Time to find some sun

[mikeyw64]

Heading off to Portsmouth today with a mate  to get the Ferry over to Santander then drop down through Spain and Portugal to meet up with my GF and my mates partner at Lagos on Friday :)

Sat/Sun off to see the World Superbikes at Portimao , GFs Birthday meal on the Mon evening and then just chill (& maybe some local riding) before heading back the following Friday to be home late Sun evening.

[O.C.]

Sounds great Mikey, just what the GTR was designed for...enjoy, ride safe and have fun

Report and pics when you return would be great     

[Robbieben]

I've had 3 weeks touring in Europe this year but I'm still envious.

Have a great time and ride safe.

[Icefever]

Portugal...we're off there in Nov for 10 days, shame it's not on the bike, we're flying out.  Just enjoy, ride safe, and post some piccies...

[beegee]

Have a safe trip !

[mikeyw64]

Currently trogging through the grey mistiness of the Bay of Biscay.

We were over 2 hours late leaving and will be at least that much late getting in tonight :(

[Rynglieder]

How did it go Mikey?

Spain & Portugal are in contention for my 2018 trip and I would be interested in your experience.

Pete.

[Rusty]

Yes .. let us know how it went !

[mikeyw64]

Unfortunately it turned into a not so relaxing holiday due to the behaviour of my GFs partner who I was riding with.

HAd a good ride down to Portsmouth then the 24 hour ferry to Santander, not something I ever want to do again, was bored shitless ,

We arrived mid evening and made our way to our overnight stop which was only about 70 miles away in Aliezo. Some nice roads once we got off the motorway although it was dark so didnt see too much ;)

Next day around 80 miles along some nice mountain roads in the rain towards Leon followed by a 430 or so mle blast down to Cascais as he had arranged to meet his brother.

As we pulled into Cascais we immediately hita huge traffic Jam & I got an Overheat Warning.
Made it to where we were parking (were only a few minutes away from our parking place) and as I parked up the bike spat out around 0.5 litre of coolant from the overflow.

Then the problems with the other chap started, suffice to say that I wasnt happy to find out that the sofas we had been offered were actually part of his brothers bar not in a room above the bar and that there was plenty of accomodation available at a local hostel for €20 not just hotel rooms at €300

Following Morning went back to the bike and there was no sign of him (even though we had arranged to meet backup at 9-930 and then head to a local garage to get my bike checked out/ Contacted him and he had "forgotten" about that and said he wasnt going to leave until midday.


Went off to the garage and got the bike checked out, turns out the fan fuse had blown. Total bill for the check including a full drain & refill of the radiator (chap knew exactly which panels to take off in which sequence even though they were flagged up as Yamaha specialists) came to €95. Best bit was they were happy for me to ride off to the nearest cashpoint as none of my 3 cards worked in their machine.

Had to wait for about 90 minutes for them to see me but considering I was a walk in and they looked busy thats excellent. Fortunately the owners daughter spoke excellent English. Overall very impressed with them.

Then had a high speed blast down the motorway from Cascais to the apartment in Lagos, discovered that with my panniers & top box loaded I get a bit of a weave at speeds in excess of 150mph ;)

Sunday we went to the World Superbikes at Portimao and Monday took a ride out as a foursome into the mountains North of Lagos. ide up wasn't that interesting as the other chap is "conservative".

At his wifes suggestion  my GF & I made our own way back and that was far more intersting :)

Went out again with my GF only on the weds down towards the Sagres area, plan being to see some of the Atlantic coastline, unfortunately fog put paid to that and after travelling back up the coast for a bit we eventually went back inland to the mountains and had some fun :)

Due to the situation I had by now decided there was no way I was riding back with him nor did I fancy sharing overnight accommodation on the way back to Santander nor indeed being crammed in a Cabin with him so I made the decision to have the bike shipped back with EuroBikeTransport while I flew back from Porto into Manchester.

Ok so all in all that cost  me an extra £500 but on the plus side I was home before midnight on the Friday rather than gone midnight on Sunday and I didn't have to face a murder charge ;)

[O.C.]

Bizarre

[mikeyw64]

Bizarre

You could say that :)

However one good positive to come out of it, next time myself got to Portugal (or Spain/Italy) would certainly give very serious consideration to shipping the bike both ways with all the luggage & gear on and just jumping a flight with hand luggage only

NB my GF is still friends with her friend however we have agreed we  won't be going on holiday together again  with them, not the first time he's caused problems , we gave him the benefit of the doubt this time.

[Rynglieder]

Thanks for the update.

It is always a leap of faith to take a holiday (or even a day out) with someone else who's riding style you are not sure of. I know many people would find my "rule" of 200 miles or thereabouts per day constrictive and my own speed a bit too pedestrian (despite my recent tangle with the Norwegian authorities ).

It sounds like you would not write off Spain and Portugal as a riding destination on your own though? I'm considering September next year, were the weather conditions about right or would you look at earlier or later?

Sorry this one did not work out and best wishes for next time.

Pete.

[mikeyw64]

Thanks for the update.

It is always a leap of faith to take a holiday (or even a day out) with someone else who's riding style you are not sure of. I know many people would find my "rule" of 200 miles or thereabouts per day constrictive and my own speed a bit too pedestrian (despite my recent tangle with the Norwegian authorities ).

It sounds like you would not write off Spain and Portugal as a riding destination on your own though? I'm considering September next year, were the weather conditions about right or would you look at earlier or later?

Sorry this one did not work out and best wishes for next time.

Pete.

Wasnt his riding style that was a problem , the guy was just a complete cockwomble :)

Sept for weather? more than nice enough generally :)

[Rusty]

"Cockwomble" ... I love that word !

[Handy_Andy]

I've only done a few routes around NW Spain and Mid/Northern Portugal but did thoroughly enjoy the roads. We went as two bikes and 3 people with me giving a pillion ride to my best mate who had never ridden before (apart from a 50 mile trial the week before we went!). Bit of a gamble that paid off pretty well although my pillion seat on the old Cagiva Raptor was a bit hard and after 3 X 200/250 mile days the pillion as in some pain! He needed a few cold beers each night to anaesthetise the area......

The national parks other then Picos De Europa are very quiet. Back roads in Portugal especially seem to have had boatloads of cash spent on great tarmac.

I've never been as late as September but had a bit of mist and rain in July too. Guess it comes with the mountain climate when going through the National parks?

On the overheat and fuse topic, it was only last week I found out the partner of someone at work who has a GTR and went to Portugal last year had exactly the same thing happen. Cost him an hour and 45 euros so a bargain too. I suppose the cooling fans don't get too much full-on exercise in the UK normally so, if there's a bit of corrosion or some other weakness it's likely to show when stressed in hot traffic in a hotter country?

Better luck with the company another time!!