We started riding early today, and took a small detour to visit the church of Santa Maria de Lebeña.
Nestled in a small valley, we liked seeing the granite peaks whenever we looked up.
Next we descended through the gorge of La Hermida, marveling at the rock formations.
We climbed up for about 10 Km through the Cantabrian hills of Peñarrubia. There were only a handful of cars so we could enjoy the views.
We had three climbs today, so Pete had time to take photos as he waited for Kristina to catch up. Kristina is at the top of the second climb, the Collado de Hoz.
It's fun when there's a sign showing how much we've climbed! We started at about 200 meters, so 458 meters is about 1,500 ft of climbing over 6 miles.
Today was our favorite day of riding because of the amazing variety of scenery.
Rocks are typically used for fences, with gates made of notched wood to make for easy opening.
We enjoyed talking with these two Spanish cyclists we met on the road.
Today we saw and heard lots of sheep with bells.
Our final climb was to the Valley of Cabuérniga.
We never got tired of the views of small villages in valleys surrounded by farms, then the peaks rising up above them.
The mama pig and her baby were very curious about us and came close for a better look.
Our hotel room at Reserva de Saja was charming with its peaked roof and skylight.
Day Five: Carbuerniga to Liérganes, 29 Km
This morning we were ready to ride, but it started raining hard enough that we knew we'd be soaked if we rode.
We decided to wait at the hotel until Ibero Cycle arrived to pick up our luggage, then catch a ride in the van from Carbuérniga to Puente Viesgo. Here's Ignacio unloading our bikes after the rain had let up in Puente Viesgo.
After four days of riding our legs were ready for an easy day so we were content riding through relatively flat pastureland and small villages.
We know that unemployment is a big problem in Spain with almost half of young workers unemployed, but this isn't obvious to see as we travel around Spain. We can tell the economy is struggling when talking with people and when seeing the large number of properties that are for sale everywhere. We rode by many apartments, houses, farms and businesses with Se Vende signs in their windows.
We managed to stay pretty dry until the last five kilometers when we rode into some wet weather.
The sheep didn’t seem to notice the rain.
Here's the entrance to Hotel Esperanza. We liked the rust-colored steel sign.
We asked Señora Esperanza for a room with a bathtub and took hot baths to warm up. The highest window is our room.
And here’s the view from our room. The sheep have bells so we hear this lovely music as they graze.
The rain stopped so we walked into Liérganes. There's a charming old quarter with stone houses brightened by flower boxes.
Some houses display their coat-of-arms.
We noticed that people can have their bread delivered to their front door here. How cool!
We strolled down to Puente Mayor, the old Roman bridge.
The hill overlooking Liérganes has two small peaks that are called the breasts of Liérganes.
We were hungry so we went to a nearby restaurant. We had to wait for a table, so we had drinks at the bar. The waitress is pouring vermouth from a barrel.
The vermouth is flavored with orange and served on the rocks. It tastes sweet and herbaceous - it's Pete's new favorite aperitif.
We've been watching La Vuelta de España on TV and reading about the race. It's fun that the race is in northern Spain while we are also here, as the scenery is similar to what we are riding through.
The restaurant's television was showing the race. ¡Qué suerte!
Restaurants often have a menu of the day, with a starter, a main course and a dessert. With all the riding, we've been hungry and have no trouble eating three courses for lunch. For dessert we sampled fresh local cheese with membrillo (quince paste) that was quite tasty.
Day 6: Around Liérganes, 55 Km
We ate a traditional northern Spanish breakfast of quesada pasiega (Spanish cheese cake, in front) and sponge cake to fuel us for our final day of riding.
This artwork in the Esperanza hotel is by Fernando Bermejo. Each panel is illuminated from behind. Pete is holding a book about the artist who is from the nearby town of Esles in the Cantabrian mountains.
We rode up the Miera Valley, crossing the river several times.
Then the road started to climb up at 10% grade, so we turned around.
We headed next toward the town of Entrambasaguas. La Vuelta would also ride through this area one day later and at much faster speeds!
A shed had graffiti of an oak leaf figure to oppose fracking in this region. Local opposition groups around Spain have so far prevented fracking in Spain.
We stopped in a small town so Pete could look closely at the map provided by our cycling tour company. We really like the Ibero Cycle model that allows us to self-guide our riding while they take care of booking hotels and transporting our luggage.
These photos shows eucalyptus trees being grown for making paper.
We had just past the village of Riaño when we saw eucalyptus trees being logged in the distance.
We rode to the village of Hoznayo for lunch at Restaurante La Bicicleta.
Luckily we arrived around 2 pm, which is early for lunch, and we got a table. The food was fantastic! We started with house-made foie gras wrapped in duck prosciutto served with pears poached in vermouth.
The dining room was charming. And while we ate, it rained.
The rain had stopped by the time we finished eating, and we enjoyed our last looks at the beautiful, green hills as we rode 11 Km back to our hotel.
During our six day tour we rode 335 Kms through stunning scenery. We feel so fortunate to have cycled in northern Spain!
We went to Bilbao and stayed in casco viejo, the old quarter. The Basque flag is a common sight in Bilbao.
We couldn't resist trying two of their six flavors of turron ice cream. Made of almonds, turron is rich and delicious.
We were looking forward to returning to Bilbao, as we have fond memories of the Guggenheim Museum from our visit twelve years ago. Jeff Koon's Puppy sculpture is still out front.
It's made of living plants and has an internal watering system.
There are now seven Richard Serra sculptures at the Guggenheim, and six were new to us.
His long term exhibit is entitled Living Time, which refers to the viewer experiencing the enormous sculptures as they move through them.
The texture of the rolled steel looks beautiful.
The exhibit includes information on the shapes Serra uses. This is a torqued ellipse: the bottom oval shape is turned 90 degrees to the top oval. This makes the walls tilt in or out from bottom to top.
The models were interesting too. These sculptures use torqued ellipses and toruses, which are shapes that curve like a doughnut. Here's a link to an interview with Richard Serra from 2002, around the time when he was building the six new sculptures for Bilbao.
The Serra sculptures are in a very long gallery shaped like a fish that was constructed beneath an existing bridge.
Another new sculpture at the Guggenheim is Anish Kapoor's Tall Tree and the Eye.
This is Louise Bougeois' Maman sculpture that we think is especially well-suited to its location next to the Frank Gehry architecture.
The metro in Bilbao was designed by Norman Foster. We rode it north to visit Puente Colgante, the world's first transporter bridge that was built in 1888.
The suspended cabin, loaded with pedestrians, bikes and cars, swings across the Nervión River every few minutes.
This style of bridge was built in a number of other places too, where large ships made it impractical to build a tall bridge.
The Nervión River is actually cleaner and prettier here than in the heart of Bilbao.
We flew back to Madrid when La Vuelta 21-day cycling race was getting really exciting. We are cheering for Tom Dumoulin from the Netherlands!
Segovia is thirty minutes north of Madrid by train. The first sight of the Roman aqueduct was unbelievable.
Towering above at a maximum height of 29 meters, we were amazed to learn that was used for 1,900 years to transport water!
In spite of the large number of tourists visiting Segovia, there are many businesses that are closed with storefronts for rent or sale, showing us that the Spanish economy is struggling.
We walked up towards the Cathedral of Segovia.
Here's the cathedral as seen from the city walls.
It's the newest Gothic cathedral in Spain and was built in 1525.
Inside there are 27 chapels. The elaborate and unusual Churrigueresque altar in the Chapel of St. Ánton caught our attention with the chubby cherubs and pig.
We walked to the Alcazar of Segovia, an impressive fortress that dates back to the 12th century.
It was turned into a palace by the Spanish King Philip II who had the sharp slate spires added to reflect the European castle architecture of the time.
Supposedly Disney's Cinderella's castle was inspired by the Segovia castle.
More recently the Alcazar was a prison, and then an artillery school. There are lots of armor and cannons displayed inside.
We could go inside 12 rooms in the castle, including a bedroom with tapestries on the walls to warm up the place. We were curious about this figure that appears to be a woman with a sword, but couldn't find anything about her.
The clouds made a nice backdrop for this photo of the well.
This photo shows the detail in the upper wall and ceiling of the Pine Cone Room, so named for the 392 pine cones carved into the ceiling.
The Tower of Juan II has 156 steep steps to the top.
The tower was doubled in height in 1550. The views of the cathedral from the top of the tower are wonderful.
Back in Madrid we enjoyed eating tapas for dinner. We started with piquillo peppers stuffed with cod and served in a red pepper sauce.
Then continued our picoteo, tapas bar crawl, with gazpacho and fried eggplant drizzled with honey.
The Madrileños are back from vacation, and the subways and streets are crowded with locals. Puerto del Sol plaza is a popular spot with tourists and locals alike.
We were heartened to see a banner welcoming Syrian and other refugees to Spain as we walked by Madrid City Hall. So far Spain has agreed to take in fewer than 3,000 Syrian refugees, but with these encouraging signs we believe the number will increase.
Madrid, following Barcelona's lead, has joined a network of Spanish cities that will offer help to refugees while allowing Spanish citizens to volunteer rooms in their homes, language lessons or other assistance. We applaud their actions!
We were lucky to be back in Madrid for the completion of La Vuelta. The final stage enters Madrid and the cyclists complete 10 laps around a circuit through the heart of the city. But first, some young cyclists got their turn in the spotlight.
It seemed as if all of Madrid was out to watch the race.
The course makes its way along the Gran Via, Madrid's largest boulevard.
One of the great things about professional cycling is how close you can get to the action. It's amazing how fast the cyclists are going. They go by in a blur.
Here's Tom Dumoulin (white jersey and black helmet). He lost the leader's red jersey in stage 20 (yesterday) in an amazing day of racing.
Here's the eventual winner of the race, Fabiu Aru of Italy (red jersey) surrounded by his teammates on the Astana team. Astana had superior tactics and a much stronger team than Tom Dumoulin's, proving that professional cycling is as much a team sport as an individual one.
We had the good fortune to see two stages of this year's Vuelta in person. This made following the race much more exciting.
We like Madrid a lot and have settled into a nice apartment in the barrio Malasaña. We're taking Spanish classes here starting next week.
