CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 279 km to Ávila; allow about 4 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of 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.
In 1562 a Carmelite nun named Teresa de Cepeda opened a small convent in Ávila, dedicated to St Joseph, with a handful of women and a very strict way of life. It was the first house of what became the Discalced Carmelites, and it began a reform that would spread across Spain and well beyond. Teresa is now a saint and a Doctor of the Church, and the town she came from has never quite stopped talking about her, but her writing, humane, funny and extremely practical, is the better way to know her.
Read the complete Convent of San José write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Convent of San José 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 77 km in. 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.
153 km in 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 Convent of San José.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Convent of San José write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Convent of San José. That is the ride.
Convent of San José → Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante is 62 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 91 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 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante → Convent of San José is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.