donheff
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
My wife and I just returned from a VBT bike tour in the Andalusia region of Spain. VBT offers tours for people who want fully supported light, scenic riding with excellent food and lodging, not hard core bikers. They are pricey but not as expensive as those offered by Backroads or Butterfield and Robinson.
We started with a pre-trip visit to Seville. Biking began about 60 miles south east of Seville where we stayed two nights in an old monastery in the town of Palma del Rios. We then moved to Cordoba for two nights with a day off for exploration. Cordoba is ancient and beautiful. In addition to visiting the town and eating at some great restaurants we spent a relaxing few hours in an Arab bath (Hammas) complete with a massage - ahhhh. Outside of Cordoba we biked to a Botega (winery) where we drank a good deal of excellent sherry. Then we moved to a nice hotel in a small town called Cabras. From Cabras we rode on a rail trail called the Subbetica Greenway which runs on an old olive old train route through the mountains. Several of us took a hilly side trip to a beautiful town in the mountains above the greenway. The tour ended in Granada where we saw the wonderful Alhambra. A few of us went to Barcelona for a couple of days after the tour. Barcelona is the Paris of Spain - very cosmopolitan, excellent food.
Here are a few shots along the way. If you want to see a lot more photos of the rides and of the cities we visited go to my family web site and click on the VBT Spain album.
A courtyard at our hotel in Seville
DW's behind (right) on the road
Inside the mosque in Cordoba
DW riding to a small town above the rail trail.
A courtyard in the Alhambra
The Salgrada Famiglia, Gaudi's famous hallucinatory cathedral in Barcelona
We started with a pre-trip visit to Seville. Biking began about 60 miles south east of Seville where we stayed two nights in an old monastery in the town of Palma del Rios. We then moved to Cordoba for two nights with a day off for exploration. Cordoba is ancient and beautiful. In addition to visiting the town and eating at some great restaurants we spent a relaxing few hours in an Arab bath (Hammas) complete with a massage - ahhhh. Outside of Cordoba we biked to a Botega (winery) where we drank a good deal of excellent sherry. Then we moved to a nice hotel in a small town called Cabras. From Cabras we rode on a rail trail called the Subbetica Greenway which runs on an old olive old train route through the mountains. Several of us took a hilly side trip to a beautiful town in the mountains above the greenway. The tour ended in Granada where we saw the wonderful Alhambra. A few of us went to Barcelona for a couple of days after the tour. Barcelona is the Paris of Spain - very cosmopolitan, excellent food.
Here are a few shots along the way. If you want to see a lot more photos of the rides and of the cities we visited go to my family web site and click on the VBT Spain album.
A courtyard at our hotel in Seville
DW's behind (right) on the road
Inside the mosque in Cordoba
DW riding to a small town above the rail trail.
A courtyard in the Alhambra
The Salgrada Famiglia, Gaudi's famous hallucinatory cathedral in Barcelona