It's hard to believe today was our last day of riding and tomorrow we'll be saying goodbye to our guides, Jorge, Raoul and Nuno, to Lee and Mary as they head to Barcelona and to Justin and Loren as they make their way to Madrid for a day of rock climbing before heading home to Minneapolis. Becky, Jerry, Rich and I are renting a car in the morning and heading to Seville for a few days and then points further west and north.
Today's ride was through more olive orchards, uphill and down. It wasn't as hard a ride as yesterday's, nor as long, but it was still quite challenging! Total mileage was 32 miles with temperatures in the 90's. Luckily, we were able to start our ride at 8:30 from our hotel, so it started out fairly cool. We had another downhill through town, but once we got out of town, the road started climbing and continued fairly steeply for @ 2 miles. Tough climb first thing in the morning before the muscles were warmed up! From there, it was continuous climbs followed by descents. After a particularly long and steep climb, we were rewarded with views of Moclin, a pretty mountain top village.
View of the village of Moclin
We finished our ride around lunchtime at the Cubillos Reservoir, which reminded many of us of Lake Tahoe, complete with pine trees. From there, we shuttled the last 10 miles to Granada (busy city - wouldn't have wanted to ride in that traffic).
Jerry, Nuno and Rich at the end of the day's ride.
After getting cleaned up, we walked to the Alhambra and toured the palace and gardens. Our farewell dinner was on the terrace of a lovely hilltop restaurant (yes, more climbing!) from where we had a glorious view of the Alhambra at night. What a lovely way to end what has been a wonderful bike tour.
In the gardens of the Alhambra
Raoul, Nuno and Jorge
The Alhambra at night - What a gorgeous sight!
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