Day 30 The Big Iberian Trip - León

99.3km 903m gained 801 lost

Yesterday we arrived in León from Benevante completing a tough but excellent day's cycling. Today we are resting up, doing some sight seeing and resting up for tomorrow and what promises to be the toughest day of trip, the day we cross the Cantabrian Mountains.

Now you can get from Benavente to Leon along the N630, it's not the recommended route, but is shorter. Christine, who prefers the straightest line between two points, had her misgivings. The promise that we would adopt a two stop strategy, one involving a proper lunch, was however enough to clinch the deal.

Day 29 The Big Iberian Trip - Benevante

68kms 700m ascent 620 descent

Benevante isn't in the same cultural heritage league as Zamora or Salamanca but it's a nice place with a Parador.

Paradors are a hotel chain owned by the Spanish state and typically located in beautiful historic buildings which would otherwise perhaps have fallen down. It's almost a Spanish version of National Trust but instead of preserving a building as a visitor attraction they preserve it as a hotel. They can be quite expensive but we noticed that with the long Spanish Easter finally starting to disappear the price had gone down so we've booked our first stay in one, here in Benevante, and have another in León tomorrow.

Day 27 and 28 Zamora via Salamanca

My last blog was from Bejar where I was contemplating completing the crossing of the Sierra​ Gredos to get to Salamanca. Well, yesterday the weather turned and after 6 days of sun we just didn't fancy a cold wet day in the clouds with thunder storms, so we caught the bus.

To be honest I've wanted to take the bike on the bus for some time and have been looking for an excuse. Guidance on how to do it is very varied on the web with most people saying you can but some saying you need a bike bag and some saying you can't. Spanish bus stations can be confusing places and at a relatively small place like Bejar no one speaks English. We called in at the bus station late on Thursday just after the bus from Salamanca had arrived. We tried to communicate with the driver and he seemed very relaxed, so we left with the impression that putting bikes in the bus wouldn't be a problem.

Day 26 The Big Iberian Trip - Bejar

65 kms 1400m climb 800 descent.

To get from Seville to Gijón along the Ruta Vía de la Plata involves crossing three east west running ranges of mountains, the Sierra Morena, the Sierra Gredos, and the Cantabrian Mountains. Today we just about got to the top of the Sierra Gredos and at 964m reached our highest point so far. We have another 200m to do tomorrow but the hard work is behind us.

Actually it wasn't that difficult. One of the benefits of following a significant road like the N630 is that it's well graded. If a huge lorry can grind its way to the top then so can a pair of geriatrics on bikes, and we never really struggled. Still it did feel good and as we zoomed into Bejar; we were buzzing and both of us wanted to carry on to Salamanca. This would have been a terrible mistake and sense eventually prevailed as the effects of the day's efforts started to kick in.

Day 25 - The Big Iberian Tour - Plasencia

Thank goodness, after last night's​ misadventure, we have arrived exactly where we expected to be and the hotel, which was easily found, turned out to be the best yet.

Firstly a postscript to yesterday. It seems I ended up in the wrong Càceres because this was the recommended stop from the Ruta Vía de la Plata website. Why they suggested staying there is beyond comprehension. It's a village with little in the way of world beating tapas and although our hotel was 2 kms away, the noise from the town's dogs kept me awake to about 2 in the morning. I haven't heard such noisy dogs since my last trip to Nepal, a country whose Buddist traditions stops them doing anything sensible with such sleep inhibitors. They definitely don't have the same scruples about animals here but the dogs made the same noise We were also slightly disappointed that the wonderful welcome from our agriturismo hosts came at a whopping cost - every tiny bit of welcome was itemised and had to be paid for.

The advantage of an early (and expensive) breakfast was that we got away in good time. Cycling across this wild-west countryside at 8-30am in the morning gave yet another dimension to Spain's excellent sunshine because it cast such wonderful light.

Day 24 The Big Iberian Tour - Casar de Càceres

So we're staying in an agriturismo just west of the small village of Casar de Càceres. The only problem is that somehow, when booking the accommodation I managed to get my Casar de Càceres mixed up with my Càceres. Instead of staying in a large town full of castles and other antiquities and, according to Christine, the best gastronomy in all of Spain, we are 10kms further along the route in the middle of field.

As you might expect that last 10kms of what turned out to be a hot 87km ride were the longest, and if looks could kill I wouldn't have made it. Despite the fact that I had navigated our way through a very busy Càceres without a hitch, there was no getting away from it, I had cocked up and missing the historic old town was a disappointment.


After yesterday's discussion about gravel, today we adopted the Roman approach to cycling and took the most direct route between A and B (or C as it turned out to be). This meant ditching some long stretches of what looked like gravel and missing the visit to Alcuéscar. We did however visit the reservoir at Proserpina where a magnificent old stone dam built by Romans still holds the water in place. 'What did the Romans ever do for me', well quite a lot if you live in Mérida.

Day 23 The Big Iberian Tour - Mérida

After a horrible day yesterday, today was so much better. The sun was shining and for first time since leaving Seville we felt warm. It was not however a day without controversy and we continue to learn lessons about cycling in Spain.


We are following a route recommended by the designers of La Ruta en Bici, the cycling version of the Ruta Vía de la Plata, an ancient route running from the Seville to the north coast. There are two versions, the mountain bike route and the road route. We are following the road route. So far, apart from minor variations, the route has been following the N630 a significant road but fabulously​ empty due to construction of a motorway alongside. Today we have learnt that where the N630 runs embarrassingly close to the motorway the designers of the road route find an alternative which may not be road at all but gravel.

Now this is a trade off which I for one find reasonable but which Christine (the one) finds totally unacceptable. She reasons that gravel equates with mountain bike and she had been promised a road trip so how come there are stretches of gravel. She's happy with the proximity of a motorway providing the trade off is a good surface and virtually no traffic.

Today we left Zafra in the sun on a chilly morning and blasted our way 20kms along the empty N630 to Villafranco de los Barros where we had a coffee stop. Here we left the main road, which then stuck limpet like to the motorway, and headed north cross country. Until we started I had no idea what the surface was going to be like (I had my suspicions) but it turned out to be gravel. The complaints and grumbles then started. The scenery, probably the biggest vineyard in the world, vines as far the eye could see, didn't exactly help.



After 90 minutes and 25kms we emerged onto a smooth road at Torremajia, had a lemonade and sandwich and agreed that we would avoid gravel for the rest of the trip if we could, even if this meant motorway tracking. It's worth it if it stops the grumbling. We started as we meant to go on and modified the route into Mérida.

By the way the gravel route followed the Vía de la Plata St James Way route and we saw lots of 'pilgrims' slogging their way northwards on the most boring path imaginable. It must be a truelly hideous walking route.. It's one thing to be bowling along at 15kms an hour but another to be walking it.

Arriving in Mérida in the sunshine we had lunch, had a rest and then went to explore. What a place, the town has Spain's best Roman remains, and the sights include the longest Roman bridge, a theatre and an amphitheatre as well as a temple dedicated to the goddess Diana. Wandering around the town on a cool but sunny evening was a perfect way to end the day..