Baños de Montemayor to Bejar, Spain

We happily left Baños de Montemayor after our less than inspirational stay in that town. No doubt it is a more cheerful, active place during the tourist season. We knew we would have one more short day of 17 km on the Via Verde to our next town, Bejar, then a 30 km ride to Guijuelo, then a long ride of 52 km to our cycle route’s end, Salamanca. We were now in the province of Salamanca and the autonomous community of Castile and León. We understood the intent is to develop the rail line Via Verde all the way to Salamanca and that online info is not always current so maybe, maybe we would be able to continue all the way to Salamanca on the Via Verde. Right out the gate, we had the steep winding road to climb back up to the Via Verde but I must be getting tough - it really didn’t seem that bad, or perhaps I was just very anxious to leave Baños behind.

Once back on the Via Verde, there was a tunnel and it took us awhile to leave views of Baños in the valley behind us. And then we were happy to encounter EuroVelo 1 signage. Having followed so many EuroVelo routes on our bikes in Europe, it is always reassuring to see these signs. So much EU money has gone into developing these routes, which we applaud!

It was another pleasant ride with almost no sign of anyone else, only once again old abandoned train stations, another old stone path (Roman?) heading somewhere, some tiny clusters of houses high above the bike path and the occasional herd of cattle. Before long, we caught site of our destination, Béjar, on an adjacent hill. We could see a long span of very old city walls. We stopped near the buildings of a large former train station that obviously used to service the town.

From there, we had to go down, down, down into the valley in order to go up, up, up into this town built on a hill. The Via Verde took us through one of the longest (400 m.), darkest old rail tunnels I have ever been in, basically depositing us on the far side of the river that runs beside the town and on the other side of the town. Béjar’s location is quite unusual - on a hill and the historic centre is encircled by the River Cuerpo de Hombre. When the railway was built, the decision was made to build the tunnel (1889-1891) that basically goes right below the town, 50m under the town’s main square, the Plaza Mayor. We discovered later that before entering the tunnel, there is a path that would have provided access to the closer side of Béjar, and we in fact should have taken this route - but we missed it.

We then crossed the river on a bridge to access a very steep road up into the town. It was even tough pushing the bikes, much less riding up. Before heading up, we noticed this modern building with a tall smokestack that we later found out is a museum about the town’s textile manufacturing past.

As of 2018, Bèjar had a population of 12,961, a significant decline from the past, and I suspect it may be even less now. The historical development of the town is linked to its once thriving textile manufacturing industry. I learned this from Wikipedia:

Founded in 1208, Béjar was slightly relocated to its current location in the first half of the 14th century. The town benefited from access to plenty of wood resources, hydropower, cattle and sheep flocks. The Zúñiga family came to power after 1396, with numerous courtiers and servants, creating a demand for clothing products. Cloth-making boomed in the late-17th century and Flemish artisans were brought in to update the wool manufacturing techniques. During the 19th century, Béjar came to be referred to as the "Castilian Manchester". Unlike other textile manufacturing hubs in the Castilian Meseta, Béjar’s local textile industry survived into the 20th C. Due to the peripheral location of the town and the rugged topography, the railway arrived late to Béjar, in 1894. Following the end of the Civil War, Béjar became a major provider of wool clothes, primarily used for military and civil servants' uniforms.

Béjar maintained a positive demographic growth until 1970, peaking at 17,576 inhabitants. The textile industry entered a crisis in the 1970s, prompting to staffing cutbacks and it seems all the factories closed at some point. Later, when we walked the city’s old walls, we could see these enormous abandoned factory buildings along the river. I always find it very sad to see, as you frequently do in Europe, these reminders of a more prosperous past.

The passenger train services ended in 1985, and rail freight transport a decade later, worsening rural flight patterns in the area and hindering business development. The municipality has tried to foster other alternatives for the local economy such as tourism.

Once we struggled up the road to the main historic part of the town, huffing and puffing, we easily found our accommodation for the night - the aptly named Hostal Extremeño. We were very early for check-in due to our short cycle, but the door was open and we were kindly shown where to put our bikes in a locked room next door and given our key. Hostals in Spain are not like our hostals with dorm rooms. More basic than a hotel, we have found the ones we have stayed in in Spain to be mostly excellent accommodation for a night and this was no exception. We had a small but bright room with windows out onto the street, a good bathroom - all immaculately clean. Breakfast was included for €64/night. Hard to beat.

After settling in, we headed out to explore the town - and to look for a late lunch/early dinner spot. We first headed to the north end of town which appeared to be the newer end with more shops. We passed a tiny leather goods shop and went in as Jim was interested in getting a new belt. It was a fascinating artisan shop, so tidy with a backdrop of all the tools used by the proprietor for his beautiful purses, belts, and other goods. He found a belt that fit Jim and seemed happy to know it was going to Canada.

We found a nice park and a large modern restaurant on the park with a name that would usually deter me from eating there - Charlie’s Comedy with burgers prominently on their menu. Not sure what the “Comedy” refers to exactly - maybe something different in Spanish - but I persuaded Jim that from our brief survey of the town, this might be our best eating bet - and it was. It was a lively place and we had great seats on a leather sofa with a coffee table at one end so could people-watch perfectly. Very nice server and we had the best burgers with fries and cold beer.

Fueled up, we continued our explorations. Béjar has quite a historical heritage - extensive medieval walls and fortifications, Roman churches, a 16th C. Ducal palace and a Jewish history museum. The Jewish population dates back to the 12th C and at one time was 20% of the total population. All this was at the opposite south end of town. En route, we spied these bronzes of Don Quixote and Sancho Pablo and had a look at the Ducal Place which was closed.

Amazingly, the ancient walls of Béjar allow you to walk on the top of them for a long way. They were originally built by the Arabs and expanded in the 13th century by Alfonso VIII. The views of the surrounding countryside were really spectacular.

That pretty much ended our tour of Béjar. We didn’t have the energy to go into the museums. The town doesn’t look like it is thriving - lots of closed storefronts, marginal looking housing and few restaurants or hotels that we could see. But perhaps like Baños, during the tourist season, it shows it’s colours a little more brightly.

I did like this mural on an old building, and these lovely old doors. And found this hedge-pruning technique interesting.

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Although I thought we might be the only guests in the hostal, we heard people checking in later. We unfortunately ended up with a family with at least one young child in the room next to us and while we were ready to go to bed earlier, they were not. I let it go on until after 11 pm and when their loud discussions and child noises should no sign of abating, I pounded on the shared wall. The message was received and we had a quiet night from that point on. We have found that quiet in our accommodation is the most important thing after a long day of biking and walking. Quiet por favor!!!