wot i did on mi summa oliday (pt1)

[sadlonelygit]

This years jaunt was a trip down to Spain to see the La Baneza GP. To swing this past SWMBO I had to include a visit to Madrid, just to sweeten the deal.
As with most of my trips it was ill planned and poorly conceived, but usually turns out for the best. The idea was to catch the ferry to Santander, loop around to Leon, up through France and le Havre to Portsmouth and home. So after booking the tickets, she informs me that she's working on the friday so we have to catch the weds ferry instead of the thurs. This also means we have 1000 miles to do in 3 days, not 4.
So after fabricating a wingrack to fit, cobbling together a starcom intercom, kicking the tyres and changing the oil we were ready to rock'n'roll.

Now those of you who are seasoned tourers/adventurers will run through your checklist before leaving, me on the otherhand is a good 5 miles down the road doing the
passport    check
tickets        check
e111 thingy    check
documents    check
euros        ..........bollocks
so we have to about turn and lose a good 20 mins, which was a blessing as SWMBO had changed handbags and left the Nationwide (the account with the holiday funds in) card behind.
We make Plymouth (152 miles) in 2 hours, which leaves us a good 5 mins to unwind before getting on the boat (Pont Aven. very nice but book a cabin as the recliners were designed by the Marquis de Sade)
So it's the mountain roads from Santander to Burgos, lovely flowing corners and marvellous scenery. After a little tapas in Burgos, it was the monotony of the autovia to Madrid. At least things got exciting trying to find the right exit off the ringroad.
We were booked into the Hotel Lusso Infantas (reasonable, well positioned, bit dodgy with the offer of extra's) in the Chueca area, which is best described as 'lively'. Now Madrid has an interesting, and totally unique, rhythym to work to. Nobody eats dinner before 10pm (avoid the plaza major), everybody has a siesta (2pm-5pm). Once you settle into it, it all makes sense.
What can you say about Madrid! Well it's a great city if you have a motorbike. Plenty of on road bike spaces, or just bump it up the kerb. Judging by the amount of policia about (never seen so many), I was wondering if there was a problem with crime, but didn't see any myself.
Back to the lively Chuecha area.......it's home to the 2nd largest gay community in europe, and boy (or girl) do they like to party! more importantly, the local council decided it would be a good idea to dig up the road outside our bedroom.........at 7.30am..........every day we were there!
After 4 days we bade farewell to Madrid, heading west to Segovia. Thankfully found a winding road to give the ever flattening rear tyre some more work to do.
Segovia....stunning. just about sums it up. best off getting there early on in the day as there are alot of steps to climb and it was bloody hot when we got there.

Headed off to Torresedillas for the night. Stopped at the Hostal del Prado, cheapish and cheerful. We went to the main square for dinner, but got messed about by snotty spanish 'puta' who told us it was too early for dinner, then promptly served the table next to us with exactly what we had tried to order!
More motorway to the edge of La Baneza where we see the trogladyte villages of la Torre de Vallee. We search for a Hostal, but to no avail. We end up at La Hacienda, 75€/night!

[harry69koi]

Keep it coming m8