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 278 km round trip from Ávila - roughly 4 h 23 in the saddle. 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. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Ávila is the highest provincial capital in Spain, at more than eleven hundred metres, and the cold, clear air gives the whole city a sharp, medieval edge. Its granite walls, about two and a half kilometres around and punctuated by dozens of towers, are among the best preserved in Europe. Just outside them, the Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás is a different sort of monument: a Dominican house founded in the 1480s by the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, who used it as a summer retreat. It is also the burial place of Tomás de Torquemada, the notorious first Inquisitor General, and of Prince Juan, the monarchs' only son, who died young, and whose marble tomb is one of the finest Renaissance sculptures in Spain.
Read the complete Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás 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 about 59 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 137 km into the recorded legs 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 Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás. That is the ride.
Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás → Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante is 59 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 78 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 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Subsidiary building \La Casita del Infante → Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.