I think me and the missus are agreed we may have had one of our best
holidays. I'm over the moon because this was the longest stint
(distance and time) I've asked her to do.
We were on the road every day and did just over 2000 miles door to
door.
We booked the ferry and just followed our noses.
Ferry docked at Santander and we turned right and headed for the
Picos.
Took the N-621 to Potes. Stunning. Bit daunting on a K at first but we
soon got the hang of it.
Potes is very nice and has shops that sell suitable cutlery so I was
happy.
In the morning did the (possibly) even more stunning N-625 before
heading to Cuidad Rodrigo. Grabbed a posh hotel there to make up for
the distance.
Next stop was Trujillo so I could get pissed while toasting Pizarro in
the big square. It was hot; in the 30's.
Then Seville; beautiful and hotter.
Nipped over to Cordoba.
Wisely decided not to visit Ogden who was busy drinking the Costa dry.
Then North via the very lovely, tiny and windy CM-4103 which was
closed to through traffic but we persevered past the roadblock and
ended up in Horcajo de los Montes.
There is a hostal/bar there called El Alamo where we stayed.
This was possibly my favourite place. There was a a fiesta to the
Virgin of Guadaloupe and everyone in town was up for a party.
It had it all; old people dancing, bars open longer than we could stay
awake, bartender saying 'hombre' to locals waiting for a drink, wild
boar steak for dinner, lads on dirt bikes wheelying up and down the
steet outside the hostal. All this in a little tiny town in the hills.
I was in heaven. No bugger could speak English and that suits me down
to the ground; it's like being at home.
Then suddenly I heard the words:
'Are you English? Do you need help with anything?'
So we got lumbered with a Swiss couple who were lovely, healthy and
could speak 8 languages. Actually they were very lovely and we had a
nice evening with them but they did slightly spoil my being immersed
in a good night out in a town intent on staying up all night.
Just as well possibly as in the morning we hit the even lovelier,
tinier and windier CM-4106 and headed for the Sierra de Gredos.
The road was fantastic. Deer, eagles, vultures and no other vehicles.
We ended up on the N-502 and turned off on a very small road heading
for El Barco de Avila because I loved the sound of it.
El Barco; sadly, was a bit of a dump so we carried on.
Ended up in Bejar and we didn't fancy that either; too big.
We'd seen vaguely touristy signs for a place called Candelerio so we
followed them. This was in the hills above Bejar and it was just
gorgeous. Strange, unique, vernacular architecture. Assymetric gates
across doors and a complicated system of culverts and drinking troughs
all through the town. Loved it.
We stayed in the Hostal El Pasaje which is run by Mario Hinjalo
Alvares. He was very attentive of our needs as bikers. We had an hour
long chat via google translate on our phones and it turned out he was
a motorcyclist too and had done quite a few long distance tours
himself.
Very nice restaurant in the town and I had some pig cheeks washed down
with fancy Rioja.
Then we were facing the big flat hot bit. I decided we should try and
see what Valladolid was like and it didn't go well. I got a bit lost
in the city and everywhere we went looked a bit of a dump. So we
abandoned Valladolid and headed for Riano in the Picos instead.
Back up to Potes. That road is just fantastic :)
Had a great afternoon/evening walking about and drinking/eating in
Casa Cayo.
Last leg along the little coast roadback to Santander. Sat around on
some beaches watching the waves and eating fish in Suances.
Just a fantastic time. The K was just the job and I think this means I
can double up the amount of time I spend whizzing about on motorbikes
:D
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