Summer trip to Spain and Portugal.

byron

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I just thought that I would outline my upcoming trip with three friends to Spain and Portugal. The trip is based on the Ride magazine tour which Simon Wear has created and I am sure wil be of the highest quality. During the past 12 months I've done two of the Ride trips and they've been spectacularly planned.
I am hoping that my new iPhone together with my friend Siri I will be able to complete a trip blog as the trip unfolds.

Grand Tour of Portugal May 2017

10th May
Leave Portsmouth at 11.45 am on board Cap Finistere

11th May
Arrive Bilboa at 1. 00pm approx.
Travel to Sahagun – 170 miles approx. Bilboa to Sahagun
Stay at Hotel Domus Viatoris

12th May travel to Vila Real – 255 miles approx. Sahagun to Vila Real
Stay at Hotel Miracorgo for 2 days
13th May - Rest day or Tour on the “Best Road in the World N222”

14th May travel to Serta – 205 miles approx. Vila Real to Serta
Stay at Hotel Casal da Cortiçada
15th May - Rest day or Tour of Serta and Zezere Valley – 145 miles approx Serta Tour

16th May travel to Lagos - 270 miles approx.
Stay at Hotel Club House CVL
17th May – beach / coastal day

18th May travel to Elvas – 245 miles approx Luz to Elvas
Stay at Hotel Santa Luzia
19th May – Rest day or Castle Tour - 200 miles approx. Elvas Castle Tour

20th May travel to Covilha – 200 miles Elvas to Covilha
Stay at Hotel Covilha Parque
21st May - Rest day or Stelvio style tour – 90 to 170 miles Portuguese Stelvio

22nd May - travel to Chaves – 200 miles Covilha to Chaves
Stay at Hotel Fort de Sao Francisco

23rd May - travel to Astorga – 225 miles Chaves to Astorga
Stay at Hotel SPA via del la Plata

24th May – travel to Santander – 230 miles Astorga to Santander Ferry
Depart at 21.15pm on board Pont - Aven
25th May – return to Plymouth at 16.15 pm

In planning the trip I have tried to put in a five rest days so that we can either relax at the pool or have a ride out depending on how we feel. We are hoping that going the second and third weeks in May will give us enjoyable temperatures rather than being too hot. He is a picture of my RT relaxing in St Ives the other day. The other chaps are on GS's and a 1200r.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Looks like a really nice balance tour. We did the Ride suggestions around Malaga, they were excellent with stunning scenery.
Have a great time
 
enjoy...I agree the ride mag routes are well planned .
 
Have a safe trip, managed to sort out the satnav without asking Wapping, phew!
cheers Simon (Motcombe)
 
Ready for the off

Well tomorrow is the day that the four of us set off for Spain and Portugal. Steve from Newcastle John from Manchester already at a B & B in Portsmouth. Danny and myself will be travelling down tomorrow morning hopefully we'll all meet up at Starbucks. The weather looks fine so all should be good . So let's hope for an easy embarkation and relaxing trip down to southern Europe. I have tried to sort out all of my stuff I need for the trip down on the boat into one pannier bag - let's see if it works. About four weeks ago my Garman 660 gave up the ghost allowed to buy secondhand BMW Nav V The transition from map source the base camp has proved problematic I think I'm there now . Anyway it should lead for some interesting roots
 
have a great trip lads, post plenty of pics please :thumb
 
Hey. Have a good one. Ride safely.

The weather tomorrow looks good in the south of the uk for your ride to the ferry.

btw. What did you sort out with the exhaust flap valve?
 
Going to Spain and Portugal myself in the Autumn so I'm looking forward to your report.
 
DAY 1
We were all meeting up at 10 AM on Wednesday, 10th May at the coffee bar near the ferry terminal. The four of us were coming from Manchester Newcastle Northampton and myself from Shaftesbury Dorset . What a lovely day to start the trip, bright sunshine 12° and easy ride over making a start of the trip so so enjoyable . In fact everything was plain sailing until we got checking in the terminal kiosk for Brittany ferries and one of the guys had accidentally brought his wife's passport!!! We were not to all meet up again for six days . My two riding buddies obviously looked a bit suspect in the fully kitted out and matching red Gs's and were given the full treatment by passport control , all the stuff out of the panniersand have a good look through - checking they were carrying any suspect objects . Anyway it was an easy board on the boat and the crew took a lot of care strapping down the bikes .We settled into cabins for the trip over. A nice relaxing crossing and in the early part of Thursday morning a large pod of dolphins decided to escort the boat for quite awhile. Such a treat to see these beautiful animals
Arrived at Santander We were greeted with 20° c of bright sunshine ,soft breezes and the prospect of a nice day . We casually rode out and completed a few kilometres before stopping for coffee, just to take an assessment of the temperature and then get ourselves fixed for about three hour ride to a destination at Sahagun. A beautiful ride for the start of the trip , with a selection of gently flowing river values hundred agricultural land before the foothills of what I think was the Picos, with the scent of eucalyptus and Pine trees trees in the air making the start of this trip all the more enjoyable . Also the roads were completely deserted which is quite spooky when you think about the amount of traffic in the UK at the moment. After completing about the first hundred miles the weather change dramatically and very heavy thunderstorms seem to be in circling the area of our travels so we decided to put the direct routed for the hotel . We arrived at 6:30 at a quirky little place in Saragun which is on the Pilgrims Route to Santiago de Compostela . Three course dinner and a nice warm bed put all we need it from first night in preparation for Spanish please. I have to say everybody in the hotel seem to be doing a lot of reflecting on life we walking soon about planning day two.
 
DAY 2 & 3
The rain was still in the area at breakfast after a night of severe thunderstorms in Sahagun .We decided to take the scenic and see if we could dodge them all the way through . However as we all know the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain as Rex Harrison always said!
The total trip should've been about 250 miles with 150 of those miles in the Spanish plains . The weather remained fine for the morning and the rain clouds just stayed on the horizon as we travelled across the plains making great time . This agricultural area seems very remote and people and houses are very sparse , with a fuel station
even more difficult to come across. As one after another we came across were closed . We were set to cross the border at about 2 o'clock and travel into Portugal crossing the river Douro at Maranda do Douro.
Just as we dropped down into the river gorge the checkpoint seem very busy indeed with a lot of police about and it soon became evident that we were going to have some issues . In fact the issues proved a real pain in the bum as the pope wascoming to Portugal that day and the border crossings were close to everybody except Portuguese. So at the border we had the usual interrogation with police officers carrying guns and wearing Ray Bans and they told us we have to travel 30 miles up the border to another crossing. Joy of joys
Anyway up the valley and across the edge of the National Park we travelled,which was quite spectacular with all the rock formations, lots of wildlife and the most wonderful stork nests. We get to the next crossing only to be told we cannot cross as we are not Portuguese and will have to travel another 25 miles and there the chief of police for the area will allow us to cross . Probably we spent almost 2 hours moving up the border between Spain and Portugal and in fact we were riding North away from my destination in Vila Real. We eventually made a crossing and had a quick chat to the chief of police and then were on our way travelling through the Park del Duero for just a short while and we had to pick up the motorway as we were still 80 miles away and it was now 5 o'clock in the afternoon. So we sat on the motorway for 70 of those miles and then tripped off and picked up the original route to the hotel in Vila Real for the last 10 miles cutting through some beautiful forest areas with lovely views of river valleys . Our hotel the Mira Corgo was set on the River Gorge the crosses the edge of the Vila Real and provided a great base for us for the following two days.
 


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