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.
390 km from San Millán de la Cogolla to San Millán de la Cogolla, about 5 h 28 of riding. The stops in between: Archaeological Site of Atapuerca, Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz and back through Archaeological Site of Atapuerca. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
What does a monastery eat? That is a question that visitors rarely ask, but at Yuso, in the valley of San Millán de la Cogolla, the answer lies in the kitchen garden, the huerta, that stretches beside the walls. The monastery, rebuilt from the sixteenth century, is a large, plain-faced building of stone and brick, run today by Augustinian Recollects, and it was listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1997 together with the older monastery of Suso above. The garden is a reminder that monasteries were also farms, and that the monks' discipline included hoeing and watering as much as chanting.
Read the complete Yuso Monastery and Monastic Kitchen Garden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yuso Monastery and Monastic Kitchen Garden is where the day begins. Next is Archaeological Site of Atapuerca.
Atapuerca does not look like much from the road: low, scrubby hills, a railway cutting, oaks and gorse. But the limestone caves here have yielded some of the most important remains in the history of humanity. In the Gran Dolina, archaeologists found bones of Homo antecessor, around 850,000 years old, among the oldest human fossils in Western Europe, and in the Sima de los Huesos, a deep pit, they found the remains of at least twenty-eight individuals about 430,000 years old. UNESCO listed the site in 2000.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Atapuerca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Atapuerca comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital of the Basque Country and possibly its most underrated city. It sits on a high plateau, the Llanada Alavesa, surrounded by low mountains and wide farmland, and its medieval old town climbs a small hill in the shape of an almond, with the old cathedral of Santa María at the top. This is the cathedral the label refers to, a Gothic church begun in the thirteenth century as both a temple and part of the town's defences.
Read the complete Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 194 km into the recorded legs you reach Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz. Next is back through Archaeological Site of Atapuerca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Atapuerca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Site of Atapuerca, late in the day. Next is Yuso Monastery and Monastic Kitchen Garden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yuso Monastery and Monastic Kitchen Garden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Yuso Monastery and Monastic Kitchen Garden. That is the ride.
Yuso Monastery and Monastic Kitchen Garden → Archaeological Site of Atapuerca is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Archaeological Site of Atapuerca → Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 121 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → back through Archaeological Site of Atapuerca is 120 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Archaeological Site of Atapuerca → Yuso Monastery and Monastic Kitchen Garden is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.