Montefrio to Granada

November 3, 2022

In the morning, we had breakfast in our room, then called our host Juan Antonio, and his Dad came open up the garage with our bikes. Then JA came and opened up his store (the one that was closed yesterday) so that we could pay for our accommodation. The store is a nice place selling cheese, olive oil, and other local products.

I commented on all the bars and restaurants having been closed yesterday - he said that it is common after November 1 for restaurants throughout small towns in Andalucia not to open in the evenings. And that yesterday things had been closed all day because it had been a busy 5 day vacation period ending with All Saints' Day, and everyone took a day off. Apparently there was one open restaurant somewhere in the lower town (not near us). Sigh.

We had a bit of a busy road out of town, and of course Komoot took us through an unnecessarily steep detour.

Once we exited town, we found ourselves on another beautiful road with brand new pavement up to our highest point. We reached 1200 m, but once again there was no puerto sign as we crested the hill. We had a very quick downhill ride to the town of Illora. After a lot of hot days, it felt a bit chilly.

One last look back at the beautiful town of Montefrio.

This parked vehicle blocked our exit from town. We had to remove our panniers to get by.

I love that the mirador symbol is a camera from the 1920s. Would kids even recognize it?

Not sure what this warning sign is for. The road was a bit twisty, but it was in great condition.

Another repeat of beautiful views, quiet roads, and great pavement.

We stopped for coffee at a bar with all sorts of birds in tiny cages - we were the only clients. For the first time all trip, I was handed hot milk and instant decaf coffee packet instead of having coffee from the espresso machine. But it still tasted fine. Gail asked for tea and got green tea this time - it's always a bit of a lottery what tea she'll get. Too bad that this one was made with water that tasted like coffee.

Continuing downhill after our coffee break, we soon stopped at a roadside churrería that had fabulous Google reviews. ‘Churros of a lifetime’ the reviewer said. But they'll have no churros until tomorrow. We each ordered a tostada instead. But they delivered one for us to share. The olive oil on the toast was ridiculously tasty.

We passed through a flat agricultural area west of Granada, and saw lots of veggies growing . We investigated one plant we didn't recognize, and it turned out to be asparagus. By this time of year, it's very tall. We also rode through a monoculture forest that had restricted access.

An unusual forest. Not sure what it's purpose is.

On the approach to Granada, we rode on quiet roads through an agricultural area.

This is what asparagus looks like in the off-season.

We entered Granada from the west. It was very easy terrain, but we had only a short section of bike path. Mostly we had to ride in the bus/taxi lane, along with lots of scooters and motorbikes. For the first time all trip, we were required to make a scary move in traffic - we needed to change lanes to exit a multi-lane street.

We found our apartment (Apartments Turístico San Matias) without trouble. It's a nice one bedroom with pullout couch. It’s my turn for the bedroom. It seems to be in a great neighborhood with lots of restaurants and bars.

The Q&A on booking.com said to use the elevator and put our bikes in our apartment. As we were unloading our panniers, we met a guy leaving the building - he saw our bikes and asked us not to put the bikes in the apartment. But there are lots of apartments here, and there really isn't a great place in the lobby - we’d have blocked the elevator door, and it's not terribly secure. So once he was gone, we took them up anyway. The apartment is large, and the bikes aren't touching any walls, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Let’s just hope we don’t see the same fellow again. He didn't introduce himself, so we're not sure who he us anyway. We will take photos before leaving to show that we've caused no damage. One funny thing - there are multiple warnings in our apartment to use the vent fan if cooking, otherwise we’ll set off the alarm system. I'm thinking this has been a bit of a problem in the past.

We had a delightful lunch in a plaza near our apartment. Gail had arroz negro - delicious! And I had a typical Granada salad of oranges, cod, olives, hard boiled eggs, and a few micro greens too. We then explored the city a bit on foot, and bought a few breakfast groceries. We stopped for a beer and tapas of tortilla on our way home on a street jam packed with bars and restaurants. The one we stopped at seemed to have a few locals, and once again there was a roving lottery salesman.

This is a great neighbourhood, if you're heading to Granada.

Lots of restaurants, bars, and tourist apartments.

Arroz negro - rice with seafood and squid ink.

What could be better than a place specializing in beer and ice cream? It's the perfect business!

After showers and a bit of organizing, we went out for some food. We ended up having tapas at a Mexican restaurant - the free tapas tasted and looked like samosas. It was very tasty, but didn't seem very Mexican to me.

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 995 km (618 miles)

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