Spain 2006

This is really part 2 of TwD-2006 (my month of June off work!); the epic six weeks in USof A has been edited to the last two weeks doing Houston-Key West-Houston and now Jen and I are heading for Spain.  We left on Friday 16th June and rode to Peterborough for an overnight with Aunty Mary.

On the way down the GPS was playing up and the routing was not working at all.  Off course I know the route to Aunty Mary's but I did not know the planned route between the Paradores of Spain.  During a fuel stop I checked that the 1GB card was well inserted as this had been a problem once before; but no.  It turned out that a bug in my laptop meant it was shutting down and re-booting of its own accord and this had happened while I was downloading the maps, routes and waypoints of Spain 2006; meaning all the data had not transferred to the remote unit!  So a run of Sophos, 5 bugs removed, and re-download the information.  This solved the problem and a good job it did to.

Saturday was a leisurely ride to my long term friend, Peter Busby, dad's house.  Peter and his Dad live next door to each other in Littlehampton and I had planned a country road route around the leafy lanes of England.  On arrival a nice cup of tea with Mr. Busby and his wife Chris then when Peter arrived he insisted on a swim in the English Channel.  We rode his bikes down the 500m to the shingley beach and were soon splashing about in the sea.  It took me back to our childhood when Peter (Buzz) and I would ride all over Southern England on our bikes getting up to all sorts of mischief!  A curry with Buzz's sister and her husband Gez, who had to go home because he had a severe nose bleed, that again took me back to my childhood; one of our play friends having to go home because of a nose bleed! 

Jen and I had our overnight stop in the Travel Inn Newhaven which is less than a mile from the Ferry terminal.

Sunday 18th June 2006.  The ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe left at 08:00 and we had to check in one hour ahead of time, we left the hotel for the five minute run to the ferry and the first cock up occurred.  The port was clearly signposted, which we accurately followed.  But there was no one at the terminal, other vehicles dutifully followed the clear signs but to the same reception as us; then Jen noticed and obscure message taped to a door that we had to use the terminal on the other side of the railway tracks!  Then we were directed to get our tickets (the computer print out was not enough for this French company).  A long, growing queue bode an ill omen for me as I hate queues.  Of the two operatives, one was a flustered female who was answering the phone, overseeing her work colleague and checking in customers.  The other had only started a few days earlier and did not know his arse from his elbow (that is a technical term for his short comings; obviously not his fault but managements).  I think the two armed policemen were only there to keep the queue in order not stop terrorism.  The mood was getting ugly.  Finally sorted and the queue still growing Jen and I were soon aboard as it was now only a few minutes to sailing time.

What we witnessed there were the death throws of a business.  This route would, as sure as eggs are eggs, close soon and the loss of a living to many people because of the complete lack of customer focus on behalf of the management. The ferry was at, I estimate, 30% of capacity and I know why!  Look at the decks:  Not only are they empty of passengers but they have no deck chairs for the few who made it through the confusing, inefficient embarkation procedures.

Not long and the catastrophe that is Transmanche Ferries was behind us - wonder what they'll be like on the return! We were speeding South towards LeMans seeing lots of brilliant classic and muscle cars; Ford GT40, Bentley Blowers, Ferrari's by the score, Noble - the list goes on and of course it was the weekend of the LeMan 24 hour race.

Weather was holding fine and bright; not your 104f as in Houston but still very warm for riding a Harley.  My new CVO Glide was purring along but at one of the fuel stops, where there were lots more tasty cars, but horror of horrors as we exited the service area my Glide sounded decidedly iffy!  I thought it was a loose exhaust flange, so we came of the Peage and had a look.  It was not an exhaust noise but an intake (induction) rattle, the air cleaner was falling off.

Fortuitously I had my tear drop Cruz toolkit I had specifically purchased for My 51 Pan with me, my trusty old mega kit consigned to the garage as paying a Kings Ransom for this bike I did not expect to have a Road Side Harley Party again!  I had the two sizes of Allen and one size or Torx required to soon have it all boxed up and humming once more, the gently road sounds of a HOG on song.

I used the GPS2610 to locate a Holiday Inn in the centre of Tours and negotiated a significant room discount with the added benefit of secure garage and WiFi internet.

The Tours station is right next to the hotel and is a brilliant piece of architecture, and in the setting sun the gold flake shimmered in the light, awesome.  Lovely meal and early to Bed.

Monday 19th June 2006  N147 from Tours to Limoges is a Glides dream road and with the 140 track MP3 CD Jono had lovingly prepared on Random play God was in his heaven and all was right with the World.  If you want to take the pleasures of this road then hurry to France as they are busy building a new Peage to replace this curvy fast masterpiece.

We started looking for a hotel at 5:30pm and the first Ibis was full.  It did have a pool that looked very inviting after the hot ride but it was way out of Montauban (about 50K North of Toulouse) town centre so an ask of the GPS located Mercure Hotel in the town Centre, soon we were parked outside and negotiating my over 55 (11 days short but Jen qualifies!) discount!  Montauban is a quaint sleepy little French town and wonderful for that.  The receptionist has a husband who is a bike builder in Phoenix Arizona so we got first class treatment from her with our Harley connection.  Wonderful French meal in the cool of the evening in the Place Nationle, a market square with cloisters down three sides, it was still and warm then we had a thunderstorm which was refreshing and cooling and once more an early night.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to be at our first Paradore in Spain. 

Did I say a thunderstorm, well, later that night we had the mother of all thunderstorms, a howling wind (could it be the mistral?) and lashings of rain with thunder straight from the Gods; a sky light by sheet lightening that was almost constant.  Was Jen scared?  No she managed to snore her way through it!  One of the disadvantages of my self imposed exile from the demon drink is my conscious level is always the same and there are no relaxing outer states of mind that I can repose in.  Perhaps I should start drinking again!  I shall now give the upload to the www another shot!

Tuesday 20th June 2006  It should have been an easy run today; but major cock up on the navigation front!  We set off at about 08:30 and were soon sampling the delights of Toulouse Peripherique, it is the same league as the Paris Peripherique but lacks the underpasses that confuse the GPS signal, but all the same very enlivening.  Soon South of Toulouse and we were starting to climb.  The CVO Glide is impeccable and a pure joy to pore on the ample power, handling too appeared to be significantly better than my '03 Glide and I can't help wondering if all those pounds I've shed and trimmed from the bike in the way of extras is the reason or if the suspension set up on the CVO is that much better?  Anyway the sum total is a relaxing powerful high speed run and when you are riding 'lone wolf' the World is your oyster.

Just over the border on route N-230 and we are at the Tunal de Vielha, this is one of the old alpine tunnels at only 4m roof height and one way truck restrictions and at approximately 3.5 miles long a true experience.  Ventilation is also an issue and we were searching for the light at the end of the tunnel very soon into the experience!  N-230 is a dream of long fast sweeping bends with easy overtakes and all was right with the World.  We soon had our eyes peeled for the Paradore La Seo D'Urgell but horror of horrors I could not find it. I found the street in the town but no sign of the Paradore?  Further questioning in a local bar showed I had placed the route to a Town that should have been the region and a street that should have been the town.  We had virtually passed the Paradore we had the booking at 140km earlier!

Re programming the GPS and as it was only 15:30 retraced our steps.  Mind it could have been worse.  But arrival in La Seo D'Urgel one and half hours later and once more going to the wrong hotel nerves were getting a bit fractious!  It was worth it, fantastic modern Paradore with all mod cons (except the high speed WiFi was not working) other than that this Paradore ticked all the boxes.

Wednesday 21st June 2006  Today was a scheduled rest, or holiday.  I had a few chores to do.  Laundry was quickly dispatched by filling in a bag and form; its back now pressed and fresh as a daisy.  Second job was to clean the bike from the dirtiest it's been in its short life back to spectacularly clean - well the front, right side and back are spectacularly clean, I have the last third of the left side to do some time soon.  I did try a few locations to upload this diary to the World Wide Web but without success yet.

Tapas for lunch and a lay in the sun to complete a quiet day, I also downloaded some revised routes to the GPS as options for our rides later in the week.  We asked at reception for a restaurant recommendation and were told to try IGNASI, Carrer Capdevila, 17, Le Seu d'Urgell (Tel: 973 35 4949),  and it was the best food.  Brilliant ambience and did I say the best food, it really was and well worth the effort to find this small gem nestling in the back streets of Le Seu d'Urgell.

Thursday 22nd June 2006  There was no planned overnight but there were three Paradores between Le Seu d'Urgell and Sos del Ray our billet on Friday and Saturday.  We selected Vielha, a short 82 mile day.  The ride was wonderful, a couple of high mountain passes to test man and machine. this part of the Spanish Pyrenes is not often visited by the English tourist but is very popular in the winter for skiing and this time of year for hiking, rafting and canoeing; but for us the pleasure was all biking.  The first pass was Port del Canto to Sort on the N-260 in bright weather with dry roads and the temptation to scrape the CVO's skirts around every bend!  The second pass was  Riu de la Bonaigua and a long down hill run to Btetren and Vielha.  For those exponents of the alpine pass these I had never heard of but were certainly up there with the Stelvio, Grossglochner and other better known alpine passes.

Once more the Paradore de Vielha lived up to its top notch billing.  We had a lunch in the town and an afternoon at the pool, wonderful.

Friday 23rd June 2006 This was a motorcycling day, only about 140km but three mountain passes and a long stretch of the N-240 between Jaca and Embalse de Yesa (a big lake).  The glide is a handful on the very twisty twisties but on the long sweeping curvy mountain 'N' roads she is pure poetry.  This new CVO glide appears to handle so much better that my previous '03 Anniversary Glide; but I am not sure if it is the lighter weight (I am 3 stone lighter for a start!) or the improved handling of a Screaming Eagle Glide - whichever it is the confidence inspiring handling means improved grins per mile.

We stopped often to smell those roses and discovered an etymologists heaven.  I have never seen so many butterflies of so many shapes and sizes outside of a butterfly farm, and as for birds; I only wish I knew what they all were, but for sure we did see red kites in abundance.

Paradore Sos del Rey Catolico is in a small village just South of Pamplona, it is an unspoiled, typical of the region village and one to be recommended.  A stroll through the village and we found the only restaurant:

of course no English was spoken but with my rapidly improving Spanish and universal sign language we soon had a meal ordered.  But even I was not prepared for the repast brought before me.  It was a huge chunk of beef and a hot plate that I was supposed to slice my own beef from the joint and cook myself on the hot stone platter!  An unusual local style meal in a perfect setting just what these touring holidays on a Harley are all about, a great days ride and a pleasant evening having fun discovering the delights of local village life in a remote area of tourist free Spain - perfection.

Saturday 24th June 2006  Our second day in Sos del Rey Catolico and we decided to ride into Pamplona which was about 60km North of Sos del Rey Catolico.  Nice high speed run and parked up at by 10:30 and a wander around the town.  On the way in I spotted two large trucks from Suffolk and we later saw these at the Pamplona Bull ring.  They were support vehicles for a Shakira concert.

In the market square there was an Artisans' market which we managed to get around just before the rain started.  The weather changes spectacularly from bright sun to a thunderstorm in minutes.  It was a wet ride back and we stopped for a break in Sanguesa and got wetter but it was warm wet!  A bit of World Cup on the TV to see Germany beat Sweden 2-0 then out for more food.

Sunday 25th June 2006  To give more time for our run North through France I had brought forward our Paradore booking in Hondarribia by a day so we could be there Sunday night not Monday.  Jen and I decided to run up the West coast of France and hone my French speaking skills, as I was very short on Spanish vocabulary!

The holiday coastal town of Hondarribia is well worth a visit and we watched England beat Ecuador in the World Cup.  The Paradore is brilliant and had the friendliest of staff.  The 91 Paradores covering Spain are an inspiring way to tour this wonderful country and I now had been in about 15% of the total with no clear favourites as they are all good.

Monday 26th June 2006  Cognac for this tee-totaller was on the cards today.  Nige and his crew had visited Chateau del L'Yeuse, in Chateaubernard last year and it came highly recommended.  It was not in my GPS and the address was not in either, but on entering Cognac the signs were large and clear but we toured around for nearly an hour and saw no more signs of the hotel.  It turns out the signs just stop!  But so far it is well worth it.  The view from our room is magnificent.

Tuesday 27th June 2006 The meal last night was 2.5 hours of gastronomic artistry but I was still hungry after it all!  It was an experience!  We decided to head North to Dieppe via the Route National roads and lower specification roads and got as far as the Loire Valley at about 3pm.  A hotel beckoned us from the edge of a bridge!  This picture of the weir was taken from our bedroom veranda.  It was in Chateauneuf sur Sarthe a quiet sleepy village, with little ducklings and fish biting at the dragonflies.  Bliss.

Wednesday 28th June 2006  Once more heading North on the secondary roads and we are really getting into the lazy rate of Northerly progress.  Jen gave me permission to visit HD Caen, it was spot on in the Garmin, unfortunately they had moved a couple of kilometers!  I asked if they had a pump for my rear suspension, as the bike had been bottoming out very easily, and there was no air pressure in the rear suspension.  Luckily Harley have decided to have a standard suspension on the right rear side and air on the left - sounds a bit Heath Robinson but in this case with no air the one working suspension had saved our butts! 

Thursday 29th June 2006  Finally I got the bike washed!  We are in Arromanches les Bains which is where Mulberry B port was constructed over a few days prior to the D-Day landings.  I had not known about this fantastic construction that was the brainchild of Winston Churchill.  What foresight that in 1943 Winston had engineers start to design and build a harbour that could be used to supply the needs of an invassionary force of just under 3 million people, built in secrecy, and floated to its working place and built in a few days.  The French people are brilliant in their care of the history so we never can forget what happened on these beaches only 62 years ago.  One man wanting to push his will onto others, using mortal force, why?  I found myself wandering the cemeteries, reading the head stones and also the A4 laminated stories of many individuals which brought a tear to the eye that so much manhood was killed for our freedom.  I could not help but wonder of the terrorists of today could see all this death and suffering they would re-consider their strategy of killing people so they will change to what they want us to be.

Those young men either made it home to fulfill their promise or they lay in one of the many well tended cemeteries that bear witness to mans inability to respect another's right to live the life they want to, lets hope one day we can all learn to be more tolerant of another's view.  This is a place where we should all come and witness what happened those few short years ago.

Friday 30th June 2006 55 years old today, or should I say 55 years young!  You are as young as the woman you are feeling so I really am 55!  What to do today?  Leisurely breakfast looking out over Mullberry B harbour and we were treated to the arrival of a British Landing craft.

We decided to head towards Dieppe to see if we could get on one of the three daily Transmanche ferries ahead of our Saturday 8am booking.  No rush but we took the Peage for the 140km up to Dieppe and arrived at noon in time for the 12:30 ferry.  Arriving and on the road in Newheaven for a run for home of 360 miles, around the M25 at 5pm on a Friday evening; oh what joy!  It is only about 45 miles to take this ring around the west side of London but wall to wall traffic at stop to 50mph speeds, was very draining.  Filtering through the outside lane and the one next to it was very stressful as the car drivers were busy with cell phones, make up, map reading, drinking, listening to the radio, answering eMails etc; in fact all the important things to do whilst driving but only a few were concentrating on their driving which made filtering such a toil.

Home for 10:30pm and in the Hen 15 minutes later 'shit, shaved and showered!' for my birthday drink with me mates the BOFF's.

Quiet a trip. 2775 miles with a max at 99.9mph and my new CVO Glide on 4545 total miles; brilliant and Jen fancies the Loire Valley next time.

Roll on Malaga in September, Later,  Dave