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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 728 km, Salamanca to Gijón - roughly 9 h 58 in the saddle. On the way it passes Zamora and Leon. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Salamanca glows. Its buildings are built from a golden sandstone that takes on a honey colour in low sun, and the effect, especially in the late afternoon in the Plaza Mayor, is memorable. The city stands on the Tormes river in western Spain, about 800 metres above sea level, and is one of the great university towns of Europe, with a student population that gives the old streets life well into the night.
Read the complete Salamanca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salamanca is where the day begins. Next is Zamora.
Zamora is a city built on a rock above the Duero, and it is overlooked in a way that suits its quiet temperament. The old town sits on a ridge on the north bank, with a medieval stone bridge reaching across the river, and the whole place feels slightly apart from the rest of the busy plain around it. It is said to have more Romanesque churches than any other city in Europe, about two dozen, built mostly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when Zamora was a frontier town between the Christian north and the Moorish south. Their rounded arches and plain stone walls give the streets a sober, weathered look that is especially fine in evening light.
Read the complete Zamora write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zamora comes up about 152 km into the recorded legs. Next is Leon.
León has been a city for nearly two thousand years, since a Roman legion made camp here, and the old rectangle of the Roman walls is still partly visible in the heart of the town. The name itself comes from the legion, not from the lion that now sits on the city's flag, though locals prefer the lion. In the Middle Ages León was the capital of a kingdom, and later it became a major stop on the pilgrim road to Santiago, so the old quarter is full of churches, monasteries and inns that pilgrims used for rest.
Read the complete Leon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 464 km into the recorded legs you reach Leon. Next is Gijon.
Gijón stands on a rocky headland on the Bay of Biscay, in the heart of Asturias, and the Ruta de la Plata, which began far to the south in the hot plains of Extremadura, ends here with a gust of Atlantic air. The route follows an old road whose name comes from the Arabic word for a paved way, and which carried Roman legions, medieval pilgrims and merchants between the south and the north of Spain. After the dry high country of the meseta, arriving at the cold, green coast is like entering another country, and in a sense it is.
Read the complete Gijon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gijón closes the day.
Salamanca → Zamora is 152 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Zamora → Leon is 312 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
León → Gijon is 265 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.