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 Zestoa it runs 270 km to Zestoa; allow about 4 h 25 of riding. It goes by way of Collégiale de Ziortza, Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre, Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion and back through Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre. 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 47 km this is Basque Coast Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Collégiale de Ziortza.
High on a green hillside above the village of Bolibar, in the Biscayan interior, the collegiate church of Ziortza looks out over a valley of meadows, farmhouses and eucalyptus and pine plantations. It is a tranquil, solid place, a church and cloister built of grey stone with a fortified look, and it stands on the Camino del Norte, the coastal route to Santiago, so you will often see pilgrims resting on the benches outside.
Read the complete Collégiale de Ziortza write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Collégiale de Ziortza comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 98 km into the recorded legs you reach Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre. Next is Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion.
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, about halfway. 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 sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Collégiale de Ziortza.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Collégiale de Ziortza write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Collégiale de Ziortza comes up about 224 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Ekain closes the day.
Ekain → Collégiale de Ziortza is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Collégiale de Ziortza → Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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.
Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion → 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 → back through Collégiale de Ziortza is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Collégiale de Ziortza → Ekain is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.