This year's holiday

Currently in the planning stages to take the bike to Spain /
Portugal..... I've been meaning to do it for a few years now, but never
managed to get there due to house and job moves. This year I'm
determined I'll do it.

Having never visited the north of the country, what are the roads like
around there? - I'm not looking for twisty hooning lanes, but for
non-motorway roads to get from Santander, via Lisbon to the Algarve.
Returning looks like it'll be Seville - Salamancer - Santander.

Any suggestions for routes? - I've played with Autoroute, but it doesn't
really give me an idea as to what the roads are going to be like, so
looking for anyone who has real experience.

Cheers,

 

I did a bit of touring around Portugal in June 2004.

(Yes, to coincide with the Euro 2004 football tournament!)

I flew out there and hired a bike. Unfortunately that bike was a Yamaha
Bulldog 1100. Having ridden one for over 1000 miles I can see why no bugger
bought them. My back still complains to me when I think of the day I rode
from the north of Portugal down to Faro and back! Nice looking bike but dog
slow in acceleration and turning. Relatively comfortable around town though.
And the chicks out there seemed to dig it! ;o)

*coming back to the point*

The roads are pretty variable out there. The motorways (Autostrada) are
generally fairly empty between cities - they get pretty congested around the
toll booths outside Porto and Lisbon for example - but are populated by
nutters when you do see another person! I lost count of the number of times
I saw an overturned car sat on it's roof next to the motorway with the
police attending! Dead straight motorway - perfect visibility / driving
conditions. Weird.

Then you have the "N" roads and "IC" roads. Both can be quite variable in
quality but probably nothing you won't have encountered in the UK. You will
no doubt occasionally get stuck behind tractors, etc. which you can soon
blast past on a bike. The real problems are other road users.

The standard of driving in Portugal is absolutely atrocious! It's no wonder
they have the worst road casualty figures in Europe!

Best bet is to buy yourself a Michelin map and do a bit of web searching for
some of the things you're interested in. Personally I'd recommend a visit to
the town of Obidos (absolutely stunning walled town with castle) or getting
to the town of Evora for the local Festa when they have a major-league party
around midsummers night!

Portugal also has a large amount of neolithic monuments to visit too. In
fact, I think that the Cromeleque Almendres is the largest stone circle in
Europe (in terms of number of stones I think it's got 90-odd, although it's
not QUITE as impressive as our very own Stonehenge 'cos the individual
stones are smaller)

One thing worth noting - motorcycles are required to have headlights on at
all times. I got pulled for this by a rather grumpy rozzer out there who
took pity on me for being English. I'm not sure how big the on-the-spot fine
would have been but if I hadn't been able to pay it's a matter of having
your bike impounded until you do pay. (worst case scenario) Don't argue with
them - they have guns. lol )

If you don't mind paying someone for a bit of advice have a chat with a
company called Motocadia. If you're taking your own bike with you email them
and let them know what you fancy doing. (web address below)

http://www.motocadia.com/ownbike.html

They are the company that I hired the bike from (thankfully they don't seem
to have anything other than Triumph Sprints to hire out these days from a
brief browse of their website) and found them to not only be a really nice
bunch of folks but when I had a small mishap with the Bulldog falling off
it's side stand they were VERY reasonable over sorting out the damage
repairs.

They could quite easily have just taken my entire deposit off me but we went
to the local Yamaha dealers, got a quote for repairs which was substantially
less than the deposit, I settled for that amount and got the rest of my
deposit back. Wonderful group of people to deal with.

If you want any more info about Portugal feel free to email me at Rusty_1973
at yahoo dot com and I'll dig out some of the guide books I've got and see
if there is anything useful for you in them.


Hope you enjoy the holiday!!


Rusty.

 

The Plymouth-Santander ferry is the way to go for sheer comfort, but
****, it's pricey. You could do what we did and taken that route out,
and then ride up through France for a Dover-Calais return.

South of Santander, the Picos de Europa mountains are absolutely ace
for hooning.

Central Spain, generally, is brilliant. It's only the Mediterranean
coast that's manky. We just looked at Michelin maps, picked routes that
looked fun (those ones that are green-lined to denote a scenic route
are always worthwhile), and had a ball.

Forget the Michelin Guide - it really isn't much cop for Spain.
Instead, we stopped at likely looking wayside hotels once we'd sussed
that a manky peeling shuttered unkempt exterior didn't mean that the
inside was the same. Far from it. we stayed in some fabulous inns in
central Spain. Take a phrase book - utterly essential, because English
isn't as widely spoken as you might think if you're off the beaten
track.

And remember they eat dinner late. Like starting at 10pm and often 11.

 

Guy I know runs a touring company out there. Drop him an email
as I'm sure he'll be able to tell you a bit about it.
http://www.bike-astur.com/

 

The Med coast is indeed crap. My arse still hasn't recovered from last
spring's french run. Having said that, you don't need to go far inland
for truly excellent twisties - I find them too twisty for my bike/me.
And buying a brand new map is essential as they change the road numbers
and build new roads all the time.

Except in my experience it's often hard to find accomodation in Spain.
However, most larger towns will have a hostal tucked away somewhere.
Parking in the larger towns is an utter bastard

¡No me digas!

Depends on time of year. Earlier in the winter. In a lot of the smaller
towns you may find nowhere open to eat beyond 9pm.

--

Paul.
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24
OMF #15
Buy this house: http://personales.ya.com/wibbleypants/main.htm
This will be ready soon:
http://personales.ya.com/wibbleypants/bb_in_andalucia_spain.htm

 

Went a few years ago, did Poole/St Malo, blasted down the autoroute and
then you can cut across to San Sebastian et al.

If you want to do some sightseeing on the way head for Pyla.

 

I have been considering that, but, we're doing this in October, so I
don't fancy a run from a channel port through to South Wales in late
October - plus, of course, the mileage in Northern France.

We're planning on the Plymouth - Santander ferry both ways at the
moment. You're not wrong about the price - £320 incl. cabins. B'stards.

Sounds good.

Noted - I did wonder about the Med. coast - which is why we were
planning on perhaps going via Lisbon.

Noted. Currently trying to learn a bit of Portuguese from some CD-ROM I
ordered at work :-(

Sounds ideal.

Cheers.

 

SteveH said...

A mate of mine owns this outfit:

http://www.catalansportsbiketours.com/index.html

 

You want a nice Z200, you do.