Écija to Córdoba

October 29, 2022

Partly on the Via Verde de la Campina

Our Écija hotel was nice and quiet - there were not many people in the hotel, I don’t think. We stopped for lunch supplies on our way out of town, and a local cyclist offered route advice, but we were quite sure where we wanted to go.We had an easy exit from town and wonderful roads to start the day.

There were lots of locals exercising on a Saturday morning, including a whole peloton of cyclists on the lovely road we chose to avoid the reportedly cobble-y north section of the Via Verde de la Campiña (thanks to previous CycleBlaze journals!). After yesterday's nasty stretch, we don’t need more cobbles. Based on the looks of the fields, we were wise to stay on the roads. They could be farming cobbles.

The pavement was really nice. And it was cooler this morning, which was a relief after the last two days. We had a coffee stop near La Carlota, at what was the only restaurant on today’s route. A bargain at 1 euro each. The treat purchased in Ecija was very good - Tortas de Aceite have become a favourite on this trip, whether they're from a local bakery or the commercial ones from a grocery store.

We passed several olive oil plants on the way out of town.

And rode on this great secondary highway.

Here are the sorts of cobbles that we avoided by skipping part of the via verde. How can they grow anything around here?

After La Carlota, we joined the via verde. It wasn’t super smooth, but it was quite nice from the point we started. The views were great, and it was definitely an old rail trail with the accompanying gentle grades. We stopped for a picnic lunch along the way. Temps were not too bad today, and the via verde had lots of shade.

We joined the via verde after the village of La Carlota. Beyond this point, the via verde was very quiet and the trail conditions were good.

Entry to Cordoba was not quite as easy as Seville, but it was fine. Our route took us through a dead quiet industrial zone - I guess nobody works on Saturdays. Then we had to negotiate a triple traffic circle to get across the stagnant looking Guadalquivir River on a busy road. Then in short order (well, after a quick stop for a beer) we were in our nice hotel on the edge of the old city. The bikes came up the small elevator one-by-one on their back wheels. It was a tight squeeze.

We discovered why it's so busy this weekend - it's a long weekend, because November 1 is All Saints' Day.

After enjoying the amenities of our fancy hotel (shampoo! conditioner!), and a rest, we went out for a walk past the mosque and the Roman bridge, and had dinner at a restaurant along the river. The streets of Cordoba seem even narrower and twistier than we've seen in other places, if that's possible. It's definitely full of tourists on this long weekend.

Our bikes went up the hotel elevator on their back wheels

There were lots of tourist out admiring the Cordoba mosque-cathedral.

Not wanting to be outdone by Paris, Cordoba has their own Arco Del Triunfo. Thankfully, it's not in the middle of a traffic circle.

This is the modern bridge we rode across to enter Cordoba.

It's interesting that there are different specialty food items here than we've seen elsewhere. We're really not that far from Seville, after all. We ate flamequin, a dish of cured ham and pork loin rolled together and then deep fried, and also ratatouille and fried eggs, accompanied by a nice Verdejo. I showed the waiter a photo of a super snowy day in the BC interior, and he grabbed my phone to show other servers. Too funny! And then he gave us a free digestif - patxaran, a sloe flavoured liqueur that we both enjoyed.

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 802 km (498 miles)

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