May 7: Day 10, Alcalá del Júcar-Valencia
Alcalá del Júcar must be heaving with people in the summer. The restaurant I was at last night had a huge space outside for tables, and the one I was at for breakfast had rows and rows of tables and chairs, outside as well as inside. I had my tostada feeling and a coffee, and had some thoughts about small cafes which have charm because they aren’t a glorified production line.
I don’t think I mentioned it yesterday, but the hotel didn’t offer a storage room for my bike, they suggested putting it on the room’s balcony. But the elevator wasn't working. I’m on the first floor, so it’s not too bad; the bike is really light with no panniers. This morning I carefully carried it down, took it out front, packed it all up and got moving.
The route went 150m up to the plateau, through the steep old part of Alcalá del Júcar. Obviously, Spanish towns on steep hills aren't built with bicycles in mind; but nothing that couldn't be solved by getting off and pushing. It was mostly steep slopes, I tried to avoid stairs. I choose streets that went up and looked promising: that worked fine, but I have now learned that some of these streets have dead ends! I didn't know that before. After hitting two dead ends and having to do some backtracking I played it safe and followed signs to the castle, on the theory that it was at the top and probably had road access. That worked, but it turns out that the castle wasn't the top, there was another few minutes of climbing to get to the plateau.
From left to right: the breakfast restaurant. Getting the bike downstairs. Getting the bike upstairs. The view from the top - the castle is visible on the right.
The road on the plateau would run laser-straight for a few kilometers, then make a sudden turn and run laser-straight in a new direction. It's odd; the plateau is quite flat, so there's no good reason for it that I could see. I want to imagine that they're built on old Roman roads, but if that's the case their towns are awfully close together...
At that point I realized I still had the hotel keycards in my pocket. Sorry Hotel Pelayo, I'm not going back.
The elevation profile for the day showed a huge 400m dip, lasting 15km. This turned out to be a massive valley, looking like some sort of national park. From the top it looked like the whole area was unspoiled wilderness - and this morning Google Maps had showed no places for resupply or lunch for most of the day, so I'd stocked up appropriately.
Getting down was slower than expected, because I kept stopping to take photos.
From left to right: a particularly long stretch of the straight roads on the plateau. The view from the top of the valley. Nothing but unspoiled wilderness in every direction. Well … except for the things on the river. Which is now basically a swimming spot.
I scooted through what looked like an abandoned mining town and then saw the river at the bottom - with a lot of shiny cars and people swimming. And a walking group. So it wasn't quite as remote and isolated after all...
A bit further along there was even a bar/restaurant! Feeling that I'd really misjudged the situation and overprepared I locked up the bike and got a seat: but they didn't actually serve food so I headed off feeling slightly vindicated.
The route out was a gravel road, so steep I needed to get off and push for most of it. It went 400m up, so it was a long climb. At the top the surroundings switched from tough dry scrubby trees to lush farmland. I changed up to top gear - and the chain fell off the front gear! Unfortunately it was a sign of a deeper problem: looks like the front derailleur had shifted, probably from misuse, and couldn't shift the chain back on the smaller cog. I was tempted to bust out the tools and mess with it, but had the thought that the elevation profile didn’t have any more climbs, so the top gear may be all I need. (Also, messing with L+H limit screws and tensioned cables without gloves or pliers or relevant experience has the potential to go excitingly wrong.)
From left to right: the path out. The vista from the top. Shortly afterwards, farmland.
Well, the elevation profile made it look like it was all flat or downhill but it wasn’t, there was still a lot of hills. Nothing too steep for the top gear, but I had to work.
From left to right: vintage cars going the other way.
The route had some spectacular views today.
From left to right: the view from the bench where I stopped for lunch. Me on the bench. Distant mountains from the plateau. Valencia is visible in the distance, there was 60km to go at this point.
After the long downhill to the plains, the route started getting creative. Komoot tries to avoid busy roads; this can lead to some weird choices (Arjona) and into some pretty strange corners … like today! It approached Torrent/Valencia through farms, on very minor roads - with almost no traffic. It passed through some places that tourists won’t be taken to see. But it was very quiet and safe, so today, it was good.
From left to right: The quiet and safe way to Valencia. Valencia has red cycle paths!
I got to the hotel with no more drama - even the derailleur didn’t end up causing more problems. Tomorrow morning the repair shops open at 10am, there’s a good one nearby: hopefully they can get it fixed. I have a short 6 hour ride planned so even if it takes all morning I’ll be able to get there.
Valencia is great! It’s got the Palau de les Arts, which is one of the best looking buildings in the world - I’m going to pass by on the way out tomorrow.
What I’m listening to: Hope, from “Tales from the Loop” by Phillip Glass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tl0tq97jjo
Just check out the whole playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k5HqW8tCAh-93OuHad2xS6bogpAootXz0
“Tales from the Loop” is one of those shows that probably only exists because Amazon desperately needed content for its streaming service, was willing to bet big, and maybe didn’t make decisions with the ruthless discipline they’re normally known for. And so they spent presumably upwards of 100million to make an eight-part sci-fi series based entirely on an art book by a Swedish painter, Simon Stålenhag. It has pictures of families living their lives, alongside mystical machines, with none of the threat or conflict you’d expect. Images from it are on his homepage, here: https://www.simonstalenhag.se/tftl.html.
The show is very low key, really good, and well worth a watch! But I suspect it wasn’t profitable and we won’t see a second season, unfortunately…
