Teruel

October 11, 2023

The longest travel day of the tour, and not our favorite so we’re going to blitz through it - a few photos, and a few comments, and move on. The day began with a fairly modest breakfast at the old mill - probably closer to a standard Spanish breakfast than Team Anderson has been indulging themselves on for the past month: cafe con leche, bread, some ham and cheese slices, and juice. Simple, sufficient, but not the most exciting start to the day. And, it’s not served until 8:30 on a morning when we’re in a hurry.

The ride begins with retracing our ride back to the center, a much prettier and more enjoyable ride in the morning than the heat of midafternoon as we follow the mill race past colorful vegetable and flower plots.with our late breakfast it’s ten before we leave, so with 40 miles ahead of us we’ve got some work to do if we want to get to Teruel in time for lunch.

Just past town we’re out in the open, arid countryside again and flat all around. I’m surprised to see how broad this plain is that Monreal del Campo gets its name from. There’s a very slight contour to the land as we’re lifted over the shoulder of a small outcrop near Villafranca del Campo, but otherwise we’re biking uphill on a very slightly tilted inclined plane for the first twenty-plus miles. Conducive to making good time, but also just a tad tedious. How do those people that bike across the Great Plains do it?

Approaching the first highlight of the day, Villafranca del Campo.

Near Villafranca we get the only real contour in the first twenty miles.

Another highlight. The best features of the ride are all concentrated within a mile or two of Villafranca.

Oh, I forgot. Also just past Villafranca we get lifted up by an overpass across the rail line, reaping some big views. Here we’re looking back from whence we came.

Dropping off the other side of the overpass, in what counts as our big climb for the first half of the day. We both aced it.

And this counts as real excitement, again from the overpass: a sheep drive far in the distance. Without the added height we probably would have missed it.

And the drama for the day. This donkey is running to catch up to those sheep (are guard donkeys a thing?), followed by a running sheep herder.

Looking back at Alba and it’s ruined medieval castle.

So that was the best part of the ride. Things deteriorate when the route I’ve mapped out intersects with and joins the Ojos Negros Via Verde, a long distance greenway that we could follow all the way to the sea if we chose to. It doesn’t take much of a look though to convince us that we don’t even want to bike it these next few miles, so I consult the map that see that with a detour through Cella we can stay on pavement at the expense of adding a mile or two to the day. It will undoubtedly be faster and more comfortable, so we go for it.

The road not taken: the Ojos Negros greenway.

Our eyes helped us decide against the greenway, but this caution sign reinforces it. This translates as ‘pronounced earring’, which doesn’t seem quite right but it doesn’t tempt us to explore the path to find out.

Six miles later though, our detour brings us back to the greenway again; but here the surface looks more palatable and at the start anyway is even paved. The alternative is to add another mile or two and ride the national highway the rest of the way, so Ojos Negros it is.

On the Ojos Negros greenway. Actually, to be fair to it it looks like quite a nice ride, as far as unmetaled roads go anyway.

Our stretch on the greenway ends with a concern when it merges back onto a road which is barricaded for a resurfacing project. With a choice of taking our chances that we can get through or detouring back onto the national highway, I pull out the zoom camera to stare down the road to see what the blockage is and decide we can probably get through. And fortunately I’m right, or I might have found myself dodging another fusillade of Rockydarts®️.

Video sound track: Desert Song, by Yshai Afterman and Itami Erez

Teruel is a real city, and the last few miles getting to the center are not fun. An especial challenge was climbing the last steep blocks up from the train station, when Rachael couldn’t get her shoe in one of her pedals. When we got in the restaurant she handed me her shoe to examine - one of the screws had fallen out, and the cleat was twisted 90 degrees. Fortunately I have a spare and could repair it when we got to our room.

We don’t really want to talk about the ride too much other than that, so let’s look at the lunch we ended up with instead. Delicious!

So here’s the deal with Teruel. It’s a very impressive place with a ton of things to see, but we’ll hold off on that for now. We’re here for one night only and then we’re off on a side trip to Albarracín for three days before returning to Teruel to stay here for another three nights also. So we’ll save a look at the city for later.

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Ride stats today: 40 miles, 900’; for the tour: 1,056 miles, 36,600’

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 1,046 miles (1,683 km)

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Patrick O'HaraHa ha. Rockydarts!
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6 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Patrick O'HaraTrust me, those are no laughing matter!
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6 months ago