Half a Spanish ride report

A great read over a cup of coffee.
I’m off to Bilbao ex Portsmouth in September for my first bike trip in Spain. Very much looking forward to it. Your report only makes me more excited.

Hurry up and get back there. Enjoy your route back through France to St Malo. If you need any recommendations for accommodation around Britanny give me a shout as it’s my local biking stomping grounds.

Neil
 
A great read over a cup of coffee.
I’m off to Bilbao ex Portsmouth in September for my first bike trip in Spain. Very much looking forward to it. Your report only makes me more excited.

Hurry up and get back there. Enjoy your route back through France to St Malo. If you need any recommendations for accommodation around Britanny give me a shout as it’s my local biking stomping grounds.

Neil
Thanks Neil. I've decided to come back via Bilbao. I've just booked the ferry 1st May 10.30am to Portsmouth. My flight to Alicante lands 25th April so that gives me a couple of days in the Spanish Mediterranean sunshine and then a leisurely 3 day ride north back up through Spain on mainly rural roads.
I'm glad you enjoyed the ride report...part two coming soon.
Spain is a great biking destination. A variety of roads/routes to chose from and hotels/food still relatively cheap. Great landscape/scenery. You'll enjoy your September trip.
Regards
Dean
 
I will dean. I will be in a bar on board the Celebrity Reflection celebrating the big 50 somewhere in the Med on the 1st May. I shall try to remember (hic) to raise a glass to your safe passage.... ooooerrr.
 
I will dean. I will be in a bar on board the Celebrity Reflection celebrating the big 50 somewhere in the Med on the 1st May. I shall try to remember (hic) to raise a glass to your safe passage.... ooooerrr.
50!...happy birthday to you young man.... May 1st is my 56th birthday...and I'll be propping up the bar all alone I suppose on the Pont Aven... unless that is I meet a young lady who's interested in chatting about stroke length and shaft drives😀
 
Nice one DD. I love northern Spain and looking forward to Part 2 :thumb

:rob Feckin youngsters ! Will be 58 this May Day
 
if it is any consolation I am a miserable old fecker already. Although I do accept I need a few more years of honing my whining to get to all your standards:rob
 
As promised...part 2....the return leg

I'd finished my 2 weeks working in the uk and flew back out to Alicante airport for a couple of days R'n'R before riding the 750xrv back to Bilbao and the ferry home that I'd already booked for 10am 1st May...my birthday. I had planned a couple of days rest before a leisurely3 day ride across central Spain.
I landed late Wednesday night 25th of April. I caught the last bus at 11pm from the airport to Benidorm. That's almost 1 hour away, then a taxi to Albir, about 15 mins away.

Gatwick North Terminal


The 2 days R'n'R turned into 4 days R'n'R with copious amounts of spontaneous boozing and a few hangovers....which only left 2 days riding to catch the ferry. Plenty of time but with less overnight stops.


The Stone Bar


A good cure for hangovers.
This is what I love about Spanish food. So simple yet so good. Quality ingredients and minimal fuss.


Once I had recovered from having what I thought at the time was me having loads of fun and no doubt talking loads of bollocks to whoever I thought looked interested in listening....I set off early on a beautifully sunny morning from the shores of the Med...to have loads more fun on my bike. I did feel slightly ropey though to be honest. I'm a proper lightweight drinker.



I set off and headed inland for 35 miles over the cv-70, a lovely twisty road.



90 minutes later I reached the faster A-7 and went up past Valencia and onto the A-23 to Teruel.
The landscape here is very open and the wind really started to pick up strength.
Jesus Christ! They've got some strong winds in Spain, the Levante, the Mistral, the Tramuntana. The Tramuntana is a crazy wind. It's know as a Katabatic wind, which comes down off a mountain and gets funnelled down towards the warmer coast. I experienced it once in 1996 while wild camping on the northern Costa Brava French/Spanish border. It feels like it was yesterday. I felt like I'd been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. They say it can drive you insane. It's something Salvador Dali had lived with while growing up in Cadaques as a young lad. Maybe there is some truth in that saying.

Anyway... they wind was making it hard going so I pulled off the fast A-23 and found a nice little hotel in Burbaguena on the N-234.(I later discovered it was exactly halfway to Bilbao...to the mile) What a lovely find. One room available in the old mill called MoBu (El Molino de Burbaguna) The staff were very friendly. As soon as I walked in I was offered a cold beer...maybe I looked like I needed one after all that buffeting the wind had given me.

This was my evening meal. It was beautiful. I had breakfast too and it cost £60 all in. Coffees and a few more beers as well.Not cheap but not too dear either.



A few pictures off Burbaguena. A very small, peaceful village in Aragon

















Next morning up and out early,,,chilly day but blue skies. The wind had died down, or should I say hadn't yet picked up. It did get stronger but not as bad as the day before. I was to take slower roads today all the way to another hotel, Hotel Ibis in Bilbao. One from a chain of 4,400 worldwide Ibis hotels. I had stayed in an Ibis in Morocco once...I'm sure this was the same one.
More to follow
 
30th of April. Up and out early after breakfast and coffees...best time of day...chilly again but blue skies. Today i rode 235 miles in 5 hours 44 minutes on mainly empty roads. I took the A-2511 to the fast 232 before turning right onto the A-220 at Carinena. It was here that I got stopped by the Guardia Civil. Flagged down by an enormous, armed uniformed officer so I stopped and was given the salute...which I find such a nice thing for them to do. I felt my right arm twitch as though it was going to salute him right back but I forced it to scratch my nose instead. He walked around my bike while his colleague eyed us from a distance.
As I had slowed to turn left from the main road I could see for quite a distance up the road and could see no other vehicles approaching. I checked my wing mirrors and gave a "life-saver" glance over my left shoulder...then, without having actually come to a complete stop at the stop line, pulled across the junction and came to a stop very near the Guardia Civil.
Once he had eyed the bike and myself up he asked me why I hadn't stopped completely at the stop line. I explained that I could see for kilometres along the road and that it was free of traffic and I had checked my mirrors and felt it was safe to cross the line. He then told me it was a 200euro fine, reduced to 100 if paid now. I was off the bike by now and had taken off my helmet. He was looking at a tired old git who hadn't had a shave in over a week. I was fumbling in my pockets now trying to replace my shades with my reading glasses...so as to look like a wise, tired old git.
I'd been "fined" once before by the Guardia Civil many years earlier up near Barcelona. This time my Spanish was a lot better and I thought I'd be able to talk my way out of it. No need as he was just explaining that stop means stop and he wasn't going to fine me today...but if he saw me doing it again.....
Once he'd checked my driving licence and was happy with everything he told me to get back on the road and wished me "buen viaje".

Off and running again with my wallet intact I carried on riding north.



Uneventful ride on still quite secondary roads. I ended up on the A-624. It had clouded over now. The forecast was for 90% rain and as I reached Ayala and turned right onto the A-3641 the heavens opened. I had about 30 miles left before reaching the Ibis hotel in Bilbao. It was a slow, twisty road all the way now. I was looking forward to a hot shower and some hot food. I made it to the hotel and managed to get a room for the night. I always turn up unbooked and I always get that "we'll see what we can do" conversation before nearly always getting a room.

Early breakfast next morning then a short ride to the port...where I meet Jonathon, who'd been traveling around Spain alone in his old VW camper



We got chatting about our relevant trips...it was his first trip abroad and he'd been away for one month.

First in line


End of the road in Spain


Adios y gracias espana


It was my birthday on board the ferry so I propped up the bar and sampled some of their keenly priced Guiness...Jonathon joined me and was good company.
As it was a sunny start to the crossing I spent a few hours on deck "taking the sun".....and luckily saw some dolphins.

It was a great trip...my first "two-parter". Enjoyed it as always.
I thought after a 24 crossing to Portsmouth I'd have a nice 2 hour ride back home to London. That wasn't to be. When we eventually docked at 9am in Portsmouth it was raining...which got heavier and heavier as I rode home. instead of taking 2 hours it took four...and I was thoroughly drenched and freezing cold...but Hey-Ho...no complaints
 
Good stuff.
I too celebrated my birthday on a ship on the 1st of May. I got quite pissed and did t have the hair of the dog until midday the following day!

Looking forward to my Spanish trip in September. I’m writing this whilst sat in a Hotel near Rome airport having just found out that the charming BA has just cancelled our flights tomorrow morning and delaying us by 24hrs..... bollocks.
 
Good stuff.
I too celebrated my birthday on a ship on the 1st of May. I got quite pissed and did t have the hair of the dog until midday the following day!

Looking forward to my Spanish trip in September. I’m writing this whilst sat in a Hotel near Rome airport having just found out that the charming BA has just cancelled our flights tomorrow morning and delaying us by 24hrs..... bollocks.
A belated Happy Birthday. Enjoy your extra day in Rome if you can.
 
Cheers. I shall do my best however I’m one of those simpletons that just want to get home when I planned not when the airline feels like it so I’m a bit miffed. I will also have to use up an extra days leave too. Hey ho could be worse I suppose.
 


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