Loja to Granada

The rain cleared this morning and it promised to be a nice day for the run into Granada and a couple of rest days.

To start with, I made the very steep descent into the CBD. I always hate losing so much height without a fun descent but breakfast and coffee awaited so I didn’t mind too much.

I stopped at a narrow bustling cafe for the usual tostada and cortado and sat outside on the almost dry chairs. Loja seems like a well to do town and the steep hills give it an alpine feel.

It was beautiful as I left the mountains behind and I was really looking forward to Granada.

Leaving Loja was easy and I was soon on the old road beside the freeway – where I’d be for most of the day. I was sometimes well below the freeway and sometimes well above it which meant that there was a fair bit of hard work involved at times.

The day wasn’t wonderfully exciting. The villages I went through were very quiet, and I was still tired from yesterday’s effort. What I didn’t enjoy was the local drivers. Up until entering Portugal, I was really impressed with Spain’s drivers. Since then, it’s been terrible. Today just closed the book on my opinion of them.

One lady passed me just a few centimetres away. It was really unnerving – and it was on a small quiet road with almost no traffic. She got a big ‘hello’ from me and nearly stopped. I saw her just up the road, parked outside the local school, probably waiting for her children. She hid her face as I slowed down and glared at her on the way past. She needed to know that what she did was dangerous. I hope she doesn’t do it again.l and I hope her kids don’t ride bikes when she’s on the road.

The run into Granada was made easy by some cyclepaths but there was some traffic to contend with in the city. I wasn’t in the mood for local drivers by this stage.

I found the hotel pretty easily, unpacked and cleaned up and looked around this wonderful city.

I’m here for three nights then I’ll take a bus to Valencia for another three, then a bus to Barcelona. It’s time to leave the Iberian Peninsula. It’s been a lot of fun and full of great memories, but Spain is so large that buses are necessary. The trains really don’t help. They’re very centralised and there’s few trains that will allow bikes.

My plan is to ride from there to Toulon (via St. Mitre les Remparts). Then it’ll be a ferry to Corsica – the plan is changing due to the current conflict in the areas I’d like to visit later this year.

Some pictures from Granada – including the stunning Alhambra: