This year's trip seemed like a long time coming, especially since this year's organiser Oscar ( a native of Spain) had the trip routes and hotels in the bag by January, there were some amendments to bookings and routes but by and large the trip was just waiting for us to depart for 9 months, I like to tweak the routes and chop and change hotel booking in the run up to departure, I quite enjoy that part of the trip build up but it was not to be.
The trip was a tour of Spain taking in the Sierra Nevadas and Andalucia with some cultural highlights thrown in for good measure, the participants are;
Oscar (Oie) riding 1200 GS Adventure
Me (2WH) riding 1200GS Adventure LC
Dave (Darkhorse) riding 1200 GS Adventure TC
Martin (cookie) riding KTM 1190 Adventure
Richard (my step father) riding 1200GS TC
John (Johnnyboxer) riding 1150 GS adventure
Richard (Wapping) was due to join us but had to cancel at a late hour due to personal reasons.
Martin's partner Angie would be joining us part way and Dave would be returning earlier than the rest of us due to other commitments at home, it was amusing listening to Oscar explain this to the French lady at Brittany Ferries check in
We were on a 8.15am sailing on Saturday from Portsmouth to Santander aboard the Brittany Ferries vessel "Happy Shopper" or maybe it was callled Etretat......... Richard and I stayed the night in Portsmouth on Friday ready for our early morning start, the others made their way to the port that morning, except Johnny who had sailed the day before and would meet us in Spain at our first Hotel stop.
The crossing passed without event, the Etretat is part of Brittany Ferries Economie service and whilst it's fine for channel crossings to France I found the lack of choice of eateries and limited public spaces and outside deck areas a little claustrophobic though it has to be said the on board cabins were comfortable and more spacious than cabins on Brittany Ferries other ships, as we had an afternoon arrival the next day we did our best to drink the bar dry that night..........
The following day (Sunday) we arrived in a soggy and overcast Santander, much goading had taken place pre trip about the virtues of traveling light, most of this banter came from the master of traveling light Darkhorse, most of us fell for it, this was my effort; top box containing overnight bag, clothes and shoes, small SW Motech bag on the pillion seat with more clothes and tank bag containing..........useless crap I think
I had elected to take most of my pics with my i-phone but had also used this set up with some success in the past, a small and cheap Samsung camera I had mounted on a RAM mount so brought it along again, it has a fairly low success rate on the move of 1 or 2 out of ten and the quality isn't great but I wouldn't otherwise have any pics on the move so it made the trip again, I would be thankful for it later.........
Day 1 mapsource suggested 165 miles or 4.5 hours to Leon.
Leaving Santander and the rain behind were soon in The Picos D'Europa national park and enjoying the empty roads and fantastic views, the first of the trip's technical issues became apparent when I realised my phone hadn't charged last night on the ferry and was dead as a dead thing, odd.......never mind the little Samsung was pressed into action.
Pretty soon the next technical issue filled the air with the smell of burning......Richard's HID headlight had failed and was smelling-a lot, we junked thje HID installation and fitted a regular H7 bulb and pressed on albeit slightly behind schedule..........we arrived in Leon at the rather splendid Hotel Colegiata, a Parador esque Hotel in the heart of the city, a good find
The hotel was beautifully restored former monastery.
We wandered about in Leon and took in the sights whilst searching for a place to have supper
I settled on a salt beef salad
and after a few drinks we retired, tomorrow would be a long day...........
Day 2 mapsource suggested 432 miles or 10.43 hours to Llerena
Monday dawned wet and overcast, we had had heavy rain during the night, I was oblivious to it and slept like a log although others had not, given that we had a potentially long day we opted for an early breakfast and an early start, I discovered that my phone had still not charged and I considered it dead, online investigation revealed the nearest Apple Genius repair shop to be in Malaga, we would be close by in 2 days time.........
We pressed on and made good progress, for the most part our small group stayed together or at least "in touch" with each other, we passed through vast open plains and rolling countryside, every time we approached hilly terrain the sky grew darker and some of us stopped to don waterproofs or wet weather gloves etc. stops for pics were rare-especially for me
Further South we encountered heavy rain and thick fog, in Spain? Who'd have thought it
We made good progress and arrived at the hotel in Llerena
The Hotel's Atrium;
We were shown to the hotel's underground car park and checked in, we elected to eat in the Hotel restaurant which was excellent and good value, Johnny was getting lairy in the bar.........
some of us went for a wander around the town square before turning in, another early start beckoned..........
Day 3 mapsource suggested 239 miles or 6.5 hours to Ronda
We enjoyed an excellent breakfast and agreed to set off together, cookie was going to pick up Angie at the airport today and I had formulated a plan to go directly to the Hotel in Ronda at some point and drop my luggage and head down to Malaga in search of the Apple shop to repair or replace my phone.
We rode together for most of the morning and at a coffee stop cookie and I left the group and set off in different directions.
Approaching Ronda......
I arrived at Ronda and located the unfortunately named Hotel Colon, I checked in and shed a layer of clothing, dropped my bags and headed in the general direction of Malaga land of the trout pout and runaway British petty criminal it is alleged.......
The road from Ronda down to Malaga is a cracker, fast and fun I enjoyed it a lot, the temperature was now in the low 30's so it was a relief to park at the mall and enter the shiny air conditioned temple to consumerism
My phone was not able to be repaired and as I didn't have a working phone to offer in exchange an upgrade was not available to me so Mr Apple relieved me of 200 yo yo's in exchange for a new working phone the same as the one I had, the nice man even connected it to a cloud and I got all my pics and numbers and music back, life could continue
I arrived in Ronda at nightfall, so I took a few snaps.....
I found the Hotel Colon again
After a shower I went in search of my travelling companions, some supper and beer, not necessarily in that order
We ate well and exchanged stories of our day over a few beers, as the night temperatures dropped Johnny put on this rather fetching sparkly shawl to ward off the cold
Day 4 mapsource suggested 190 miles or 5.5 hours to Granada
A leisurely ride of less than 200 miles today so no early start required today, we enjoyed a great breakfast and despite it's name the Hotel had proved comfortable, well located and very reasonably priced at 25 euro B&B, secure parking was a little extra but overall highly recommended
Dave was leaving us today and heading North to get the ferry in a couple of days time, after breakfast we said our goodbye's Dave was aiming to get a little more than halfway to Santander to give himself an easy ride the following day to the ferry port.........
Cookie and I knew that the first road the rest of the group would encounter today was a cracker having both ridden it twice yesterday, I attached the little Samsung camera to the Ram mount and stayed at the back of the group and tried to capture a few shots on the move;
We followed the twisty A3971 toward Malaga before heading North on the A355 towards Coin before picking up the A357 and A7000 along mile after mile of switchback which was thirsty work so we stopped for a coffee
before pressing on again and stopping for lunch overlooking the Mediterranean, I'm sure someone will have taken a pic...........maybe not
For us this is traveling light;
We pressed on along fabulous deserted twisting roads, stopping for the occasional pic
Some great roads and stunning vistas en route to Granada.
The group became fragmented as we neared Granada and our respective sat navs attempted to recalculate in the busy city's one way systems, the tall buildings and narrow streets meant none of us could locate satellites, we spent a lot of time back tracking and going around in circles looking for the Hotel, the road signs weren't helping
Granada we would be our home for the next few days and tomorrow we had all agreed to have a day off the bikes and hit the tourist trail..............
The trip was a tour of Spain taking in the Sierra Nevadas and Andalucia with some cultural highlights thrown in for good measure, the participants are;
Oscar (Oie) riding 1200 GS Adventure
Me (2WH) riding 1200GS Adventure LC
Dave (Darkhorse) riding 1200 GS Adventure TC
Martin (cookie) riding KTM 1190 Adventure
Richard (my step father) riding 1200GS TC
John (Johnnyboxer) riding 1150 GS adventure
Richard (Wapping) was due to join us but had to cancel at a late hour due to personal reasons.
Martin's partner Angie would be joining us part way and Dave would be returning earlier than the rest of us due to other commitments at home, it was amusing listening to Oscar explain this to the French lady at Brittany Ferries check in
We were on a 8.15am sailing on Saturday from Portsmouth to Santander aboard the Brittany Ferries vessel "Happy Shopper" or maybe it was callled Etretat......... Richard and I stayed the night in Portsmouth on Friday ready for our early morning start, the others made their way to the port that morning, except Johnny who had sailed the day before and would meet us in Spain at our first Hotel stop.
The crossing passed without event, the Etretat is part of Brittany Ferries Economie service and whilst it's fine for channel crossings to France I found the lack of choice of eateries and limited public spaces and outside deck areas a little claustrophobic though it has to be said the on board cabins were comfortable and more spacious than cabins on Brittany Ferries other ships, as we had an afternoon arrival the next day we did our best to drink the bar dry that night..........
The following day (Sunday) we arrived in a soggy and overcast Santander, much goading had taken place pre trip about the virtues of traveling light, most of this banter came from the master of traveling light Darkhorse, most of us fell for it, this was my effort; top box containing overnight bag, clothes and shoes, small SW Motech bag on the pillion seat with more clothes and tank bag containing..........useless crap I think
I had elected to take most of my pics with my i-phone but had also used this set up with some success in the past, a small and cheap Samsung camera I had mounted on a RAM mount so brought it along again, it has a fairly low success rate on the move of 1 or 2 out of ten and the quality isn't great but I wouldn't otherwise have any pics on the move so it made the trip again, I would be thankful for it later.........
Day 1 mapsource suggested 165 miles or 4.5 hours to Leon.
Leaving Santander and the rain behind were soon in The Picos D'Europa national park and enjoying the empty roads and fantastic views, the first of the trip's technical issues became apparent when I realised my phone hadn't charged last night on the ferry and was dead as a dead thing, odd.......never mind the little Samsung was pressed into action.
Pretty soon the next technical issue filled the air with the smell of burning......Richard's HID headlight had failed and was smelling-a lot, we junked thje HID installation and fitted a regular H7 bulb and pressed on albeit slightly behind schedule..........we arrived in Leon at the rather splendid Hotel Colegiata, a Parador esque Hotel in the heart of the city, a good find
The hotel was beautifully restored former monastery.
We wandered about in Leon and took in the sights whilst searching for a place to have supper
I settled on a salt beef salad
and after a few drinks we retired, tomorrow would be a long day...........
Day 2 mapsource suggested 432 miles or 10.43 hours to Llerena
Monday dawned wet and overcast, we had had heavy rain during the night, I was oblivious to it and slept like a log although others had not, given that we had a potentially long day we opted for an early breakfast and an early start, I discovered that my phone had still not charged and I considered it dead, online investigation revealed the nearest Apple Genius repair shop to be in Malaga, we would be close by in 2 days time.........
We pressed on and made good progress, for the most part our small group stayed together or at least "in touch" with each other, we passed through vast open plains and rolling countryside, every time we approached hilly terrain the sky grew darker and some of us stopped to don waterproofs or wet weather gloves etc. stops for pics were rare-especially for me
Further South we encountered heavy rain and thick fog, in Spain? Who'd have thought it
We made good progress and arrived at the hotel in Llerena
The Hotel's Atrium;
We were shown to the hotel's underground car park and checked in, we elected to eat in the Hotel restaurant which was excellent and good value, Johnny was getting lairy in the bar.........
some of us went for a wander around the town square before turning in, another early start beckoned..........
Day 3 mapsource suggested 239 miles or 6.5 hours to Ronda
We enjoyed an excellent breakfast and agreed to set off together, cookie was going to pick up Angie at the airport today and I had formulated a plan to go directly to the Hotel in Ronda at some point and drop my luggage and head down to Malaga in search of the Apple shop to repair or replace my phone.
We rode together for most of the morning and at a coffee stop cookie and I left the group and set off in different directions.
Approaching Ronda......
I arrived at Ronda and located the unfortunately named Hotel Colon, I checked in and shed a layer of clothing, dropped my bags and headed in the general direction of Malaga land of the trout pout and runaway British petty criminal it is alleged.......
The road from Ronda down to Malaga is a cracker, fast and fun I enjoyed it a lot, the temperature was now in the low 30's so it was a relief to park at the mall and enter the shiny air conditioned temple to consumerism
My phone was not able to be repaired and as I didn't have a working phone to offer in exchange an upgrade was not available to me
so Mr Apple relieved me of 200 yo yo's in exchange for a new working phone the same as the one I had, the nice man even connected it to a cloud and I got all my pics and numbers and music back, life could continue I arrived in Ronda at nightfall, so I took a few snaps.....
I found the Hotel Colon again
After a shower I went in search of my travelling companions, some supper and beer, not necessarily in that order
We ate well and exchanged stories of our day over a few beers, as the night temperatures dropped Johnny put on this rather fetching sparkly shawl to ward off the cold
Day 4 mapsource suggested 190 miles or 5.5 hours to Granada
A leisurely ride of less than 200 miles today so no early start required today, we enjoyed a great breakfast and despite it's name the Hotel had proved comfortable, well located and very reasonably priced at 25 euro B&B, secure parking was a little extra but overall highly recommended
Dave was leaving us today and heading North to get the ferry in a couple of days time, after breakfast we said our goodbye's Dave was aiming to get a little more than halfway to Santander to give himself an easy ride the following day to the ferry port.........
Cookie and I knew that the first road the rest of the group would encounter today was a cracker having both ridden it twice yesterday, I attached the little Samsung camera to the Ram mount and stayed at the back of the group and tried to capture a few shots on the move;
We followed the twisty A3971 toward Malaga before heading North on the A355 towards Coin before picking up the A357 and A7000 along mile after mile of switchback which was thirsty work so we stopped for a coffee
before pressing on again and stopping for lunch overlooking the Mediterranean, I'm sure someone will have taken a pic...........maybe not
For us this is traveling light;
We pressed on along fabulous deserted twisting roads, stopping for the occasional pic
Some great roads and stunning vistas en route to Granada.
The group became fragmented as we neared Granada and our respective sat navs attempted to recalculate in the busy city's one way systems, the tall buildings and narrow streets meant none of us could locate satellites, we spent a lot of time back tracking and going around in circles looking for the Hotel, the road signs weren't helping
Granada we would be our home for the next few days and tomorrow we had all agreed to have a day off the bikes and hit the tourist trail..............
here the bikes are cooling down after a workout
There is so much more to Spain than coast lines and Tosa's and it's actually a far more mountainous country than a lot pop people realise.
