Day 16: Monesterio to El Ronquillo

March 5, 2025

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In a sort of low key way, Monesterio turned out to be on something of a mountaintop. Not that there were any cliffs or roads winding up into the clouds to see, but getting to it yesterday was a long slow 687 meters of climbing, and coming down today had 847 meters of descent. We passed a cyclist about half way coming up, and felt sorry for him. He was very cheerful, not knowing what lay ahead.

Our hotel at Monesterio, the Leo, is either part of a chain or lots of places are named the Leo, like the Adler in Germany. Anyway there was another hotel Leo in the next town down the line.

The Leo did not have an included breakfast buffet, but rather you could order a la carte. But I have now come to recognize the arrangement. You order at a bar, and the offerings are pretty weak. The bar man then brings your plate to the table. I guess that's the British pub model.

What we got looks sort of ok in the photo.

A closer look at some of the components - the tiny coffee, olive oil, and that tomato paste so common here. This was really an authentic breakfast, too bad as a spoiled tourist I would have preferred a tourist buffet!

Outside, the other customers have parked their rigs.

Just in by the door, our rigs are getting packed, at Hotel Leo.

Here we go, down main street, Monisterio.

Quickly we can look down and see the road coming up to Monesterio. We are glad today to be going South.

The road did flatten out (sort of) and resumed its benign approach, for travelers in either direction.

The part we really liked the best was dehesa on all sides. It is happy making for us to be among old oak trees, and also to see animals, like these cattle, enjoying it. The oaks remain mainly Holm Oak, which is known for generous production of acorns, loved by the Iberian pigs. We did also see some cork oaks, and in certain spots, stands of Eucalyptus.

The road narrowed here, crossing the river Cala. White Egrets were flying up and down the water course, but we did not manage a shot of them.

The thing about the acorns and the pigs is new to us, but the acorns of this forest are of course well known to locals. See the poster, with its emphasis on the acorns.

In due course we came upon the castle of Santa Ollala. The castle of Santa Olalla del Cala was ordered to be built by Sancho IV the Brave in 1293. It had a long history (seemed long when I read it on Wiki), involving disputes with the Portuguese, fending off bandits, and this and that into the 16th century. After that it became rather irrelevant, and was bought by a guy that also bought the whole town of Santa Ollala.

We too had an "interest" in Santa Ollala, but that was because it had a Dia grocery store. We parked the bikes across the street, where I could try shooting the numerous House Martins, and Dodie crossed to the store. Before Dodie could enter the store, though, she was approached by a man who had spotted our Canadian flags. "Canada - no 51st State - never!" he exclaimed. He turned out to be an American who had lived in Spain 30 years. He was outraged by the behaviour of his former country, and urged Dodie and all other Canadians to stay strong, and resist!

The Dia was kind of a small one, but Dodie still came out with lots of good stuff. We happily moved on out, soon passing a small children's playground. What caught my attention there was a pole carrying six evocative words, clearly intended to raise the kids' consciousness of them. These included fairness, empathy, empowerment, equality, and tolerance. These words hit home for us too, for they seem to be in eclipse in the world right now.

An oh, here are some of the House Martins!

The next 25 km, into our destination town of El Ronquillo were really pleasant and quite easy. We had the good road, pleasant surroundings, and temperatures that were neither warm nor particularly chilly. A few annoying rain sprinkles, however, had me repeatedly hiding away the Lumix camera, since I know how crabby they can get. We did spot one new bird, the Eurasian Jay. There were up to a dozen in one spot, but we never got a photo. We are adding it to our list anyway!

Rolling into El Ronquillo. It's a cute, mostly white, little town.

Our place in El Ronquillo turned out to be a one bedroom (two room) self contained house, that we accessed with a key lockbox. It was rather nice not to have to deal with anyone, and to just roll our bikes into the kitchen. As usual this sparked our curiosity about how much such a place would cost to buy , and could it be a good base for bike storage in Europe. Dodie woke us from our reverie by noting that once we would park our bikes here, there was no way out, plus the town lacks not only a bakery, but a store of any type!

In case we would think our house in El Ronquillo was too humble to buy, our walk through town revealed "suburbia", where new construction would offer a "luxury" town home.

No stores, but there is this nice church. It is "famous", appearing on all the El Ronquillo maps and brochures.

Tomorrow we should be easily able to reach Sevilla, concluding the first stage of this multi-stage cycle tour. From Sevilla we have planned exciting visits to a bird sanctuary, and then to the unique sand street village of El Rocio and the Donana National Park. . But first we are going to jump a bus to Gibraltar. We have a pile of left over British pounds to get rid of there!

Stay tuned!

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 424 km (263 miles)

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Gregory GarceauOnly a few months ago it seemed unthinkable that my country would attack our best international friend, neighbor, ally, trading partner, and some of the finest citizenry on earth. I love how, against tough odds, Trudeau is standing up to the U.S. Bully in Chief. I'm also glad to see the people you run into in Europe agree.

As for the 51st state thing, it's all bullshit. Why in the world would Trump want to make Canada a U.S. state? It would be like adding a huge liberal state like California to the voting population.
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3 weeks ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Gregory GarceauIt is certainly a puzzlement to us too. So far we have not met one single European who has anything other than contempt for the current direction the US is taking.
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3 weeks ago