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 Salamanca it runs 357 km to Salamanca; allow about 4 h 20 of riding. It goes by way of Hermitage of San Segundo, Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante and back through Hermitage of San Segundo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Look up in Salamanca and you will see storks. Their huge nests, bundles of sticks the size of armchairs, sit on church towers, convent roofs and any chimney that will hold them, and from late winter the whole old town is full of the sound of bill-clattering. The area around the church of San Cristóbal, on the edge of the old centre, is a good place to notice them, with the stone of the church and its neighbours set against a big Castilian sky. It is a modest church in a city of grand ones, but the quiet streets around it give a taste of daily life away from the tourist route.
Read the complete Iglesia de San Cristobal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Iglesia de San Cristobal is where the day begins. Next is Hermitage of San Segundo.
Outside the great medieval walls of Ávila, down by the river Adaja, a small Romanesque church stands among trees, quiet and often overlooked by the crowds heading for the walls and the cathedral. The Hermitage of San Segundo is dedicated to the first bishop of Ávila, according to tradition one of seven early missionaries sent to Spain, and it holds an alabaster statue of the saint at prayer, carved in the sixteenth century by the sculptor Juan de Juni. The building itself is simple and austere, with a beautiful carved doorway, and it is a lovely, peaceful place to visit. It is part of the UNESCO listing of the Old Town of Ávila with its Extra-Muros Churches.
Read the complete Hermitage of San Segundo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hermitage of San Segundo comes up about 104 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 178 km into the recorded legs you reach Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante. Next is back through Hermitage of San Segundo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hermitage of San Segundo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hermitage of San Segundo, late in the day. Next is Iglesia de San Cristobal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Iglesia de San Cristobal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Iglesia de San Cristobal. That is the ride.
Iglesia de San Cristobal → Hermitage of San Segundo is 104 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Hermitage of San Segundo → 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 → back through Hermitage of San Segundo is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hermitage of San Segundo → Iglesia de San Cristobal is 104 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.