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 425 km round trip from Castro-Urdiales - roughly 7 h 33 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre, Santimamiñe, Ekain and Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 39 km this is Basque Coast Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Castro-Urdiales has one of the best harbour fronts on the whole Cantabrian coast, and it knows it. The Gothic church of Santa María de la Asunción stands on a rocky headland above the old port, its buttresses and pinnacles silhouetted against the sea, flanked by the remains of a castle that now holds a lighthouse and by a medieval bridge leading to a little chapel on a rock. Built from the thirteenth century onward, the church is one of the finest Gothic buildings in northern Spain, and it lies on the coastal route of the Way of Saint James, which is part of a UNESCO listing that covers the pilgrimage roads of the north.
Read the complete Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion is where the day begins. Next is Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre.
Down in the Casco Viejo of Bilbao, where the old streets run in a tight grid beside the Nervión, the cathedral of Santiago stands at the heart of the Siete Calles, the seven original streets of the medieval town. It is a Gothic church, rebuilt after a fire in the sixteenth century, with a neo-Gothic façade and spire added later, and it sits so snugly among the tall houses that you often see it only when you are standing right in front of it.
Read the complete Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Santimamiñe.
In 1916, a group of boys exploring a hillside in the Basque Country found paintings deep inside a cave, and Santimamiñe became one of the most important prehistoric sites in the region. The cave, near Kortezubi in the Urdaibai valley, contains Magdalenian paintings of bison, horses, goats and deer, made around fourteen thousand years ago, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of cave art of northern Spain. To protect the paintings, the cave itself is closed to the public, but a visitor centre offers a virtual tour that recreates the interior in detail, with guides explaining the art and the people who made it.
Read the complete Santimamiñe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Santimamiñe. Next is Ekain.
In 1969 two young men exploring a hillside above the Sastarrain valley near Zestoa crawled into a narrow opening and found themselves in a gallery of painted horses. Ekain is one of the finest Palaeolithic painted caves in Europe, its walls covered with images of horses, bison and other animals made some fourteen thousand years ago with remarkable skill. The horses in particular are famous, drawn with shaggy manes and round bellies, so lively that they seem about to move.
Read the complete Ekain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ekain, about halfway. Next is Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian.
Imagine a mountain with a hole through it, and a medieval road running straight through the hole. The tunnel of San Adrián is a natural cave passage near the crest of the Aizkorri range, on the border of Gipuzkoa and Álava, and for centuries it carried one of the main routes between the Castilian plateau and the Basque coast. Pilgrims on the inland Camino de Santiago, merchants, armies and kings all passed through it, and a small chapel was built inside the cave. The old paved road leading up to it survives in sections, worn smooth by centuries of hooves and boots.
Read the complete Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian sits at 160 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ekain.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ekain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ekain comes up about 275 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Santimamiñe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Santimamiñe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 352 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Santimamiñe. Next is back through Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre, late in the day. Next is Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 425 km.
Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion → Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre → Santimamiñe is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Santimamiñe → Ekain is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ekain → Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian → back through Ekain is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ekain → back through Santimamiñe is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Santimamiñe → back through Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre → Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.