We woke to a damp cool Saturday morning at the Hotel las Grandes. Our room had a great view overlooking the dam and Embalse de Salime (Salime reservior), it was beautiful but I knew we would be in for a cool day of riding. We needed to be in Lisbon Portugal on Monday so we had a few more days to explore the area. The direct route to Lisbon would be 446 miles but that would be too easy so instead of heading south we went north back to the coast.
Dangerousroads.org lists the road to Cain as one of the most dangerous roads in Spain. A quick check of a map showed we were within 300 miles of this deadly road so we quickly decided to route south through the Parque Nacional de Los Picos de Europa and take the long way around to meet our friend Emily in Donosta San Sebastian on the northern coast.
As a “dangerous road” I wouldn’t really say it was too life threatening but it was a beautiful road through a narrow canyon.
It’s hard for Deby to keep her eyes on the road when riding past shear rock walls.
Continue reading(Note: Want to see our exact route?? CLICK HERE for the route on Google Maps. Click boxes on the left of the map to select days. )
Sometimes the best plan is no plan…. We only had a rough idea where to ride in Spain with the exception that we wanted to visit Deby’s friend Emily in Monpazier, France, a small town a “short way” over the border. We had 10 days so how hard would it be to ride to France and be back to Lisbon in time for the guided tour? Right….
Continue readingI’m going to blame Art Bone and his wife Carol for being a bad influence. If you read my recent post from March in Mexico (HERE) you may remember Art and Carol from the Hacienda tour. During our time together Art mentioned that they had reservations for a Portugal “Premium Tour” with a company called MotoXplorers in Portugal. Carol asked Deby if we would like to go, and without hesitation (or asking me?) she enthusiastically replied YES!
Next thing I know we are enrolled for their 10 day guided motorcycle tour in the middle of September. Ten days? Well, that’s just not long enough to justify the long flight and travel costs. After some research we decided to fly to Lisbon, Portugal at the beginning of September and rent BMW motorcycles for our own tour of Spain to get “warmed up” for the guided Portugal tour.
Continue reading