrigation channel

The day started with breakfast at the Hostal and we rolled out on quiet country roads. Quite noticeable was the elevated concrete irrigation channels, some it which appear to be still in use.

Arriving at Villafranca del Campo

Shepherd with donkey. The two sheep dogs did most of the work.

The first village along the way was Villafranca del Campo, then through Alba. Along the way some sights of rural life, including shepherds grazing their flocks on the roadside.

On to Santa Eulalia del Campo where we stopped for refreshments and a comfort stop. I asked for directions to the Via Verde and was given several routes, which would all probably have turned out OK. In the end it was a simple matter to find the right road out of town.

Onto the via verde

From there it was only a couple of kilometers out of town up a gradual hill to where we met the rail trail! We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the riding surface. In general the Ojos Negros was not well signposted but the surface was better than parts of the second via verde. The next stop was at Caude for lunch. The ride into town is down a gentle hill, past parks and similar amenities. Very attractive.

Viaduct approaching Teruel

We probably sat for too long over lunch, because after that it was quite warm. We had a few navigational difficulties soon after town (poorly signposted temporary diversion) but the use of the GPS helped me to spot where we needed to be and a quick cross-country section over a field had us back on track. The next section was fairly fast although some riders were starting to feel the distance (over 70km in total). Getting close to Teruel the terrain was much lumpier and it was not at all clear as to where we should get off the via verde onto the road. In the end we probably went further than we needed to but at least it did take us over one of the more impressive viaducts.

There are two of these towers in Teruel.
The story goes that they were built by
rival suitors for the local noble's daughter,
with the builder of the best tower winning her hand

We crawled up the last of the hills and stopped for a refreshing drink at a service station, then followed the GPS directions into town.

The first pleasant surprise was this fabulous tower. Then it was just around the corner to our hotel, the El Mudayyan which was very pleasant. Once again they were all prepared for storing our bikes, so after a quick shower it was off to explore this very attractive city.

Beer and salty nuts.
Great post-ride refreshments!

My first stop was for a beer in the plaza half a block from the hotel. I was very impressed with the quality of the architecture right through this city. Over time (and a couple more beers, most of the crew dropped by and then we all set off to explore the various sights.

Teruel is a city with fantastic Mudejar architecture,
listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Our hotel was only a few meters up the lane
that you can see on the right.
These stairs lead down to the lower town where the
railway station is.

Beautifully decorated pedestrian bridge links the old town to the next ridge.

The timing of our trip meant that we caught the end of the famous Jamon festival in Teruel. I dropped in and found a tasting plate. Five euros for the plate and glass of wine.

At the Jamon Festival

There were three carvers working nonstop to supply the slivers of jamon for the tasting plates. It was a real family occasion with jumping castles etc. for the children, music and a real air of enjoyment.





We then headed back to the plaza where Christine and I had dinner with Keith and Julie. Not too bad and certainly deserved after a longish day of riding.

K&J: Valencia

The Keogh genome has them up before sunrise and organising others. Didn't work out Monday morning - I heard Patrick moving around the apartment when it was still dark, but I rolled over and went back to sleep :-)
Eventually, at a more "polite" hour, we were all up and walking off to the central markets in Valencia. What a fantastic building with food stalls and a couple of places to have coffee. Wonderful fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats, oils, etc etc..

Julie and I ran out of time to do the tourist walkaround: we had to find the bicycle rental place, sort out payment, bike fitting for 4, adjust Vodafone prepaid phone data plan, wash some clothes,... Had lunch in apartment from food bought in markets, and some wine.... Then out after siesta to finish off the chores.
Then back to pack panniers and suitcases - things with us for the week, things in railway lockers.
Patrick had booked us into a fantastic restaurant for dinner : about 10 min walk away. Very pleasant evening!

We will be back in Valencia next Saturday, perhaps see more that weekend.

K&J: Last day in Madrid

This was the day that the Vuelta (which is THE bicycle race in Spain, in case you didn't know) finished in Madrid - and we were in Madrid. These crazy scrawny men had raced over mountains, sealed roads, paved (rough, awful, hard, painful) roads, ridden in 40+ deg heat, ridden in rain, and with awful winds - for 3 weeks to wind up in Madrid.... and Julie and I were there for that last stage.

We had a position just over 100m from the finishing line which meant I could take some photos - sorry, not sorted through them yet to see if there are any worth showing.

We started off the day happy because the main road outside our hotel was being blocked off to traffic because the Vuelta went down it (several laps) in the afternoon. Perhaps we could have stayed in hotel all day and watched them go past - but we had booked a spot near finishing line so we had to checkout by noon and spend the arvo at the finishing line. That meant hiding our bags somewhere - at the Madrid railway station where we would leaving from that night.
When we had breakfast, the road outside the hotel still had taxis on it so we went up to our room to pack with happy expectation we could still get taxi from front door of the hotel. By the time we came down with suitcases, the taxis were off the main road. We dragged them down a side road and after a few blocks saw a taxi coming up the road. He stopped and chatted to a few locals about the blocked roads, weather, poor football results, whatever - I have no idea what the conversations were because my Spanish is zippo and he wasn't close anyway. That all finished and the car moved closer towards us, so we asked him about taking us to Atoche railway station. After some mixed Spanish/Ingles about the roads being blocked and it was not easy, we managed to get across that we weren't worried about the time/effort/cost to get there.

We set off down tiny narrow back streets that RS Gilbert would be freaked out by (sorry, Canberra joke). Driver consulted a local once and altered directions to avoid a blocked road. We wound up with a lovely scenic tour past the Plaza Mayor, some impressive buildings, then around past the royal palace, down beside it to the river, across, and into the multi-lane underground freeway around the city, through some non-tourist suburb and then arrived at the Atoche station. Eur17 - happy with that, paid him 20 for his good humour and effort.

We then got the Metro back towards hotel and checked out with our "day bags". The Hotel Atlantico was a great location and easy for non-Spanish speakers. Will write a positive review for TripAdvisor.

Strolled down some of those back streets to south of Via Gran and wound up in the department store Corte Ingles (or somesuch name). Bought some new lightweight sandals (both of us) and then found  a little place for lunch. After that we eventually found our spot near the finishing line for the bike race and spent several hours waiting for all to happen. Got to hate the spanish fondness for smoking cigarettes when they have nothing else to do... This couple near us went through at least one and half packs in under 4 hours - yuck!!! So hard to get away from the stench.

The race: they did 10 laps in around the city and past us. So fast.... We saw Simon Clark I think..
The GreenEdge-Orica car was ignoring people waving at them!

When it was all over, we walked down to the train station. Got there early and had cold drinks. I tried a gin & tonic with Scheppes rosewater flavoured tonic water - worked for me, very refreshing!
Soon it was time to board the super fast train. We had lashed out and bought business class tickets - there were 2 other people in our carriage so it was nice and relaxed. Before long we were heading out of Madrid watching the info readout go from 60kph to 100kph to 150kph - and when we were finally out in the country we saw the magical 300kph+

At those speeds, the ride is a little bumpy - it is kinda awkward to use phone keyboard etc but Ok to read and watch the spanish language shows on the monitor (I didnt).

Service was nice - included hot meal dinner (I had fish) with tiny bottle of wine.
Arrived at Valencia before I realised.

We got off the train and then had to walk with our bags into the station - that is one long train - it took ages to pass the train. We boarded at one end in Madrid and had to walk to the other end in Valencia.
Got a taxi, who had trouble finding our tiny sidestreet destination in her GPS and maps. Eventually did but then she had taken us to the wrong end of what turned out to be a oneway street - and the street is named after a Portal. Turns out the Portal is like a hole in a city wall and too small for many cars anyway. The tiny lane (Carre?) was kinked, so we paid the taxi and dragged the bags along the lane and came around the corner to find someone who looked like Patrick Keogh walking towards us. It was Patrick - so we found the apartments and got in for the night.
Long day, too much time in sun and around smokers, but a good day on our vacation!!

Day 5. First, and very short, day on the bike.

Thanks to the work that Carlos did we had train tickets and authorisation for our bikes all sorted. We took a couple of trips to ferry our luggage and bikes down the hill to Valencia Nord. We decided to leave the bags in lockers at the station, but we didn't know that we would need exact change in coins to make the lockers work. We eventually got that sorted and had time for breakfast before the train.

The via verde goes over a viaduct.
As seen from the train window.

On the train we hung three bikes from the vertical hooks and just stacked the 4th one against them. The hooks have built-in security cables so it was all fairly comfortable. On the trip we were able to see the via verde for a large part of the route, including some of the high viaducts that we would ride over. We could aso spot our accommodation for several of the nights as the train rolled past.

Ready to roll.

The conductor was very solicitous to ensure that we got off successfully at the right stop and so we arrive at Torrijo del Campo without incident. From there it was a short and easy ride for the four of us to Monreal del Campo, through the town and out to the Hostal. As per the arrangements that I had made they were prepared for bike storage and we checked in. Over the course of the next couple of hours we were joined by Peter and Sandy and Jeff and Gerda who had stories to tell of their cycle touring.
The Hostal featured fairly ordinary truckstop food and drink but it was OK. The rooms were fine and there was no traffic noise to speak of.

Day 4. A day in Valencia

The Mercat Centrale in Valencia.
A good place for breakfast and to buy provisions.
The best chocolate croissant ever!

We got up early (assisted by  the jet lag) and headed down to Mercado Centrale. The building itself is lovely, with stained glass windows and a nicely decorated dome.

Here we had a very satisfactory breakfast of fresh chocolate croissants and good coffee and then bought some provisions for lunch.

Fresh food markets are always a wonderful introduction  to local food and this was no exception. I love seeing the different foods in different countries and regions.  Pan! Figs! Jamon! Quesos! On our way back to the apartment we didn't go past a bottle shop so we had an Albarino and a Ribiero del Duero to wash down the lunch.

Horchata - a traditional drink of Valencia.
Made from a local nut ground to a paste, with sugar added.
Served cold it is very refreshing.

The old part of Valencia has some very impressive large buildings, many built around plazas and small parks. Not much use of colour, but very solid building. A lot of the footpaths are red marble pavers which looks great. We stopped in at a Horchataria for a glass of Horchata.

The afternoon was spent sorting out  the rental bikes and mobile phone plus data plans.  I didn't have a very good feeling about Orange Bikes and our experience there was not great. It was all a problem and all very hard. The bikes themselves seemed to be OK but the customer service left a lot to be desired. Then on to Vodafone which was not much better. A LOT harder than in Dubai! The guy in the shop gave us a bum steer in the morning and it took research over lunch and phone calls to Vodafone support before we were able to sign up for what we wanted.

In the evening I had pre-booked dinner at La Sucursal restaurant. It is a tasting menu of around eight courses. Some really sensational dishes, a great balance, great fresh ingredients.

We seemed to get through cava and a couple of bottles of champagne with dinner. The restaurant had a lovely casual feel with good service. It was a lovely evening for the walk there and back as well.

All four of us were impressed by this Michelin-rated restaurant.

K&J: day 3 in Madrid

The night before we decided to walk less. We booked a tourist bus ride using hotel reception. Up early, walked to bus company about a block away. Their front door was locked but they buzzed us in. That shopping arcade in lane way must be tad unsafe - possibly cash on hand? The bus trip zigzagged around Madrid. Surprised how many bits we had already stumbled into or past on previous days. But still worth doing. Didn't take many photos - lousy from inside a moving bus! Stopped outside bull ring and Real Madrid CF stadium (contrasts between the arenas?) Rested up a bit after we got back. A cold drink on beautiful hotel balcony then caught Metro out towards where we wound up first night. Much faster when you plan it :-) Poured rain just after we sat down and ordered wine. Stopped soon enough, had some tapas. Metro home and another night early to bed.

Day 3. To Barcelona and down to Valencia

A very early start at Dubai but that's OK because our body clocks said it was much later. Dubai terminal 3 was the usual bustling throng although we sailed straight through luggage checkin, immigration and security. A nice breakfast at The Hub upstairs and we were on our way. The fed us more or less continuously on the plane and very good food it was. Once again the plane was a 777 which I prefer to the A380.

Barcelona airport was easy enough to deal with, minimal queues. We took the bus from the terminal around to the other terminal where the train station is, a suburban train into Barcelona Sants and then the Euromed train to Valencia.

Since the last time that we came along this coast (2003) the change was quite noticeable. A lot of development, mostly apartments, mostly ugly and many empty. A real disaster. It was a warm day and the Med looked very inviting, but I couldn't get them to stop the train for a swim :-(

It turned out that our Valencia accommodation was not ideal. A fair walk from Valencia Nord to collect the key, then a fair walk to the apartment, then a lift followed by a flight of stairs to the apartment. Most of the distance on cobblestones... a bit of a workout for suitcase wheels.  Once we got there it was OK but not great, so we cancelled our later stay and decided to find a hotel closer to the station for when we returned to Valencia.

K&J got in fairly late but we connected up OK and I even had a cold beer waiting for them :-}