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.
From Ávila it runs 310 km to Ávila; allow about 4 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante, University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá and back through Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Ávila is the highest provincial capital in Spain, at about 1,130 metres, and you feel it in the air even in summer. Its walls, begun in the late eleventh century and finished in the twelfth, run for around two and a half kilometres with 88 towers and nine gates, and they are among the best-preserved medieval city walls in Europe. The Church of Santa María de la Cabeza stands just outside the old town, close enough to the ramparts that a rider can park and walk in a few minutes, and it belongs to the group of Romanesque churches that UNESCO added to the old town's listing.
Read the complete Church of Santa María de la Cabeza write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Santa María de la Cabeza is where the day begins. Next is Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante.
Most people who come to San Lorenzo de El Escorial only see the monastery, that vast granite grid Philip II raised in the second half of the sixteenth century as palace, basilica, library and royal tomb all at once. A short walk below it, through terraced gardens and woodland, sits something far more human in scale. The Casita del Infante, also called the Casita de Arriba, was designed by Juan de Villanueva in the late eighteenth century for the Infante Gabriel, a son of Carlos III, as a place to retreat, play music and escape the endless etiquette of court. Its sibling, the Casita del Príncipe, lies down the hill near the town of El Escorial and was built for the future Carlos IV.
Read the complete Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante comes up about 74 km into the recorded legs. Next is University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá.
Alcalá de Henares has a talent for producing writers. Miguel de Cervantes was born here in 1547, and a house museum in the old town commemorates him. The university, founded by Cardinal Cisneros in 1499, was one of the earliest planned university towns in Europe and a model for institutions in the Americas, and its Renaissance and Baroque buildings, with their stone façades and courtyards, are the core of the UNESCO listing that Alcalá received in 1998 for its university and historic precinct. The Paraninfo, the ceremonial hall, is where the Cervantes Prize is presented each year.
Read the complete University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 152 km into the recorded legs you reach University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá. Next is back through Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante, late in the day. Next is Church of Santa María de la Cabeza.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Santa María de la Cabeza write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Church of Santa María de la Cabeza. That is the ride.
Church of Santa María de la Cabeza → Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante → University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá → back through Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante → Church of Santa María de la Cabeza is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.