South of Spain, coastal - Barcelona to Seville - 2,400 km

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Courtesy of Tourenfahrer magazine 6/2021.

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/andalusien-und-meer-1064/detail/

636476be6245954cf29d5da9a12230df.png
 
I don't usually comment on these "re-tweets" of yours, Richard, but.....hmmm .....The AP7.... I guess everyone is different but I can't think of a worse biking hell or, indeed, a bigger bypass of so many far superior roads and routes than taking the AP7.

Lots of reasons for this but chief among them is that the AP7 from Tarragona down is now free. What this means is that you will be forever overtaking lorries. Coincidentally, the vicinity of the Tarragona area is characterised by gusty crosswinds of varying strengths; take this road from mid Oct through March and it can be dangerous at times. I can't even recommend the coastal road there because it's endless traffic lights (and as from May 11th of this year, now 20mph (30km/H)) on much of it.

Also, there is a road on there between Malaga and Torremolinos which is really dangerous; it's sinuos, winding, fast and, curiously, is built like a canal in places with a 1m wall on either side. It's strange to describe but it is, without a doubt, one of the most dangerous roads in Spain.

This may look like "penny-pinching" a couple of small areas on what is a pretty long route, but as I said, there are much better ways to reach the same area, if that is the goal; because i can't, for the life of me, imagine what anyone could find appealing about the A(P)7.

And you may well ask what I mean by "far superior" roads and routes. Emptier roads and villages and towns in which you can't have sangria with your fish and chips.
 
Thank you.

The routes suggested in a magazine are not meant to be a perfect way to get from A to B. The trouble is always that a route in isolation (it’s just a screen shot of one page from an article) sometimes does not make absolute sense out of context. That being said, I guess the success rate for all the articles is greater than 50-50 or the magazines would cease to publish.

The route is one of a series of four where a bod rode from his house in Germany to end up in Barcelona. This from the blurb:

After the months of standstill, Martin Leonhardt (Text & Photos) itched again to look for his freedom in the world. Over the Alps towards the Côte d'Azur, through Provence and to the south of France, the first stage of a journey along European borders led, which brought him closer to the beauty and the facet wealth of our continent.

From Portugal to Barcelona - the fourth and last part of his journey "Along Borders" takes Martin Leonhardt (text & photos) to the south of Spain. Natural paradises and urban life, plays of colors and white houses exude Andalusian flair. A finale on the coast.

To read

The first three parts of this report have been published in:

Tour dates: TF 11/2020, Along the borders: https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/entlang-der-grenzen-979/detail/

Tour dates: TF 2/2021, Querdurch: https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/querdurch-998/detail/

Tour dates: TF 4/2021, In the Land of Explorers: https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/im-land-der-entdecker-1034/detail/

Follow the full journey by clicking on the three links above. I don’t know why the bod finished the way he did. Maybe he just got bored and had to get to Barcelona? But hey, it would be fun to find out.

I put the second one in this thread: https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showt...o-Madrid-and-across-to-Santiago-de-Compostelo

I put the third one in this thread: https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showt...-of-Portugal-coastal-Porto-to-Faro-via-Lisbon

Comment away, please, it lifts the posts from the boringly mundane and tells me that at least one person has looked at them.

:beerjug:
 
The roads after Cabo de Gata start to get interesting as they take you up to into the Sierra Nevada and through El Torcal, well worth a visit and on to Ronda on some great riding roads, as they are after Ronda too. The road up to Sevilla is a boring road and does not get any better after Sevilla. I cannot comment on the roads from Barcelona to Cabo de Gata, as I've never been up that way, but as Enginerelight says the AP7 is a pita anywhere.
 
So you wouldn't go to Seville again?


Hi Michael,

Seville is a beautiful city and well worth a couple days visit, I was referring to the roads on the route leading up from Algeciras on the coast to Seville, and the road out of Seville going down to Huelva.

The area around Seville is very flat and featureless, I have rode it many times, as it’s the quickest way from here to get to Portugal. So no real choice.
 
Hi Michael,

Seville is a beautiful city and well worth a couple days visit, I was referring to the roads on the route leading up from Algeciras on the coast to Seville, and the road out of Seville going down to Huelva.

The area around Seville is very flat and featureless, I have rode it many times, as it’s the quickest way from here to get to Portugal. So no real choice.

ok good to know!
 
I will eventually be leaving from Portugal after a visit to Spain along the N-125 - N-431 to Huelva early June having ridden down from Santander.
I would like to head to Granada.

Who would recommend the coastal route taking in the Costas for Guinness and English breakfasts along the way OR;
the inland roads?

Fancy Seville and Cordoba but, big cities to get lost in.

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You don't have much choice but to go through Seville if your coming from Huelva, that is because of the Donana Nacional Park, which is enormous, and stretches from the coast to probably 50 kilometers inland with no road through it.

Cordoba, Granada are both well worth a visit too, if you go to Granada you must visit the Alhambra, but you have to book your tickets in advance, they do morning tickets and afternoon tickets.

June is a good month to visit Southern Spain because the temperatures are ideal, as for the Guinness and a full English you will need to be on the coast, anywhere from Marbella to Torremolinos to get a proper full English.

You don't say what type of roads you prefer ?
 
Cordoba, Granada are both well worth a visit too, if you go to Granada you must visit the Alhambra, but you have to book your tickets in advance, they do morning tickets and afternoon tickets.

Cordoba is a beautiful city to visit. Don't miss the Mesquita, not quite on the scale of the Alhambra, but is rightly recognised as one of the world's greatest works of Islamic architecture.
 
Cordoba is a beautiful city to visit. Don't miss the Mesquita, not quite on the scale of the Alhambra, but is rightly recognised as one of the world's greatest works of Islamic architecture.

It’s truly is a lovely city, and everywhere is within easy walking distance of every thing, the Mesquita and the old Jewish quarter the patios, plus the old Roman bridge.

Taking the Alhambra out of the equation, then for me Cordoba is the nicer city.
 
The wisdom of the masses is to follow the inland route via the moorish cities. I hope to stay away from motorways and use minor A roads where possible. Stay a minimum 2 days at each major stopover to explore. From Granada; north to Pamplona then into France and Lourdes.

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