Ballistic Spain 2008: The Long Way Profound

[Mr K]

Friday, 27th June:

We have a bit of a lie-in as we're staying at Miranda anther night.
I wind open the shutter to reveal a view of the castle and the fact that it's already quite hot, before 9 a.m...

We feast at the buffet breakfast before sauntering over to the tourist information to find out about a river cruise.
The cruise isn't until later in the afternoon, so we decide to go for a little ride.

We head south-west out of Miranda and cross the border into Spain near Bemposta...

The Rio Tormes is the border:

On the map is shown the "Embalse de Almendra" - a large reservoir. It had a lot less water in it than was intended: You could see piers and leisure facilities hundreds of metres away from where the water was...
We stopped in a town caled Ledesma for a beer and some tortilla, before heading north, back to Miranda.

Back in the hotel we dumped our bike gear and set off for the river cruise. We'd clocked-it at 1.5 miles and 3 hairpins away, on the bikes....

We headed off on foot with water bottles at hand. It was 35-36C and it wasn't long before Brian swerved wildly out of control as one of his sandals threw it's tread....
He was able to complete the hike with regular stops to slide the sole back into place

By the time we arrived at the ticket office it was besieged with Euro-Coffin-Dodgers on a coach trip.
The waiting area was open-air but shaded and was sprayed with a fine mist of water to cool folks down.
We bought our tickets and managed to get on the boat despite some pointy elbows and a superb blocking-manouvre whereby the 2 least able-bodied female ECDs cunningly hobbled side-by side up the gangway at almost 0.1km/h...

...either a stork or eagle's nest

All too soon the boat turned around and headed back towards the jetty...

Back off the boat there was free wine, but the ECDs had descended on the barrels and you could have lost an eye or limb if you'd tried to get a glass..

The walk back-up to Miranda was ..er ...steady, but I was quite impressed that neither of us died at all...

After a wash and brush-up at the hotel we went out for a meal. We chose a different restaurant and I couldn't resist "Chourico do Infernal" as my first course.
Poor waitress almost suffered 3rd degree burns carrying a flaming dish of spicy chorizo sausage to the table, the oil spitting and spattering everywhere.
It was delicious ... and on reflection the large "Familiar" (family-size) pizza I ordered for my main course was just too much for me to manage...

After the meal we wandered around town groaning and burping until we'd enough space for another beer.
We went back to the Benfica Club Cafe and had a couple more Superbock Stouts, before waddling off to bed....

A rather good day....

 

[Tricky]

Excellent

 

[Ash]

more more.

 

[Mr K]

Saturday, 28th:

Fortunately we have an air-conditioned room: It's been our little oasis of sanity in the 35-37C heat and makes sleeping a lot easier.. so we wake, pack the luggage, stick it on the bikes and have one last go at the buffet before setting off south-west...but not before I remove the waterproof lining from my jacket and Toe-rag pants...

We follow the Douro Valley (the border between Portugal and Spain) and I note on the GPS display, as we wind down the superbly surfaced tarmac ribbon, that Spain, on the other side of the valley, is sometimes as little as 300 feet away, despite the fact that the river looks about quarter of a mile below.
This is a superb road: Map says N221 - It's superbly surfaced, but you're just constantly chucking the bike from full-tilt one way to the other. In this direction there's a twist: Most of the bends have decreasing radii and it's quite easy to get sucked in, at what at first feels right and rapidly becomes scrapey, clenchy, ohmigodthatwasclose ... Telelever GSs are ideal; rubbing off speed mid-corner is always possible without upsetting the poise of the bike.

I'm getting a little concerned: Brian says the trip computer on his Adv hasn't shifted since we set off and my fuel gauge hasn't moved since I last filled up 120+ miles ago ....

We have a stop and look back where the wine comes from:

And then carry on toward Trancoso and into the Sierra de Estrela .....

We twist and turn up a long pass near Gouveia and they obviously knew we were coming:

Brian admires the view:

...at one point I take my eyes off the road and glance at the GPS - I have to stop and take a picture:

We are riding in someone's intestines!!

After 140 miles the fuel gauge eventually dropped down a notch and not being sure of it, I fill up in Manteigas.
I've done 231 miles and the bike takes 16.38 litres... that's 63.99 mpg and that's a genuine, brimmed by meself fill-up.

We have a medium beer before continuing onto and arriving at Bejar - It looked a bit scruffy at first, but beauty is skin-deep.. is it not?

We are soon assuming the position and watching the world pass-by ...

The meal was so-so... but later Brian introduced me to the delights of Spanish brandy and ... my memory fails me..

.........

 

[Mr K]

Sunday, 29th June:

To Madrid.......

As usual our well practised waking/packing and setting off routine worked as smoothly as ever, although I was slightly concerned that I was still a smidge over the limit after the previous night..

We headed east, inthe direction of Madrid, into the Sierra de Gredos.
More wonderful roads and it was still hot and sunny.
We stopped at about 11 for breakfast in a town called Navalmoral. There was a sort of "snack-shed" and a few tables and chairs. The guy running the place was quite a character and was maybe a retired bull-fighter, as a cape was hung prominently on the door....
We ordered a couple of drinks and spotted a sign for "Hamburguesas".... Naturally we ordered a couple...

This is a "hamburguesa":

Impressive huh?
I don't think there's much else that could've been stuffed into that bun
We had to order more drinks as we ploughed our way through our breakfasts.

With the help of a small crane we were hoisted back aboard our bikes and headed on toward Madrid.
We'd booked a room at the Ibis, Valentin Beato which was a little way out from the centre.
Our initial aim was to go to www.naturbier.com ... but we realised before we set off that this was the day of the Euro 2008 final ... and as the holiday had progressed, that Spain would be playing Germany ....

Thanks to the miracle of Sat-Nav we arrived at the hotel and by the miracle of t'interweb, I had indeed booked and paid for a room
The hotel also had an underground carpark with CCTV, which was nice ... and free.
After getting tidied-up we headed out on the ..er...city. There was a Metro station at the top of the street which took us into the centre for a couple of Euro.

It was red-hot!!

This is the Plaza Colon:

The locals seemed excited about something

...but we headed off to find our Spanish real ale pub...

...after failing to leave without paying ..by accident, we stumbled straight into another pub with it's own brewery, just around the corner:

Brian seemed happy ... or something ....maybe it was the free tapas?

..but I was a bit worried as to how he'd paid for the drinks...

It was getting more busy, so we decided to suss-out a pub to watch the game from.....

....I know it's a bt of a cop-out, but we found an Irish Bar.... but it seemed to have air-con and big TVs...

We didn't have time to seek out "La Senabresa" a restaurant "Wildman" off ADVrider had recomended (and Snoopy was kind enough to text me the details) and consolodated our position in the bar

The build-up to the game was so exciting I had to go for a wee....there was a poster for some wrestling in the toilets....

..for those interested, Madrid has a "thriving gay scene" which explained the waiter in the Magister's lovely sequined shirt.....

Anyway: The pub filled-up, the air-con seemed unable to cope, we sweated, drank, sweated ....and watched the match. The atmosphere was great and as you may know Spain won:

The whole place went ballistic; People poured out onto the streets, singing, waving flags, singing a bit more.
There was no trouble that we saw, even though there were a visible minority of Germany fans....
We caught the Metro back to the hotel for a night-cap.

 

[Magwych]

...and if anyone knows what this says, could you please PM me?

"Meal was great some sort of chops, Loads of red wine, " - would you believe it

Great story so far - are you finding accomodation as you go, or booking ahead?

 

[Mr K]

"Meal was great some sort of chops, Loads of red wine, " - would you believe it

Great story so far - are you finding accomodation as you go, or booking ahead?

Brian booked the first night in Ojedo/Potes and the 2 nights in Miranda do Duoro..and I booked Madrid, apart from that we just stayed wherever we ended-up..

 

[Mr K]

Monday, 30th:

After the inevitable lie-in, we pack and set-off.....after a couple of practise laps of Madrid we head north-east towards Gaudelajara, then south-east through a region marked as "Mar de Castille" .... my notes are crap for today, but at one point I am leading and the GPS says "Take unsurfaced road on right" - We look at each other and Brian says "Why not?" ..It's a good choice:

Shortly after this we stop and have a bocadillo de jamon y queso (See Tom: It's not just you!) and a couple of Pepsis ..and I didn't make a note where that was..

I took this one later, just in case...

...and this one later when I stopped and lost a fight with a "cajero"...

We got a little bit ignorantly lost, but found a place to stop at Albentosa, about 25 miles south-east of Teruel.
It was on a junction, almost in the middle of nowhere and seemed to be a truck-stop/restaurant/gourmet food store/motel....In the UK I wouldn't stop at a place like this, but it seems different in Spain and Spanish truckers seem pretty fussy about their food...

We relax first...
and catch-up on some chores...

..before going downstairs to eat and drink.

Brian's dessert deserved a picture:

..and after coffees, to bed..

 

[ballistic]

The locals seemed excited about something

Anyone would think that they'd just won the European championship...

 

[ballistic]

.....after a couple of practise laps of Madrid we head north-east towards Gaudelajara, then south-east through a region marked as "Mar de Castille" ....

What amazes me is that, wherever you seem to go in Spain, there's fantastic countryside lurking around every bend.. and superb riding, especially for a GS...

 

[Mr K]

Tuesday, 1st July:

It's a cooler morning, after a thunderstorm lastnight.

I take a picture from our scenic penthouse and note that Spanish Health & Safety regulations have yet to be drafted for balconies:

We drag our stuff down to the bikes and load-up.

We head-off roughly north-easttowards Alcaniz, over the Puerto de Cuarto Pelado Cantavieja. We come across a closed road near Mirambel (I think) and as I stop my foot slips a couple of inches on the gravel ... it's just enough to set the bike on an inexorable colision course with the ground ... ...
...with the strength generated by the knowledge that Brian will be reaching for his camera I quickly whip the bike upright before any evidence can be made....

The diversion via Forcall was pretty good, marred only by a plague of wind turbines on the Maestrazgo/Valencia border ...

We ride on toward Alcaniz .. and I've lost track in my notes, but I end up running perilously low on petrol: I've only 5 miles left on the countdown, when we find a Repsol filling station.
The bike takes 21.58 litres (not bad on a non-Adv 1200 ) and the trip says 299.9 miles .......giving 63mpg -

On we go: More great scenery as we head east toward Tarragona:

...though there are casualties:

...and eventualy we arrive in Tarragona and have an ice cream....

The beach looks tempting..

But we head on and I lose Brian at a set of lights.

After several motoway miles we meet up again, just north-east of Barcelona in Sant Celoni and crack-off a few more miles before we stop for fuel for the bikes (maybe) and ourselves:

We turn north-west toward the slopes of the Pyrenees, ending up at a town called Tona at the Hotel Montserrat.
Nice enough place but the proprietors struck me as a little careful with money: This was the first place where the room price got tax added on.
We had a few beers outsidewatching the diesel class qualifying section for the Spanish Touring Car Championships set off from the traffic lights outside the Hotel....
Later we went inside to the restaurant and were presented with the a la carte menu which was a bit rich $$$ for us, so we asked for the "menu del dia"....which was pretty-fair..

..but as we made our way to bed we were asked to settle the bill as "they didn't get up early".
The menu del dia did not include water, bread or wine.... ....as it does everywhere else......
Never mind..

 

[Ash]

fantastico report.

 

[Mr K]

Wednesday, 2nd July:

Once again we repeated the daily ritual of bike packing and prepared to leave Hostal Montserrat:

We stopped to refuel and have breakfast in Berga. The fuel consumption had slumped to 60mpg...

...and so begins today's ...

We headed off into the Pyrenees over several "Cols"; The Col de Boixols..

and "Jou"..

...Montlobar (Top name!)

..maybe you can make out Brian, over there?

We carried on to Ainsa and then onto the road to Biescas:

We found the village of Sallant de Gallego.

A Hotel/Restaurant had been recommended to us, speciafically for the food, but it turned out room and evening meal would be 138 Euros for 2 which was a bit steep for us....
A couple of hundred yards away we found Hotel Reyno for 58 Euro ... although we were, as tradition requires on the top floor

We went for a wander around...

..and a few beers..

..and as it began to rain we went to a restaurant that "ballistic" had spied with a "menu del dia" for 17 Euro: 3 courses plus water, wine and bread

My starter was asparagus with cheese sauce:

Followed by a lambs thigh bone and chips...

...and the cheesey platter for dessert:

...all washed down with a couple of bottles of "tinto" and coffees to finish.

We left the friendly and helpful staff a tip....

....and waddled off to bed, as the thunder and lightning rattled and the rain fell.....

 

[Mr K]

Thursday, 3rd July:

I awake. My spidey senses are tingling ...and my feet are freezing: There is a chilly gale blowing through our room. The weather seems to have changed.
I close all the vents on my jacket and trews and zip the liners back in...

..underway I'm glad I sorted my clobber out. It's rather chilly and I switch the grips to 1.
After refuelling not far from the off we notice the price of petrol rises from 1.25-1.30 per litre in Spain to 1.50-1.60 in France

We've a spare day before we're due to stay with friends near Limoges, so we decided to head north-west for the Bordeaux region and Atlantic coast ...for seafood and that wine in it's home environment.....

First obstacle of the day is the Col d'Aubisque - I love all this stuff - The road is peppered with Tour de France or possibly Vuelte de Espana graffitti..

..and the views are amazing

It clears a bit...

Brian stops for a picture and waves me on .... my "Quest" decided to take me over the Col de Tourmalet....but Brian's GPS didn't..

...anyhow we meet up in the village of Campan and the trip 'pooter on Brian's Adv says it was +4C over the Aubisque and I'd put money on the Tourmalet being a degree colder...

The temperature improves as we get back down to reasonable altitudes and head for the coast of Bordeaux.
Just short of Biscarnosse my wonderful motorbicycle clocks another "birthday":

We refuel at a Super U in Biscarnosse ...and for the first time ever a French 24 hour petrol pump accepts my Visa card....



We try to find somewhere in Biscarnosse-Plage to stay, but are thwarted by a Gendarmesse who directs us into a missile testing range...

...and then by the curse of traffic calming> No right turn, no left turn, no entry, speed humps..WTF?? Don't these people want tourists or something

We follow the coast north, slowly - Loads of solid white lines .... we glimpse Europes tallest/biggest(?) dune, but are seperated from it by a fence, barbed wire and a load of trees...... later we find a point where you can park and walk to the dune.... for 1.50E ....It's not a lot, but I'm used to being able to go on the beach free.....
We trundle on up the coast, through a few towns that blend into one. Expensive and grubby hotels abound and the road has high kerbs and an island down the middle, so all you can do is follow the cabbage ...sorry car in front....
My initial impressions of Bordeaux are not good.
We decide to head inland, to the east of Bordeaux (city) ... but just short of the ring-road spot "Hotel Chandafred" - it doesn't look much and is between a wine shop and 24hr petrol station and opposite a Renault dealership, but it has a carpark around the back, away from the main drag and the rooms are large and have TV and are off the road too, so quiet.
While I'm showering Brian goes walkabout and finds a busy Italian restaurant a 100 yards up the road
So it's pizza and vin rouge de la maison all round

They had a bottle of olive oil absolutely stuffed full with evil-looking red chillies - I had a drop on a piece of pizza crust and it was HOT - Brian seemed unperterbed and poured it onto his pizza .......I think it cleared his sinuses.....



We got the wine but not the seafood....

Short stroll back and beddy-byes...

 

[Mr K]

Friday, 4th July:

Had a good night's sleep, wake at 6, have another shower.
Brian is still asleep, so I sit on my bed reading about the dune we weren't allowed to see withouth paying and wake-up again 2 hours later..

Me socks and shirt haven't dried after last-night's laundry session, but it looks like it's going to be a warm day, so they can dry on me

We do a smidge of motorway and turn-off and stop at what I assume translates as a "Regional Sadistic Baker"

I notice the bike's sweating a bit in the heat....

After cakes and beer/coffee ( Fantastic: A licensed Regional Sadistic Baker ) ...we head across country, roughly north-east and when Brian stops to take pictures of Bordeaux grapes and vines, I carry on...

Woodlands...then a chateau..

I stop at a supermarket and get some beer - It'd be rude to arrive empty handed........
..and arrive at Ian & Judith's place near Challus.
Brian isn't there yet, but I change into my drinking pants and am served a beer .....and he arrives.... having been stopped by Le Plod and struggled not to have his wine "confiscated".....

I avail myself of the washing machine ... much to the relief of the dog...

.......and we retire to the garden for refreshments...

It's a beautiful place that they've made here:

....and I'd like to say a public "Thank-you" for putting us up and putting up with us.



It grew dark .....and we grew tired.....

 

[Mr K]

Saturday, 5th:

Rode to Le Havre.
Got on ferry at 17:30 CET.
No bargains in the former "Duty Free Shop" 24 Euro fo a litre of gin
Got off ferry at 22:00 BST

..to be continued...(If Brian wants to post some of his pic's, which are better than mine)

 

[Mr K]

Sunday, 6th July:

01:00 (BST) Arrived Team Ballistic Midland HQ.

02:00 Went to bed.


08:00 Awoke and enjoyed black pudding, egg and beans on toast

09:30 Left Team Ballistic Midland HQ

12:30 Arrived Team Ballistic NE HQ....

Thanks Brian (ballistic) - It was another good one

 

[Mr K]

PS:

If anyone's passing through Albentosa, could you see if they've kept my bungees and the flanel?

 

[Wrong Way]

Good report, i must do last years