Cadiz to Jerez de la Frontera

October 9, 2022

A Great Ride

What a beautiful city Cadiz is. To us it had a great feel. It was so tempting to stay another day, but the desire to go for a ride won out. It turned out to be such a great ride too.

We indulged in breakfast at the Hotel Casa de las Cuatro Torres. Cadiz is Spain’s oldest city. Our hotel was built in the early 1700’s. After multiple cappuccinos we tore ourselves away, retrieved our now dry laundry from every surface in the room and stuffed it all in our panniers. We started the ride out of Cadiz by going all the way around the point. It was all on bike lanes and the biggest hazard was pedestrians and even they weren’t really a problem.

We rode out onto the one kilometre pier to San Sebastián Castle. The cobbles here had me thinking about the pros who sometimes race on cobbles, with skinny road bike tires. I can’t imagine. After enjoying the views we were shaken and stirred back to the nice smooth bike path.

There were so many beautiful buildings, and the beach went on forever it seemed. We reached the point where we had to turn and cycle the causeway to Cadiz. We could see the route from the bus yesterday, and I was reassured when I saw a parent and young child riding. I figured it must be okay, and it absolutely was. A natural surface, but easily rideable. The scenery was amazing. Then two touring cyclists passed us. How wonderful. They stopped a short while later and we had a fantastic visit, and learned some things about the road ahead. Ursula and Andreas are from Switzerland and had a routing suggestion for us we hadn’t considered. They also had first hand knowledge of the route, having just done it. We may be making yet another spontaneous route change. The CN is researching as I write this.

We were on dedicated bike paths that were excellent for about 15 kilometres. Then we had a bit of negotiating through some streets, then more gravel riding. The whole day was incredible. We had a funny moment (actually, the CN was not amused) after lunch. We were going through a small town with the most amazing bike path. The CN turned off this beauty at a golf club. We had discussed lunch and he found a lovely bench at the golf club for our picnic. When we left he disappeared around a curve and when I arrived at a small traffic circle, three ways to go, he had disappeared. I assumed there were two possibilities, both leading back to the beautiful bike lane. It never occurred to me he had turned at a golf club because it was the bike route. The man loves golf. So I waited, and after some time back he came from the third exit, which was basically a gravel path and that I hadn’t even considered. He told me to keep up! He had ridden quite a distance before he realized I wasn’t behind him. Poor guy.

To this I just assumed we would be returning to this path after lunch.

We were then on a moderately busy highway for a few kilometres and then routed onto CA 3113 which was basically magical bike touring land. Beautiful scenery, great surface, lovely deserted highway. We were passed by three cars in total over 15 kilometres. It was so perfect. The last few kilometres into Jerez were on a slightly busier road but still great. Perhaps there was so little traffic because it is Sunday? Then it was bike lanes almost to the hotel.

There were some non car impediments on the road.

Modern railway bridge and still impressive.

Jerez is fantastic . What an amazing place. It is known for being one point of the sherry triangle and the home of the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. We have had a good explore, dinner and gelato and just love this small city. There is so much here to see. Tonight the locals were out enjoying the warmth and the beautiful pedestrian streets. So many young children in strollers, on scooters and on strider bikes. Cafes and restaurants and more gelato establishments than we have seen in ages. What a great day this has been.