Totally random pick from Google Maps.
Cueva ermita de San Bernabé
+34 645 49 02 88
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PJwBDg4ogtcXmesF8
Cueva is cave and ermita is hermitage and the first Google photo was compelling enough for me to choose it as a destination to ride to.
Totally scored, and amazing place. They said do you want the cave tour and I said sure. While waiting, I saw a wall map that made my brain melt.
I think they said they’d mapped 110km of cave, 14 interconnected caves. We toured just the yellow area upper right. There are apparently huge caverns below and running water, and openings to the top over to the left. Makes me wonder how many other caves are in this large limestone area.
There are grain-cache holes shaped like bells that were dug out by hand and sealed shut. Either for keeping out critters and moisture or to protect them from invading Visigoths. Some of these were also discovered to be repurposed into an ossuary (human bones) in the 10th century.
Cave photos are kind of useless, but the church part was a bit interesting. The elders kept their important documents (I assume village records, land titles, marriages, etc) in the cave until sometime like 1924. The ceiling murals are from 1705 and then later 1884.
I will try a few videos of the surrounding landscape.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nFYwotA5xvqKsp8E7
I rode away with ship rocks and caves in my head, then rode thru this landscape, even more dramatic ships.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vs95aEXXLfWHnAf59
It’s really hard to ride away from all these mountains. So much of it I saw just flying by. They deserve more time!
But for the last night on the road, i found a nice beachfront apartment.
It’s a cool beach…
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f3LNqmxhRh1YGz54A
Tomorrow morning I return the pretty BMW to Bilbao and I’ll be a pedestrian again! 😢
