8 October 2019: Baena to Alcalá la Real (36 miles-242 total)


I had the sofa in the living room, so John's emergence at 7 am for coffee was my wake-up call. We all ate and were ready to depart when our host arrived at 9 am to collect the keys.

We had a prior evening discussion of the merits of taking an "N" road in good condition with a wide shoulder but more traffic or a smaller, less direct side road with more elevation changes. Almost immediately, John chose the side road while Robin, Michael, and I took the main road for the first third of the route. We then switched to the quieter maps.me side road for the last 22 miles. The long but uniform up and down graded of the "N" road were replaced with ups and downs through a mountainous terrain populated with olive trees. We still had vehicle traffic.

I have never ridden roads with so many false summits. Fortunately, I froze both water bottles over night. I filled one twice at a rest stop, and drank it all by the end of the day, essentially a 3-bottle ride. Climbs of several miles at 3 mph take a lot of time. We arrived at our hotel about 2:20 pm, and John arrived 20 minutes later. Tomorrow we have 36 miles to Granada by the "N" road and 47 miles with 8000 feet of climbing by the maps.me-recommended bike route.

The first floor of our hotel is a restaurant with excellent food, so we had lunch and dinner there. We had lunch, showered, and then walked up to the hilltop fortress.

Arco Consolación. An original gate to the city. Our apartment is above. The top of the wall forms our patio wall.

Castillo de Alcalá la Real in the distance.

Nearer . . .

Dog of the Day

Three cyclists trudging uphill to the Castillo de Alcalá la Real.



Castillo de Alcalá la Real is a castle in Alcala la Real, in the province of Jaén, Spain. It is a defensive enclosure, located at an elevation of 1,029 metres. It dates to the 13th-14th century, although some elements of the structure are older.



Alcala from the castle.

Water Bearer. With Robin, Michael, and John (on the bench).

Do they still call this a flat iron building?

Roman Public Basin

Baena

Dogs of the Day #2 & #3

Exotic Bird Exhibition. In the public library.

A Winner.

A Loser? I vote for this one.

Public Library

Dog of the Day #4

Church. My guess: Roman origin, placed within the buildings on the main square; Repurposed by the Moors as a mosque, with the tower likely added and oriented to the east; repurposed by the Roman Catholics with the sacrilegious elements removed. 

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