- DAY 19: Thursday 21st October 2021 – Burgos, Spain to Hortiguela, Spain
- Distance: 53km
- Elevation gain: 520m
- Accomodation: Hotel Moruga
We left Burgos and stumbled onto a cycle path sign posted “Vias Verdes Santander Meditarraneo” with lots of information signs, kilometre markers and a wonderful smooth tarmac surface which gave us some lovely cycling. Could this be a cycle path all the way to the Med? Was our trip across spain about to become a lot easier than we expected? After a few km, the tarmac abruptly ended and the surface became pretty much unrideable. Somewhat dissapointed we struggled up an even worse track and back onto a road – maybe this route needs a little more work before it is complete! The back roads that we cycled were fantastic though, through pretty scenery and small villages on another fine sunny day. We caught sight of the Vias Verde running parallel to us a couple of times and looking at the surface were glad that we had chosen the roads. Towards the end of the day we stopped to check out some “dinosaur footprints” in the limestone rock but were more entertained taking photos next to the giant dinosaur model that had been built next to them! We joined the busier N234 for a few km before turning off into the village of Hortiguela and finding our hostal for the night. It was a nice room above a small restaurant, but with another owner who thinks that radiators are for decoration, so our newly acquired heater was soon pressed into service on a cold night in the mountains.
- DAY 20: Friday 22nd October 2021 – Hortiguela, Spain to Huerta de Rey, Spain
- Distance: 60km
- Elevation gain: 850m
- Accomodation: Hostal Camino del Cid
The area around Hortiguela is well known as the home of several filming locations for the movie “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”. There was a rough, steep, twisting unsurfaced road that went over a mountain to the village of Santo Domingo de Silos, passing one of the most iconic of these locations “Sad Hill Cemetry”. One of us (no comment on who!) thought for a while that this would be totally worth it on loaded touring bikes for the chance of a photo opportunity next to the life size Clint Eastwood cut out. Luckily, sanity prevailed and we chose to give it a miss and go around the mountain instead. It was a freezing cold morning as we followed the road to Covarrubias. The sky was blue but the steep-sided valley was in shade and the grass still covered in frost. The scenery was wonderful and the hills manageable on a good road surface with little traffic. After Santo Domingo de Silos, the road went more steeply uphill and the mountains around towered over the road which eventually, with nowhere else to go, rather unexpectedly dissapeared into a tunnel. Emerging from the (mercifully short and traffic free) tunnel into a limestone gorge, the view was amazing. The landscape started to flatten out after this for most of the rest of the day, but we still had a long tiring uphill at the end of one of our longest days so far into Huerta De Rey and our hostal for the night.
- DAY 21: Saturday 23rd October 2021 – Huerta de Rey, Spain to San Esteban de Gomez, Spain
- Distance: 43km
- Elevation gain: 400m
- Accomodation: Hotel Rivera del Duero
We had a shorter, flatter day today across a high plateau rather than up and down hills. The scenery wasn’t as spectacular as yesterday, but at least the riding was easier! We headed south out of Huerta De Rey along a flattish valley, in many places lined with vineyards which were spectacular in their autumn colours. The secondary roads that we were following took a very circuitous route to where we were going so we decided to take an unsurfaced road from the village of Hinojar del Rey to cut a fair distance off the day. These roads seem to be a bit hit and miss in terms of quality and much peering at Google Street View failed to give a clear outcome – the street view car gave up after the village, probably not a good sign! The road was actually a decent gravel surface and made for a nice traffic free ride before joining another quiet secondary road into town at the end of the day. Tonight’s accomodation was a proper modern hotel, not as “authentic” as the hostal rooms that we had been staying in, but at least it had heating! After eventually figuring out how to use our keycard to open the gate to the car park at the back, we locked our bikes up in the corner and went out for a couple of drinks at a small bar just down the road.
- DAY 22: Sunday 24th October 2021 – San Esteban de Gomez, Spain to Retortillo de Soria, Spain
- Distance: 46km
- Elevation gain: 720m
- Accomodation: Hotel La Murella
- DAY 23: Monday 25th October 2021 – Retortillo de Soria, Spain to Siguenza, Spain
- Distance: 56km
- Elevation gain: 630m
- Accomodation: Alojiamientos Victoria
- DAY 24 and DAY 25: Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th October 2021 – Rest days in Siguenza, Spain
- Distance: 0
- Elevation gain: 0
- Accomodation: Alojiamientos Victoria
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