CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 399 km round trip from Granada - roughly 5 h 44 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cueva del Encajero, Baeza and back through Cueva del Encajero. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The Alhambra is a red fortress on a hill, and inside its walls is the most delicate architecture in Europe. The Nasrid rulers of Granada, the last Muslim dynasty in Spain, built and rebuilt it from the thirteenth century, and in the fourteenth century they made it a palace city, with courtyards, fountains and rooms covered in carved plaster and glazed tile, all lit by the sun reflecting from water. The Court of the Lions, with its twelve stone lions holding up a fountain, and the Hall of the Ambassadors with its wooden dome are the most famous, though many visitors say they remember the small, quiet courtyards best.
Read the complete Alhambra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alhambra is where the day begins. Next is Cueva del Encajero.
Olives, and then more olives. Riding west out of Jaén towards Torredonjimeno you cross one of the most single-minded agricultural landscapes in Europe, a rolling grid of grey-green trees running over every hill to the horizon, broken only by white farmhouses and the occasional oil mill. Somewhere among these low hills near Villardompardo, the Cueva del Encajero is a small rock shelter with traces of prehistoric painting, one of the many scattered sites that make up the World Heritage listing of rock art in Spain's Mediterranean basin.
Read the complete Cueva del Encajero write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Encajero comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is Baeza.
Baeza is a town of honey-coloured stone set on a ridge above a sea of olive trees. From its edge, the view drops over the Guadalquivir valley to the dark line of the Sierra Mágina, and in every direction the hills are covered with orderly rows of olives, millions of them, the source of more olive oil than almost anywhere on earth. The town's Renaissance palaces, churches and squares, together with those of neighbouring Úbeda, make up a World Heritage site.
Read the complete Baeza write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 201 km into the recorded legs you reach Baeza. Next is back through Cueva del Encajero.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Encajero write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva del Encajero, late in the day. Next is Alhambra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alhambra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Alhambra. That is the ride.
Alhambra → Cueva del Encajero is 131 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cueva del Encajero → Baeza is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baeza → back through Cueva del Encajero is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva del Encajero → Alhambra is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.