Spain!

September 2009

Our grand adventure in España began, after a couple of days museum and tapas-bar hopping in Madrid, with the Vuelta a España bike tour offered by Bike Spain. The bike tour was followed by travel up to the provinces of Aragon and Navarra for some birding and to get a taste of the Pyrenees and El País Vasco. See this and subsequent pages (links below) for a photo tour! Larger versions of all photos available by clicking the thumbnail.

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Start of the Tour - from Madrid to Pedraza

Robert on day one	Group getting instructions on the day's route	Pablo (Bike Spain) showing us the proper way to pour cider	How to do a steep climb - get out of the van only 5 km from the summit :-)
Top of the Puerto de Navafria - welcome to Castilla y Leon	Liza outside Pedraza	Pedraza, on the hilltop	The one entrance into Pedraza
In front of our hotel - the Hospederia de Santo Domingo	View from our room	Pedraza street	Interesting door/gate
Robert at the Castillo de Pedraza	Look back towards the village center	View out...	At a quiet bar in Pedraza, next to the (temporary) bullring
Only one of those beers was mine - well, maybe two	Bullring and church tower	At the bar	Robert at a different bar before dinner
What's for dinner?	Yes! Brick-oven roasted lamb!	Yum!	And of course, nice wine, bread, and cheese
Next day - brief stop in San Pedro de Gaíllos, at the Iglesia de San Pedro	Liza and Robert at the church	Some info about the church...	Continuing on towards Sepúlveda - which is situated on the edge of the Duratón Canyon Nature Reserve (Castile's most important reserve for birds of prey)
Tour women! Shanna, Sally, Lara, Gina, Liza	In Sepúlveda	As noted - we were in the Plaza de España - go thataway to get back to Madrid	The original Spanish tile
Robert on the return to Pedraza (needs to point the other way!)	Back in the bullring	Bullring bleachers
	A well-deserved beer after a second 50+ mile day	Actually quite a few well-deserved beers...I think about 5 of us drank all of these

Click photos to enlarge...