for much of the afternoon. There is a noticeable quietening down between 2 and 5pm, so find a shady spot and have a kip.
Spain is one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in winter and two hours ahead in summer. The transition from day to night is surprisingly quick. Even with good-quality lights night-time cycling is not fun, and as the sun sets the warmth also disappears. Try to finish cycling before sunset or at worst within 30min of it. Appendix 2 gives sunrise and sunset times across Spain. Please note that the times are based on a flat horizon and so may vary locally depending on whether you are in a valley or on top of a hill.
Holidays and Public Holidays
The Spanish take their summer holidays in July and particularly August. It’s a good time to visit Spanish cities, which are quieter than usual, with many businesses shutting up shop, although temperatures will be at their highest. Conversely the countryside becomes busier. Booking accommodation in advance during this period is highly recommended.
There are 10 National Holidays in Spain (see below). Public holidays falling on a weekend are not moved. When they fall midweek extra days are often taken to bridge the gap; such holidays are known as puentes. Public Holidays and particularly puentes see an exodus to the country. Accommodation fills up, making booking in advance advisable.
In addition every Provincial Government and most cities have their own holidays, and these are detailed in each cycle tour.
Public holidays in Spain
| 1 January | New Year’s Day |
| 6 January | Epiphany or Reyes Magos |
| variable date | Good Friday |
| 1 May | May Day |
| 15 August | Assumption of the Virgin |
| 12 October | National Day |
| 1 November | All Saints |
| 6 December | Día de la Constitución |
| 8 December | Immaculate Conception |
| 25 December | Christmas Day |
A Short History
One of the great joys of touring in Spain is discovering and enjoying the architecture, art and cuisine that have resulted from a number of influences that have flowed across the Iberian Peninsula during its turbulent history. The earliest Iberian people were Palaeolithic cave-dwelling invaders from France to the north who left behind them the cave paintings found in the western Pyrenees and around the Bay of Biscay. It is believed that these hunter-gatherers stayed largely in the north of the peninsula.
In the south, Neolithic people from north Africa settled in Alméria between 4000 and 3000BC. They were farmers, living in villages, and by 1000BC these Iberians had spread out to become the dominant inhabitants of the peninsula to which they gave their name. Celts and Germanic peoples from France joined the Iberians to form the Celtiberians in north, west and central Spain.
Alhama de Granada, the old town built high on top of a cliff (Route 3)
The Phoenicians arrived by sea around 1100BC and founded Cádiz and Málaga. These coastal-dwelling people traded widely, particularly in metals, and were joined by Greeks who also established coastal trading colonies.
Around 250BC the Carthaginians came from Sicily to conquer parts of Spain, and founded Barcelona and Cartagena. This heralded the arrival of the Romans, who by 206BC had driven the Carthaginians out. Spain was very important economically and culturally to the Romans, who colonised the country over the next two centuries.
Three centuries later, as the Roman Empire crumbled from within, the barbarian tribes swept in from the north. They were followed by the Visigoths, allies of Rome, and by AD573 they had taken over.
However, in AD711 an army of Berbers invaded from north Africa, and by 718 the Moors had overrun Spain except for parts of the north-west. ‘Moor’ is a term applied to any Berber or Arab settler, while ‘Mozarabs’ were Jews and Christians who kept their faith under the Moors. Initially ruled from Baghdad, the Moors soon established Córdoba as their centre, but this unified rule only lasted until 1031 when the country split into a number of independent kingdoms.
Oseja de Sajambre (Route 8)
Just as the Moors were at their territorial greatest the Catholic Reconquest started from the north-west. It moved south in fits and starts, no doubt aided by antagonism between the independent Moorish states. Brief periods of unity under the Almoravids and then the Almohads stalled the Reconquest. It was completed when Los Reyes Católicos, Fernando and Isabella, captured Granada in 1492. In the same year Isabella sent Christopher Columbus to search for a westward route to the Indies, only to come across the Americas. It was Los Reyes Católicos who started the Inquisition and ordered the expulsion of nearly all the Spanish Jews.
In 1516 the Hapsburgs came to the throne through the marriage of Carlos V. When elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire he also acquired Flanders, Holland and the Americas. Felipe II centralised the Spanish Empire from the newly built palace of El Escorial near Madrid. It was his support of Mary Queen of Scots that led to the Armada in 1588. The War of Spanish Succession was caused when the Bourbon Felipe V came to the throne in 1700 in competition with Charles of Austria who was supported by the British. Spain lost its European territories and the British took possession of Gibraltar in 1714. Nearly a century later, under the influence of France, the Spanish Fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. This defeat created a power vacuum and Napoleon installed his brother Joseph as king; his reign ended shortly afterwards with the Peninsular War.
The remainder of the 19th and early 20th centuries saw a mixture of monarchy, dictatorship and republican governance. The Second Republic was declared in 1931 and in 1936 the Popular Front won power. Strikes and peasant uprisings led to turmoil, and in July of that year Franco and his garrison in Morocco rebelled. The bloody and bitter Civil War that subsequently took place lasted until 1939.
Franco’s fascist Falangist government ruled until his death in 1975 when he was succeeded by King Juan Carlos. Reforms were hesitant, but democracy was restored in the elections of June 1977, and cemented when Juan Carlos refused to support the attempted coup lead by Colonel Antonio Tejero in 1981. EU membership came in 1986 and adoption of the Euro in 1999.
Getting There
Getting to Spain with a bike is surprisingly simple. There are many long-established scheduled and charter airlines flying to Spain from all over the world. Since the mid-1990s various no-frills budget airlines have emerged in Europe, led by the likes of EasyJet and Ryanair, later joined by bmibaby and Jet2. These carriers concentrate on short-haul routes and continue to expand throughout Europe and beyond. As well as bringing more competition to the market they are more flexible than charter airlines and offer one-way tickets at no extra cost, making airport-to-airport routes feasible. From the USA the options are more limited, and for many scheduled airlines will often be the only way.
Noviales (Route 6)
Air
