Kevin & Lynda's European Wander

[KevinW]

Selcuk to Istanbul, 218 miles

A quick update so you know we haven't dropped off the end of the earth but not too much biking content for reasons that will become obvious.

20 June
Selcuk
Today we just decided to chill out and read for most of the day, well we are on holiday after all! I'm not sure I mentioned the electronic readers we bought just before we left. Lyn and I are avid readers (we're both on about book 7 since we left home) and it's always a PITA trying to figure out how we make space for the books. This time we thought we'd invest in a couple of Iliad Readers and we're really glad we did. If we find we've run out of books that we've preloaded we can just go online and downoad some more.

The Hotel Akay which is staffed by very friendly, warm and welcoming people who they can't do enough for you

We eat at the Hotels restaurant, which is on the roof, every evening - both food and view were very pleasant.

21 June
Ephesus
We had a leisurely breakfast then the hotel's driver took us to the top end of Ephesus where we purchased some souvenir baseball hats (saves the sunburn) and a booklet.

Well at least they're honest about the quality!

Apparently most people spend a couple of hours there, we managed to spend nearly 5. It is quite a large site with many streets and buildings. Some buildings are along the street, others off to the sides. The site is on a hill and you start at the top and walk down to the exit at the bottom - a very good plan in this heat.

Sprawling Ephesus

We went into the Odeon (no films showing though) and thought it was big, it would have housed about 2,500 people; later on we went into the Grand Theatre which would have held 25,000! It really was quite mind boggling.

The Grand Theatre. As usual, the scale just can't be appreciated from the photo

Whilst we were there there must have been thousands of visitors. Unusually, the crowds didn't detract from the experience at all, it seemed to enhance it somehow. Perhaps the fact that all those people were there but it didn't feel too crowded emphasised how big this place really is.

The crowds waxed and waned as the coach parties moved through

They have partially restored a series of terraced houses. Not the 2-up 2-downers we're used to, these had London main railway station architectural proportions and quite a few, reasonably intact, floor mosaics and wall decorations.

The mosaics were beautiful. This is a walkway alongside the terraced houses

There are quite a lot of Roman buildings, including the communal latrines - Lyn had to have a sit (I said sit). Apparently they were very comfortable. I don't supose they were so sweet smelling when in general use though.

It had to be done apparently

In one of the side streets there was a carved footprint pointing towards the brothel; not too many red lights then we imagine

The oldest profession

There are tons and tons of blocks of worked stone lying around, it must be like a huge 3-dimensional jig-saw trying to put it all together especially when you find out that over the years various different buildings have used the stone from the ruins.

We wondered why such a large city would be abandoned. We knew there were several large earthquakes but people generally come back and rebuild. Thanks to my Mother for the research as we were eating dinner - When the Ottomans came to power in the 15th century Ephesus went into a slow decline. The harbour silted up again and was abandoned and the resulting swamps led to malaria. Tax money was sent to central government and not used locally for upkeep. Nomadism increased and, by the 15th century, only 2000 people lived there in great poverty. After the Greeks left the citadel itself was abandoned and by 1824 Ephesus was deserted.

St. John's Church

We also visited St John's church which is a short walk from our hotel (we didn't ever find out much about the castle in the background of that picture other than it has been closed for the last 5 years for renovation and there's nothing more to see on the inside than is visible from the church).

This is the place where John the Baptist is said to have gone to with Mary and he is reputed to have been buried here. The view from the church was stunning including one of the original 7 wonders of the world, the Temple to Artemis, which is also now sadly derelict - there's very little left except storks nesting on a column that has been created from various blocks of stone from the site.

The view from St John's. The 'chimney' is actually a 14th century minaret. Our hotel is one of the buildings on the left

There is so much to see in this area it would definitely be worth revisiting but next time, one of the hotel employees told us, we've got to bring a car so we can fit a carpet and other souvenirs in (which we must purchase from him of course!).

Turkish bath ruins, just down the road from the hotel

22 June
Selcuk - Istanbul. 218 miles (plus a ferry crossing)
We got up really early (for us) to get an early start while it wasn't too hot. This worked well as we were on the road before 8 and the temperature was fine. We zapped up the motorway and main roads and, this time, managed to go round the outskirts of Izmir. We made good time and arrived in Bandirma just before mid-day.

We had arranged to meet Bora, a tyre supplier and GS rider, who had very graciously arranged to open up especially for us. He'd also arranged for his mate Ilham to open up to fit the tyres, fit a new air filter and perform an oil change. Two really friendly and helpful blokes and we very much appreciated their efforts on our behalf (Thanks David, aka ExpatinIstanbul, for recommending them to us).

Bora and me on the left behind Bora's 1200 and Ilham on the right (he rides a KTM but we won't hold that against him! )- they were two great guys

Once the bike was sorted out we had about 4 minutes to get to the ferry port, collect our tickets and then embark. Bora escorted us to the port, jumped off his bike to sort out the ticket - lucky he did as the machine wasn't working and he was able to talk to the guy fixing it - and then point us in the right direction. We got on the ferry and had just found our seats as it left. The ferry is very civilised as everyone has a seat allocated to them so there's no scrabbling for better seats. They also have catering staff wandering round dispensing drinks and ice creams - P&O could learn a thing or two from them.

Finally we arrived at our destination, Istanbul, where we had to find our hotel. We'd been told that if we reached the bridge we'd gone too far. It looked quite straightforward as we took a left to take us into Sultanahmet where our hotel is but, unfortunately, it wasn't a left it was a ramp for the bridge we were trying to avoid! On the other side we started an illegal U-turn only to pull up behind 2 police bikes so we turned left instead. At that point we decided to use our trick from Sarajevo - I pulled in to the next taxi rank and Lyn jumped into a taxi. The taxi driver was a very considerate and drove nice and slowly to ensure he didn't lose me which meant chaos ensued as all the fast-moving traffic flowed around us. He also left his hazard lights on to ensure I knew which taxi it was (there are thousands of yellow taxis here) which was fine except I didn't ever know which way the taxi was going to turn! Ten minutes later we were at our hotel and I don't think we'd have ever found it without him.

Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 June
Istanbul
We'll be here for a few days now. As I've mentioned in the past my back has been pretty sore and we'd been seriously considering leaving the bike in Istanbul while we flew home for a week to try to get it sorted out. Customs implications relating to the bike meant that wasn't go to work very easily so David to the rescue once again. He gave me the name of a local orthopaedic specialist who I made an appointment with to see about getting a cortisone injection (I tried to get one before we left but the local specialist couldn't fit me in).

We saw the specialist at 10 o'clock on Monday morning, 30 minutes later we were sitting in front of a pain specialist and an hour after that I was having an MRI and was told to come back at 10 the following morning for the injection! Private medicine doesn't work that smoothly at home. (The MRI cost the princely sum of about £83. I think the last one I had in the UK was £600).

This morning we went to the hospital for the injection. It was a bit strange being in a hospital where few speak our language but there was always the interpreter available at the end of a 'phone if we needed him (thank you Jay). They didn't have any normal rooms left so we were put into a VIP Room at no extra charge - shame! It was even more peculiar in theater as IME theatre staff always chat to the patient but the language problem made that impossible. Anyway, the injection was given and we got back from the hospital at about 18:30.

I'm glad that's over!

I was still pretty groggy from the sedative yesterday evening and I'm sitting here doing this now as I can't sleep. The good news though is that my back is more comfortable than it's been for a year although that may still be the local anaesthetic at work. As usual I had to show I could eat and hold down food before I left the hospital. Remember I said I was a 'conservative' eater? I imagine my face was a picture while I was trying to force some of the food they gave me down!

I'm supposed to have bed rest all day today but I don't envy Lyn trying to ensure that happens.

We'll probably be here until Friday or maybe Saturday when we'll head off in the general direction of Greece.

Kevin (who feels somewhat inadequate having read the 'Europe Unpaved Taster' thread) & Lyn (who is really glad we weren't on any of the trails shown in that thread!)

 

[KevinW]

Istanbul

22 June - 28 June:
A few miles by bike, a lot more taxi and loads by foot

What can you say about Istanbul? It's hot, noisy, extremely busy; full of people, taxis and maniac drivers. We loved it! Well, for a few days anyway. Not exactly being townies it is difficult for us to be too enthralled by the bright lights. However, we had a great few days here where we were able to do some sightseeing after I got off my bed (I was good, I stayed on the bed until 14:00!).

We found a trike on the street (not exactly Chopper Club quality though!)

We also sat in with the guys from the hotel to watch the Turkey/Germany match. Any team playing Germany is de facto 'our' team, so we were gutted when the Turkish team were defeated - I'd have said they were robbed but it's all about finishing and... The locals all took it well, only saying that Turkey were the best team.

Driving here is an art form in its own right. We spent quite a while in taxis going between the hospital and the hotel and it's amazing that there are so few of them with any collision evidence. They dash around, hooting, changing direction, driving up the tramways and always as fast as the other traffic permits. The drivers all have millimetre perfect spatial awareness that often led to Lyn to close her eyes when she was convinced we were about to crash.

People love to fish here - it was only 9 o'clock in the morning, but there were loads of fishermen out.

The city seems to be zoned into specialist areas; the spice market (which had lots of stalls selling spices by the kilo), the lighting area (about 10 large shops all in a row selling lights), the hardware area (my dad would have been in heaven!) and the ladies lingerie area to name but a few.

Most days we got up quite late and wandered down to the Sultanahmet area which is the old part of the city and just on our doorstep. It was quite hot but nevertheless we saw a lot of women dressed in their scarves and long coats, or the full monty black outfits - they must have been melting underneath. Perhaps that's why there's such a large ladies lingerie sector. Lyn did briefly wonder out loud if they have fans secreted under their clothing!

We were hot in t-shirts and shorts!

We managed to escape the clutches of the carpet sellers but I was enticed into a leather shop. I'd already told the guy we weren't there to buy, 'No problem, come in to look'...but it was soon apparent that they expected us to buy something and started to get aggressive, so we walked out. Just before we got to the door the salesman said to me "I have a carpet shop nearby". I just looked at him.

The only way to avoid this is to make sure you don't make any eye contact with people; even a polite "No thank you" is seen as an invitation to start high pressure selling. It's a shame as it means you don't get to do any real window shopping and, had we been allowed to browse, I'm sure we'd have come out of that shop with at least one jacket or coat as it was very nice stuff.

We found a nice open air restaurant just round the corner from the hotel which was where we ate most nights. I think they were quite pleased that we kept going back. The food was good and they were a friendly lot so it was no hardship (and it saved having to break in another set of touts!).

We extended our stay by an extra day to go to the BMW dealership with David (ExpatinIstanbul who is 'Our Man in Istanbul'). David met us at the hotel then guided us to the dealership which was through Istanbul and on the other side of the Bosphorus.

David and me getting ready to run the gauntlet

Apart from persuading Lyn, when she wasn't keen to go, that Turkey was going to be a nice place to visit and the roads would be OK, suggesting a route and hotels, finding us a dealer to replace our tyres and oil, finding me a doctor to help with my back and talking to the local BMW dealer then taking us there on our last full day in Istanbul David didn't do anything for us at all! I'd like to say a public thank you to him - he really did us proud, thank you David.

Some parts/inhabitants of Istanbul are very poor indeed - we saw many people who looked like tramps carrying round some huge bundles - but the BMW place is in a very plush area; David told us there is a house for sale that is the 2nd most expensive house in the world. They fixed the 'broken' seat catch - which was just a loose screw or bolt - and we also had the rear brake pads replaced. We've never been in a bike shop quite like this one (it was a BMW and Land Rover car dealership as well). This place looked like plush offices with bikes strategically dotted round the office looking decorative; very nice.

David left us just outside the dealership with the words 'Where the road splits I'm going right and you'll be going left. Will you be OK? Of course you will, you got all the way here without me!'.

It was great to finally meet with David as we'd been 'corresponding' for a few weeks in our preparation period. Lyn was really pleased that we went to Turkey as it has been one of her highlights of the trip.

Typical Istanbul road: bike, car, horse and cart and luxury yacht

Some of the less fortunate Istanbul inhabitants

The Blue Mosque is a beautiful building. During the day it is filled with tourists and after 6 it is left for the worshipers. It has 6 minarets which is only matched by the mosque in Mecca (which now has 7 we believe, to make it better). It has a beautiful thick red Turkish carpet and mosaics and painted decorations inside. Every inch of the interior is beautifully decorated.

As you'd excpect, everyone has to remove their shoes (it all smells very 'changing roomish' at the entrance!) and, if you're a woman, you should wear a head scarf (although we saw quite a few women who didn't respect this). Inside it feels huge as it's just one big empty space - it's difficult to estimate whether it is bigger than some of our English cathedrals but it's got to be up there with the biggest ones. It had a 'library' like noise whilst we were there - there was no music playing and the only voices were hushed.

The Blue Mosque

There are four huge columns holding up the ceiling (it's not often I'm not the most rotund object in the photo!).

The lens just isn't wide enough

Every morning at about 4.40 a muezzin starts to sing to bring the worshipers to the mosque. (Lyn is quite a heavy sleeper and has only heard it a couple of times but I seem to hear it most mornings and I enjoy listening to it).

I was finally convinced Lyn was barking when we were listening the the Muezzins while standing outside the Blue Mosque one afternoon. First of all one guy from one mosque would sing, then stop, then another one would 'reply', then stop, whereupon the first guy started again. Obviously we don't know what they were saying, but Lyn suggested one was singing 'Come on everyone, come to my mosque it's time to pray' and the other one was going 'you don't want to go to him, come to ours it's bigger' and then the other one would say 'don't listen to him he's just an upstart' ....and so on... Well she seemed to find it amusing!

The mosque has lots of visitors and people coming to pray. We thought the two lads in the picture below looked cute in their 'Sultan' outfits. It was only later on we discovered they were going for their circumcision - their first step to becoming a man.

The other big mosque building we visited was the Hagia Sophia. This building, when it was built, was the largest enclosed area in the world. It started life as a Christian church but was taken over by Islam at some point in its history. It was given to the people as a museum after the war and, it has to be said, it's quite dilapidated inside.

Hagia Sophia

The interior is undergoing some renovation and has the largest piece of scaffolding we've ever seen.

A few hundred years ago the building was renovated and the original mosaics were plastered over. Some of them are being re-renovated - it is a shame as the originals look much better than the replacement paintings.

A corner where the original mosaics can still be seen

We spent 1.5 hours trying to send stuff back to the UK. What a nightmare! The post office couldn't take either the envelope containing the MRI scans or the package of books we had (guide books and maps we'd finished with for this trip). We had to go to the Packet office but it was closed for lunch. When it reopened they sorted out the books but told me I had to go back to the Post office part to post the 'large letter'. The 'large letter' section told me it was a parcel and I had to go to the packet office....ho hum. Eventually we bought a plastic tube for the scans and sent them via the packet office. Still, I expect it keeps people in jobs!

Our last stop was the Topkapi Palace, a palace that is supposed to be the least ostentatious palace you'll visit - well, if it's not ostentatious, I don't know what is! There were numerous gold and gem-encrusted items and an 87 carat diamond, to mention a few; photography wasn't allowed inside those areas.

Inside the palace compound. Istanbul is not a very green city but it's clear that the rich folk enjoyed their gardens.

We had one of those Audio tours which kept playing music composed by the sultan, or the sultan's best wife...thank goodness for the 'stop' button! We started at the harem and were able to take photographs there (the buildings, not the women!).

Entering the harem - the area where the black Eunuchs kept guard

The entrance where the women stayed - there was an amazing amount of beautiful tile work on the walls.

One of a pair of huge mirrors that the guards used to keep an eye on the entrance

The concubines' living quarters

Anyway, enough of the Istanbul travelogue....

Having spent 6 nights at the hotel we were ready to move on. My back was improving (it's still nothing like 100% but the Dr. did say I shouldn't ride for a few weeks) and we'd had enough of the bustle of Istanbul, enticing though it is.

Next stop Greece.

Kevin & Lyn.

 

[KevinW]

Istanbul - Taormina: Turkey, Greece, Italy. About 1400 Miles

28 June
Istanbul to Drama. Turkey, Greece, 341 miles
This was quite a long ride, with the usual getting lost round Istanbul. I took the wrong right and ended up going back towards Istanbul for miles. They don't have roundabouts at the top of the exit ramps, Turkish drivers obviously never go wrong! There was a walled tram line between the lanes so I couldn't even do a U-turn. Somehow or other, and I never did work out how, we managed to turn round by wandering round some back streets which eventually took us over a bridge. Getting lost entering or exiting large towns and cities seems almost as much a theme for this trip as ice cream (the latter being a theme for all of our trips of course!).

We had a nasty moment: Lyn had been hearing a squealing noise as we had gone over large bumps but we couldn't see what was wrong and the suspension was as hard as it could go so there was nothing that we could do about it. As we went over this particularly large bump on the motorway the noise happened again but this time it continued with a longer squeal. The back end doing something 'orrid and I was quite convinced we'd had a blow-out. Then it cleared and I pulled over to the hard shoulder to investigate. We looked back along the road and there was a piece of something in the middle of the carriageway. Investigation showed this to be the rear mudguard which had somehow got tied up in the wheel and left long strings of plastic attached to the wheel. As it had been ripped off its mounts and run over a few times by then we decided to leave it.

We got to the border with no further problems and this crossing went so smoothly (only about 40 minutes) that we stopped for the obligatory ice cream and sat there sunning ourselves for a while. As usual, it was the Turkish side that took the time but at least this crossing had a large roof to protect us from the sun.

The roads in Greece were a great improvement over the Turkish ones. The last 30 miles or so to the border obviously are not important to the Turkish people and the road surface progressively got worse as we approached Greece, as did the driving which culminated in a lorry driver driving the wrong way along the dual carriageway towards us - he was looking for somewhere to turn and started doing that just as we reached him.

Having been given some parameters, piskoGSA very kindly provided us with a route through Greece (thank you once again).

We headed for Drama which was our first overnight stop. We did a lot of the route along the motorway so we could get some miles done but headed for the mountains once we reached Xanthi; it was still really hot. At one point we saw some very heavy clouds and then it rained on us a little. Bliss! We were lucky though as it was obvious that it had been raining very hard and we'd just caught the tail end of it. We started to see signs for the hotel and they lead us in nicely. The hotel was a gem. Definitely the best one we've stayed in so far.

29 June
Drama - Naoussa, 281 miles
Woke up to another glorious day and breakfast on the terrace. When I came out of the shower Lyn said "Come and have a look at this". 'This' turned out to be a herd of wild pigs eating their way across the garden!

If we hadn't already booked our following few nights' accommodation we would have loved to stay longer. However, it was not to be and we had a long slog to Naoussa across the mountains. The roads were really good motorcycling roads which skirted the Bulgarian border and the scenery was lovely but I was still suffering from a tummy bug acquired in Istanbul and eventually I started to find it more hard work than pleasure which was a shame as the roads were excellent.

The road less travelled

The roads were still very rural - we've certainly seen parts of Greece that many tourists wouldn't get to see. We stopped at the place in the photo' above to have a drink and just down the hill was a large trough, presumably for the sheep. There were no sheep around but the trough was teeming with life - there were dozens of frogs, tadpoles in different stages of development, diving beetles, back-swimmers. You name it, they were there.

The route was much more interesting than the more direct route we had originally planned. One of piskoGSA's points of interest was a lake where we could get buffalo steaks. We found the lake, which was as tranquil as it was beautiful and down a narrow mud road but managed to miss the turning to the village for the steaks.

Kerkinis Lake

We eventually found our way to Naoussa and then found the hotel with a lot of help from the locals as we only had the English version of the name which didn't really resemble the name in Greek. We were pleased to arrive as it had been a very long day, mostly on small mountain roads, and I was finding the combination of stomach bug and the heat so debilitating that I was having to ask Lyn to help me get the bike off the side stand whenever we stopped during the afternoon.

30 June
Naoussa - Kalambaka, 129 miles
I was still suffering and we were unable to leave the hotel until around 11 so we decided to go to Kalambaka the quickest way which meant going on more major roads than we'd prefer. Nevertheless we did traverse one excellent mountain pass between Kozani and the A2 and enjoyed the very twisty road down to Kalambaka.

About 15 miles out from Kalambaka the road starts to wend its way uphill again and we rode over a small bridge across a really green river with some volcanic looking rocks either side. This was to be our first glimpse of the area's special geology.

The shape of things to come!

After a few miles we were approaching Kalambaka and turned a corner and suddenly 'Bloody hell!' - there were some HUGE rock formations in front of us. As we approached the town they just got bigger and bigger and it was obvious why the monks in the medieval times decided that this would be a good place to set up shop.

Our first view of the Meteora mountains

We completed the ride to Kalambaka in a few hours and found our hotel which is situated at one end of the main road. Not too far to go to go to find something to eat, the laundry and an ice cream shop. I was feeling really rough so we decided to extend our stay here to 3 nights and just have the following day as a day off. Lyn got some of the Greek equivalent to Dioralite which we've been religiously taking morning and night and both feel a lot better for it.

We had a minor disaster today when the charger for the electronic book readers failed , we both read a lot so this was a bit of a blow.

1 July
Kalambaka
I was still feeling rough so decided on a 24 hour fast and spent the day mostly in bed dozing and working with Lyn to sort out our Italy leg. We usually only work a couple of days in advance but it's peak holiday season in Italy so, with hotel spaces at a premium, we decided to plan a bit further ahead and Lyn spent the day booking ferries and hotels. Our next week is scheduled so we don't have to worry about that any more.

I also contacted a web site in Italy who agreed to send a new charger for our readers to the hotel in Sicily; phew!

What would the 13th Century monks have made of this?

2 July
Kalambaka
Today we decided that we would spend the day going round the Monasteries, which is what the area if famous for, and it was definitely a 'Wow!' day. There used to be over 20 but now there are only 6 remaining and they are open to the public. They are all perched very precariously on the tops of the lumps of rock (which we now know are formed from river silt 60 billion years ago) and all had lots of steps to get to them.

The monasteries seem to grow out of the rocks

In the old days the monks, cherishing their privacy and also sometimes needing a means of staying safe when opposition occurred, used to have to climb up old wooden or rope ladders that were lowered from above. Some of them had winches that would lower nets down to pick up monks or provisions. We were glad they have now installed the steps though a lift would have been nice!

Our legs ache just looking at this photo!

The first monastery we visited was the Great Meteoro, Monastery of the Transfiguration. This was the biggest one we saw and had some interesting rooms such as the store room with a huge barrel which was held together with wooden trusses (they must have got through a huge amount of wine!), a kitchen next to a refectory which had enough room for a large number of monks and an infirmary which also had its own kitchen area for preparing special food. Every inch of the church (which we were not allowed to photograph) was impressively painted with religious scenes including the large dome.

The wine barrel was empty (Lyn checked!)

We both fell foul of their dress code. My knee-length shorts were too short, so I had to wear a pair of loan trousers, and Lyn's trousers were not a skirt, so she was provided with a wrap-around skirt to put over it. Interestingly, very short skirts and low-cut tops appeared to be acceptable so it was nothing to do with decency, just their idea of what is 'right' to wear. Still, it's their house and if we want to visit we have to play by their rules.

Very fetching clothes (but the view was worth it!)

There was a very interesting museum (well, the bits we could understand anyway!) that had a lot of war pictures. This seemed surprising at first, being a monastery and all that, but we soon saw why - the monks fought and played an active role in most of the wars that Greece has been involved in including providing assistance to Allied troops trying to return home during the second World War.

Ground space is at a premium here. When monks die they are buried for 3 years then their bones are dug up, cleaned with wine, and placed in the Ossuary.

The second monastery we visited (Varlaam) was much smaller but interesting nonetheless.

This monk was supervising builders who were chopping up large slabs of stone into paving stones or facing blocks

Later on we saw the same monk going across the chasm to the rock in a Heath-Robinesque cable car, we'd wondered what the cables were for.

Vacancy for monk: must have a head for heights

Unfortunately as the monastery was quite small we got stampeded in the coach-party rush. At one point we were in the church and there were two different groups filling the two rooms and we were caught in the middle.

Our final monastery (Rousanou) was Lyn's favourite; it was smaller still, but smelled really nice - they were selling sachets of Oregano which was what we could smell. Unlike the other ones, this was a female monastery and everywhere looked polished and, as Lyn said, 'loved'. We had the place to ourselves and as we left the inevitable coach party arrived. There was a staircase leading to the rock at the back, an invitation I couldn't resist, so up we went. I'm glad we did, it was a fantastic view from up there.

The views are stunning

It's impossible to be able to adequately describe Meteora, even with photographs which never seem to do the majestic scenery justice. On a bike trip space is at a premium so we always take our compact cameras and leave the DSLR behind. At Meteora we really wished we'd had it with us. Still, we hope the few pictures that we have here will convey something of this special place.

3 July
Kalambaka - Igoumenitsa then ferry to Brindisi. Greece, Italy. 139 miles.
We had a short day today, travelling about 140 miles to catch our ferry to Italy and nearly all of it was over twisty mountain passes; we could see the tallest Meteora lump for ages before finally turning away from it. The road we travelled is going to be replaced by a motorway very soon by the looks of things and we passed many partially completed bits of road. There are a lot of abandoned farms and businesses so I'm not sure the motorway coming through is always a good thing for the local population. Looking on the bright side though, I guess what it will do is give the nice bendy road over to the people who will enjoy it and enjoy it even more without the buses and lorries which will hopefully take the motorway in future.

We arrived at the port at about 2.30. I stopped to let Lyn off to get some more cash and promptly dropped bike and her on the floor! We have a procedure for disembarkation - Lyn says 'OK?' and I either say 'hang on' or 'OK'...well, this time, I was distracted and said 'OK' but then carried on with what I was doing - something on the Zumo.I blame it on the heat and crash helmet which acts on the brain like a boil-in-a-bag! Of course, as soon as Lyn got all her weight on the left peg the bike went over! No harm done to either passenger or bike I'm happy to say. Luckily, no-one we knew saw us!

Catching some rays and a ferry

The ferry was practically empty - just one bike (us), a handful of cars and camper vans and a few lorries. Having parked the bike we then got on the escalator to get to the passenger areas; very civilised and better than P&O's stairs.

4 July
Brindisi - Taormina, 331 miles.
We had a rude awakening this morning. We were expecting to get up at around 6, have showers and breakfast, then disembark at 7.30. At just after 6 an announcement came over the tannoy "We are a few minutes away from Brindisi, please prepare to disembark"...Bu**er! Quick lick and promise, throw the stuff in the bag and get our gear on ready to leave. Once we'd left the cabin it was obvious that we were not a few minutes out, more like over an hour. We would have had time to do everything we planned and still had time for a relax in the bar area. Ah well, we'll know better next time.

We left the ferry and just followed the route from the Zumo. As soon as I saw the sea on our right we knew something was wrong and pulled over to have a look; it was wrong. The Zumo's route to Sicily was via Naples, Sardinia and then Palermo - the wrong end of the island, about a thousand miles and a ferry ride! When I checked I found it was set to avoid motorways and the route offered was the best option to satisfy that setting. Luckily we noticed quickly, re-set the Zumo and then it was fine. We had over 300 miles to do and decided that we'd take the motorways wherever possible to save time.

As with the last bit of Greece, Southern Italy is undergoing a major road building programme and there are numerous bits of motorway being constructed. In a few years time you'll be able to go all the way across on motorway. As it was, our route was a mixture of motorway, towns and the odd bit of country. There are a lot of really large abandoned houses in the middle of fields, it's quite sad to see. The motorway, which was really a small dual carriageway, was very pretty with lots of pink- and white-blossomed bushes along the sides.

We arrived at the ferry port and Lyn got us a ticket just as the ferry was boarding so good timing! The ferry took 20 minutes and then we were in Sicily where the drivers are just like those in Istanbul but there are less of them.

A short 30 miles or so brought us to our hotel which is nestling beneath Mount Etna. The plan for tomorrow is to either ride or find a bus to get us closer to the volcano so we can have a proper look at it.

The reader charger was here (we hadn't paid for it yet!) so they went on charge.

That 'cloud' in the background of the photo is actually from the volcano which is having one of its periodic eruptions - excellent!

Kevin & Lyn

 

[Norrie]

Another interesting and informative write up . what's your feeling's now that you are homeward bound.
On my last trip away when we turned and started heading North my head dropped a little as I didn't want the trip to end.

Enjoy the remainder of your run and I look forward to your Sicily and Italian write up's

Schultz

 

[KevinW]

Another interesting and informative write up . what's your feeling's now that you are homeward bound.
On my last trip away when we turned and started heading North my head dropped a little as I didn't want the trip to end.

Thanks. Our feelings are mixed really. We're having a great time and it would be nice if we could do this all of the time (perhaps we should start doing the lottery!) but I think when we get home we'll be ready for it; there's no place...etc.

Kevin

 

[Jazbee]

Fantastic trip report, thanks for sharing and enjoy the remainder

 

[KevinW]

Taormina to Palermo, 280 miles

5th July
Mount Etna. 70 miles
When we were planning this phase of our trip we weren't sure whether to just ride all the way up Italy or use ferries to jump around a bit. Seeing on the map the magic words 'Mount Etna', the largest active volcano in Europe, we decided to go there as we're rather fond of volcanoes (we visited White Island by helicopter when touring New Zealand on a VFR800 earlier in the year), ride round to Palermo then jump on a ferry to Naples. We found ourselves in this lovely hotel in Taormina with a grand view of Etna. Looking at it from a distance is not the same as being on it though so we got on the bike to have a closer look.

Riding towards it, the effect Etna has had on the surrounding countryside is obvious. Whilst there are acres and acres of land that are still just covered in lava, it was surprising how much of the land has recovered to the extent that it looks very green and in places yellow.

Etna letting off steam in the background and me steaming in the heat in the foreground!

Far from the sulphur smell we expected, we were treated to the glorious scent of the thousands of brooms that were in full blossom. Further up the mountain, as we passed the lava from the more recent eruptions, it became very barren but even there we noticed there are colonies of alpine plants starting the regeneration. We learned that it usually takes about 20 years for the desert to start to support plants, depending on how much sand is included in the lava.

We got as far as we could by road and then rode in a cable car up to 2000m. After that, the closest you can get to the top is by a guided tour via a 4x4 mini bus which will go another 1000m.

Whilst we waited for the trip to the summit we wandered around and it was just like walking on a fireplace - the lava is like coke.

The ground is very rocky and slippery

There are guides at the top who, following a defined route, explain the terrain and point out interesting features; there are lots of new craters as a result of the 2002 eruption. Etna is a ski resort in the winter and they've obviously moved a lot of the lava around to accommodate the ski lifts and runs which has made it very slippery underfoot. We saw small pockets of snow which were covered in black volcanic dust - apparently this insulates the snow and keeps it cold enough not to melt. We saw where the 2002 eruption had overcome a refuge which really brought home how much lava can come out when it gets going.

One ex-refuge

There is a plume of steam coming out of the top which is visible from a distance. Closer up it's possible to see that some of the plume is blue which is gas rather than just steam. The guide told us that as it was such a hot day and therefore high pressure there was not much gas coming out, had it been a low pressure day we' d have seen a lot more. The steam must contain tons of dust as there is a pinkish haze that is visible all round in the direction of the wind. When we got back to the hotel our faces felt rough with the grit and our clothes made the washing water black and left behind a very fine black soot.

On top of the world, where it was very windy!

When we stepped out of the vehicle there was a smell of sulphur but it was quite mild as we were the other side of the mountain from the eruption which started sometime in May and has created a rupture half-way down the North side. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to go round to see the lava flow but at night we could see the red scar from the hotel. Every so often we could hear explosions from the the volcano.

We had been warned that the temperature at the top would be quite cold so took our jeans and microfleeces. We were really glad of them when the wind started. One of the other tourists was wearing a flimsy tee shirt and shorts - she looked really cold. I did seriously consider offering her my microfleece but in the end decided she was a lot younger than me and I wasn't that much of a gentleman!

Steam still issuing from this fracture from the 2002 eruption

Apart from the steam and gas the air is really clear and the view from the top was terrific. We were able to see right across to Palermo in one direction, the main Italian coast in the other and the sweep of the bay was clearly visible. The guide told us we were lucky to be able to see so much as the morning visitors had seen mostly haze.

The view was fantastic, but you could see the effects of the dust

Finally, we rode back down the lovely twisty road

6th July
Taormina to Palermo. 210 miles

Here's a photo for the IOM folk...this isn't exactly the same as the the legs of Man but it must have some relationship in the dim and distant past. These cropped up a lot in the town but this one was on the side of the hotel.

After a nice relaxed breakfast during which we could quite clearly hear explosions from the volcano - like a large gun going off in the distance - we wandered into Taormina to look at their Greek/Roman Theatre. It was fairly small, probably about the same size as the Odeon at Ephesus and had lots of modern additions such as wooden staging, lights and plastic seats. It's obviously still in use after all this time. The Romans made extensive alterations to the original Greek architecture to accommodate their gladiatorial events. We're not sure whether the 'windows' to Etna were original but they certainly added something special to the place.

A room with a view

We then wandered through a lovely park which looks like a memorial park to the war victims. It has a poignant statue of two angels who look like ordinary people going about their daily lives. There were also some Roman-looking buildings that we couldn't decide whether they were completely new or renovated. Either way, they were pretty buildings and well done. There was also a small collection of war items, including a mini-sub.

They must have been brave men to ride on these things

We then got back onto the bike for our ride to Palermo. The route we chose did a circle round Etna (there's something about the place that keeps drawing you back) then through the centre of Sicily along some twisty roads to a place the Rough Guide puts as one of the top 10 Roman sites in Italy - the Roman villa mosaics at Piazza Armerina.

Once we left the immediate environs of Etna the land looked very dry and brown. Most of the fields were empty having been harvested recently. Something we've noticed in Italy is that they still burn the stubble so there are quite a few patches of burnt straw.

It was many miles before we couldn't see Etna any more, it really does dominate the landscape.

Last view of Etna

We stopped in a town called Troina for a quick drink and croissant (we've become fond of the cream-filled ones available here - sweet tooth? not us!) and sat outside the cafe where another 3 people were already sitting. A few minutes later the cafe shut, the people moved off and we were left there to finish on our own. The entire town was deserted; it was very strange, like a scene out of a zombie film - everything was there except the people! Perhaps it's true what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen - it was rather warm.

We were reminded of the Sopranos (a TV series about the Mafia in the US) when we saw a series of political posters and every one of the men looked like they could have been extras. Another reminder was it would appear that the dustmen are on strike as there were tons of rubbish piled up on street corners - it looked bad and smelled worse.

We don't know who won, but his name would have ended in a vowel!

The mosaics at Piazza Armerina were saved for posterity by a land-slide hundreds of years ago and they've been discovered and worked on for the last 50 years. They have built lots of greenhouses to cover the buildings but, so far, have not put a lot of investment into 'tourist information'. They are still working on large parts of the site and we're not sure we'd put it in our 'top 10', yet.

The detail in the mosaics was incredible (they're under glass, hence the reflections)

This one showed women in bikinis - nothing's new!

We then did a quick hop to Palermo, where we got stuck in a traffic jam. I find the brakes on the GS a bit inadequate if I'm honest and, when this traffic jam sudenly appeared, the only reason I didn't hit the car in front was there was a small gap between the lanes that I was able to slide into. I know we're carrying a lot of weight but we've been touring on other bikes which have been equally laden and they've been better; perhaps sintered pads and braided hoses would help? The other GS we have is the same so it's not this specific bike.

All the other bikes were just riding down the hard shoulder so 'when in Rome'... There were police at the end so a quick zoom back into a proper lane was called for. We never did see what all the delay was about - just one of those things!

On to the ferry which, once again, has escalators. That's a great innovation especially when they are 9 or 10 stories tall.

Overnight we'll be sailing north - homeward bound...

Kevin & Lyn

 

[Ash]

Fantastic trip report, thanks for sharing and enjoy the remainder

+1

 

[KevinW]

Naples to Pisa. About 640 MIles

7th July
Naples to Ercolano via Paestum, the Angel's Caves at Pertosa and the Amalfi coast. 228 miles
The ferry got into Naples just before 06.30. We had decided to ignore the first call and it's just as well as all the announcements were in Italian so we wouldn't have known what they were on about anyway!

Our hotel was about 30 miles from the port but we decided that as it was so early and not quite so hot yet we'd ride to Paestum, a site recommended by Wessie of this parish. We got there about 08.15 and drove round the huge walls until we found the entrance. A couple of croissants and coffee/orange for breakfast at a nice outside cafe set us up for the walk round. Luckily we were able to leave most of our bike gear at the cafe but didn't change into our shorts so we got very hot as the day warmed up.

Paestum is famous for having 3 temples; the external skeleton of all of them is pretty much intact so it's possible to see just how huge they are. Seeing these structures made the ruins of the earlier ones we saw, such as Athena's Temple in Assos, make more sense. The site of the city is quite large but manageable.

The temple of Neptune (that small blue blob is Lyn)

Two temples so close together - that's just greedy - and there's a third at the other end of the site!

The remains of the swimming pool were interesting - the shallow end was furnished with a large slope and there was a labyrinth at the deep end that they used for underwater swimming

Ampitheatres are usually on the outskirts of the town but the one in Paestum is in the middle of the city which archaeologists attribute to the town's expansion - it was on the edge of the city to begin with but as the city grew it enveloped it. Unfortunately half of the structure is buried under the road, maybe one day they'll dig it up. One of the ampitheatre entrances has been rebuilt and is a very elaborate arch.

The Amphitheatre

Paestum is a fascinating place and well worth a visit. Only the outline of many of the buildings remain but it's possible to get a good feel for what the city was like when it was a thriving community. Again, we had to ask the question about why it had been deserted and there appear to be several causes - marshland that formed when the nearby river overflowed caused the area to become unhealthy, deforestation of the nearby mountains to obtain wood to build ships led to dangerous changes in the course of several rivers and new roads moved the main highway from Rome to the East away from the Paestum leading to a decline in trade (those new motorways again!).

After we looked round Paestum for a few hours we visited the Angels caves at Pertosa, a site we found from reading the Paestum guide book. The entrance to the cave is via a short boat ride which is powered by a man pulling on a wire. The guide, who spoke excellent Italian (we assume!) and nothing else, sang to us to demonstrate the cave's echo; very nice. The caves are lit by some subtle lighting which turns off after you leave the area so there is not too much excess light and it's possible to get a good feel for the caves. The stalactites and stalagmites are spectacular, not many of them have been damaged, and the caves are enormous.

One of the interesting shapes in Angel's Caves

We finished our long day with the 100 mile ride back to the hotel via the Amalfi coast road (thanks again Wessie). This road twists and turns up and down as it follows the inlets of the coast and it was very, very busy. At one point a coach got stuck in a very narrow village and completely snarled up the traffic. We were eventually able to squeeze past which meant we had our side of the road to ourselves for a while (well, apart from the traffic that was coming the other way which also wanted to be in our lane but that's pretty much par for the course in Italy).

The roads were so twisty and narrow that there are a lot of helpful mirrors (that's us in the bottom right-hand section this one)

One of the interesting buildings along the Amalfi Coast

My heart sank a little when we encountered a Caribinieri car but the driver really knew the road and was going for it so it was good following him as if he braked I knew we would need to too. Our fun came to an end when he overtook a car and there wasn't room for us to follow through but we overtook him again a bit later on as he had stopped to have a word with a couple of lads on a scooter.

One of the towns along the Amalfi coast where the Roman influence can still be seen

We arrived at the hotel hungry, thirsty and tired only to learn that they have a problem with their water supply which is being fixed tomorrow so they'll have to move us out. We were a bit P'd off initially but as it happens the new hotel is nicer and in a better location so we're happy.

8 July
Herculeneum
We spent the morning looking round Herculeneum which was about 200m down the street. This town, like its larger neighbour Pompeii, was also inundated in the 79AD eruption of Vesuvius.

A street in Herculeneum

A large number of the rooms have mosaic floors - not as elaborate as at Piazza Armerina but nice all the same - and some still have their roof. We went into one building (part of the baths complex) that appeared to have an arched corrugated iron ceiling, but closer examination showed it to be original plaster.

One of the rooms in the baths with intact ceiling

Another room in the baths also had an intact floor mosaic albeit somewhat sunken in places; it used to be an elevated floor to allow under floor heating but the combination of earthquake and volcano caused it to collapse.

The dip can be seen if you follow the straight line on the right

They are still digging...

It was very evocative to walk along the streets thinking about the people who would have lived there 2000 years ago. Most of the people got out of Herculaneum before the ash arrived but some 170 bodies were found so they didn't all make it. We saw a very sad tableau of three skeletons all cuddled up together which put a very human face to the disaster.

9 July
Pompeii
Today was Lyn's turn with the tummy bug so we were rather late leaving for Pompeii. We were advised by the receptionist to catch the Circumvesuvia railway to Pompeii rather than a taxi as it 'would be easier'. That was a matter of opinion. It took us about half an hour to walk down to the railway station, then we had a half-hour wait for the next train which was packed when it arrived. Still it was very cheap - 5 Euros for both of us return.

When we got there we had a map to help us find our way round but even with the map it was difficult to navigate - Pompeii is huge with a labyrinth of streets. We walked round for a bit just soaking up the atmosphere. It is very similar to Herculeneum, but on a much larger scale.

Everything's on a large scale, including the volcano in the background

There are a lot of locked areas, unlike Herculaneum where you can pretty much go where you like. There are also a lot less mosaics as most of the really good ones have been moved to the Naples Archaeology museum. It's a shame because they probably looked a lot better in situ.

We found our way to the Amphitheatre which was really spectacular. It is complete and it's possible to stand in the arena but not go into the seating area.

The giant amphitheatre

The streets have large lozenge shaped rocks across them which were used as stepping stones to allow people to cross them as all sorts of things used to flow down the street, not just rain water, and exit via holes in the city walls.

Pompeii street - much bigger than those in Herculeneum

Pompeii was a commercial centre and there were a lot of shops including what was billed as a 'fast food' outlet. McDonalds' ancestor maybe?

Standing in Pompeii it was easy to see how easily it could have been inundated by the eruption from Vesuvius - it dominates the views and many streets point straight at it. It must have been horrifying to see the smoke and ash come pouring down. One of the things that Pompeii is famous for is the plaster casts of the bodies found. We only saw a few which were mostly hidden away or in areas that are currently out of bounds due to renovation work. It didn't seem right to photograph 'the bodies' but it seemed OK to photograph the dog.

10 July
Ercolano - Pisa. 408 miles
We need to get round to southern Spain to see one of our friends before he returns to England for a few weeks so the next few days are primarily about putting in some miles so we get there before he leaves. Unfortunately this means using motorways which I loathe but it's the only way we're going to get the miles done; we have added a few interesting bits so it's not all going to be boring.

As we pulled on to the crowded motorway the SatNav announced "Continue 192 miles" but we had a little detour planned which should make the day more interesting. When looking for roads to ride I came across a road called Mille Curve - 1000 bends (SS79bis). That sounded just the ticket so, just after lunch, we did a 40 mile loop round Mille Curve. Lyn tried to count the bends but gave up as she was also taking photos (I thought women could multitask?!). The road surface wasn't great but, as advertised, there was bend after bend after bend and it made a nice change from the monotony of the motorway. All too soon our 40 mile detour was done and we pulled back on to the same junction we had left the motorway on for the remaining 100 or so miles to Pisa.

We arrived in Pisa in late afternoon and easily found our way to the hotel which was a former Manor house and very tastefully decorated with antique wooden furniture and lots of marble (and the odd mosaic or two). The hotel was a mile or so away from the famous Leaning Tower so we walked to it. We decided to go up the tower; they have timed tickets for every 30 minutes. Ours was for 9 o'clock which was quite a good time as the sun was beginning to go down and we were treated to a lovely sunset.

It really does lean a lot! (the building on the left is straight, the camera isn't!)

The lean is obvious when climbing the stairs inside - it's a bit disconcerting. The guide book describes the lean as the 'mysterious disease', we'd say it was poor foundations but what do we know!

Even the bells are lop-sided

The view from the top was fantastic and we were quite chuffed (not puffed!) that we got up there a lot quicker than some people who were younger than us who had to keep stopping to catch their breath. All this walking up mountains etc. must be having a good effect.

The cathedral as seen from the top of the tower

Looking closely at the cathedral there was evidence of the practice of plundering older buildings for stone.

Recycling in the middle ages!

I'm pleased to say that my back is a lot better now - the injection has worked. Now the only wriggling is the usual numb-bum!

That's all for now, moving on to France tomorrow.

Kevin & Lyn

 

[KevinW]

Pisa to Mojacar. Italy to Spain via France. Around 1300 miles

11 July
Pisa to Jausiers, Italy to France. 298 miles.
This was definitely the best biking day of the trip. We followed the motorway for a while to Genoa - boring and straight but nice scenery with mountains and hill top towns to the sides. There was a utilitarian (aka ugly!) bridge in Genoa which, when we saw some of the rest of the town, seemed to be in keeping with it.

Typical view from the back of the bike

After Genoa the motorway got quite interesting with lots of sweeping bends - we were being passed by BMW cars on the straight bits but they didn't seem to like bends so we were overtaking them again.

On the way to Jausier

The road got smaller, more like an A road, and then a B road, and we came through lots of pretty one-street villages nestled under the mountains, often next to a river.

A typical village

We came down the road into Jausiers and saw a white castle. Lyn: "Wouldn't it be nice if that was our hotel"; Kevin: "Don't be silly, we're not that lucky!"...we were!! Our apartment was in the castle and one of the rooms was in the turret.

Our residence for the night

We had planned to ride the Col de la Bonette, one of the Tour de France routes and arguably the highest road in Europe at 2802m, and our hotel was just on the edge of it. We dumped our gear, had a nice cold drink, then went for a ride. The road was fantastic - definitely a 'rider's road'. There were plenty of hairpin bends to contend with but, as the road was so narrow, there weren't too many large vehicles coming the other way to avoid.

A sight to make a rider's eyes light up

There's not a lot to stop anything going over the edge

There were several bikes already at the top (one was another GS) and we asked one of the riders to take our picture. We reciprocated with one of the other riders who we thought was with them, but he was on his own and delighted to have his photo taken as the other riders hadn't volunteered for him.

On Top of the World...well, Europe anyway

The pink thing wrapped around the instruments had me puzzled for a while then I realised it's the arms of a woman who wouldn't get out of the way - the photographer made a good job of hiding her!

As we were riding up the col there were several old military installations - probably garrisons - which brought home how close we were to the French/Italian border. At the top the plaque said that it had originally been part of Napoleon's national defence route.

It really is picturesque

We then rode the rest of the route. Unfortunately, as our hotel was at the other end of the col, we had to turn round and do it all again . That evening we had a lovely meal on the terrace overlooking the mountains watching the sun go down.

The view from the Castle

12 July
Jausiers to Marseillans. 311 miles.
This morning we set out on the Col de la Cayolle. While the Col de la Bonette was a riding road, this was definitely a dawdling and looking at the scenery one; we sped along and did about 30 miles in the first hour and three-quarters.

Stopping to admire the scenery

The GS takes a well-deserved breather

This col is also a Tour de France route and we overtook loads of people on cycles, puffing uphill. Most of them looked our age. Perhaps we should have felt ashamed that we weren't doing something similar but we just thought they were barking! Each rider had their own little cluster of gnats and flies that was flying along with them; nice.

We had lunch in a favourite town of ours - Castellane - and set the Sat Nav to take us the quickest way as we'd spent so much time over the morning's col. Nevertheless, the route was still very small and twisty and very pretty.

This gorge goes down hundreds of feet to a very small river at the bottom

A well-placed dam has created this beautifully coloured lake

Eventually we made it back onto the motorway and we zoomed along towards two friends who have a boat moored in Marseillans. As we approached their area the clouds blackened and Lyn resorted to waterproofs. Luckily though, we missed the majority of the downpour although the wind was very strong and gusty enough to blow the bike around a bit; we arrived in a very wet town.

Monday is French Bastille Day and we stayed on the boat as accommodation was impossible to find.

The next day dawned bright but windy - the Mistral had blown in - and the washing was done and dried in a couple of hours. We had a very relaxing day reading, snoozing and boozing. After a very pleasant meal we watched the celebratory fireworks which were set off from about 200m away in the harbour so we had a ringside view.

14 July
Marseillans to Los Narejos. 580 miles.
We had an early start as we had lots of miles to cover - nearly 600 - to see a friend of ours who lives in Los Narejos. There's no way I could have contemplated this mileage on the GS before my 'jab' in Istanbul but I managed it without any problems except the usual numb bum. The route was pretty boring, but the motorways were all clear and efficient with the exception of one of the toll booths which was heaving and causing us quite a delay. We realised why when I looked beyond the campervan we were stuck behind to see loads of cars that were pushing in to the queue from the side. When in Spain do as the Spanish do so we pulled out of the queue and went to the front of it.

We arrived at our friend's place late afternoon and caught up on all the gossip over a 'traditional Spanish meal' - in an English fish and chip shop! We spent the following day relaxing again, we could definitely get used to this!

16 July Los Narejos to Mojacar. 106 miles.
We had a leisurely start, leaving at 11.30 for the short hop to Mojacar. The road is a brand new motorway and was practically empty - apparently the Spanish refuse to pay the toll so they keep away.

As we rode along there were miles and miles of the plastic greenhouses which seem to be a regular feature in this area.

No fields of green here

We've rented an apartment for a few days with a fantastic view of the hilltop town of Mojacar at the back. The only down side is the neighbours - noisy Spaniards who can apparently only communicate with each other by shouting and have dogs that keep yapping. We looked forward to the relief of the night when they stopped at about midnight. We were awoken later by loud snoring from the room next door, we had to laugh; they evidently don't bother with any soundproofing in these buildings.

The hilltop Moorish town of Mojacar (view from our window)

My daughter arrives back in Mojacar tonight and we'll be staying here until Monday to spend some time with her. We had planned to head home from here but, having looked at where we've been so far, the trip seems somehow...incomplete...without visiting the most westward country of the European mainland - Portugal.

We couldn't make up our minds whether to go there or not as we're already over the time we originally allotted and we're both knackered (we could do with a holiday after this!) so we asked on here if it was worth the effort and were rewarded shortly afterwards by a reply from Spikehammer who gave us an interesting route through Portugal which we'll be following.

So, Portugal first, then across the northern Spanish coast through the the Picos and Pyrenees mountains, into France, a short visit to the D-Day landing sites then home...but a few days chilling out first.

Kevin & Lyn

 

[KevinW]

Mojacar to Braganca, Spain to Portugal, 840 miles

21 July
Mojacar to Guarda, Spain to Portugal, 582 miles
We spent the last 5 days in Mojacar just chilling, catching up on the family gossip and sorting out our next leg. We hired a car so we could go out with my daughter and went to a theme park called Oasys - it used to be called Mini Hollywood as it is based around the film industry that used to be here filming Westerns ('Paella Westerns'?). There is also a zoo there and we walked round in the heat feeling very hot. At the end of the day there is a western show, where a few guys on horses ride around the square shooting each other. That was a job we didn't envy - one baddy got dragged behind the horse (deliberately) - but it was OK because all the baddies died and the good guy saved the day. ;-)

As we were here on a Sunday we went to a local restaurant for a traditional English Sunday lunch - Mojacar has a large British ex-pat population so getting British food is no problem; we had one of the best lunches we've had in a long time.

So onwards and upwards...our Sat Nav route had us retracing our steps to Murcia (near to where we had previously been) and then on up towards Madrid. Looking at the map it seemed a very odd route to Lynda who tried various other routes that were 'obviously shorter' but they were more miles over slower roads and took longer; Sat Nav 1, Lyn 0.

We started off quite early to avoid the heat but it was already really sticky (it's a very humid heat there) so it was good to get going along the motorway and have the breeze come through our jackets. Not much to say about the road except that it was quite boring but we seemed to eat the miles up quite quickly. We chose the toll route and that was a good choice; as before, the lorries and most of the cars went the other way so we had the road pretty much to ourselves.

On and on and on .....

The landscape is very desert-like, with quite a few large outcrops of sandstone and sometimes slate. The farms seem quite different to the ones in the UK - there are a lot of large fields that seem to be arbitrarily subdivided into odd shaped sections, each with a different crop growing. As we moved eastwards the fields became larger and mostly one crop per field, most of them seem to have been harvested and there were lots of square hay bales left to dry. Even further east, now almost in Portugal, there were more trees growing - these looked like crop trees, but were not so closely grown as the usual olive trees, or citrus trees. Another crop is energy - there are numerous wind farms on the tops of hills, and fields full of solar panels that turn to the sun have also sprung up.

About 100 miles before the border the dual carriageway disappeared and all we could see was the construction for the rest of the route. Sooner or later there will be a full motorway between Madrid and Portugal. The landscape also changed - this time the rocks were black with, what looked like, quartz shining in them and they seem to have appeared from nowhere - glacial drop maybe.

We arrived at our hotel and turned our clocks back an hour - Portugal being on the same time as the UK (very civilised!).

22 July
Guarda to Alfandega da Fe, 259 miles
This is about 80 miles via the most direct route; we did a circuitous route recommended by spikehammer that took us west towards the coast, through the Estrella National Park which is beautiful and on through some other hilly areas.

The route started out with a 'Sat Nav special'...turn left down an unpaved road which looked suspiciously like a farm track and was presumably a few yards shorter than the main road. Luckily the GS didn't care!

Sat Nav Special

Still, mustn't grumble, we took a wrong turn in a very steep village on the N338 and it got us going again via all the little back streets. The 2008 Garmin map update has vastly improved the mapping of Spain and Portugal which was a bit sparse when we were last here.

Portugal loves its cobbles

Even the mountain twisties have cobbled edges!

As we came through the mountains there were still a lot of those large boulders just casually dumped. It's difficult to know what they are made from but they did look a bit like the Meteora rocks so maybe they're from river silt. Whatever, they are they are very impressive and must be a real pain to the people wishing to use the land for crops etc. There were a lot of fields with the crops carefully arranged around the outcrops of rock.

A small diversion of the road round the rocks

After the hills we came to forest which was full of the smell of Eucalyptus, one of Lyn's favourite scents. We came through miles and miles of the forest, taking it nice and gently to really take it all in.

Through the forest breathing deeply

By mid afternoon we turned round and went 'the quickest' way, which was along twisty A-type roads and motorway. If all motorways were like that I wouldn't mind them at all. It was reasonably quick but still picturesque, Portugal is much greener (in the literal sense) than Spain.

We have stayed in some fabulous hotels during this trip but the one outside Alfandega da Fe certainly gets the 'best view out of the window' award. Standing on our balcony looking over the valley that was carved by a glacier some eons ago, all that could be heard was the buzzing of insects, the twittering of the dozens of swifts and the bells from the sheep (goats?). The loudest noise was the occasional 'baa' from one of the sheep as it objected to being herded home. No traffic, phones, music, people...just sounds that someone hundreds of years ago would recognise. Bliss!

Part of the panorama from our balcony

23 July
Hotel to Alfandega da Fe, 8.7 miles
This wasn't quite the day we had planned. We left the hotel and as we were riding down the road we noticed the bike was a bit hesitant. On many Japanese bikes (and maybe others) the fuel injection is poor at certain revs - this is what it was like and not something I'd experienced on the GS before. We stopped for petrol and then continued. Just as we got into the village of Alfandega da Fe the engine just died. Nothing I did would make it start again so we ended up calling the breakdown service. It would have been a lot worse to have broken down in the middle of nowhere so we appreciated the bike's consideration!

A few years back we broke down in Spain on a Tiger and the debacle after calling the RAC included being 'held hostage' by the recovering garage for hours and hours as they weren't sure they were going to be paid and being sent 100 miles in the wrong direction to go to the garage where the bike had been moved to as they apparently wouldn't look at the bike until we'd signed a waiver; only trouble was the bike was still in its original location and hadn't been moved at all as the garage we were sent to had already told the RAC they weren't a Triumph dealer so wouldn't take the bike for repair. You won't be surprised to hear that we were dreading what would happen next on this occasion.

There's obviously something about this region and off-road styled bikes as we've been through Spain 4 times on a bike and on the 2 occasions we were on this type of bike it has broken down! It's somewhat ironic that this occurred in the middle of an email 'argument' with a friend about the merits or otherwise of the GS; he listed unreliability as a common fault and I don't know how he managed it but he made his point!

Waiting for the breakdown truck was rather stressful...

Alfandega de Fe is a very quiet place - not a lot happens there apparently so we were the centre of a lot of attention. One bloke stood for ages watching us; when Lyn moved 'out of sight' round a car to change out of her bike gear into something cooler, he even walked round to get a better view - every village has to have its idiot and we think he was it. While we were waiting the same learner drove past 4 times, the one and only bike we saw - a Green Kawasaki Ninja - went past 3 times, the police drove past 3 times; a lot of pedestrians walked past us, usually giving us a smile or wave. One of them, a really old boy, staggered past us then stopped, it looked like he was trying to cross the road. Another man walked up to him, put his hand on his shoulder and sat him down on the kerb about 5 feet away from us. He didn't smell too fresh. A little later a nurse zoomed up in her van, got out, talked very loudly to him, then drove off again. A bit later on a taxi turned up and took him off, I assume by arrangement from the nurse, who did another drive-by half an hour later. By the time we'd been there for a couple of hours it almost felt like we knew these people!

We waited about 2 and a half hours for the breakdown guy. He put his single word of English to good use when I asked him if he spoke English - "No"! He looked at the bike, I demonstrated that it wouldn't start, the driver mimed 'it's broken' and then phoned the Portuguese side of the recovery company (not the RAC this time) who arranged for the bike to be moved to a BMW place about 40 miles away. I dozed in the sunshine in the breakdown truck on the way to Braganca and decided I quite liked being driven!

When we got there the mechanic told us that they couldn't do anything today, they'd have a go tomorrow but there was a small problem - the BMW mechanic was not there until Monday. The non-BMW mechanic would have a look but it all depends what's wrong. As an aside, I was rather surprised to see a Yamaha GTS (the hub-centre steered model) in excellent condition for sale at the motorcycle shop; I haven't seen one of those for years and did briefly think about it but decided we probably had enough bikes to be going on with.

We checked into a local Ibis where Steak, and apple pie and ice cream are on the menu .

[Later the next day] They couldn't diagnose the problem so no-one will look at it now until Monday. That gives us a few more days to explore Portugal than we originally planned. We're going to get a hire car and follow the route Spikehammer gave us to Porto then up the coast before returning to Braganca on Monday. It's not quite the same thing as going by bike but it'll be cooler. Wonder if I can persuade Lyn to do some of the driving as I quite like dozing in the sunshine!

Kevin & Lyn

 

[KevinW]

As we moved eastwards the fields became larger and mostly one crop per field, most of them seem to have been harvested and there were lots of square hay bales left to dry. Even further east, now almost in Portugal

Er, westward and further west!

 

[BoRaBoRa]

Great couple, great report, thanks for sharing...

 

[KevinW]

Braganca to Porto and back again, Portugal, 617 miles (by car)

24 July: Branganca
Braganca is quite a small town which has expanded with lots of new apartment blocks and villas springing up along the outskirts. The roads are wide and the roundabouts, like many in Portugal, have urban sculptures such as the pair of bulls outside our hotel and this interesting one that caught our eyes.

Sculpture, Braganca style

We spent the day wandering round Branganca. The old town part has lots of narrow, slate 'cobbled', streets with tall terraced houses, some of which have been beautifully restored, cheek by jowl with derelict properties. A lot of renovation is taking place so maybe in a few years time it will have fewer derelict buildings. This might actually detract from some of its charm as it's interesting to see some of the ways that the houses have been extended.

The house on the right has an entire storey made from corrugated iron which is not untypical

A significant part of the old town is enclosed within the city walls - houses, churches and museum etc. - and it is interesting to see how cities like Rochester may have once looked. The castle is in good condition (probably renovated) and the main tower has been turned into a military museum; the floors are all solid wood and again it gives a good feel for what castles would have been like before they became ruins.

A street inside the walls - showing renovated properties vs. derelict properties

The town inside the fortification

We went into the 'costume and mask museum' - we didn't realise that was what it was until we were inside - and it was really interesting. Every year they have a series of festivals where people dress up and wear masks. Most of the masks are hand carved from wood and some are made of tin; each town in the area has its own speciality. We were told the area has a strong Celtic background which is evidenced from the use of bagpipes and we were surprised to see Morris dancing is done here too.

Wandering the castle walls

We went into the church and were horrified at the tacky 'candles' - we are used to seeing the 'memory' candles and a box for the 1 Euro to light one (which presumably covers the cost). This one had the usual box for the money but instead of lighting a candle, 1 Euro would light a dim bulb in the shape of a candle for an hour, if you paid 2 Euros it would stay lit for longer; ugh!

25 July: Branganca - Porto about 135 (car) miles
We wasted most of the day trying to sort out a hire car. We'd been assured one would be ready for us at 11.30; it was 4.15 before we finally drove away. Eventually we found out what the problem was - someone had booked the car for us in a town called Mirandela, some 38 miles away!

We drove to Porto taking the most direct route which was A roads and motorways and didn't we have fun in the motorised skateboard that the Peugeot 107 is; the only way to make it go up hill above walking pace is to thrash it to death. It rained a lot of the way so we didn't mind being in the car - the roads were busy, many with 'no overtaking' lines, and it would have been difficult to get past the traffic on the bike so we'd have been eating the spray while trying to clear the fog off our visors and 'enjoying' the slimy road conditions - every cloud has a silver lining.

26 July: Porto
We spent the day exploring Porto which is another typically Portuguese mixture of modern and old in some state of disrepair or renovation. As in Braganca, there were quite a few buildings covered in tiles which, in some cases, seem to have been added to the buildings in the 1920's.

One of the many tile-encrusted buildings

As we wandered round we heard a tinkling musical sound and, as we followed our ears to it, saw that it was one of the churches chiming mid-day. As it was by now 12.05, it must have been a very long chime!

One of the more genteel squares in Porto

More sculpture

Porto has a very ecological transport system; the buses all run on 'natural gas' and they have trams. Unfortunately the tramlines aren't sacrosanct and car drivers just leave their cars across them. This tram had to wait about half an hour before the police came along and removed the car!

Trams vs. cars

The trams look very similar to those used in San Francisco and we wondered whether there was a common supplier.

27 July: Porto - Guimaraes - Porto 169 (car) miles
We decided to incorporate one of the routes Spikehammer had previously given us for our bike ride into a circular route that would bring us back to Porto and included a visit to the castle at Guimaraes. We shortened it a little as we had forgotten to ask whether we were insured for the car in Spain and the safest option was to assume we weren't. The route was, as predicted, very interesting. It took us through lots of small villages along the sea front, most of which were very busy with it being the start of the main holiday season. We drove through a tiny village that was just gearing up for some celebration - lots of large lights were being erected. We also passed by an enormous Sunday market which just went on and on. After we left the seaside we travelled through some more forests where huge swathes of Eucalyptus had been chopped down. It reiterated that these were a crop and at some point they would need to be felled. On the other hand, we also passed through lots of acres of new forest, rows and rows of tiny Eucalyptus trees starting the next cycle.

The castle at Guimaraes is interesting - it has been voted as one of Portugal's top 7 sites by the Portuguese - there is both a castle (keep and walls) and a Palace. The Palace has been fully renovated over the past 50 years or so and shows how it might have looked in its heyday. One of the unique features of the palace was its chimneys, they are very slim, round affairs made of rounded bricks.

The palace, showing the renovated chimneys and roof

After the palace we wandered over to the castle and scaled the steps to the walls. It was amazing to be able to just climb up to the heights without having hand rails or protective fencing as we would expect in the UK. We wondered how many people falling off the walls had prompted such a Nanny reaction in the UK. Most of the places we've been to in Europe have a 'visitor beware' policy and we don't hear of hundreds of accidents; perhaps the UK owners are just afraid of being sued if such an accident did occur.

Most people stay on the 'safe' edge

The walls didn't look particularly robust, the stones on the top looked like they would be easy to topple over, although we noted that they had successfully resisted a siege.

The walls - the grey lump in the foreground is a large rock that was just built around

We paid our 1.5 Euros each to go right to the top of the keep, the final set of stairs were more like a ladder, but the treads of the steps were lop-sided, one being a 'left' and the next being a 'right' (more like spiral steps). We spent quite a long time at the bottom watching people coming down, making mental notes to ourselves to 'mind our heads' at the top - unfortunately two parents in charge of a small child failed to do so and we all winced as the child screamed after bumping her head. Happy to report we managed to go up and down without mishap (all those years fighting with Dive boat ladders has helped - and at least these steps weren't moving!).

Just as we got back into Porto and our hotel's road we stopped at a junction and saw another one of those sculptures. This one made Lyn jump, then laugh, as it moved - it was actually a man dressed up in a suit and bowler hat with white makeup.

28 July: Porto - Braganca 189 (car) miles
We needed to return to Braganca in the (forlorn) hope that the bike might be ready today, so we drove back along the route we had planned for our original trip to Porto. We had more time so this time we followed the valley route Spikehammer had given us. The 107 is not a bike but we still had some fun and it coped quite well with the bends and hills (lots of revs!). It was a very twisty road, up and down following the gorge carved by River Dorou for miles; we need to come back and do that road by bike. There are dams at strategic points along the river and the result is a very wide river-come-lake winding through the valley.

Sometimes one bridge just isn't enough!

We passed through acres of vineyards, most of which seem to be destined for port.

Guess whose port these grapes will end up in

At one stage we got lost through a village (Lyn was being the 'voice' of the Zumo as we don't have the car kit with us so no audio) and ended up 'off piste' for a while - we're not sure the 107 is an ideal vehicle for this type of road but it coped without complaint.

107 raring to go!

We finally got back to Braganca to learn that the bike won't be ready until at least Wednesday; the tentative prognosis is failure of the fuel pump. We'll see.

28 and 29 July: Montesinho Natural Park 125 (car) miles
We had a nice couple of days wandering round the Natural Park, which is a mixture of mountains, farmland, forest and picturesque villages. We headed out for two villages as advised by the Park Information office lady - she told us that if we were lucky we would see people working in the fields and we would see the traditional buildings. Well, we didn't see anyone working in the fields - it was well into siesta time by the time we got there - but we did see some people working on buildings in a hamlet which looked like it hadn't had any modernisation at all.

As we were walking through the first village we saw this man popping seeds out of their seed heads

A typical village main road

It's a bit strange going into these villages. Most of them are on a main road but as the outskirts appear the tarmac disappears to be replaced by cobbles. The village streets are usually very narrow with only enough room for a single vehicle. Luckily there was very little traffic around despite it being high season here. We speculated on why they would have kept the cobbles and decided that it probably helps to keep the traffic speed down (and it does look nice).

When the cottages have been renovated they look very nice

The villages on the whole are a good mixture of some very nicely renovated cottages and some very derelict buildings, some are just facades with a pile of rubble behind. We assume this is part of the natural lifecycle of the villages - places become derelict after people die, new families move in and renovate and so the cycle continues. A lot of the houses have first floor balconies that are suspended with large timbers, many of which look very woodwormy and extremely dry and some are held up by a single large sliver of slate at each end. I wouldn't want to stand on some of the balconies in case they gave way. Many people keep chickens in their ground floor and have steps up to the living quarters.

Precarious balconies all round!

The chickens had crash helmets on!

If they didn't have a balcony, the roof was propped up!

The 'brickwork' wasn't interesting. The method used seems to be one of putting together as many different sizes of rocks and hope that they'll make a wall. If there are any gaps, fill them with smaller stones. The buildings are still standing after God knows how many years so they must know what they are doing. In one of the villages a lot of the houses had some very nicely cut large stones for windows, doors and cornerstones. As this was the only place that these were in evidence we speculated that they may have been recycled from a nearby ancient Roman building.

One of the better (renovated) walls

There are lots of trails in this park and it's a pity that we weren't on the GS but if it hadn't broken down we wouldn't have seen them at all; next time...

Well you just have to don't you?

During our drive round on Wednesday we drove along part of the Spanish/Portuguese border. Clearly with both countries being in the EU it's no longer a 'working' border, but there are still stones showing where the border is and on the Spanish side is a 5m wide swathe of cleared ground, presumably 'just in case'.

As we've been driving through Portugal we have seen many rivers that have plenty of water still in them (unlike the dried up riverbeds we saw in Spain). The water on the whole is beautifully clear and there are lots of fish, attesting to the purity of the water; at one place we saw 3 or 4 small snakes swimming in the river.

The water was crystal clear

We made our slow way back to the hotel (our average speed over the past 2 days has been about 15 mph) and the good news that the bike was now fixed; as predicted the fuel pump had packed up. The guys at the garage had also jet washed it so we'll start the next stage of our journey on a nice clean bike.

So that's it from Portugal. We've had a really great week here and, while we could have done without the expense (446 Euros including an oil and filter change), we're rather glad the bike broke down; we both really like the country and want to return again. Braganca looks like an up-and-coming area and it will be interesting to see how it develops over the next few years.

Onwards and upwards, towards the Picos mountains, then the Pyrenees and then into France and home.

Hopefully the next installment will have some bike pictures in it!

Kevin & Lyn

 

[Dainese Brave]

Way to go you two!

What a great thread

.....I did a very similar trip last year, and looking at your great photos sure did bring back some great memories!

Have fun....and safe riding for the rest of your journey

 

[davidgibson999]

great writeup - thanks for taking the time to write it up!

 

[Spikehammer]

Glad to see you managed to use some of the routes, pity it had to be in a car!
The valley road is very special, especially at grape harvest time when it just reeks of Port as the grapes 'go over', quite intoxicating..

 

[KevinW]

We're definitely going back along the valley road by bike at some point as it really is excellent; thanks again for your suggestions.

Kevin

 

[KevinW]

Braganca to the Picos and the Pyrenees, Portugal & Spain (+ a bit of France), 1032Mls

31 July: Branganca to Arenas de Cabrales, Portugal to Spain, 223 miles
It was good to be back on the bike again. The weather wasn't so hot this morning so we had a nice cool ride and the rain managed to stay away despite the clouds looking so ominous.

A last look at Portugal

We had a good run to the Picos going through a variety of landscapes. As we travelled through it was interesting to see the different styles of houses and materials used. We passed through one place where the houses looked like they'd been built with mud and stones - they didn't look particularly robust as many of them had fallen down. One way round this appears to have been to cut into the dunes - we saw a lot of dunes with doors and chimneys! (Unfortunately the photos didn't come out as they were too close to focus properly as we rode past). We also saw quite a few stork nests, these always look really big and messy.

Double-decker Stork nests

Eventually we came into the Picos area. We realised that we were riding on a road that we had been along before. Last time we were here the SatNav took us to the top of a mountain and presented us with a goat's track to the hotel we were staying at. We were on our Hayabusa at the time and it was out of the question to ride down it so we had to turn round and go 25 miles round the mountain - good job it was an excellent road - and here we were riding it again. The view was as stunning as before and the road was as twisty as we remembered.

How could you forget a view like this?

Eventually we turned up at our hotel. It's really laid back and is geared towards 'activity clients' - which I suppose we were! We were shown to our room and...what a view! It would be easy to just lay on the bed and look out of the window for the days that we were here, but there's riding to do and more mountains to see....

Picture window

1 August: ride round the Picos, 194 miles
We spent the day riding round the Picos including revisiting some of the roads we travelled along last time we were here in 2006. We actually pulled up at a roadside cafe and then realised it was one we'd stopped at last time!

The scenery is spectacular, the mountains are very imposing and granite grey providing a lovely backdrop to the huge, green reservoirs. The roads are twisting and narrow and not too busy so not too many heart-stopping moments when those damn camper vans come along!

Not sure what they used this little building for but there were a couple of them around so they must be a local speciality!

There is a big grin under that lid - it was nice to be riding again

The view goes on for ever

Just as we were heading back we missed a turn. The Zumo kept telling me to make a U-turn but we were on a twisty mountain road that we were enjoying so we carried on. Eventually it told us to take a right which we took. We found ourselves going up roads that were getting smaller and smaller. We passed through a tiny village (Lamedo) with roads no wider than a car, past a man asleep on a bench who stirred as we went past him and up to 'the road'...well it was probably going to be a road sometime but they either forgot the surface or it wasn't finished yet...

This track is much, much steeper than it appears from the photo

Now I'm sure there are lots of people here who wouldn't blink at a track like this, however steep, but I'm not one of them! I stopped at the bottom, gulped, then up we went. If we'd been on any of our other bikes I'd have turned round which would almost certainly have been the sensible option but we weren't (there's something about the GS that makes me find tracks such as these irresistible)...on and up and up and up...all the time thinking "I hope we don't have to come back down here". The road got rougher and rougher as it got steeper and twistier and we climbed around 500 feet in 2 miles of track.

At the top we crossed a cattle grid and the track leveled out as we rode though a field full of cows and horses. Unfortunately the weather was beginning to deteriorate and I was a bit concerned that we'd be stuck on the mountain in mist.

Not so bad now (Lyn only took photo's when the track was reasonable and she wasn't sitting perfectly still too afraid to move!)

There was a gravel path (you can see it going off to the left in the photo) but it didn't look like it went anywhere so we carried on along 'the road' hoping that it would resolve into a proper road. As luck would have it...

...it didn't! The end of 'the road' about 3.5 miles after we started (we subsequently discovered this was less than 2 miles from where it rejoined a tarmac road)

All I could do now was turn round and retrace our steps. and that GS, even without all our luggage in it, is heavy...

I was expecting Lyn to express some concern about our return trip whereas what she said was "Well you did want adventure!!" which is why I was laughing while performing this 20-point turn.

Going back down emphasised just how steep and twisty the road had been. Clutch out in 1st gear, just a tiny bit of brakes as even 1st gear let the bike go too fast to make the rubble-strewn hairpin at the bottom of each downhill section, ensure the wheels don't lock on the gravel that is all over the road or we'll be off, and a lot of buttock clenching!

Twisty and steep

With the odd steep hairpin for good measure

Eventually we got back to civilisation and that small village where the old man had woken up and sleepily watched us as we rode past him again. The village is so pressed for space that the road goes through someone's house!

After that little adventure I set the Sat Nav to take us back without going on 'green lanes' and remained on tarmac for the rest of the day.

2 August: Arenas de Cabrales to Jaca (Pyrenees) 302 miles
The run to the Pyrenees took us through flatter (compared to the mountains we'd just been in) farm land. At one point we thought we were in Sunflower Central as nearly all the fields around us for many miles were full of sunflowers. We noticed they were nearly always facing away from us, perhaps they are shy!

Admiring the sunflowers

We were concerned about some of the natural wildlife around - it looks like the deer are rather large!

Watch out for the chasing Deerosaurs

3 August: ride round the Pyrenees (Spain/France/Spain) - 312 miles
The day started off with a SatNav special - we'd only been going 2 minutes when it lead us up a farm track which finished at a railway line. I was willing to tackle the railway but when Lyn checked the track on the other side it didn't appear to go anywhere; the Spanish maps are better than they were but they're by no means perfect yet.

This is looking horribly familiar!

Never mind, the view at the end was good so we just turned round and started again!

As we rode round the mountains we came across numerous abandoned villages. It was very sad and we wondered what happened - was it a result of farming methods changing or populations getting older and smaller? Who knows? Some of the villages were just 3 or 4 house hamlets, others were complete villages including a church. The access road to the one below has been blocked with a huge boulder so we didn't get the chance to go and explore further.

Ghost Town

The Pyrenees seem to have more trees than the Picos and some of the peaks are covered in yellow plants; there are also many reservoirs but the water isn't so green as in the Picos - we saw one which was the odd turquoise colour of our local chalk pit. Most of them were grey-ish.

Our route took us into France and it was quite surprising how different the country looked even though it was only a few miles away. What comes first, the border or the landscape and buildings?

One of the many tunnels

A 'Tour de France' route (those lines going across the hill are the road)

We found ourselves traversing another one of the Tour de France routes. If any further evidence was needed as to how nutty and fit those guys are, it was this route! We saw lots of encouraging messages painted on the road and it's easy to see why they are required!! The photo above doesn't show just how tall that mountain is - it looks quite mild, but believe me it isn't! The two little buttresses are hairpin bends and they were hairy enough on our bike.

Another view of the Tour de France route

Then you get to the top and...

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

We finished up our ride on a very small road which was not at all busy. Once again we peaked at a lovely lookout point.

Another view that goes on for miles and miles

Our last look at the Pyrenees' roads

The road surface wasn't that great, probably because it's a little-used road. I nearly lost it once on some melted tar (there was a lot of it about) so I took it a bit more gently and we had a slower pootle back to the hotel.

Tomorrow's ride is going to be long and boring - we'll be travelling to Western France mostly along the motorways as we need to get the miles done.

Kevin & Lyn

 

[Seatownmaster]

Excellent travel log .. Who needs Ewen & Charley with a support team when we have your log to read 10/10 many thanks.

and until the next .....

A~