There is something both familiar and comforting about getting up to start cycling.  Although we have not done this for 3 years or so, it was like pulling on a well-known, comfortable piece of clothing.  We pottered around the apartment getting ready, each knowing what to do.  All packed up and ready, we were on the road about 8.30am – and turned the right way down the one way street, but this was wrong for Komoot. 

For those who do not know Komoot, it is the cycle-tourist’s primary friend.  It is an App which has the whole world mapped (or at least all the bits we have been to) and sets routes on minor roads between 2 fixed points.  When it came out the developers clearly needed to raise some cash so they offered lifetime memberships for (I think) £29.  I think that was the only way to get the app at that point.  So we signed up – and its the best £29 I have ever spent.  Now they sell access to the site for £4.99 per month or £59 annually; which means that it costs more per year than it cost us for lifetime membership.  I keep being invited to “upgrade” my membership, but that is an offer I am fully able to resist as I can do everything I need with my initial membership package.  They must hate people like us – but a deal is a deal!  Anyway I had used Komoot to set the route from Seville to the village of Almaden de la Plata, and that took us along the river, Guadaquivir, on cycleways out of Seville. 

Seville, which was founded as the Roman city Hispalis, is 50 miles inland but it developed as a massive river port and in the C16th was the gateway for much of the trade coming from the New World.  As a result it became one of the largest cities in Europe.  But the river suffered during a drought and so trade moved away from the city, as the ships could not get all the way up into the city.  It has reinvented itself as a city of 700k people with universities and as a huge cultural centre, including being a location for filming Game of Thrones (for those whole follow the series which is not us).

Our first stretch out of the city was on the bike path we came in on. This time we could appreciate the beautiful purple blossom of the jacaranda trees that lined the route. These are dotted all round the city and are a feature of a May visit. Out of the city the landscape was featureless but the first 25 km was flat and we whizzed along despite a mild headwind.  Our first stop was for coffee and the best meal of the day, second breakfast, in Burguillos.  Wonderful coffee and bread with olive oil for 2 – all for less than the cost of a single large coffee from Starbucks.  It was 10am now and we could see threatening clouds above us, but had stayed dry. 

Then the climbing began into the national park of the Sierra Norte and we felt we were getting well out into rural Spain.  The soil is very sandy here and looks pretty poor, and I expected to see bulls in the fields – reared for bull fighting.  But the only cows we saw were pretty benign. There were some wild flowers and flowering shrubs– mimosa, blue palo  verde, purple thistle and other unidentified. A shortlived May feature before they frazzle in the baking heat of summer.

We were gradually climbing although the surface was good and none of the slopes were too steep.  The landscape was empty of buildings apart from the occasional grand gates to farms. Lots of olive and orange trees. The forecast was for showers and there were black clouds around. A couple of times it started spitting but it died out as soon as we put our rain jackets on and most of the time we were cycling in the sun in pleasant temperatures.

One more climb to go over the ridge to Almadan de la Plata, where we checked in to the Hotel Rurale El Romeral. The owner was very helpful, immediately brought our bikes into the reception area and gave us the bedroom next the lobby. We were tired but pleased with how the day had gone. After a shower and a rest we strolled out into the pretty town. Cobbled streets, white buildings, ornate metal balconies, little squares. Quintessentially Spanish. There was a bold red clock tower and on the short steeple of the church 2 storks were nesting -one with two young chicks.

Back at the hotel we realised how tired we were. But we had arrived in the early afternoon so plenty of time to recover. We have to do the same again tomorrow.  How will that go?