Day 14: Priego de la Cordoba

September 28, 2004

This was a delightful day. We checked out of our hotel at eight and biked seven miles to Zuheros for breakfast. The air was quite cool (around 55F) in the early morning- the first time on the whole tour that it felt almost cool enough to dress more warmly.

We had a fine breakfast at Hotel Zuhayra, once we finally found the place. Zuheros is a lovely white village plastered against the mountains.

Looking south to Zuheros, the thin white smear at the base of the hills.

Zuheros looks close here, but we still have a mile or two of switchbacks ahead. It’s nice that we got an early start and the air is still fairly cool as we climb.

We wandered in confusion through the streets for about twenty minutes searching for the hotel before finally finding it.

Zuheros Castle, built during the Moorish occupation, dates to the ninth century.

From Zuheros we followed the Via Verde (a rail trail conversion) for fifteen miles to Cabra, delighted by the way its trestles, tunnels and cutouts shortened and smoothed out the ride. It was very peaceful riding without concern for cars, bucolic (Rachael saw two long-eared hares on the path)and cool, with much of the path shaded by overhanging vegetation.

Looking across the basin of wall-to-wall olive groves below Zuheros. Our road out of here crosses over that low saddle.

From Cabra we took a circuitous route between the two mountain passes that form the park.

In Priego we enjoyed another fine lunch at another fine restaurant and then dropped to our hotel down below the town, Rio Piscina. It was a very odd place with a large and very cold swimming pool, tennis courts and almost no other guests. It was under major renovation and not too inviting.

After resting up we returned to town, walking up a gruesomely steep road- but a much more direct route than the highway. Priego grew on us the longer we were there - it has some delightful, heavily used public spaces- packed with playing children, parents and oldsters walking arm in arm or sitting on benches.

For dinner we were pleased to stumble across a pizza/pasta restaurant after wandering through the town’s maze of streets looking for anyplace appealing. We thoroughly enjoyed it break from Spanish cuisine. Rachael had tortellini and I spaghetti with olives.

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For the day: 42 miles, 2,500’; for the tour: 467 miles, 27,230’

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