Day 160
Castle to Castle via Castle
At home in Scarborough the forecast is for snow and 67 mile per hour winds. Well, Tom and I both felt at home during today's ride! Snow was laying all around and the headwind, though not quite as bad as at home, was still very fierce and right in our faces. Cold and battered, it was to be a hard day’s ride.
As we left our Albergue sat beneath the castle in Siguenza, the cold was already nibbling at our fingers and toes. Fortunately the route soon took us up a very steep hill rather than the slightly longer less steep option. Thanks Komoot!
As there was little snow falling to blur my view, I could really appreciate how stunning an area we were riding through. Very few villages at all, just mile after straight mile of constant up and down. There was one long hill which afforded us stunning views of the landscape we had ridden through. We were given a brief respite from the wind when we descended through a valley, surrounded by high cliffs. Towards the end of the ride, we passed through the village of Caltojar. Back in 1981 to celebrate the centenary of Picasso’s birth they decided to paint the buildings with reproductions of his paintings. On a warmer day I would loved to have lingered, today we just cycled very slowly by. It was quite simply fantastic and totally unexpected. Picasso was born in Malaga so no direct ties to this area, or so it was believed. However some years later it was discovered that his grandmother and ancestors were from this region, Soria, so quite a wonderful coincidence.
Finally, we saw the magnificent castle that dominates the village of Berlanga de Duero, our destination for the next few nights. Just the small matter of two miles of straight road to get there. It was slightly downhill but we struggled to ride more than four or five per hour, the wind was so fierce. Our relief to finish was clearly very evident to Monica, the fabulously friendly owner of our hotel. We were too exhausted to do anything but collapse in our room and sleep. We have a few days booked here to wait out the snow and wind, hopefully tomorrow we will have the energy to explore this ancient town, for now zzzzzzzzz.
