November 1, 2013
Arcos de la Frontera
We are welcomed in by festival bells
Zahara sits at the base of the 2500' climb to Las Palomas Pass, a famous category 1 climb on the bike racing circuit and the start of our day's ride to Arcos. The climb begins immediately, and soon we had risen enough to give a nice view over the lake so I stopped to take a shot of it. Rachael continued on, as is normal - she likes to continue with a climb once she's got her rhythm established, so often we just meet at the top because I lag behind with the camera. This was a bit unfortunate today because after remounting and reaching for a drink, I discovered that I had left both of my water bottles at the hotel. I made a game attempt to catch up and shout her down, but it was too late. Unfortunate, but no big deal this time of year - it is pleasantly cool much of the time anyway.
The climb is a great, contorted affair that ascenda steadily but never terribly steeply - Rachael alleges that she climbed it nonstop, but who other than she knows for sure? Views are great the entire way with many reasons to stop with the camera, so I took my time. Surprisingly, we had a lot of company - a steady procession of bikes labored up the pass along with me, and at the top bikes were parked everywhere and groups of triumphant cyclists were lined up for group photos by the summit sign. Rachael said that when she arrived she was greeted by a raucous cheer for her efforts.
At first we thought this was an organized event but now I believe it is because today is a holiday (All Saints Day) and everyone was out enjoying the glorious weather. All of the trailheads (this is also a famous hiking area) were packed, and on the fast descent of the other side we were a bit anxious by the heavy car traffic - by far the most traffic we've seen outside of towns or on highways.
After about an 8 mile drop we had a fast ride the rest of the way to Arcos de la Frontera, other than to stop for lunch in El Bosque. We arrived at our hotel around 3, leaving plenty of time to wander through the town. We were greeted into the town by the clamor of church bells pealing in honor of the holiday. Arcos has about the deepest pitched church bells I can recall hearing anywhere. We could hear them when we first arrived at the edge of town, and they were still at it 10 minutes later when we arrived at the hotel, situated directly below the loudest of them - so loud in fact that we had to ring the doorbell a few times before the attendant could hear it.
This hotel (the Casa Grande) is the same one we so memorably stayed at years ago - it stands on the precipice of the great cliff that forms the south edge of the town, and there is a sheer 200' drop from the wall of the hotel to the valley below. It is probably the most dramatically positioned hotel I've ever stayed in. This time we stayed in a third floor room, and we could step outside our door to the rooftop balcony and enjoy the spectacular views. Unfortunately, the room is at the top of a quite steep and erratic staircase and has some of the lowest doorways I can recall - we both whacked our heads because we were watching our footing and forgot to look up. We spent the rest of our stay constantly warning each other to be careful of our footing and watch our heads.
After exploring and getting lost a few times in the streets of the upper city, we rounded out our day with a great tapas meal in a cafe with a bullfighter/flamenco decor - bulls head mounted on the wall, capes, photos, flamenco music as background. Another very fine day.
Elevation log: 3900' today, 48,400 total.
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Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 939 miles (1,511 km)
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