After a great night’s sleep with only the occasional hooting of an owl to break the silence we’re greeted by a beautiful sunny day. Today and tomorrow we’ll be cycling one of the routes of the Vías Verdes “green-ways”, old train lines that were once the domain of wagons and locomotives and are now the realm of cyclists, walkers and day-trippers. There are 3,300 kilometres of Vía Verde all over Spain, 135 routes in total. We’ll be cycling the Senda del Oso (Path of the Bear) a popular cycling and walking track that follows the course of a former mine railway southwest of Oviedo, running through spectacular valley scenery into deep, narrow canyons, with several bridges and more than 30 tunnels. The total track is 45km. At some point over the next 2 days we’re hoping to see Cantabrian brown bears in large enclosures at the Cercados Oseros bear sanctuary as we cycle. The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day for a cycle through some quite stunning scenery.
We cycle through tunnels and cross bridges following the path of the river as it meanders through the valley marvelling at the mountain scenary. Even better for most of the time we have the trail to ourselves. We cover about 14 miles in total and it’s been great. We drive back to our hotel for a shower and change and head in to Oviedo for dinner. The capital of the Asturias is full of elegant parks and busy, modern shopping streets full of restaurants and traditional cider bars. The old town is made up of a number of easily walkable squares bursting with historical churches and buildings. We settle on a sushi restaurant and are not disappointed.
After another great night’s sleep – I’m starting to think that we should move out to the country it’s just so peaceful – we load up our bikes and head back over to the Senda del Oso trail to cycle the route that we didn’t manage to finish yesterday. The weather is dry but slightly colder than the day before but we’re still in shorts so it’s not that cold. As we cycle we reach the bear sanctuary and whilst we’re excited to see a Cantabrian brown bear it’s desperately sad to see it pacing round and round its enclosure. We get back to cycling and the route rises through another succession of tunnels and bridges. The trail really is quite stunning it’s soooooo peaceful. It’s another 14 mile cycle and we’ve absolutely loved it, the Vias Verdes really is a great way to cycle through hidden parts of Spain. We drive into town and pick up a takeaway from a different sushi restaurant this time and return to our hotel to sit and eat on our balcony, marvel at the beautiful scenery and reflect on another great day.
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