As promised...part 2....the return leg
I'd finished my 2 weeks working in the uk and flew back out to Alicante airport for a couple of days R'n'R before riding the 750xrv back to Bilbao and the ferry home that I'd already booked for 10am 1st May...my birthday. I had planned a couple of days rest before a leisurely3 day ride across central Spain.
I landed late Wednesday night 25th of April. I caught the last bus at 11pm from the airport to Benidorm. That's almost 1 hour away, then a taxi to Albir, about 15 mins away.
Gatwick North Terminal
The 2 days R'n'R turned into 4 days R'n'R with copious amounts of spontaneous boozing and a few hangovers....which only left 2 days riding to catch the ferry. Plenty of time but with less overnight stops.
The Stone Bar
A good cure for hangovers.
This is what I love about Spanish food. So simple yet so good. Quality ingredients and minimal fuss.
Once I had recovered from having what I thought at the time was me having loads of fun and no doubt talking loads of bollocks to whoever I thought looked interested in listening....I set off early on a beautifully sunny morning from the shores of the Med...to have loads more fun on my bike. I did feel slightly ropey though to be honest. I'm a proper lightweight drinker.
I set off and headed inland for 35 miles over the cv-70, a lovely twisty road.
90 minutes later I reached the faster A-7 and went up past Valencia and onto the A-23 to Teruel.
The landscape here is very open and the wind really started to pick up strength.
Jesus Christ! They've got some strong winds in Spain, the Levante, the Mistral, the Tramuntana. The Tramuntana is a crazy wind. It's know as a Katabatic wind, which comes down off a mountain and gets funnelled down towards the warmer coast. I experienced it once in 1996 while wild camping on the northern Costa Brava French/Spanish border. It feels like it was yesterday. I felt like I'd been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. They say it can drive you insane. It's something Salvador Dali had lived with while growing up in Cadaques as a young lad. Maybe there is some truth in that saying.
Anyway... they wind was making it hard going so I pulled off the fast A-23 and found a nice little hotel in Burbaguena on the N-234.(I later discovered it was exactly halfway to Bilbao...to the mile) What a lovely find. One room available in the old mill called MoBu (El Molino de Burbaguna) The staff were very friendly. As soon as I walked in I was offered a cold beer...maybe I looked like I needed one after all that buffeting the wind had given me.
This was my evening meal. It was beautiful. I had breakfast too and it cost £60 all in. Coffees and a few more beers as well.Not cheap but not too dear either.
A few pictures off Burbaguena. A very small, peaceful village in Aragon
Next morning up and out early,,,chilly day but blue skies. The wind had died down, or should I say hadn't yet picked up. It did get stronger but not as bad as the day before. I was to take slower roads today all the way to another hotel, Hotel Ibis in Bilbao. One from a chain of 4,400 worldwide Ibis hotels. I had stayed in an Ibis in Morocco once...I'm sure this was the same one.
More to follow