October 30, 2013
Utrera
On the Via Verde de Los Alcones
After breakfast we spent the morning further exploring Carmona. We found it to be a very special place - stuffed with remarkable monuments, but on a very agreeable scale - the historical core is compact enough that in a few hours you can cover it on foot. Vehicle traffic is very light, and many of the lanes are so narrow and contorted that cars can scarcely make it through them anyway. Both sides of most streets are lined with tall residential or commercial buildings that block the view, and it is quite startling to turn a corner and realize you are beneath some stunningly beautiful bell tower or church facade. A great town to wander around, get lost a bit, and see what turns up. It is probably our favorite stay of the tour so far.
Most of the monuments don't open until 10 or so, so we only had time to go inside two of them. The Alcazar, at the entrance to the town by the Seville Gate, provides wonderful views over the town and countryside, and particularly of the nearby, very beautiful San Pedro Church. Unfortunately San Pedro was closed this day - we would love to have seen the interior - but we did go inside Saint Maria's church, which was very special. The church itself is very fine, but as much as anything we were transfixed by watching patches of light filtered through its stained glass windows reflect off of its walls and slowly descend them as the sun rose.
After checking out from the hotel, we stopped for lunch at a terrific creperie near the Alcazar and then set off for Utrera. Today's ride was intentionally short to allow more time in Carmona, so it was fine to hang around until after lunch before starting.
Today's ride began with another Via Verde experience, this time on the Via Verde de Los Alcones. It was a very interesting and memorable experience in its own way, but I don't think it's going to make it onto our list of favorite rides. First off, it is very difficult to find. Fortunately I had mapped it out very carefully on our GPS route, or we wouldn't have stood a chance of finding it. It begins at the end of town, on one of a set of rough, unpaved roads that at first all set off in more or less the same direction, and are all unmarked as far as we could tell. We picked the wrong one at first, following it for about a half mile as it gradually worsened until it eventually died in a private gate. We got some beautiful views of the country though, and enough perspective that we could trace out what the correct one was.
Backtracking to the start, we went in the right direction this time, but anxiously because it drops very steeply off the ridge, passes through a private homestead, and crosses a small creek - still with no signs. Serendipitously, right by the creek a woman jogged by, pulled off her earbuds for a bit, and confirmed that we were on the route to Los Alcones. About 5 miles along we finally came to an actual sign for the route, but I think in general it's just one of those places you have to know exists if you're going to find it.
The route itself, now that we found it, was actually quite nice as long as you don't mind a bit of dirt, sand, and erratic surface. Unpacked the entire way, it follows the base of a ridge through open agricultural land that gradually became greener toward its end. Very quiet experience. At the very end, the track gradually dissolved into sand and became unbikeable (at least on our wheels). We gave it a game try, but gave up and walked the last bit after Rachael toppled over and somehow ended up pretzel-like on the ground, entangled with her bike. She lay there helplessly until I walked over and helped her up, after of course first taking some time with the camera.
The rest of the ride to Utrera (once we found our way to the right road, in itself no mean feat) was uneventful, and went quickly. We arrived a bit after 5 and decided to just hang out until dinner, having had our fill of adventure for the day.
Elevation log: 1000' today, 39,100 total.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 1 | Link |
3 years ago
Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 844 miles (1,358 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |