We followed the advice from the outdoor store and took the Via Verde rail trail out of town.  What a fantastic experience we had on this trail all day long!  The trail follows an old rail line that was used until the mid 1990’s.  It’s conversion to a regional trail seems to be relatively recent.  We picked up the trail at its terminus in Plasencia.

Right away we started out impressed with a long tunnel that even had lights.  Out the other side we were immediately in the country instead of the densely packed outskirts of Plasencia.   A river raged below us and wildflowers burst from the ground on either side.  There were glowing poppies all along the trail.

In rapid succession we rode over two high bridges.  We were appropriately wowed and stopped to peer over the edge at the rapids far below.  We joked that this trail was going to take us twice as long as the road would since we were stopping so often for pictures.

H got cold from all the rock cut-out shadows along the trail and we stopped several times to add more layers.  As the day progressed it heated up and the shadows retreated. 

Eventually we emerged from the rock cut-outs into a wider plain with horses and cows and trees on either side.  At one point the trail brushed against a road and a service station so we could grab some soda and coffee.  We met a cyclist from Hungary there who had a heavily loaded bike and was sticking to the roads.

The trail climbed up gently towards the mountain towns.  Our pace slowed.  The girls delighted in sticking their feet to the side to have the plants brush against them. As we gained altitude we entered a treed area full of shade. 

Right before 2pm we entered the historical town of Hervas.  We wanted so desperately to get some ice cream, but the grocery stores here close at 2 for the siesta.  At exactly 1:59 Jason dashed into a supermarket only seconds before they started lowering the shades… and he emerged with ice cream cones!  We sat in delight and ate our cones as the local schools let out and packs of school children surged by on the pedestrian street.

The town was beautiful.  We walked and rode through the narrow streets back to the trail, which wound above the town and along the mountainside through lovely terraced farms.  Looking back on the village impressed us until we turned around the mountain and into the next valley.

Just as the trail leveled out it was time to descend to our destination: Baños de Montemayor.  There are some hot springs here that make the town a legitimate destination for tourists.  We are staying at a small hostel and we are the only ones here.  The small alleys and mountain-style houses are delightful to explore. 

We went out to eat for the very first time on this trip – H ate an entire pizza (not a personal pizza, more like a pizza for two). What a day!

A short entry without too much riding to make way for an entry entirely about a perfect day of riding (on day 10).

Day 8: Cañaveral to Plasencia (41 km) Well, the night in the shared room hostel was noisy and not too restful, but we all slept well enough to get on the bikes the next morning. The hikers are always up and gone before we even are all awake, so at least it’s quiet while we get out the door.

The day started with an uphill climb that eventually reached our very first summit sign! This was our first summit sign *ever* as a family and we were delighted.

After the summit sign was a mostly flat/downhill ride into a headwind towards Plasencia, a walled city widely considered to be the cultural capital of the northern Extremadura. The ride was broken up by a stop at a highway rest station for the busy interstate. WOW was this as an experience for us! It was a bar/restuarante serving sandwiches, plates of food, and drinks of all types. It was absolutely hopping with people and we were the only non-Spaniards. We had a big and yummy early lunch.

As we rolled into Plasencia we rode along the ancient walls of the city. We found our hotel just outside of the walls – Hotel Dora, a one-star hotel that just barely earned that one star. It had been difficult to find lodging in the city, so this was the best we could do. It was clean and safe, but the air conditioning didn’t even pretend to work and the first floor smelled so badly of secondhand smoke that we rushed through it every time.

On the plus side, we found an automated laundromat and did a load of clothes as soon as we arrived. Yay for clean clothes!

Day 9: Rest day in Plasencia (0 km)

A true zero miles day (on the bikes). We got pastries for breakfast, found a city park packed full of peacocks, walked on the city walls, and did shopping/chores. The girls spent more than a few hours playing games and reading.

H needed sunglasses, so we stopped at an outdoor store and the owner brought out a whole box of sports sunglasses for kids for her to try on. As she decided, we got to chatting and I told him about our trip. He was very excited to share with us that a new rail trail had recently been completed and it could serve as our route for the next day of riding. We bought the glasses and took his advice – the next update will be on our beautiful and perfect day on the rail trail.

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.

It is so good to be on tour again! We have completed three riding days and 100 miles starting in Sevilla, Spain. It was not simple to get started – we flew overnight and landed in Madrid at 8am. Miraculously all our bags arrived without incident but then we had to haul them across the city on two trains to a high speed train to Sevilla, to an Uber, then finally our hostel. We were exhausted and proceeded to all sleep 13 hours. It took three hours to assemble the bicycles and then we sent the bags forward to our destination. Here are some pictures from our test ride and our time in Sevilla.

Day 1: Sevilla to Castilblanco de los Arroyos (30 miles). Our first riding day was long with more climbing than we expected! After a bit of a messy time getting out of Sevilla, we experienced the joy of dirt paths in an open field across farming land. The wildflowers were higher than our heads! We missed a turn and ended up taking a bit of a longer route up a long climb into the mountains in the afternoon. There were several stretches that required frequent stops, but the girls were tough and we persevered. All the same, we were relieved to reach our hostel at the end of the day. The girls laid straight on their bunks to play games and read books while Jason and I wandered the town and chatted with the owners.

Day 2: Castilblanco to El Real de la Jara (25 miles): Despite our best efforts to get on the road earlier on day two it wasn’t until about 9:30 that we finally climbed on the bikes. It didn’t help that Jason found ants had moved into his muesli bag overnight! Brave guy ate it anyway…

Once we were riding, conditions were just about perfect – quiet road with rolling hills and lovely views. Sure, there was at least one hill I (Daisy) had to walk, but to my credit the gearing on my bike right now is inadequate. We will need a new gear set-up before South America.

We stopped for lunch in the lovely town of Almaden de la Plata, which had beautiful stone mosaics in the road and plazas. After town we turned onto a truly incredible little road with barely enough space for two cars to pass each other. It wove us up into the hills between towns and past little farms. Of course we weren’t mishap free – on that gorgeous little road Jason somehow had a bee fly into his mouth and bite his tongue! We were all very surprised when he started shouting and spitting.

We rolled into the little, but not that charming, town of El Real de la Jara and promptly went on the search for a place to sleep. It took a little bit, but we found an amazing municipal hostel that was practically brand new. We got a private room for four with our own bathroom! There were about four others in the main room, from various European countries. It was fun to chat with them, and they all seem surprised to see a family roll in on tandems.

Day 3: El Real de la Jara to Zafra (42 miles): Wow, our biggest day ever! We pushed hard with the promise of a rest day.

The first section of riding today was glorious. We were on a dirt track through farmland on a hillside. In the first kilometer we got to ford a small river and ride past a crumbling castle. The dirt track was mostly in good conditions and we liked passing the various walking pilgrims that we met in the hostels from the previous nights.

It was a slog of a climb up to the lunch stop town of Monesterio, then a glorious descent out of the mountains and into the wide open plains of the Extremadura. Suddenly we were accompanied by rows and rows of vineyards on either side of the road. We rolled into the medieval city of Zafra during the siesta when everyone was asleep. The plazas and pedestrian streets were empty. I had booked us a room in a hotel off the main square so we enjoyed watching the plaza come alive as the evening progressed.

Our days are starting to have a distinct rhythm: When we are on the road both girls are chatty and delightful. They learn new words every day in Spanish and make up sentences that are mostly incorrect but funny. We eat a picnic lunch and then ride some more. Both are very helpful on the climbs when asked, although only in short bursts. Jason and I truly do the lions share, but we signed up for this. When we reach the hostels both girls collapse on their bunks and read or play games until we rouse them for dinner. Then it’s writing time, maybe a walk, and reading before bed.