Revisita España 2014 - Day 3

Leisurely breakfast. For €3 each there was no meat but loads of pastries and even the famed Spanish 'Donuts'!

Then we packed, paid the bill and set off.

We had  gone a few yards when the Scala headset stopped working. A quick stop and restart and reconnect and it was okay for the rest of the day.

The plan today was to get to Ávila and our  overnight hotel. I programmed TomTom to go via Burgos and thereby increase the mileage a bit but at least keep us off the autovias that are replacing the N roads everywhere.

The N623 takes you from Santander to Burgos through villages and on the Michelin map it is mostly a green lined or scenic route. 

It also takes you through the Cantabrian Cordillera. A range of mountains at about 1200 to 1500 metres. Gentle grades and a few hairpins to keep you on your toes. There are three main "puertos" and all are about the 1000m mark. We stopped at the first, the Puerto de El Escudo at 1011m.

It was quite chilly up there. Further along we came to the River Ebro. Even up here it is a proper river and it runs in the valley of cliffs around 200ft high. The sandstone (?) cut through by the river of many many years.

We stopped to watch some large birds circulating across the valley, riding the thermals. I had no idea what they were but thought they maybe condor type birds?    

And then onto Burgos. The last few miles on an autovia that replaced the N road.

And then for petrol. Rather than risk long distances I pulled into a Carrefour where the pay at the pump gobbled my MasterCard and then wouldn't work. Luckily we could see it and Claire removed it with tweezers......?

I pushed Döra around to a manual pump and filled up!

We then headed into Burgos to park and get a drink. After some one way streets we found other bikes parked up under some trees so we joined them. We were just around the corner from the Cathedral.

First it was coffee time, plus a side order of churros. Then we had a walk around the cathedral square.

So far we had only done about a third of the journey to Ávila, and we ended up on the autovia to Valladolid. It was so hot going along that it felt like a very efficient hair dryer blowing into your helmet and through the jackets. 

The temp gauge on the  onboard computer showed 34.5℃ at about 70mph. I wonder how hot it was stationary?

We had a few stops to have a drink of water and to get some life back in our arses.

Since leaving the boat on Sunday we have seen only two other British plated bikes and a few cars. It seems this area is not really on the "must see" list for our countrymen and women.