Cycle Touring in Spain
Cycle Touring in Spain
Price
£14.00
Cycling guidebooks
Guías Especializadas: Mountain Bike – published in English
and the other major European languages by the Junta de Andalucía, and
available from any of their Tourism Offices. The guide contains 120
graded itineraries spread throughout Andalucía. The routes are of
differing lengths and roughness and some have been incorporated into
the tours. Be aware that some of the maps and route descriptions lack
enough detail to ensure trouble-free cycling. Often the route lengths
are wrong and some route profiles do not reflect the topography.
However, they are still highly recommended.
Guía de Vías Verdes Volumen 1 & 2 – published in Spanish by the Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles, 2000 Santa Isabel, 44 28012 Madrid. Each contains 30 or so routes along disused railways and canals spread throughout Spain. The maps, route notes and supporting information is excellent. The nature of the dislocated routes means that they cannot be used to compile an extended tour in their own right, but may be incorporated into rides to add variety and access parts of the country that are not serviced by roads. They are highly recommended.
General guidebooks
There are many guidebooks published on Spain, its regions and cities. Carrying even one would be onerous and a waste of effort, particularly as nearly all towns have tourist offices that provide the same town maps and information free of charge and fresh off the press (but do make sure you take a good dictionary and phrase book with you; these need not be heavy). The sites of interest often have free multilingual brochures detailing the history of the site and points of interest. For background reading and route planning try the Rough Guide to Spain or the more specific Rough Guide to Andalucía or The Pyrenees. These lively books have proved to be reliable. For more information on the wilder parts of Spain try:
Wild Spain, A Traveller’s Guide – Frederick V. Grunwald (Sheldrake Press)
The geography, fauna and flora of each wild area are described in detail.
In Spain’s Secret Wilderness – Mike Tomkies (Jonathan Cape)
Wildlife writer and photographer discovers the wildernesses of Spain, taking some excellent photographs on the way; you want to follow in his footsteps. Highly recommended.
Other reading
Visiting Spain and writing is a popular pastime, particularly so in the 1920s and 1930s. Much is worth searching out and can be interesting background reading.
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, A Moment of War and A Rose for Winter – Laurie Lee
This trilogy describes Lee’s three related visits to Spain. In the best one, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, he lands in Vigo and walks south, busking to pay his way, ending up on the Costa del Sol when the Civil War breaks out. He reveals much about the country and the undercurrents of war that would first hit Spain and then the rest of Europe. Rescued by the Royal Navy he returns to fight on the Republican side in A Moment of War and, mistaken as a fascist spy, is arrested. In A Rose for Winter he returns to Franco’s Spain with his wife and tours Andalucía in the 1950s. All the books are highly readable and capture the spirit of the time, but are best considered to be based on, rather than an account of, his visits.
Homage to Catalonia – George Orwell
Orwell fought on the Republican side in the trenches of Huesca, then witnessed the infighting shenanigans in Barcelona before being badly wounded. Worth reading for the description of trench fighting and an explanation of the destructive power struggles within the Republican side.
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
Fiction based in the mountains of southern Spain during the Civil War. Execution of the fascists is supposedly located on the cliffs of Ronda.
South from Grenada – Gerald Brenan
After the Great War Brenan moved to Yegen in the Alpujarras. An excellent description of the country and customs of the time. Of particular interest is the description of the flat-roofed houses, the same as those of the Berbers of the Atlas Mountains.
Driving Over Lemons – Chris Stewart
Drummer and sheep shearer Stewart buys a valley farm in the Alpujarras, settles in with his family and raises sheep. An up-to-date account of living in the area.
Snowball Oranges– by Peter Kerr
Scottish family buys a farm in Mallorca and grows oranges with far-from-hilarious consequences. The vegetarian version of Driving Over Lemons.
Voices of the Old Sea – Norman Lewis
After World War II Lewis settled in a fishing village on the Costa Brava, and here describes the village and its inhabitants. Slowly tourism develops and changes the village forever.
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Certainly a fictitious story that can be funny and touching at the same time. Does not give any insight into modern Spain. The locations of many of the stories that are still to be found include the famous windmills.
Our Lady of the Sewers – Paul Richardson
Richardson searches out the Spanish customs that are on the verge of extinction or are being revived, or are such fun that they will last forever. They include communal pig butchering, pilgrimages, sheep drives and plough lifting.
Spanish Sunshine – Eleanor Elsner
Another 1920s book, this time an account of an extensive motor tour of Spain. Good descriptive writing with an excellent account of a bullfight in Ronda.
Jogging Round Majorca – Gordon West
A 1920s tour of Mallorca by West and his wife; gentle descriptive writing. Much of what they saw is unchanged today, and many of the mountain paths described are popular with the hoards of over-wintering walkers.
Roads to Santiago – Cees Nooteboom
Nooteboom travels throughout Spain, describing its art and history, before eventually arriving in Santiago. The detours can be deep and challenging but give a deeper insight into Spain than found in most books.
A Spanish Tapestry – Michael Kenny
American anthropologist describes and compares life in a rural hill parish in Soria with that of a barrio in Madrid. Interesting introduction into the social and economic structures present in the 1960s.
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