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.
318 km from Elvas to Elvas, about 3 h 50 of riding. It goes by way of Alcantarilla Bridge, Old Town of Cáceres and back through Alcantarilla Bridge. It crosses from Portugal into Spain - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 82 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Seven kilometres of arches carried water to Elvas, and the people of the town took a century to finish building them. The Amoreira Aqueduct was begun in the sixteenth century, when the old cisterns were no longer enough for a growing garrison town, and it was not finished until the early seventeenth, after a long stop and start, and a great deal of money, including a special tax on the townspeople. The result is a structure that strides across the plain on up to four tiers of arches, rising to about thirty metres, with hundreds of arches in all. It can be seen from far off, a long grey line over the fields, and where it comes into town it dwarfs the houses.
Read the complete Amoreira Aqueduct write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Amoreira Aqueduct is where the day begins. Next is Alcantarilla Bridge.
Mérida was founded by the Romans in 25 BC as Augusta Emerita, a city for veterans of the Cantabrian wars, and it grew into the capital of the province of Lusitania. Few places in Spain carry their Roman past so openly. The small Alcantarilla bridge on the edge of town is one piece of the Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida, listed by UNESCO in 1993, and its name, from the Arabic for little bridge, tells you how many hands this landscape has passed through. It is a quiet, unassuming structure, and that is a good reason to start here before you tackle the big sights.
Read the complete Alcantarilla Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alcantarilla Bridge comes up about 84 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Town of Cáceres.
Cáceres has an old town so complete that film crews treat it as a ready-made set, and walking its streets at dusk, when the stone glows amber and the crowds have gone, you can see why. Inside the walls, built largely by the Almohads in the twelfth century, are dozens of fortified mansions, towers, churches and palaces, many built by noble families who made their fortunes in the conquest of the Americas. The towers once had battlements, but Queen Isabella ordered most of them cut down to curb the nobles' power. UNESCO listed the old town in 1986.
Read the complete Old Town of Cáceres write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 159 km into the recorded legs you reach Old Town of Cáceres. Next is back through Alcantarilla Bridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alcantarilla Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Alcantarilla Bridge, late in the day. Next is Amoreira Aqueduct.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Amoreira Aqueduct write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Amoreira Aqueduct. That is the ride.
Amoreira Aqueduct → Alcantarilla Bridge is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Alcantarilla Bridge → Old Town of Cáceres is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old Town of Cáceres → back through Alcantarilla Bridge is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Alcantarilla Bridge → Amoreira Aqueduct is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.