Time for another bike tour. This is the Eclipse/El Cid (EEC) Tour. On August 12, 2026 there will be an eclipse cutting across Spain from Valencia to Santiago de Compestela. In addition there is a car/bike/MTB/walking route from Burgos to Valencia following the historical poem of the journey of the Spanish general El Cid (played by Charleston Heston in the movie). We are combining these two amazing things into an epic tour worthy of El Cid!
This tour will be Mike, Bob and I ... hanging out together for 45 years now. I feel so old. Bob is the eclipse enthusiast. Mike and I are more like, sure, could be interesting.
Burgos is the start of the Camino del Cid and in the path of totality. A perfect combination other than the insane hotel prices that night.
I have been in Spain for the last 12 days at my house in Alcala La Real in Andalusia. Mike and Bob are just heading to the Toronto airport as I write this. I will meet them at the Madrid airport in the morning. I have an early wakeup and 4 hour drive. We will meet up at the airport and then on to our near the airport hotel. The plan is a nice lunch in Madrid and an early night. The next day we have a 6am car to Burgos.
The route we will follow is the Camino Del Cid (https://www.caminodelcid.org/en). It is managed by a non-profit consortium to promote tourism. They put in a lot of work to provide a 1500km route tracing the journey of El Cid based on the epic 12th century poem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantar_de_mio_Cid).
One of the fun aspects is you are required to carry a Letter Of Safe Conduct (https://www.caminodelcid.org/en/travel-info/letter-safe-conduct) and collect stamps along the way. It also gets discounts on things but collecting stamps is just a fun thing to do.
Collecting stamps, hmm, sounds familiar 🤔😉
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