From 9 to 24 May 2014 we will travel to Spain to cycle the Via de la Plata from Sevilla to Santiago de Compostela. This route is also called the Camino de Santiago. The following quote comes from a site about the Camino de Santiago:

The Via de la Plata is the longest of the pilgrim routes in Spain, starting from Seville in Andalucia, and running northwards through the provinces of Extremadura and Castilla y Leon to Salamanca and Zamora.

The Via de la Plata was used by different migratory groups to invade and in the 8th century it allowed the Moors to advance into northern Spain and fill up the power vacuum left in the peninsula by the Romans. Later, this same route was used by Spanish for the Reconquista.

The route was used for pilgrimage during Moorish control as well from the 10th to the 12th centuries. Even the bells from the Santiago cathedral that were relocated to the mosque in Cordoba by Al-Mansur were transferred back to Santiago in the 13th century. But in later centuries fewer pilgrims have used this route until its revival in the 1980s.

There is a blog post for each day and the overview map and the gpx track are on this page.

 Download-link gpx route: Via de la Plata (32 downloads)