Pics of Piston, Picos 'n Pyrenees

[cookie]

first off, very big thanks to steve for doing all the organising on this trip, and gerry for doing all the routes.

a great trip, in great company

after a slightly lumpy crossing where only the hardcore survived dinner (hats off to mrs cookie & darkhorse), we arrived at the first nights stop: La Pisa Guesthouse.

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Moto Pistons Club bash at Colombres:

there was even the odd non-bmw there:

and some just odd:

the odd, odd bmw:

lovely Rob North Trident

mmmmmmmm must have been nice slinging that round the Picos canyons

yet another bmw, or is the same one?

and another:

one for bakerman:

there were loads of bultacos and montessas about, but i don't know much about them, so they largely passed me by

a couple of quid here, i think:

i loved this one. simple idea, very clever.

more pics of the trip to follow….

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

As you said Cookie, a superb trip..............in great company

Love the vid

 

[judge]

I see JB came at least second to the hotel....again

 

[2 wheel humvee]

Great pics cookie

I enjoyed the moto piston rally more than I though I might, almost enough to warrant buying an old clunker to attend again at some point in the future.....hmmmm we'll see

I'll load my pics on to my smugmug account later and post some up, as cookie and JB said, great trip-great roads and great company, shame Gerry missed the best roads, best hotel, best meal.....the things some people will do to get out of buying a round

 

[darkhorse]

A great trip and great company.

 

[cookie]

a few more...

yes, actually i am wearing rukka undercrackers

our weird and wonderful hotel in Vielha:

we were very lucky and had a huge "mini suite" overhanging the pavement.

others had more, er, quaint accommodation. i'm sure JB will elaborate on that….

another pic for bakerman:

not a major highway

but some nice views

i rather fancied trying this restaraunt, but felt it might be too dear.

sorry, for that, here's a nice view to ease the pain

last couple.

gerry's greatest hit:

and his alternative transport:

get well soon matey

my second visit to the area this year, and i'm already planning on returning to the moto piston rally next year, but i'll be on one my old bikes. can't wait to hear what the le mans competizione pipes sound like ripping through those hills


oh, and a very special thanks to Oscar for whom it must have been somewhat less of a holiday, as he was pretty much constantly called on for his bi-lingual skills. he made it so much easier for the rest of us mono-linguists (and i learned a fair bit about wine from him too)

 

[2 wheel humvee]

a few more...

yes, actually i am wearing rukka undercrackers

And to prove it..........

 

[steve hartshorne]

picos

cheers steve,me and julie appreciate all the work that you put in to the trip,we had a great time ,nice to catch up with everyone.Just one thing on cookies vid ARE MY PANNIERS ON THE RIGHT WAY ? ROUND: and whats cookie doing taking photos?

 

[2 wheel humvee]

Some of my pics
Lunch stop en route the the Picos,Tapas and chips please

We've covered 50 miles since the ferry, time for an i-phone/blackberry check......

Home for 3 nights La Pisa B&B great food and hospitality, can't reccommend it highly enough

Day 2 exploring the Picos

More of the same

Did I mention the food was excellent al La Pisa?

Taking in the sights at the town of Colombres where the Moto Piston Rally is based......

There were bikes for sale and an autojumble too......

Home market (Spanish) bikes were well catered for

Participants were well fed!

Funky airhead bitsa

another view.......

Participants waiting for the signal to head to the start of the hill climb

I left Colombres early and enjoyed the ride back to La Pisa on near deserted roads

I met up with Johnny and we stopped in Potes for a coffee

Last night at La Pisa, did I mention the food was excellent?

Dave, Gerry and Oscar, fed and watered.......

More tomorrow........

 

[2 wheel humvee]

Hope cookie doesn't mind me tagging on to his thread..........

On Monday we left Picos and headed in the direction of Pamplona, here we would spend 1 night before continuing our journey on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees heading for Viehla where we were spending 3 nights. Johnny's 2 mates split from the group and spent the next 3 days thrashing about with no plan or destination in mind,sounds very romantic but by all accounts all they saw was their windscreens and front wheels for 3 days
Monday's journey; we shunned the major roads and where possible used scenic routes, stopping for pics, a coffee break and lunch, from memory we rode as a group albeit slightly spread out......
We stopped for some pics......

Cool dog

In pouring rain we arrived at our hotel for the night the Caza Ascona on the outskirts of Pamplona, a modern hotel nicely decorated and furnished but perhaps a little too business orientated for this trip, the local area had little to offer in the way of restaraunts and bars so we took a bus ride to Pamplona for dinner, Oscar earned his keep once more by translating the menu for the rest of us

Next day (Tuesday) dawned bright and errr wet! It had rained heavily through the night but was improving as we readied to leave for Viehla, cookie had complete faith in the weather and announced he was doing this leg of the trip "spanish style" i.e. in shorts and flip flops....

...or maybe he was just showing off his Rukka underwear

The group got smaller today as Dave (darkhorse) left us for Santander and the ferry home

Action shot on the N240

The group become "spread out" as often happens, Oscar and I rode at a similar pace and often stopped for a pic or 2 of the scenery in the (often vain) hope that some of the others would catch up......

Nearing Viehla and having "lost" Oscar I stopped for a break and to take a few pics and spotted a lone bike in the distance on the far side of a lakeside road, it's Gerry

We rode on to the next hotel in Viehla together and caught up cookie & Angi on the way, we arrive at the amazingly quirky but quite charming Hotel Aran.......

We check in our bags and go and park the bikes in their underground car park 2 streets away, I've never seen such a "busy" hotel, every square inch of wall space is adorned with momento's, bric a brac, ornaments, farming implements and pictures, it's quite bewildering but charming and welcoming at the same time.

The rooms were quirky too, I shared a twin with Gerry, the room was panelled in dark stained wood and resembled a ship's cabin, we didn't get any pics of our room, possibly because it was completely overshadowed by Johnny's room or should we call it Frodo's room.......

Yes, this is the door to his room

The hallway

The bedroom

Johnny sat in his bedside chair

We went for a stroll around the town

And stopped in a Tapas bar for a beer or 3 and a snack

Some of us tried the food in the hotel restaraunt that evening, Gerry had a small piece of melon....

The langoustine were very good

We retired to the bar and shot some pool

Whilst Steve decided to try and break Julie's fingers playing conkers

Tuesday I found my new favourite road we took the C28 through the ski resort of Baqueira and followed the C13 to the town of SORT, a decent ride in itself that shames the over hyped Stelvio pass in the Alps, billiard table smooth endless constant radius bends with just the right amount of camber and most importantly, zero traffic

Oscar

JB

Steve & Julie

Oh no not more hairpins...

Bloody cold on the way back

Easy to warm up at the Hotel Aran

Most of us ate in the (excellent value) hotel restaraunt on Tuesday,after a few beers Johnnyshandypants got his leg over

Wednesday dawned bright and sunny and on empty roads we set off in small groups in various directions, I joined cookie & Gerry on my new found favourite road in the direction of the town of SORT, after Sort we got split up so I continued solo on the Col de Canto stopping for the occasional pic

I stopped at a small roadside restaraunt and went inside to order a snack, inside men were sat gazing at a large screen tv showing repeats of Top Gear, I could have stayed all afternoon, if my wife had been with me I would probably have used the line many of us have used "don't turn over I haven't seen this episode"
As my food arrived so did Gerry and cookie and Angi, they liked the look of my food and ordered something similar, having first established that it was the Bugatti Veyron episode showing inside the restaraunt

We continued our route to the Col de Boixols (Col de bollucks as we called it)

This leads on to the Col de Faidella and on to the town of Tremp, this afternoons ride had become my "new favourite road", I kept saying this day after day, the roads in the Pyrenees are so varied, every bit as good as the Alps and possibly Corsica but with more variety, the time of year and light traffic probably helped but it's an awesome place to ride

More stunning views

and small hillside towns

Last night in Viehla so some of us went for a Pizza, where my new found taste for Rioja continued to grow

The Bear Pizza restaraunt in Viehla,you'll find it easily enough

 

[cookie]

nice pants

 

[2 wheel humvee]

Thursday dawned dry and bright, we were crossing the border to the French side of the Pyrenees and heading for an overnight stop at the Astrolabe Hotel in Oloron Saint Marie via some great sounding mountain roads and passes such as the Col D'Aspin and Col du Tourmalet
We left in small groups, ours comprised myself Gerry and Oscar, Gerry and I stopped for a pic at a waterfall, Oscar didn't notice we had stopped but we figured we would re-group further up the road,

Photo's taken Gerry and I set off, I got away first and passed through the small hamlet of Saint Mamet and stopped in Bagneres de Luchon to buy some tat-oops souvenirs for the folks back home, figuring Gerry must have passed me I pressed on along more beautiful, deserted French country roads, I stopped for the occasional pic and figured the other 2 must be way ahead by now so continued at my own pace......

The D618 became the D918 and I bagan the climb up the Col D'Aspin, the going was tough at first, the road is very tight and technical with little passing space for traffic approaching in the opposite direction but opens out with longer straights between the hairpins nearer the top, I was surprised not to find Oscar and Gerry waiting at the top but made the most of the solitude by walking about and taking a few pics of the roads below;

I marked the spot with a humvee-graphics.com sticker (lower rhs)
Unaware until I looked at the pic later that a customer had beat me to it (near the L in COL) !

Minutes passed with no sign of Gerry or Oscar so I checked my phone for missed calls or texts.......
6 missed calls, 3 voicemails, 5 texts......something must be wrong
I learned that Gerry had been in a collision with a car and was going by Ambulance to hospital, it appeared he was not too badly hurt but had a possible fracture and cuts and bruises, just then Oscar appeared at the top so we travelled together to the hospital some 80 miles away, cookie and Angi were with Gerry, Johnny and Steve and Julie pressed on and advised the hotel we might be late.

The patient......

Broken Tibia or was it Fibula or was it both and stitches to a cut finger, could have been worse especially as his head went through the passenger side door glass

You will have seen cookie's pic of Gerry's greatest hit

cookie and Angi did a great job of contacting Gerry's Insurers and breakdown companies and liasing between the French and British counterparts and the surgeons and doctors We contacted Gerry's long suffering partner Tracey and when we felt that Gerry was comfortable and everything was in hand we left for the Hotel Astrolabe in Oloron Saint Marie, for Gerry the trip was over he was later flown home the bike's fate is still in limbo although it did not appear too badly damaged

I reported to Tracy that he was stitched, plastered and off his head on laughing gas, to which she replied "no change there then"

We arrived at the Hotel Astrolabe, it's quirky themed rooms were comfortable and the host very welcoming, after unpacking we re-grouped in a nearby bar for some well earned beers

We got lucky at supper time and were treated to flame grilled steaks and even sampled some pigeon, the best meal of the trip without a doubt

Johnny (Shandypants/ Hannibal Lector) Boxer shows off his extremely rare steak, "knock off the horns and wipe it's ass and it's done" :

Steaks flame cooked under an open fire in the restaraunt mmmmmmmm

The next morning we heading for the Hotel Atxurra just outside Bermeo on the North coast about an hour's ride from Bilbao but first-more mountains, more Cols, more Grade 1 tarmac and more hairpins

It was cold at the top! around 3 degrees but the skies were blue and the roads deserted

Oscar and I continued, eventually reaching the coast near San Sebastian, we followed the coast road for part of the way and eventually found the Hotel Atxurra, as a native Basque Oscar had negotiated a discount for all for the night

The Hotel is less than a year old, is immaculately finished and very comfortable, being located some way off the beaten track makes it difficult to pop out for a beer but the bar remained open for as long as we wanted and the food was fantastic, the rooms were immaculate.

On Saturday we were leaving for Santander to catch the afternoon ferry to Portsmouth, the plan (if time allowed) was to stop briefly at the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, a brief stop was all we managed as time and the weather was against us

The rain in Bilbao was biblical as we left for Santander but we had been lucky with the weather and only got rained on twice in 10 days, all in all a great trip in fantastic surroundings and great company, thanks to all who took part for your company

So long Spain

 

[thosoneill]

brilliant guys - brilliant

 

[wreck diver]

Advice on accomadation please.

Some fantastic pics that have stirred me to try and get some BM,s and brit bikes from my local club over to the Moto Piston in 2011.
Any tips,advise on where to stay and routes would be welcome please.
Initial thoughts were for a long w/end thurs to tues. is this viable?

 

[cookie]

Some fantastic pics that have stirred me to try and get some BM,s and brit bikes from my local club over to the Moto Piston in 2011.
Any tips,advise on where to stay and routes would be welcome please.
Initial thoughts were for a long w/end thurs to tues. is this viable?

i intend checking out ferry date/times for 2011 in the not too distant future. a long w/e as you have suggested is what i'm aiming for.

it's not far from santander, or even bilbao, to the rally. moto piston have routes, "route of 5000 curves" (i think it's called).

i plan on staying in the same place as this year, otherwise, there's loads of hotels in and around colombres. moto piston club can organise that as well, as part of your entry to the event i'm told.

 

[boxer]

i intend checking out ferry date/times for 2011 in the not too distant future. a long w/e as you have suggested is what i'm aiming for.

it's not far from santander, or even bilbao, to the rally. moto piston have routes, "route of 5000 curves" (i think it's called).

i plan on staying in the same place as this year, otherwise, there's loads of hotels in and around colombres. moto piston club can organise that as well, as part of your entry to the event i'm told.

Do you know he rally dates yet?

 

[cookie]

Do you know he rally dates yet?

that would be another thing i must look up


as i remember the MPC site was particularly unhelpful on the subject last year.

 

[wreck diver]

I have just sent a email to the Moto Piston site re the dates,if i get a reply i will post here.

 

[wreck diver]

2011 Moto Piston event

HI,Does anyone know the firm dates for the Moto Piston club event in 2011 please. Thanks.

 

[cookie]

i got no reply as well