Every day I am surprised that this route isn’t absolutely swarming with cyclists. The roads are nearly empty, the scenery is excellent, and the little towns offer enough food and enough beds for cyclists and hikers alike. It’s not all magical paradise, but so far it has been good to us.

Day 4: Zafra to Los Santos de Maimona: Zafra was too busy for us to find a Saturday room, so we rode a quick 4 miles up the road to a small suburb where there was a very nice and very empty pilgrims hostel. It also happened to be a holiday, so the tourism office was closed. We had to ‘check in’ to the hostel at the local police station! We enjoyed the kitchen, bunk rooms, and patio without anyone else.

Day 5: Los Santos de Maimona to Mérida: Back on the road, we had 56 km to ride to the ancient city of Mérida. This was a FAST downhill (mostly) stretch of road into the open space of the Extremadura. We saw at least 100 cyclists on the road out for day rides! Remarkably, we were entering town by the time we needed lunch so we stopped for a picnic in the park overlooking the longest Roman bridge in the world. It was an impressive sight.

I made the kids walk across the bridge. After we dropped our stuff at our hostel and had a little rest it was time for more tourism! It was such a great day. Nothing was open after 3 pm (not even grocery stores!) since it was Sunday. We managed to find a tiny little convenience store packed with random items including chips and charging adaptors. We more or less had chips for dinner as we walked to see all the Roman ruins in the area. They did not disappoint! Even our tired kids appreciated the scale and grandeur of the Roman amphitheater.

Day 6: Mérida to Aldea del Cano: Before leaving Mérida we finally decided that the camp stove and cook kit we packed were not going to be used. The hostels we stay in mostly have kitchens and we couldn’t find any fuel so the whole thing was just extra weight. We wrapped it up with some down vests, a tarp, and a couple other unused items and mailed everything forward to Santiago. It is such a lucky thing that this service exists. For $30 we could send 13 pounds in a luggage bag and have it stored for up to 30 days until our arrival.

As we left Mérida we stopped to see perhaps the most remarkable ruin – the aqueduct. It was bigger and grander than I expected. Good thing too, since the rest of the day was definitely harder than we expected.

After leaving Mérida we rode past a small reservoir and along some absolutely beautiful wild land on a tiny road. Then there was some climbing (sloooow) into a little ridge where we stopped in a mountain town for lunch. The kids were so utterly charmed by the town’s small playground that H cried when we had to leave it behind, vowing to return.

It was a straight, slightly uphill ride into a headwind for the afternoon. The small town that we arrived in had an almost brand new pilgrim’s hostel managed by the town bar/restaurant. Good thing too, since that seemed to be the only thing open in town. We had fun doing a wander, and then around 6:30 we went searching for an open store for food. The grocery store near us looked abandoned, and apparently the other grocery store was closed for a week. I finally found a convenience store for dinner supplies and we had a surprisingly good dinner of rice and lentils.

Day 7: Aldea del Cano to Cañaveral. Let’s skip to the good part–Churros! We had some uneventful riding from the village where we slept into the historical and beautiful city of Cáceres. We opted to just ride through, but stopped to eat churros with chocolate at a shop recommended by our guide book. YUM. We ate so many that we were fueled for miles and miles.

The riding was dry and hot as we crossed through fields with not much but scrub brush and cows. Eventually we were riding along a huge reservoir. Sadly there was no place to enjoy the water; it really seemed to just be a location to store water and not recreate. From our quiet little road we enjoyed seeing the huge modern railroad bridges.

Our destination was a small mountain town with a pilgrim’s hostel and many small alleyways to explore. A and I spent well over an hour walking the alleys and enjoying the town. The hostel was quite busy and we shared our room with a hiker. It was not as nice as having a room to ourselves, but we all managed.

A final few thoughts to leave you with. Bicycle touring with kids is not something we can explain easily. We wake up and then have 5 to 6 uninterrupted hours of screen-free family time. We chat. We sing. We do math and spelling. We comment on the scenery. For some unknown reason, H tries to kiss my backside when I stand up going downhill. It’s pretty darn nice, overall (not the backside kissing part). Then in the early afternoon we all collapse on the bunks and read or play games until the evening. A reads nonstop when we aren’t moving. She likes fantasy books. H demands we play cards with her for hours. None of this is anything like a ‘normal’ vacation, but it’s normal for us. This is our third trip as a family and we are finally strong enough together to make decent miles.