Terry Arnold
For our first self organised tour, Clappo suggested using Brittany Ferries’ deals using Spanish parador & Portuguese pousada hotels on a touring package, which was on a half-board basis. He performed all booking and cat-herding duties and Terry planned the routes.
- Originally I was not going on the tour, but decided to join late on . That meant I needed to book the ferry and all the hotels as a single room.
The Paradors & pousadas are fantastic. Not all beautiful, sometimes former castles or palaces or sometimes a repurposed government building – the government scheme aims to raise tourism for economic reasons in areas needing a boost.
Accommodation is normally spacious and well equipped (sometimes a bit Spanish-traditional ie rustic/dark woods). Evening meals are 3-courses – anything off the menu – and starters can be half one dish + half another – WoW
Wines & drinks are extra but necessary
- We met at McDonalds near Portsmouth for refreshments and moved on to the ferry-port for boarding
- Our first sailing was a pleasant experience, Clappo prebooked the ‘a la carte’ restaurant so that we could dine in style – good call
- We enjoyed catching up in the evening in the bar, slept well, had breakfast and had a relaxing day as the ship sailed towards Santander
- We had a new member for this tour – Colin’s mate Mark. We got to know each other during the voyage and he fitted in well and easily.
Santander to Cervera De Pisuerga
- Docking around 5pm, we rode south in the evening sun to Cervera de Pisuerga our first stop.
- Our first experience was very positive – in truth, all have been positive, for me at least. Many have been exceptional
- What we missed due to the dying light and the earlyish departure was that the hotel sat on the clifftop of an incredibly beautiful wide national park ravine.
Cervera De Pisuerga to Salamanca
- The next day after an excellent buffet breakfast we moved west along a lovely winding brand-new tarmac road for 30 miles beside a huge man made reservoir
- Nearing Raino the reservoir level was very low as it was late summer
- Riano is a strange new town that has been rebuilt after its original valley location was flooded and it has quite a strange atmosphere.
- I had been there before in the car, and so had Colin. A small bar we used for coffee and snacks became known as Colin’s Caff as we have been there 4 times on tours over the years.
- At Riano we turned south and skirted east of Leon and then Zamora. Here the scenery changed noticeably. I had never appreciated the true meaning of ‘the plain’ – as in ‘the rain in Spain…….’ The middle of Spain is a massive flat plain at 1000+m alt.
- This makes the views fairly unspectacular, but highlight included
- huge areas of ripened sunflowers all bowing their heads – and-
- a big dust cloud in the distance turned out to be massive flock of sheep being driven by shepherds with alsations, of course! – German shepherd dogs!
- Salamanca is an exceptionally beautiful city. We walked into town in the late afternoon and the sun was still strong, illuminating all the wonderfully ornate buildings.
- We strolled along a main traffic free street amongst the locals and other visitors.
- Took a group photo on the huge Plaza Major.
- We found a bar on a small square that was frequented by students which, we discovered, served the cheapest drinks in town, hence they were all in there.
- Another excellent dinner was served and we agreed the now normal ‘early’ start of 09:00 wheels rollin’, stressing that we needed to be on time, we’d leave stragglers behind
Salamanca to Torreira
- Next morning we had breakfast and John and Paul weren’t to be seen
- We prepared the bikes for the ‘off’ and I went in to the loo before leaving
- As I walked through reception, there were John and Paul, checking out. They’d overslept
- Paul was in a high state of panic shouting “they’ll leave without us!” – John calmly pointed at me as said “well they’re not going just yet if Terry is over there”
- We headed west towards Portugal and the Serra Du Estrela mountains and over to the coast at Torreira. Very beautiful with meandering curvy roads through valleys and up and over countless hills.
- The hotel was a 1960’s Jetson’s style building, long and low set on a sand-bar with the atlantic on one side and a huge internal lagoon on the other.
- There were no available rooms at the Pousada for me when I booked later, so I reserved a nearby AirBNB and I peeled off about 3 miles before the hotel
- It turned out to be a scam, there was no such address, what could I do?
- I called Clappo and he agreed that I could bunk in with him and Gary
- Clappo made Gary give up his mattress and he slept on the divan base, whilst I slept on the mattress on the floor
- They claimed I kept them awake all night snoring
- I joined them for dinner which I paid for separately and all the guys raided the buffet breakfast and brought me the most random breakfast I’ve ever had
Torreira to Viana Do Castelo
- When we set off next morning there was a dense sea fog making visibility very poor
- As it was only about 50 miles directly to the next hotel, we headed of northwest into the hills to find some nice roads
- This led us up to and along the Douro valley with its steep hill sides and thousands of acres of vines. The roads were excellent too
- The twisty and hilly going, combined with the 224 miles distance made this a very hard and stressful day
- Paul got a puncture that Clappo fixed by the roadside, giving the impression he knew what he was doing, but confided later that he was winging it.
- We got a bit lost and went up a perilously steep road through a mountain village, watched by puzzled locals
- Tiredness and darkness set in and I seemed to take every turning in the wrong direction
- Colin kindly came to the front and offered to lead us in, so I gratefully accepted
- Once stripped of leader duties, I could suddenly operate the satnav again and just relaxed and enjoyed letting someone else have the responsibility
- The approach to the hotel was up a small pointy mountain and the road was like a helter-skelter, we could see it at the top and we wound around and upwards towards it.
- Viana Do Castelo is an EXCEPTIONAL Pousada. A former palace on a mountain top with its own grand church and gardens. Absolutely magnificent.
- At check-in I was told the single room I had booked was not available so they had given me an upgrade. The suite was more of a luxury apartment with massive state bedroom, hallway, living room, dining room, kitchenette and a huge private terrace with sunbeds and dining furniture for 6 people!
- I understand the other rooms were pretty good too.
- Great dinner with wines again of course and then we relaxed with drinks in the uber-luxury bar/lounge area
Viana Do Castelo to Ribadeo
- We rode northwest and back across the border into Spain
- Our memories of Portuguese roads were that they were mostly marvelous
- Clearly, huge amounts of EU money had been spent on countless tall ravine bridges and tunnels, necessary due to the very craggy landscape
- The only poor roads we saw were where there had been huge forest fires and the roads had melted with massive blisters in the tarmac.
- At lunchtime, we stopped at a small bar where the pavement was its outside seating area, spilling into the road
- Hardly any english was spoken, but a young woman was translating for us. We called her over to us and it turned out she had her leg in plaster! Sorry.
- Basically we ordered the full menu without understanding it – we ate very well.
- At this point, Mark said he felt unwell and Colin offered to ride on with him – and Gary also chose to go with them, perhaps the pace was too quick, and they left first and were first to the hotel later.
- Myself, Clappo, John and Paul stuck to the planned route which took us up past Ourense and Lugo and here the road became unbelievable good.
- The N640 up to the coast remains one of our most memorable riding sessions.
- The curving road wound left and right in wide curves in a quite regular pattern, so it was possible to ‘click into a groove’, flowing with the bends and all at a fairly high speed, but feeling comfortable
- The 4 of us rode in fairly close formation at a very good pace for 60-70 miles. Truly wonderful
- We pulled into the hotel just after the others (who I think took a more direct route) and we 4 were Buzzing.
- Another very pleasant evening with great food, drinks and company.
Santillana Del Mar to Home
- Rather than head the shortish distance along the northern coast of Spain – the Costa Verde – to the next stop, we headed south east and inland – back to the Picos de Europa region.
- Truly stunning motorcycling roads here and we wound our way down to Colin’s Caff at Riano again, where we had some lunch
- Leaving Riano to the northeast meant that we had ridden the roads in all 4 directions of Riano’s X-shaped cross-roads.
- Super roads again up to the atlantic coast and we followed the coast into our next destination Santillana Del Mar. This was a medieval town that had been restored in recent years and whilst a bit ‘Disney’ perfect, it really was lovely.
- There are 2 paradors here ours was mostly accommodation and across the wide stone street was another with a lovely terrace, bar and restaurant
- We went out for a stroll round the restored town, buying souvenirs from the tourist shops, and then to the bar for an aperitif or three
- Another superb evening meal and drinks and chats – fantastic
- As we had an early morning departure for the ferry, the hotel made us takeaway breakfast boxes.
- It was raining as we set off and this was of particular concern to Paul, whose rear tyre was bald and he was nursing it back to the UK – puncture repair and all
- We arrived in good time at the port, ate our breakfast and watched lorries backing 100m long wind turbine blades into rows – all at breakneck speed.
- The ferry crossing was fine again with the famed Bay of Biscay storms holding off (see the 2019 tour report)
