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.
312 km from Elvas to Elvas, about 3 h 50 of riding. On the way it passes 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.
From the top of the Fort of Santa Luzia you can look down on Elvas like a general planning an assault. The fort stands on a rise to the south of the old town and was built from 1641, at the start of the Portuguese Restoration War, to deny enemy artillery a hill that overlooked the walls. Its shape is a star, with four bastions and a deep dry ditch, and its engineers followed the Dutch style, which was the best defensive school in Europe at that time. The walls are thick and low, built to shed cannonballs, and the corridor called the covered way runs around the outer edge of the ditch, a protected path where soldiers could move in cover and meet an attack head on.
Read the complete Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way 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 81 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 156 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 Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way. That is the ride.
Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way → Alcantarilla Bridge is 81 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 → Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.