Motorbikes – the places we go and the people we meet: Part 8

This is the final part of the 2024 Spain & Portugal trip blogs and starts with the day when it really did start to feel like the back end of the 2024 trip.

I had decided to head for the walled city of Avila about 70 miles or so north west of Madrid and so was the day when I would very definitely start to head north.

My stay in Ubeda at the RL Ciudad de Ubena hotel had been pretty good.

I had really enjoyed wandering around the town. Seeing some of the annual festival had felt like quite a bonus (use this link to check out the pictures in Part 7 if you haven’t seen them).

I’d be happy to return

Ubeda is certainly a place I’d be happy to return to if I was headed that way again.

But it really was time to leave Ubeda. I was packed, loaded and away for about 09:15. If  I had taken the back roads as I so often do, the journey north would have been around 300 miles.

I decided I would cover the first 100 or so miles on an autovia. It turned out to be a good choice, almost empty and sweeping like a smooth black ribbon across the Spanish landscape.

My route had taken me in the general direction of Castellar. Then it was the A6203 to Villamanrique and Villanueva de los Infantes. Finally it was on towards Maqueda before arriving at the medieval walls of the town of Avila.

Decent weather again

The weather was good, temperatures maxed out at about 27c, and were generally around 24c for most of the day.

The route to Avila was easy rather than challenging. Decent roads had curved in long sweeping bends and made for a pretty easy journey of just under 250 miles. My hotel for the night was the Hotel Sercotel. The hotel was about three quarters of a mile away from the medieval walls of the town.

The hotel was large and with very decent underground parking. Despite being a large hotel and with potential to be a little impersonal the service was anything but that. The staff really couldn’t have been more helpful and I went on to enjoy my evening there.

Pictures from the ride to Avila

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Walk to the walled town

The walls of the town are both amazing and impressive. They really are in remarkable condition, having been repaired and restored over the years.  The town is compact with a population of around 50,000.  Life revolves around two main squares. These are the Plaza de Santa Teresa (just outside the walls) and the Plaza del Ayuntamiento (inside the walls).

The town has the claim to being the highest provincial capital in Spain at more than 3,700 feet above sea level.

It really is spectacular

The walls are genuinely spectacular.  Building of the walls started around the 11th Century. Apparently in the 19th century there were thoughts of demolishing them!

Folk felt they impeded the progress and development of the town, thankfully that didn’t happen.

Work to revitalise the city in recent years with the restoration of the historic buildings has made the town a much more attractive place and moved it more onto the ‘tourist trail’.

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Tony, Ray and Ray

After wandering around Avila I returned to the hotel and met three British bikers. We chatted and swapped stories for a while over a beer.

Tony, Ray and Ray were from Cornwall and their day hadn’t gone quite to plan.

They were actually travelling in a group of four when one of their friends (Geordie), who I didn’t get to meet had blacked out on his bike!

Change of plans

Thankfully he was alright and had only done minor damage to his bike. Geordie had gone for a lie down when the group arrived at the hotel, which is why I didn’t get to meet him.
I knew from chatting they were changing their plans for the following day to take account of their friend’s misfortune.

I enjoyed our chat and wished them well for the rest of their trip in Spain.

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Heading back to Ojedo

If you read Part Two, you may recall I spent my first night in Spain in the town of Ojedo in the Cantabria region.

It’s an ideal stop over when heading back to Santander and I had booked into the Hotel Infantado just across the road from the Posada I had stayed at on the outward leg of the trip.

Staying in Ojedo gave me a couple of weather based options for the final ride to the ferry port at Santander.

Early start

I was on the road by 08:45 and started the day in pretty overcast weather conditions.

A brief stop was in order to switch to waterproof gloves and Hi-Vis vest and then rode in light rain for about 40 minutes or so.

I changed my route a couple of times and using the weather radar feature on the Garmin XT (which is pretty good) helped me avoid the rain for most of the journey.

This last but one ride of the trip in Spain was decent and enjoyable. I had taken the N403 towards Mingoria, then onto La Estacion, Olnedo and Saldana.

After that I was on roads that seemed familiar and saw town signs flash by that I knew I had seen before.

I headed for Guardo, Besande and Boca de Hugrano before dropping down from the mountains on the damp but drying roads into the town of Ojedo and my overnight accommodation.

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Happy and satisfied

I arrived at the Infantado tired, happy and very satisfied with the days ride and with how the trip had worked out.

On the last few miles into Ojedo I had been trying (again) to think just where this trip rated. I decided that it really was in my top three trips. It had been just brilliant

Good accommodation

I had stayed at the Hotel Infantado  in 2023 on the way out from Santander, so I knew what to expect and it didn’t disappoint. There were plenty of British bikes in the car park.

Some riders based themselves there for a few days, others like me using it as a convenient stop on the way home. After a quick and efficient check in, and then a shower to freshen up I headed to the bar for a beer. Once my thirst was quenched I headed into the nearby town of  Potes.

I think I have mentioned before that Potes is a pretty town and very much a tourist spot.

In recent years it’s also become increasingly popular with bikers which is understandable due to its location and the number of hotels, bars and places to eat.

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Packing for the ferry

Once back at the hotel I packed ready for the morning. It’s a different routine packing for the ferry as I like to simply lift out of my luggage a bag with just what I need for the night on the boat.

Over the years I have seen plenty of bikers struggling up the many flights of stairs on the boat with mountains of gear. I have even seen some bikers taking their entire luggage with them to their cabins!

Just a little preparation makes life much easier.

All good things…

All good things really do have to come to an end, or at least a pause until the next time. It was my last day in Spain and time to head for Santander.

I had decided to stop in Ojedo because of the options it gave me depending on the weather. Given Santander is easily doable in less than a couple of hours it also meant I could enjoy a leisurely start to the day,

Last year I stayed in Fromista in Palencia, another location that makes for an easy ride into the ferry ports of Santander and Bilbao.

A slight delay

The previous day I had received a text alert from Brittany Ferries to say there was a delay to departure. The alert indicated I would be back in Plymouth around three hours later than scheduled.

Taking account of the scheduled delay and the 280 mile journey home, I decided to book a room at the Half Moon Inn near Yeovil and that I mentioned in Part 1.

This would mean getting home around 1:30pm or so on the Wednesday instead of around midnight on the Tuesday. Sometimes the pragmatic decision is the right one.

Chocolate time and the threat of wind

Travelling light means I don’t have a lot of luggage on the bike, this in turn means I can’t carry much, but I always like to take a small gift home for my grandchildren.

Bars of chocolate are easy to pack away, so I took a walk after breakfast and stocked up accordingly.

The threat of wind was unrelated to the chocolate but as I walked to the shop I saw a troubling wind warning … and I was located bang in the middle of it.

Winds of up to 90mph were forecast, which was a little concerning given the route I would be taking. With the ongoing roadworks to the N621 (mentioned in Part 2) I had decided to head via La Hermida, Roza, Burtos and Val de San Vincente.

The route would see me at a height of over 2,300′ on some pretty small. exposed and potentially damp roads – time for pragmatism again and I decided to leave a little earlier than planned so I could make a steady route and change my plan if needed.

The blue dot in the picture below was my location.

 

Leaving the Hotel Infantado

The picture set below includes pictures from inside and directly outside the Infantado along with a few of the other bikes that were in the hotel car park.

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Very decent to Santander

Thankfully the high winds didn’t materialise on my route and I enjoyed a steady ride across the mountains.

That didn’t mean I could ride without a decent level of care and attention on the CA 282

At times the roads were damp, narrow and twisting with some significant drop offs if a mistake was made – but all in all it was pretty good and I arrived back in Santander around 2:30pm.

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One last stop

I made one last stop before the ferry port. I had plenty of time, so stopping for a break and coffee made sense, and I found a small cafe/bar just off the main road (the C180). It was a decent way to while away some time.

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Back at Santander

After the refreshment stop it was onto the port and a routine check in, and as ever a chat with other bikers, all with great stories and tales to tell.

These included a couple of guys heading home after spending 18 days in Morocco and two guys from Sheffield returning home after their first trip to Spain on their bikes.

There were also plenty of vintage bikes that were returning from the recent Moto Poston rallies.

I don’t think travelling ever made for a worse person and it seemed obvious that each of the people I spoke with on the docks had made memories that would last them a lifetime.

Bumpy but…

The crossing back to Plymouth was routine although a little bumpy as had been expected across the Bay of Biscay.

A decent and welcome portion of fish, chips and peas, a small bottle of red and an early night saw me sleep pretty well for most of the night and not be too troubled by the movement of the boat.

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It really is the people that you meet

I mentioned in Part 1 of this series of posts that sometimes the trip is as much about the people you meet as it is about the places you go. That’s something that is reflected in the title of the posts from this trip. Although I was nearing the end of the trip I still had two decent people to meet.

The first of these was a guy called John and you’ll see his picture in the set below. As coincidence would have it I met John sat on the sundeck and recognised him as being someone who was in the same pizzeria as me in Potes on the Sunday night.

86,000 miles

Turns out that John has made some incredible adventures on his BMW GS 1200 which has done a remarkable 86,000 miles.

John has a blog which you can see at this link and a You Tube channel which is worth a look and that you can visit here.

After leaving the ferry in Plymouth I made an awful rain soaked journey to my overnight accommodation in Mudford.

Weather conditions were dreadful with road closures, flooding, emergency alerts etc.

I was very relieved to arrive safely at the Half Moon Inn. The bar staff were considerate and helpful and despite my soggy and rain soaked state gave me a warm welcome.

Whilst at the bar I met Sean and his partner who had just changed their bike and had bought a 2.8L Triumph Rocket. Sean showed me some pictures of their new bike and it really did look quite a beast. You can see a picture of Sean in the photo set below.

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And home

I was away from the Half Moon by 09:00am. The first couple of hours were damp, at times with heavy rain that made progress a chore. Thankfully by the time I reached the Midlands the rain had abated and other than stopping for petrol the remainder of journey home was dull but uneventful.

Happy to be home

I had been glad to head off on my trip and I was glad to be home as well.

In the 19 days I had been away I had rode a little under 3,200 miles on my BMW F900 XR … it was to take me at least another couple of days to get it clean again, and even after that effort, some of the really detailed cleaning will have to wait to get done over the winter ‘lay off’.

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Breakfast rolls, stem ginger and a thank you

I was home for about 1.30pm. Back to Pat, homemade breakfast rolls and a magnificent ginger cake utterly rammed with pieces of stem ginger. Who on earth could ask for more?

It’s wholly appropriate for me to publically say thank you to my wife.

Thank you Pat x.

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And finally to the people I met

To the people I met thank you – each and every one of you made the trip better.

John on the ferry out, Carmine, Rob, Janice, Alan, Di, John (in Evora). Shelley, Scott, Sean, Houston, Melania, Viggo, Tony, Ray, Ray, the guys on the way back from Morocco, the Sheffield bikers, John on the ferry home, Sean & partner with the Rocket and anybody else I’ve might have missed.

I’ve included Simon and Neil the two guys I met last year on Ojedo and who arrived at Santander as I was departing. We saw each other very briefly as they left the boat, but we swapped some messages towards the back end of the trip.

Thanks as well to those that joined the WhatsApp group – I hope you enjoyed it.

It really is about the places you go and the people you meet.

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