Bikerjim
Registered user
I try to do a european tour once a year either with a company or other wise but nothing took my choice this year so decided to do something different.
The wife and other family would rent a Villa in Portugal and i would ride down over a couple of days.
Im on my K1300s as the GS died last year
So i caught the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo. Departs at 20:00 lands 7 am local time. Weather forecast isn't good with rain all down the west coast of France. I have two routes programmed into the Garmin a nice back route to Irun (near San Sebastian) or a Wet route consisting of motorways.
My Garmin decides its not talking to me ! lots of crackling. I reboot it and it works for 10 minutes FFS brand new. This is the third Garmin i have had and they have all had to go back!. I can still use the sat nav but no music or voice directions
The weather turns and its horrible so i just head down the Auto route after Niort about 4 hours on the back roads.
Guest house is a little family run place - not best placed but loads cheaper than the tourist resorts and its not a chain.
Caserio Gure Ametsa is its name a basic clean guest house.
The sea & mountains cause low cloud so not much to see.
Day 2
Im off to spain & head up from Irun on the A1 through to Vitoria Its a bit cold to say the least at 5d and I'm in summer leathers ! Its also misty and low visibility
On to the N1 after a couple of hours and there is a car ahead of me, the old boy is turning into a lay-by/ garage type area he slows and pulls into the left. Its a nice wide road with 500 meters in front with no visible hazards etc. I slip past. next thing i see blue lights and I'm being fined €100 for crossing the line. Now i am a bit peed off because there was no reason for the line to be there but what surprised me was the old boy caught us up and told off the copper for doing me.(he spoke very good english and tells me he worked in London as a waiter) I pay the fine after being escorted to the bank ! Now i am actually a bit happy about this as the K1300s is a bit quick and i think if he had not got me for that i would have been a bit worse
may be alot worse. Doing a google search there are lots of reports about the Police are doing this all the time now to get numbers up.
I stop at iffy services for a break
Sorry quick photo iffy looking people so a quick splash & dash
Across Spain at warp factor 9 (i think I'm going fast but then some local comes past me on an RT wearing shorts & a T shirt) into the north of Portugal off the Motorway on to the Portuguese rural roads. Portugal has these new automatic toll roads which are a bit weird. I try to register my bike but it has no front number plate which confuses the machine so i just carry on. I ask at the post office 2 days later and nothing has been registered ? So it seems the system cant do bikes? i may get a bill ?. Im happily doing my route when i see a BMW logo
Thought i would stop and say Hello !
I arrive at 19:00 hrs to the Villa on the resort of Pria del ray (50km north of Lisbon)
Peniche is a surfers dream - the water is a bit cold though
The return trip later
The wife and other family would rent a Villa in Portugal and i would ride down over a couple of days.
Im on my K1300s as the GS died last year
So i caught the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo. Departs at 20:00 lands 7 am local time. Weather forecast isn't good with rain all down the west coast of France. I have two routes programmed into the Garmin a nice back route to Irun (near San Sebastian) or a Wet route consisting of motorways.
My Garmin decides its not talking to me ! lots of crackling. I reboot it and it works for 10 minutes FFS brand new. This is the third Garmin i have had and they have all had to go back!. I can still use the sat nav but no music or voice directions
The weather turns and its horrible so i just head down the Auto route after Niort about 4 hours on the back roads.
Guest house is a little family run place - not best placed but loads cheaper than the tourist resorts and its not a chain.
Caserio Gure Ametsa is its name a basic clean guest house.
The sea & mountains cause low cloud so not much to see.
Day 2
Im off to spain & head up from Irun on the A1 through to Vitoria Its a bit cold to say the least at 5d and I'm in summer leathers ! Its also misty and low visibility
On to the N1 after a couple of hours and there is a car ahead of me, the old boy is turning into a lay-by/ garage type area he slows and pulls into the left. Its a nice wide road with 500 meters in front with no visible hazards etc. I slip past. next thing i see blue lights and I'm being fined €100 for crossing the line. Now i am a bit peed off because there was no reason for the line to be there but what surprised me was the old boy caught us up and told off the copper for doing me.(he spoke very good english and tells me he worked in London as a waiter) I pay the fine after being escorted to the bank ! Now i am actually a bit happy about this as the K1300s is a bit quick and i think if he had not got me for that i would have been a bit worse
may be alot worse. Doing a google search there are lots of reports about the Police are doing this all the time now to get numbers up. I stop at iffy services for a break
Sorry quick photo iffy looking people so a quick splash & dash
Across Spain at warp factor 9 (i think I'm going fast but then some local comes past me on an RT wearing shorts & a T shirt) into the north of Portugal off the Motorway on to the Portuguese rural roads. Portugal has these new automatic toll roads which are a bit weird. I try to register my bike but it has no front number plate which confuses the machine so i just carry on. I ask at the post office 2 days later and nothing has been registered ? So it seems the system cant do bikes? i may get a bill ?. Im happily doing my route when i see a BMW logo
Thought i would stop and say Hello !
I arrive at 19:00 hrs to the Villa on the resort of Pria del ray (50km north of Lisbon)
Peniche is a surfers dream - the water is a bit cold though
The return trip later
