eBiking into Bilbao from Ampuero on the 22nd and last day of cycle touring north Spain скачать в хорошем качестве

eBiking into Bilbao from Ampuero on the 22nd and last day of cycle touring north Spain

Spain day 22 - If you’ve been in the Basque Country you’ll know there really are not any flat bits so even this final 52km cycle to Bilbao port involved plenty of hills. It’s also a challenge as Bilbao being a big city is surrounded by a maze of motorways so entry points for cycling were limited and my intended route had a few green segments indicating off road pieces. What would these be like? First step was the biggest ascent of the day up from Ampuero. Fortunately very little traffic on this road which took me to the first of those green sections around El Puente. These were rough including a washed out bridge but fortunately there hadn’t been much rain that week so the stream bed was narrow. From here it was down to the coast across from Mazueco. This section is along the N634 but not much traffic on this road, presumably displaced to the newer motorway. The route switches to the service road alongside the A-8 motorway and sections of this are very rough indeed an alternative may be to stay in the N634, no one else was cycling the service road but I’d seen a good few cyclists on the N634. There then a long urban section at Castro-Urdiales mostly in cycle ways. A brief section of greenway with a long tunnel takes you around the mass of El Cueto, again staying on the N634 is an alternate although I suspect that is now quite busy. You rejoin it on Miono for another climb and then a load of complex motorway junctions at the top of the hill where you don’t want to make the wrong turn! At Montanero there used to be a greenway that appears to be an old coastal railway route. That was going fine until the way was blocked by a cement truck & from my no common language chat with a construction worker it wasn’t practical to push through so I’d to backtrack and loop the other side of the hills. That got me to the nail biter, a greenway crossing an estuary that if not passable meant a huge backtrack to busy road bridges. Thankfully this was passable (it’s a bridge and beach boardwalk) and led to the final hill which again had a steep drop on a bramble lined lane to the port and the ferry back to Ireland Route at https://cycle.travel/map/journey/575263 Ampuero - 54km to the port La Magdelena - 13km along route El Puente Nocine - 17km Across river from Mazueco Islares - 21km Castro-Urdiales - 27km (Under) El Cueto - 31km Miono Onton - 37km Montanero Kobaron - 41km Arena (Basque Country) - 44km Zierbena - 54km Ferryport