I stayed up late but the only tickets available at 00:01 this morning for the Alhambra were for after midday so I will leave visiting the inside for another trip.
I really didn’t enjoy the Marquis Urban hotel with it’s ill-designed AC control system that decided at 4 am to start up full blast 🙁 also the breakfast at €9 was a shockingly bad value so I ended up being pleased that I couldn’t stay the second night.
My route out of the city was on cobbled streets & main roads so neither much fun I quickly found another cafe/bar and had myself a decent breakfast for €4.
It took all of 10 miles to leave the city & suburbs. After 15 miles of steady riding, I started to hit the hills, not as bad as yesterday but a steady 1000 ft of climbing After 21 miles the routing software decided I needed to do a shortcut around Puerto Lope (yes I know) it did this by dropping down a 25% gradient on a stony track through olive orchards 🙁 After 32 miles I noticed the little wooden signs pointing down a track. However, several things came into play here (1) I was obsessed with the idea that the accommodation was on the main road (If I read their notes carefully it clearly says it isn’t)
(2) On the booking.com email, it says the name is Lasnavillasmm whereas, in fact, the name is Las Navillas MM as written on the wooden signpost.
(3) The Google maps so quickly recalculates a new route I didn’t notice 🙁
Anyway, I kept biking on the main road until the service station where I managed to find some food, Google then had me do a hairpin left turn past the stone masons and down the roughest steepest track ever 🙁 🙁 my poor wheels… Eventually, after almost 2km I arrived at the tarmac road I should have taken on (2) above. Then it was up a steep concrete road and voila I found MM’s B&B in the Las Navillas valley 🙂
I was met with Mady who gave a very warm welcome complete with Belgian Beer as that is where she and her partner Marc hail from so, once Marc returned from his bike ride, we managed a lovely social evening chatting about long walks and bike adventures. Fortunately, I had pre-booked an evening meal with them as I really couldn’t face riding into MonteFrio in the evening.
I had the best nights sleep on the trip so far so I think the dreaded lurgy has finally been beaten.
Here is my Strava complete with the mistake at the end, do not use!:
Flickr
