May 14, 2024
Grazalema
It’s a Popup World
The plans for this cycle tour took shape over a period of several months, starting last November. All the while, it sat as a vision in my mind and a line on a map. Fast forward to today, it’s like opening one of those pop-up cards to see all the land features and craggy mountains, hear the cacophony of birds flitting in the trees, watch unknown four-legged critters scurry across the road and birds of prey soar overhead, feel the warmth of the sun and simultaneously the cool of the shade and delight in the pops of colourful flowers along the roadside. It makes every minute spent planning priceless.
Today’s ride has been on my mind for many weeks. It was motivation to get the last 80k training ride in and fit in some challenging hilly rides in the lead-up to the tour because it’s a doozy at 1272m of climbing. We’re headed through the Sierra de Grazalema to the town of Grazalema, which is draped on the east side of the craggy Coros mountain in the shadow of El Torreon.
But, first we had to find some food for breakfast. I was almost ready for breakfast when I woke up at the crack of dawn to the sound of a drum and a pennywhistle, becoming louder and louder, then fading away. Peering out between the shutters, I saw a lone gentleman striding down the street without a care in the world, waking everyone up as he marched on. Hmmm, is this an Arcos tradition or someone with a mission? We will never know.
We had a delicious coffee con leche in our room, but finding breakfast was a challenge which ended poorly, me with a chocolate filled chocolate doughnut and David with a custard pastry. We thought we might find a bakery or store where we could buy food for the road, but it never materialized, hence the donut. Ugh.
The next order of business was finding our way out of town. All we had to do was drop off the knife edge of the hill. The challenge was keeping the locals satisfied that we were obeying the one way signs. Oh, alright... if we must!
We cruised downhill into the sun and within short order pulled up for a photo as the town started to reveal itself. Simultaneously, a vehicle stopped beside us. Uh-oh, we thought, what did we do now? But no, the driver motioned that we should continue further downhill and we would get a much better shot. How kind of him and how Canadian of us. Here is that shot.
The first 30k were along a highway that took us to El Bosque. Traffic was light and courteous, and the shoulder was generous. El Bosque sit on the west slope of the Sierra and from there we’d be climbing seriously.
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One of the reasons I love to cycle mountains is to slow down and take in the moments along the way. That might be to check out a beautiful flower, take a closer look at the animals in a mountain meadow, try to identify a raptor soaring above me or look back and notice how far we have climbed.
The grades in this climb were quite severe for long stretches. Our bikes have lo-o-w gearing that lets us tackle them and keep moving. When necessary, I plodded along at 6 kmh and intermittently stopped to rest. Thankfully the road surface was excellent and it didn’t suck away any of our precious momentum.
I was delighted to find a ‘col’ sign at the top of the hill. These signs are a cyclist’s rite of passage, an exclamation that ‘I came and I conquered’.
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Once over the top, the road snaked down to the beautiful town of Grazalema. This one was small enough that it was easy to navigate directly to our hotel.
We strolled the town after dropping the bikes at the hotel and stopped in at one of the many small bars for a couple of cervesas. Grazalema has a surprising number of restaurants so we picked one and made a reservation for 7:30.
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The beauty of white walls is they make a perfect backdrop for punches of colour in the form of roses and geraniums and other foliage.
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Dinner was just what we needed, an appy of local cheese, a green salad and a main which was pan-fried trout for me and pork for David. It was as delicious as it looks.
Our waiter brought us a bottle of liqueur along with the with the bill. I usually find these after-dinner drinks too sweet, but this one was not like that. And, it had an anise undertone to the light cherry taste, flavours I love. All I could find out from the waiter is that it was ‘cherry juice’. I hope I find out what it is in the next little while. Anybody our there know who knows this one, please let me know.
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3 months ago
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 107 km (66 miles)
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The whitewashed village houses are so delightful! David’s shots do them justice.
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