Madrid to El Escorial and Avila

on the way to Escorial was "Arriba" - to go up.

We didn't pay much attention to Jose Luis's warning that we'd never make the 46 kms to El Escorial. We spent a lot of time in a small park fixing and cleaning the bikes in the morning. I put a new chain and a new rear tire on Joan's bike. Then we rode to a bike store for some more spare parts and I replaced a broken spoke on Joan's bike on the sidewalk in front of the store. (Joan's bike has been breaking a spoke a week and I don't know why.) So we did not get an early start. We never do when we leave any place we've stayed for more than two nights.

On our way out of the city, we got on a sidewalk behind two mountain bikers wearing wrap-around sunglasses and impressive neon colored lycra clothes that in my memory, nicely matched their bikes. We passed them when they got held up at a curb. They both had a lot of trouble getting out of their clipless pedals, carrying their bikes over the 6-inch high curb, then getting back into the clips. It looked like they had just bought the bikes 10 minutes earlier. We stopped and bumped our heavily loaded bikes over the curb far easier and faster than they did.

We've seen a lot of fashion cyclists like these. Road bikers have passed us on fancy skinny-tire racing bikes so out of tune that the chains made a clatter like a Spanish person saying "rrrrrrr".

Just a couple kilometers across the river from Madrid, we stopped in a pleasant park. The sun was shining and lots of Madrilenos promenaded around the lake, pushing strollers, carrying kids on their shoulders, holding hands with their lovers. A lake side cafe had tables set up among some trees. We sat in the broken shade and ate some sandwiches and drank a couple of cervezas. A perfect day for a picnic in the park and a real relief for us to have great weather. The only drawback is it added yet another hour to our late departure. We ended up leaving the outskirts of Madrid around 2 p.m.

We had pretty good luck finding our way out of the city. We only rode illegally on a freeway for about five kilometers. We got on it by accident while trying to follow some confusing road signs.

The land, mostly plowed soil, rolled in and out of creek valleys the first 30km. We passed several new suburban communities but they weren't quite like suburban neighborhoods in America. Instead of separate houses for each family, there were lots of apartment buildings, four-plexes and duplexes. Few people in Spain live in their own house, although we did pass one gated community of large, single-family homes.

The last 20km the land suddenly became far too rocky to farm. We passed rock strewn pastures with stubby shrub-like trees instead of plowed fields. About ten kilometers away, we could see the enormous palace/monastery of El Escorial.

Jose Luis's prediction that it would be uphill all the way proved incorrect. We climbed and descended in equal proportions most of the day. A few kilometers out, we stopped to ask directions to the hotel we wanted to stay at. (We thought we were much closer.) The man we asked was incredibly friendly. He didn't know where the hotel was but he went from store to store asking shopkeepers until someone could tell him, then he told us: "Arriba, Arriba" (up and up) until we reached the palace. He was right. The last few kilometers were all uphill.

We had gotten lost because of some confusion about the name and function of the place. El Escorial is the name of the palace/monastery, but it is in the town of San Lorenzo. We kept looking for the town of El Escorial.

El Escorial the palace is now part art museum, part monastery, part tomb for Spanish royalty. It was built in the 1500's to be a summer home for the Spanish royalty. It's a huge square fortress about 1,100 meters above sea level. In the summer it is cooler than Madrid, which is about 650 meters, or 2,000 feet above sea level.

It's a beautiful place with lots of tourists. We had to dodge tour buses in the streets. In the morning we took the English language guided tour of the interior. We saw the tiny, uncomfortable bed that one of the kings died in. His room had a window that overlooked the altar of the cathedral so the king could attend mass even from his sickbed. The queen also had a such a room on the opposite side of the church.

The most impressive part was the sepulchra (tomb) of the Spanish kings and queens. In a hexagon room under the cathedral we saw ornate marble caskets stacked in the walls like drawers in a jewelry box.

Our tour guide was having some problems thinking of an English word. After some discussion, we figured out she meant "rot." Apparently, before they put the body in the jewelry box room, they let it rot for about 15 years in an antechamber so it won't stink up the place.

There are still a few spaces left for the current royalty when they die.

The palace has several huge rooms full of paintings. Some of the paintings were really great, but I have to admit I was getting a little tired of the "Virgin with the Child" theme.

We had lunch before leaving for Avila so it was another very late start. However, Spain is on the same time zone as most of western Europe even though it is further west. Therefore it is light later in Spain than just about anywhere else in Europe. Even in March it is light until 7:30 p.m. We made good use of this.

We had completely underestimated the difficulty of the ride to Avila. First thing out of El Escorial we climbed a mountain on switchbacks. We expected it to be all downhill after that. Instead, after a screaming descent, we climbed another mountain. Then we did it again! It was a much harder, but also much prettier day, than the "impossible climb" from Madrid to El Escorial.

At the bottom of one of the screaming descents we crossed a very high bridge that people were bungee jumping from. They had a clever crane system that took the drudgery out of pulling the jumpers back up to the bridge. It was kind of exciting watching people dive into the chasm but I didn't have the least hankering to do it myself.

At the tops of the climbs we got some impressive views of canyons and far off snow covered mountains. The climbs really weren't as bad as some of the wind swept flat parts. All day a powerful wind blew out of the north. We were going west so it was only a problem on certain stretches.

We managed to arrive in Avila about an hour before dark.

Next: Avila's obras

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