Spain 2022

The tour routes after the trip to show the exact rides from the various destinations.
In total, 2,585 miles riden including the day trips shown below - not sure how much that cost in fuel as the prices were huge in comparison to previous trips, but hey-ho, it's just part of the holiday.

The roads in Spain are fantastic to ride, ranging from sweeping bends, to hairpins, to very very straight stretches and twists and turns, all without much traffic - happy riders :)
Day 0. Travel from Strathalyn down the Marches to Clevedon 
Night before day 0 - couple of beers and a bit of excitement
Got a little wad of the old cash for emergencies 🤣 very unusual to carry cash. 
Woken up to beautiful blue skies and the bike gleaming in the early morning sun. Quick bacon butty then off we go!!!
This is Mrs C’s idea of travelling light - she has one bag and has decided to fill it to the brim - certainly looking forward to doing the twistees in the Pyrenees with that additional 35kg’s on the back 😳
Pit stop for a coffee at the Ascona Crossgates cafe near Llandrindod Wells. Plenty of bikes out even though weather has changed. Cafe full of old farts (like ourselves 🤣) enjoying a slap up breakfast for under a fiver  - we just had a very nice coffee and rest
  
Making the trip to Clevedon, saw the signs to Usk, so nipped there for a quick beer and then on to the 1st hotel. 
 
Ride time 5:30
Miles ridden 185
Weather variable, starting in sunshine, riding through light rain and then into blue skies and very warm temperatures. Pretty strong winds especially over the Severn bridge. 

Best Western Walton Park Hotel Clevedon
Wellington Terrace
Clevedon
BS21 7BL

Couple of beers to start night off prior to diving into some chicken wings. 
Met up with the remaining Intrepid Bikers and headed off to Plymouth. Pretty fast riding, arriving in plenty of time to stand chatting with 100’s of other bikers all making their way towards the beautiful riding roads of Spain. 
110 miles
Ride time 3 hours
Day 1 riding in Spain - Heading from the port to Carreta Pamplona-Irun Km. Pretty late as getting off the ferry was a bit messy - 200 bikes attempting to leave through 1 exit! Not well organised, so going to blast down the motorway before we turn off. The motorways were great to ride though, as they twisted and turned in pretty lengthy bends.
Venta De Etxalar Carretara Pamplona
Ride time 3:30 of very quick riding along the best dual carriageway we ever ridden  only 144 miles ridden but quick quick quick. 
Fantastic hotel, a real nugget found. Food excellent, rooms very comfortable and €2.10 a pint!!! What else can we ask for...
Day 3 Riding to Biege for a 3 night stop over. 
Pretty treacherous and dangerous roads over the Pyrenees but brilliant to ride. Views stunning, combination of twisties, switchback, sweeps made for an exciting day. 
7’30” ride time though and 244 miles so fairly taxing on the butt!! 
Lourdes for a religious outing :)
By the time we had arrived, we had ridden in 41 degrees, thunder, lightening, very heavy rain - everything that could be thrown at us...
Hysteria de Guara
Bierge
Honestly Toby hasn’t pissed himself, although we did enjoy a number of beers and G&T's...
Replica of 2015 - the years have been kind 🤣
Toby’s had another wee 🤣🤣🤣
Boys day out to ride Dos Gorges and the twistier windy roads. 
A little 100 miler 
A huge 264 mile ride to Corconte and the temperature peaked at 41.5 degrees!!! That was just far too much for anyone to ride in. The roads were long and straight with vast open spaces. Through many vineyards and wine estates! I’ll bet we lost a few pounds through sweating 😓 
Hotel Balneario de Corconte
Cabanas de Virtus
Corconte 
Travelling light - this is luggage for 5🤣🤣🤣
Day trip out around the Picos - great roads again, 174 miles of unexpected riding. We were only going out for a short hop but kept going!! 
Arrived at the next 3-day stop over and the pictures on the website do not do it justice….what a great find!

The trip to get here was somewhat amazing. A combination of the sweeping windy roads to very tight switchabacks and then we decided to cut short by going up and over a mountain directly. Bad decision🤣. Glad it was over and won’t be doing it again, but we were off roading on a single shale track with very steep or sheer drops. Haven’t got photos as nobody talked or dated take hands off clinging on to something! 

All in all an excellent days riding though 
Alex with his drone.....
Riano for a spot of lunch - went through twice on the trip, coming from all directions - a gorgeous little town
Hotel Cerro La Nina
Beceña Calle Cerro La Nina s/n 33556
Beceña
Spain
Ride out around the Picos. 130 miles all day - couldn’t do any more as the roads were far too twisty 🎉🎉🤣🍾 N625 and N621. Probably the best roads in the mountains 
Potes for some lunch. A lovely little town full of bars and cafes 
Left for next stop and another excellent trip over the Picos Mountains...
Note to self though...do NOT let the sat nav tempt you to a short cut to save an extra hour - it led us up an almost vertical shale path over a very large mountain - the road was clearly on the sat nav route, but it should have warned the road was for 4x4's only!!! Taking the Bagger and the Rockets fully laden and with pillions was not a good idea!



Day 10 Riding to Pontevedra for the last of the 3-night stopovers
283 miles
Took most of the day as we opted to stay off the motorways and do the N's- Great decision as they were fabulous. Went very high so got a bit cold in places...
Villa Covelo
37
Pontevedra 36992
Poio
Spain

Trip out to Santiago de Compestalla
Leaving for last hotel in Palencia - I quick decision turned out to be excellent; Good hotel, great location and lovely ride over, even through the roads were more like the plains in Australia - they just went on and on and on in an extremely straight line 
Home stretch to the Ferry....More roads to navigate over the Picos!!! Excellent
167 miles and took about 4 hours. Again the roads were just lovely to ride, with no traffic. It did go very cold as we crept quite high up on wind turbine mountains! they put the turbines there for a reason a) it's very windy and b) it's high up and that adds up to chilly bikers!!





So all in all, we've trained, "plained", automobiled, sailed, walked and ridden motorbiked across the whole of the North of Spain. Ridden the Pyrenees, the Picos and the plains! Sailed the bay of Biscay (twice) and no bumps!!
Favourite roads.... um lots, but to name a few N and A roads that bikers should ride;
N135
N240
A2205
A126
N232
N623
N621
N625
N611
N536
N525
AS117 and AS254 (Must do)
N621 (Absolute must)

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Spain 2022

The tour routes after the trip to show the exact rides from the various destinations. In total, 2,585 miles riden including the day trips sh...