Eurovelo 12 Aberdeen to Arbroath

95 kilometres

It's only two weeks since we got back from Spain but we're on the road again, this time heading south from Aberdeen down Britain's east coast. We've completed our first day and are recovering in Arbroath, home of the famous Arbroath Smokies.

It's been a great day and we had glorious weather, but we did have some issues. I blame the train.

Day 32 The Big Iberian Tour - Gijón

80 kms 2304 climb 2605 descent

Guest blog by Christine

Today was immense: a mix of beautiful and awful in equal parts.

A mountainous day's cycling

The first thing we learnt was the importance of conditioning expectations. Neither of us had really studied today's Ruta de la Plata itinerary and I had foolishly assumed, on the basis of yesterday's road signs, that it was a 40k gentle roll downhill to the coast at Gijón. How wrong can you be?
No sooner were we out of the hotel door when we turned off into a tiny side road climbing vertiginously up the mountain side. After a terrible hour of bottom gear (or, in my case, some walking), past tiny mountain hamlets and disused iron mines, we got to the top. A road sign then explained that we were on some mad Spanish cycling endurance route. Thanks for telling us!

Day 31 - The Big Iberian Trip - Pola de Lena

85 kms, height gained 1754m height lost 2276m

What goes up must come down and getting closer to the north coast of Spain we are finally beginning to surrender height we've held onto for the last 10 days. Crossing the Cantabrian Mountains, from Castile y León into Asturias, today's numbers look impressive. But in fact the day turned out to be relatively easy, a long way from the nightmare I was anticipating.

Climbing gently into the mountains

I spent most of yesterday's rest day in Leon worrying about today. The climb looked tough, there are few significant places to hang out, and the weather forecast was dreadful. We have become regular consumers of Spanish weather forecasts and the only conclusion you could draw from last night's was that the chances of significant rain with thunder today were high and it would get worse as we climbed. The only thing that gave us a glimmer of hope was that it was supposed to rain in León and didn't so perhaps the forecasts were a bit on the negative side. The Ruta Vía de la Plata website was also off-putting about this stretch of the route. As well as a massive climb and lightening they had me worrying about tunnels and lorries

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.