La Vuelta del Norte (con Patricio)

Yesterday, after some tastey breakfast treats and coffee, Patrick and I headed out on the bikes north of Madrid for what turned out to be a brilliant, though challenging (for me) ride. 102kms round trip and with a considerable amount of time spent climbing up to the town of Hoyo de Manzanares, near El Escorial, in the foothills of the Sierras. It is amazing how the mountains can affect the climate. In the city, it was a fairly warm morning, with a bit of cloud cover helping to keep in the heat. As we headed out, I kept my shell jacket on to warm myself up, and by the time we reached 25kms away from the city I was sure glad I had brought it with me as there was a brisk cool wind blowing down off the Sierras. I kept it on for the remainder of the ride! So much for blistering spring temperatures in Madrid! The latter half of the ride was a bit of a inter-urban struggle back through the subdivisions and developments north of the city, so I won't say much about that. However, the first half of the ride was brilliant. It took a mere 15 minutes or so to hit a "calletera" similar to that of the one I usually ride south to San Martin de la Vega and we road that north for 25kms or so stretching out to a good rhythm (though passed by several groups of riders, ha!) and before we knew it we were passing through Colmenar Viejo. We then took a little rural road through Parque de las Colinas that featured a serpentine descent and ascent of a little river gourge that was truly a glimpse of a perfect Castillian landscape amidst the foothills of the Sierras. Preciosa! I just had to stop to take a photo or two - much to Patrick's amusement! It was great to get a little elevation and look back on the city from afar. Little rock walls, sheep herding, and that ever present Castillian rocky scrub pine forest surrounded us for much of the first 2 and a half hours. 60kms had passed before we had even thought of a break! I returned home quite exhausted to find Meg and Maria just about ready for lunch - que suerte! So we had a chance to chat and eat together before we all collapsed into one form of siesta ot other. Me from my ride, Meg from her trip to the gym, and Maria from "burning the night down!" as the Madrileños make a habit of on a friday night!