April 27, 2022
Ecija to Cordoba
The Amphora doesn’t serve breakfast but they offer a 10% discount at the Cafe Roma around the corner, so by 9am we were enjoying freshly squeezed juice from local oranges, delicious cappuccinos and toasted bagels. We were on the road before 10am which is great for us. However, we kept stopping to admire the beautiful buildings, squares and towers and it slowed our departure down, so in the end it was our usual 11am by the time we were out of town. As we continue to be impressed with these supposedly second tier stops on our tour and our one night allotment for them, we are beginning to think about two night stops, to 1) give us time to see more of the towns and 2) to travel at a slower pace. What’s the rush, and it seems to agree with our aging bodies more 😊.
We started on the bike path out of Ecija, then a secondary road for a few km before turning on to a road absolutely devoid of traffic - all the way to a town with the complicated name, La Fuencubierta. There we found the town’s only grocery store, picked up fixings for lunch and parked ourselves in the central square. Again, it wasn’t long before an elderly gentleman, this time pushing a walker (he called it his « carro »), came over to chat. These short interactions are great, even with the language issues. He wanted to know where we came from and where we are headed, which thanks to many hours on DuoLingo, we are able to get across in our halting Spanish. He pointed to where his house is, he told us it is « mucho calores » here in «agosto ».
We devoured the two oranges we’d bought so Steven insisted we go back to the kind lady in the store and by two more, truly local, oranges for later!
Out of town and a fab downhill before a killer uphill to Guadalcazar. That’s when we caught sight of the black clouds rolling in on our left. Do we take shelter in a coffee shop or take a chance? A quick look at the route and we gambled and headed off. The vistas were terrific, the hills kept coming. The weather held, the scenery was breathtaking, the hills were breath-exhausting. For much of this section, the road had been recently repaved and purposely narrowed with a deep culvert on one side and guardrails on the other, and with signs indicating slower speeds and local traffic only. It makes for an ideal cycle route.
Five times we went down into a valley before cresting another hill - the bright green fields, the red poppies, the black clouds to our left and the blue sky to our right. And then at the top of the fifth hill, there was Córdoba in the distance. But there was one more hill to climb before coasting into the city centre. We feel elated to have beaten the weather man today and super excited to be in Córdoba for THREE nights!
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 1 | Link |
Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 869 km (540 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 8 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 4 |
2 years ago
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2 years ago
What a beautifully written post - sounds like mom’s voice too!
2 years ago