Today the weather is much better and we should have mostly sunny skies for the ride thru the Mountains and the National Park Montaña Palentina and on towards Oviedo for 310 km. At Potes we decided to cut across to the autovia so we could arrive to the hotel by 530! This was because of the distance, the curves, and a huge road construction project which slowed our pace. Unlike at home here you can ride past the long line of cars to the front at the construction stoppages for the one lane traffic. So we managed to get ahead of most of the vehicles.

We set out on a beautiful sunny day to enjoy the curvy mountain roads. We stopped after an hour for a coffee with a castle view in Aguilar de Campo. From here you head up into the national park with incredible curvy roads and spectacular views.

We planned a day off here to sight see and wait for the Swede to catch up. He left Sweden on the ferry 4 days ago. It was also laundry day my favourite day of the week! We are staying up on the hill outside the city with an amazing view. It was impossible to find a place in the city with 4 rooms and good parking. It’s quite a road up hill 1.5 k on a narrow paved track. Walking to the old town is about 40 minutes, but a taxi back takes only 10!

I can’t get the YouTube link to work so….



WATCH THE VIDEO RIDE TO OVIEDO HERE


https://youtu.be/yCDyako8Ba0?si=CLHTjfRzG7TuyLzd

We had fantastic weather forecast again today near the north coast, but rain on our planned route on a loop south thru Leon. So to the mountains and the beach today on a 260 km loop.


The first stop was at the bottom of the hill for coffee and the second was the 1 hour espresso top up.

Dan’s route was on the “green” roads on our Garmin tread app and judging by the dozens of bikers we saw we were looking forward to it. They were not wrong there was beautiful views, curves, and little traffic.

We hit the coast for lunch in at Luarca where there was a jazz festival happening in the square.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE


https://youtu.be/1D0xkOgc5bY?si=LtKrsazL0hV40Ban

Welcome back! Is this a trip or are you off on adventures again?

Hi! Just 7 weeks in Spain and Portugal. We have aging parents now so ….In April we are riding from Malaga to Greece. We are revisiting parts of Europe in stages. Cheers

Daniel and Petros took the day to run the loop to Leon and back since it is his last day with us. Trevor and I are recovering from colds and the Swede is exhausted after sprinting from Sweden. The plan is for us to rest up and then the four of us will head back to Leon thru the Picos de Europa region. The weather for both trips was warm and sunny. Their loop was 380 km and our part was just 268 km. They also recommend the scenic side trip thru Villa Verde and Pen.

We headed back east from Oviedo on the highway A64 an hour to Arriondas where you turn south on the N625. This curvy road passes thru slot canyons and beautiful valleys as well as by cute villages and scenic lakes.

Watch the videos here

Part 1

https://youtu.be/ZsH8SMs3DR8?si=E57-7xghjh5kZl7_

Part 2

https://youtu.be/E6KIuGFookA?si=1Ra7j6kEA0eqXO00

We are expecting some bad weather with very heavy rain at times for the next couple of days and so we got ourselves a fantastic 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment 200 m from the cathedral in Leon. We are excited to have some chef Orvar cooked meals and a comfortable place to hang out. We also have an underground garage so Dan can get a nail out of his tire that he picked up 2 days ago on his Leon loop. The tire was surprisingly holding air. Orvar is also in desperate need of a chain and sprockets and he found a great shop here A Todo Gas who will do the work while we are here.

Leon is a very nice walled city with a cathedral that has some of the most amazing stained glass in Europe.

Today we set out with partly cloudy skies and 14 degrees, but at highway speed that is pretty cool. The rain coats helped as well as a few coffee stops. Even from the highway the Spanish countryside is beautiful. You pass thru or by a number of medieval cities along the 365 km. We had initially planned to ride the last leg to Plasencia over the mountains for 90 km but when we got to the decision point it was already 10 degrees and we had a lot of ascent yet.

From the new town below you can access the main highway again and it continues downhill so much that 10 minutes later it was a comfortable 20 degrees. We continued on the 30 km to Plasencia where our accommodation had a nice view of the city. It’s just a 15 min walk into the old walled city.

Watch the video here

https://youtu.be/U5KhXUoHoAs?si=lWExjEA4_fIbtox9