Cowboy1968

Hello everybody,

I'm looking for some input for a little road trip from Madrid to Barcelona, planned for mid-September.
I know that there is a much more sensible and faster way to get from M to B by AVE, but I will have two friends in tow who have seen nothing of the countryside in Spain so far, and wish to do so.
Besides this rather vague interest, they are as enthusiastic or willing to contribute to itinerary planning or selection of sights as a pair of grumpy teenagers.
I'm aware that the vegetation and countryside will be more brown and sunburnt at that time of year than lush green, but that's fine. I like that, actually.

Madrid and Barcelona are fixed with a certain amount of days to spend in either city (maybe 4-5 nights in Madrid, 8 in Barcelona), and the sights in the Madrid region will be visited by public transport.
I'll drag them to Toledo, the Escorial, and possibly Aranjuez.
They have identified the museums in Madrid as "not too interesting" as there were only a few paintings of interest and that would not require to waste that much time (Good grief, but least something to work with.).
Given their non-existent interest in most cultural activities, we shall probably focus on walks in the old town, along Gran Vía, into Chueca, a visit to the Palacio Real, and the aforementioned day trips.

So there is only one thing left to do, which is finding a nice route from Madrid to Barcelona.
So far I have excluded the "motorway-only" options via Zaragoza or Valencia.

What looks more interesting is this route:
Day 1: Madrid to Cuenca (visit town & overnight) = 170kms
Day 2: Cuenca to Morella (via Albarracín, Teruel) = 283kms
Day 3: Morella to Barcelona = 270kms

While Madrid to Cuenca should be a breeze on the autovias, I am a bit sceptical about Day 2 as those 280kms will be on secondary provincial roads only.
Even though we will be three people, it will be only me doing the driving as one of my friends can't drive and the other one.. well... is probably the worst and clueless and disoriented driver on this planet. He gets lost at intersections where both a billboard-size sign and his GPS tell him to make a turn - but he won't. And during the last 5 years he has only been driving on the left side of the road, so I definetely don't want to be in the passenger seat while he tries to navigate mountain roads in rural Spain.
Day 3 should again be okay, as I know the area quite well, and know the 3-4 sights I want to show my friends.

My questions would be as follows (but feel free to throw in any advice you wish to share):

Q1: Is there a better option for seperating the driving on Days 1 and 2 into two more even "halves", even if that meant that we'd have to leave Cuenca already by afternoon to drive somewhere else? Or would you suggest to spend the night in Cuenca?

Q2: Would you know any sights, nice towns or villages or castles or anything else to visit in between Cuenca and Morella?
So far I have identified Albarracín as a place I want to see. And have found a lot to see in Cuenca (at least on the web). Morella got lots of praise from one or two posters here, and it looks very nice from what I can see on the web.

Thanks for enduring this much-too-long post and for any advice.

kimhe

You already seem to be on your way, and I foresee a memorable drive (Fear and loathing, a savage journey through the heart of the Spanish dream?).

Perhaps spend some time in Teruel and make it an extra day. Teruel was the site of one of the worst battles of the Civil War (December 1937-February 1938) and displays excellent mudejar architecture and archeological sites. Will perhaps even make your friends regret they didn't see the second floor of the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid; paintings, photos, movies and posters more or less directly connected to the CW that can blow your mind off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teruel

Teruel Photos: http://www.google.no/search?q=Teruel...w=1379&bih=774

In Madrid, be sure to visit the La Latina area (Habsburg Madrid/ Madrid de las Austrias). In and around Calle Cava Baja, you'll find many of the best tapas bars/restaurants in town, great atmosphere and historical buildings: http://gospain.about.com/od/madrid/t...ina_madrid.htm

lincasanova

I have not got enough time tonight to map this whole thing out, but consider having Toledo as the beginning of your trip onwards as there are very nice places along the way.

From Toledo you can easily go to Belmonte, after visiting Conseugra for a photo op. Then from Belmonte cut across to Cuenca.

Overnight Cuenca.

From Cuenca you have a very nice drive to Alarcón with the parador there and a sweet town to make a stopover on your way to the wine area and Valencia fro which Morella is more easily apporached.. OR

you CAN go that route to Albarracín that you mention but do prepared for some tedious driving. You are not taking only secondary roads but even less important ones, through a sometimes hilly/mountainous area. I am sure it is beautiful, though. I know people who go to Tragacete to go fishing. It is continuing on that I am not familiar with and from the look of the maps.. I will need to do some inquiries from locals to know what the best route is as some of them have lots of curves.

Definitely do stopover in Cuenca if you have any more long driving to do. Cuenca comes after quite a long stretch of trees, and you are thinking, "are we ever going to get there?" sometimes.. I don't know, but It is always about 30 kms further than I think it should be from wherever I am!

When you arrive in Cuenca, follow the signs to the Parador. That will put you on the parador side of the town with the amazing views of the hanging houses. Park up there. Hopefully it is not a weekend so this will not be a major effort. Or if you are "Friends of the Parador or overnighting in their beautiful convent. then you will have parking there.

Another option will be to skip cuenca and go to Siguenza from Madrid, via Alcalá de Henares (amazing little town and historical district). Overnight in Siguenza at their parador. Amazing place.

Then to Teruel/Albarracin area from there.

Sounds like a nice trip.

Cowboy1968

Thank you so much, both of you!

That's been very helpful and gave me more ideas how to handle that trip. And lots of places to look into.
I did not even have Teruel on my list yet.

by the way.. we will (most probably) stay the weekend in Madrid and not leave until sunday. So I guess the weekend travellers from Madrid will already be on their way back to the capitol once we get to Cuenca.
Toledo should be a seperate day trip by train or bus from Madrid, so we won't have to include it in the "road trip".

lincasanova

Toledo.. train
segovia..train

cuenca.. could also be train ( AVE) then continue to VLC on AVE train..

vlc-barcelona TRAIN.

this could be a train trip!

Cowboy1968

Thanks again.. the trains will be used when in and around Madrid.

Otherwise I have closed in on the agenda of Days 1 and 2.

Day 1
Madrid - Cuenca
Pick up rental car, probably at Est. Atocha
Get on A-3 for appr. 100kms to
Parque Arqueológico de Segóbriga (visit)
Then back north to A-40 to Cuenca
Explore casco historico in the pm hours.

P.S.
The official website turismocastillalamancha.com has been a great resource to find sights along a given route on their interactive map of the region.

Day 2
Cuenca-Teruel

Visit La Ciudad Encantada and hike the trail.
Take lots of time on that road across the Serrania de Cuenca (on Google streetview the 15 or so kms of mountain pass road to Pto. de El Cubillo look a bit challenging.. just a one lane road for two way traffic, but the scenery is just beautiful)
Spend some time in Albarrecín, probably for lunch at around 3pm.
Finally spend pm hours in Teruel and explore old town with that beautiful Mudejar architecture. I still can't believe that there is not even a tiny paragraph on Teruel in the big guide books.

Day 3 /4 we will probably wing it. Drive to Morella, then Horta de Sant Joan, Priorat wine country, Reus. Or zig-zag to the coast and spend the night in Deltebre.. it will be mid-week mid-season anyway, so I doubt that there will be many full hotels or hostals.

As much as trains are probably more sensible and relaxing, I must admit that I like few territories in Europe better than the Spanish "hinterlands".
Isn't this beautiful!! (Google maps via tinyurl)
http://tinyurl.com/6kc7kfe

lincasanova

Sounds like a nice trip. I have driven , if not that exact narrow mountain road, another quite similar.. yes, the scenery is beautiful.

If you have time, a detour to Belmonte could be interesting.

Beloo

Hello,
A zig-zag to the coast ?
At one hour from Morella -large road-, Peniscola has a beautiful old castle at the top of a rock that rise from the sea. The rock is a shelter for the old town - beautiful small street with a great charm, some restaurants with "tabla de ibericos" and good wines ; touristic prices.
It takes 1h30 - 2h00 to visit the old town, one hour more for the castle. The rest of this city is no more but "concrete on the beach", and is dedicated for massive-invasive tourists during summer : must be fled.
Nice protected natural park 6 km south, with nice views to the sea, and some natural beaches (unpaved road).

The Delta of Ebre river would be quiet in september : this is only wide paddy fields ! And Deltebre is no more but a small farming village, lost between the fields.. No charm, or well hidden. Many birds in the Delta... during winter and spring. At the end of summer, I don't know.
L'Ampolla is a better village if you try to spend a night there. Small quiet port, terrace to taste some tapas and cervezas.
Tortosa (along the Ebre) has a castle, and some nice hotels. But no view to the sea, no really old downtown.

From L'Ampolla to Cambrils (West-Tarragona) :
This is one of the last spanish mediterranean part of coast without miles of buildings : small beaches, rocks, small simple villages...

If you like honey : at the southern entrance of El Perello (the main producer town for honey in Catalunya), face to the windmill, a company/shop : Mel Muria, where you taste different honey (orange tree honey, thyme honney, brierwood honey, rosemary honey....) for sweet prices.
Easy road (N 340) from El Perello to Cambrills.

From Tarragona (roman remains) to Barcelona, the coastal road is at least two times longer than the highway !

If you really like driving on tiny spanish roads (ask me for nice roads in France), if holidays are seeing nobody, finding beautiful scenery, you can keep the mountain routes after Morella, and stay in the hinterlands : whatever the road you choose, this part of spain is really beautiful, even at summer ends.

Cowboy1968

Hi Beloo,
Thank you for your comments.

What you described would indeed be my "plan B" if we decide to go to the sea from Teruel.

As you mentioned it: L'Ampolla had been my "base" for a week when I was in that region last time. The hotel was a bit outside of the main village, but was very nice and it sure helped that there are no miles of hotels and buildings. The stay was quite pleasant until the last night when there was a fire - but that's another story

Deltebre was in fact a typo.. I meant the whole delta region, not the village - and there had indeed been not many birds around in September. Nevertheless quite stunning for people from the North who did not know that there were rice fields in Europe.

Beloo

So, if you already know l'Ampolla, and all the delta of Ebre region, why don't you try to make a zig-zag from Morella to the center of aragon ?
If you don't take too many pictures, it take 1h30 to Caspe, the door for the Monegros desert. I let you see if it could be amazing for you.
If you have really times, wake up very soon in the morning and want to eat miles, the valley between Alcolea de Cinca and Monzon is full of storks : every church, every wheat silo is surrounded with a nest !

Otherwise, Valderrobres, Gandesa, Gratallops, Monestir de Poblet, Montblanc, are able to fulfil a journey.

During your week "around" Madrid, why don't you rent a car and join Avila after a day spend in Segovia (one hour driving) ? A sunset from the old town, under the walls, facing la sierra de Gredos is -for me- a scenery i can't get enough...

There's so much to see in Spain....