Spain, 4 cities in 9 days.

[GTRpilot]

So as promised a quick report on our spanish trip.
Caught the late night ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao on Sunday 4th sept. We stopped in Roscoff to change crews so the crossing took an extra night, arrived in Bilbao Tuesday morning. Disembarked from the bowels of the ship up the dreaded ramp and headed off for the Picos mountains to Potes for lunch. By 10am we were glad we had invested in some summer riding kit as the temp showed 32' Degs and it was blue skies all the way. had a great run through the Picos, if you've never been it's a must, just watch out for cattle roaming the hairpin bends  met some members of the "Pan clan" who were having a meet of over 200 bikes. arrived in Leon after a long hot run. Beer tastes so much better after that! Leon is beautiful, spent 2 nights before an early morning start for Salamanca.

Another hot day, 36' Degs by midday, despite this a good run, albeit not as "interesting" as the Picos. Again Salamanca is a lovely city, the hotel car park was up a cobbled narrow street, quite steep with an uphill 90' Deg turn through the security gate which was closed as we arrived. The old girl must have been tired because she decided to lie down at the gate  2 up with full luggage she is heavy! I baled out and grabbed the tank area, but she didn't touch down, I was trying to work out why I hadn't heard the crunch of pannier and handlebar on the cobbles when I heard a garbled cry on the intercom. My wife, bless her, had thrown herself under the rear pannier in a selfless act  we got her upright and not a mark or scratch, the wife was okay as well,  :sweat drop:. Both Leon and Salamanca had festivals going on so the beer and wine, and Tapas, free with a drink, and free concerts etc were very welcome. 3 nights there and an early start in the cool of the day for a 1 night stopover in Soria, then on to the coast and a place called Hondaribbia, on the  Spanish/French border, just along the coast from San Sebastian.

Again lovely place and very hot weather. 3 days there and then back to Bilbao, and as we arrived at the ferry port the first shower we had seen all holiday. Great for boarding over very slippy metal decks and down the dreaded ramp again to the lowest deck, which proved to be a godsend. As we sailed through the Bay of Biscay on the way home we hit a force 10, when we got into the channel they began calling certain people to reception, these were all bikers who's bikes had gone over in the storm, about 20 in all, mostly on the deck above where our bike was stowed. Only 1 on our deck went over.
The bike didn't miss a beat the whole trip, superb through the twisties, comfy on the straights. What did we learn.
1.We sailed on the Cap Finistere, (or Crap Finistere) as the regular lorry drivers call her, with Brittany Ferries :- I'd rather swim next time. Been spoilt by P&O.
2.Money well spent investing in summer riding kit, jacket, trousers, and gloves, Dainese kit all vented but with removable D dry liners. UK kit is good but not in 36' Degrees of heat. Did that last time, lesson learnt.
3. Zumo 660 doesn't like the heat, threw a few wobblers when it got really warm.
4. It helped leaving early in the morning when it was cooler, plus we got to our next stop with more time to look round.
5. Spanish roads are in the main very good, traffic away from the ports and cities is almost nil. We saw 4 cars and 2 HGV's in a 150 mile stretch.
6. Concentration is drained quickly in very hot weather, so drink plenty and frequent stop's.

Any questions, fire away.

[O.C.]

thanks for sharing your experiences and a Gold Star to SWMBO for her selfless act   

Did you secure your own bike or did the deck staff do it for you, I  was wondering why other bikes fell over and yours didn't

Also what happened with the 660 ?

[GTRpilot]

thanks for sharing your experiences and a Gold Star to SWMBO for her selfless act   

Did you secure your own bike or did the deck staff do it for you, I  was wondering why other bikes fell over and yours didn't

Also what happened with the 660 ?

Deck staff secure the bikes. All except 1 that went over were on the deck above us so I guess there was more movement on the upper deck, we were on the lowest deck, 'G1'. We hit a wave that almost stopped the ship, so we think that's the one that did the damage.
The 660 would work fine in the morning but as it got hot, normally as we got close to our destination audio with it would fail, or it wouldn't recalculate if we went off route in the city, not sure if that's because we were using a pre planned track? Or it would shut down and restart. began to lose faith in it, but we had maps.

[GTRpilot]

Some photos, preparing to disembark.

[GTRpilot]

In the Picos.

[GTRpilot]

Me and my mates somewhere in Spain.

[GTRpilot]

Nestea stop, it was hot! 

[GTRpilot]

Back into the mountains 

[GTRpilot]

Early morning start from Soria. Only night she spent on the street.

[GTRpilot]

Bilbao, waiting to board. Only rain we had seen since arriving.

[O.C.]

lovely pictures, thanks for sharing.

I would expect the 660 to automatically recalculate if you vary the set route, maybe as you say it won't do so on a pre planned route 

[Rusty]

Looks like you had a great time and again thanks for sharing with us all 

[topo]

Nice pics... great trip you done ! And GTR is always beautiful !!