1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Trip To Spain

Discussion in 'Ducati General Discussion' started by LeeMcP, Mar 19, 2017.

  1. Seems to be quite a few guys on here familiar with Spanish roads. Can anyone recommend any decent roads in Costa Blanca?

    Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
     
  2. Two great suggestions from Borgo and Bumpkin
    I can vouch for the road from Santander to Burgos N623. We use it as a warm up for what is about to come.Great road to hit after a lunchtime disembark and get to Burgos for a few beers and evening meal.
    Try the Morcillas de Burgos ,black pudding basically but top notch.
    From Burgos you have every option open to you in terms of direction
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  3.  
    • Like Like x 1
  4. Thanks mate, will have a look

    Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
     
  5. Love Camarote Madrid it is indeed an excellent bar/restaurant with real local atmosphere and wonderful food. We discovered it at the end of a dusty trip up from Madrid and I've wanted to go back ever since....

    The ride from Santander to Madrid is one I've done many times, but not since the timetables changed. The ferry used to sail from Plymouth at about 8.00 in the morning and arrive Santander the next day, nice and early with a full day's ride ahead of you to make some miles at a good, but fairly leisurely, pace which would get you to Madrid in good time. The last time was during the volcanic ash business and we arrived in time to get showered, changed, something to eat and get along to watch a Europa League football match at the home of Athletico Madrid, the Vicente Calderon Stadium. Getting from sea level up 'n over the tops on iggly wiggly roads is a great ride, coming down to Burgos where, even in summer, an early morning start can mean you'd want to thaw out with a hot coffee and maybe something more substantial. After the foothills of the Cantabrian range and the approaches to Burgos, the roads open out into fast sweepers across the plains, as you head to Madrid; the heat steadily builds as you approach what is known as La Sarten de Espana - the frying pan of Spain, because Madrid bakes at altitude in dry heat in summer. Madrid is supposedly the highest European capital city above sea level. High and baking hot in summer as it is, there are, remarkably, a couple of ski resorts, in the Sierra de Guadarrama, which are about 40 miles from the very centre of Madrid, not far from the Escorial, a 16th century monastic royal palace built up in the mountains by Phillip II; the Valle de Los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) a monument to those killed on both sides in the Spanish Civil War - in essence a giant crucifix atop a hollowed out mountain with a cathedral inside - these are sites worth seeing, on amazing roads, if there's time, before you blitz past the ancient Jarama race track just before you get into Madrid

    As others on here know, there's an awful lot more to Spain than the Costas! It really is a country to travel in, feeling the climate change as you go from north to south, starting in the cool, lush, Alpine north and feeling the heat build and build as the landscape changes with it, you go from greens to browns and from brown to sandy yellows as the soils get increasingly arid and wherever you see green again, it will be accompanied by welcome chilled wafts from the irrigation systems installed to cheat nature and drag a harvest out of the ground. The further south I go, the more I marvel at the incredible agricultural wealth trawled out of impossibly dry, dusty looking land. In other areas such as Valencia, the mountainsides are terraced to grow oranges because if a landowner only owns a mountainside he has to cultivate it to get a crop. If you drive down the coastal motorway south of Valencia, around Cullera you'll travel alongside paddy fields where the famous Valencian rice is grown for all the paellas consumed across the country. Spain ain't short of culture either, a colonising power that was in turn colonised by Phoenicians, the ancient Greeks, then the Romans and most recently, the Moors, has a wealth and abundance of influences not only in its art, music, cuisine and history, but in its people and is a reason, I believe, that the Spanish are so open to meeting you as you travel through, because they're interested in people from other places.. always have been

    Don't play safe and just order 'Reoka' wherever you go, try the local wines, the supermarkets here are still discovering fabulous new wines from different areas, wines that are as established in Spain as Rioja, wines they've always known, but new to us and brilliant.

    After you've seen the Alhambra and realised the Moors didn't have electric pumps to drive the water in the fountains, you notice its backdrop, the Sierra Nevada (the Snowed Range), with its white topped peaks, even in the blaze of August, you begin to understand that the Moors were incredible engineers that laid irrigation channels all the way from the peaks to carry the melt waters to their luxuriant gardens and walking through those gardens, I was taken by surprise when I put my hand on the banister as I walked down the steps from one garden level to another and my hand got soaked by freezing cold water, the banister was concave, actually an open stone gutter carrying the water to another part of the garden in an incredibly circuitous route so that when the water has finished its serious irrigation business, it still has enough energy to spray from the courtyard fountains and it had all been put there by the heathen bastards the Crusaders forced out of Spain after they had built chains of castles on just about every vantage point across the plains of Castille and down towards the south from every direction, squeezing the Moors out of Spain and back to North Africa

    Just up the road from the Alhambra, on the road to Cordoba there are cave dwellings with painted front doors, TV aerials and window boxes set into the cliff face - the contrast couldn't be starker with what lies at either end of that road, the Mezquita in Cordoba and the Alhambra in Granada, each representing the high water mark of civilisation a few centuries ago

    So don't just rag your way through; stop, explore, be part of it, your soul will be a lot better off as a result and more to the point, your motorcycle will have made it all possible.

    Salud!
    John
     
    #25 Borgo Panigale, Mar 20, 2017
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
    • Like Like x 5
  6. Taking your bikes to Spain and do some riding there - great idea, I plan to do the same myself this year.

    Driving right across Spain in a van, when you could be on bikes - bonkers!
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  7. There is 4 of us going yet only 3 seats in the van so 1 is flying down to malaga.

    As I said plan A was too have the bikes couriered which didnt go to plan. Plan B was too take the van which isnt great, but still allows all 4 of us to make the trip.

    We will take turns at taking the bikes out during the trip from Santander to Malaga so I'm sure we will still get plenty of fun.
     
  8. Or take two bikes out of the van and ride them to Malaga; the poor bugger who draws the short straw has to drive the van down.
     
  9. That post is super informative.I can associate with lots of it from personal experience.Bravo sir!
     
  10. Haha luckily I'm not insured to drive the van... so win win situation for me :)
     
  11. What day are you shipping out?
    I'm going over on Sunday April 30th Plymouth-Santander.
    Portsmouth is much closer for me but Saturday/Santander crossing is full and Sunday/Bilbao is the one stopping at Roscoff for a crew change and doesn't get there till Tuesday morning bugger that...
    I'm rocking the mighty KTM straight down to Fuente Alamo when the boat gets there though
     
  12. Hi mate,
    I leave on 23/4, returning on 3/5. if you decide to stop off anywhere near marbella drop me a message :blush:.
    Lee
     
    • Like Like x 2
  13. Reading this is making me so so jealous. I have always wanted to this kind of thing just once to say I did it just haven't got around to it always something gets in the way. Would also be nice to go with someone who has been before as I have never even driven or riden for that matter abroad. Have fun and maybe just maybe one day I will get around to it.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  14. You are not the only one,friend,there are many people like yourself who have not managed to get themselves across the water and are perhaps a little nervous about doing so.
    There is a first time for everyone,but don't big it up too much in your mind because,(easy to say when you've done it a few times),"it ain't no big thang".
    Thing is,France is only 35 minutes from Folkestone if you go on the train,and so it's possible to go across just for the afternoon if you just want to break your duck as it were.(Plus the time it takes you to get to to the Teminal and back of course-I'm lucky enough to be only 3 hours away from Eurotunnel ).
    When you've got some semblance of a plan,stick the details on here before you commit.
    You might find someone heading over at the similar time/direction,or who has a piece of helpful advice to for you.
    With all the resources online,if you've got European breakdown cover/a few quid and a bit of spare time,you've really got no reason not to go.
     
    • Like Like x 4
  15. As Lightning_650 says, just a short trip across the channel for a few days of getting a feel for it before raising the bar and going further afield.

    Taking two mates who've never ridden abroad to Normandy and Brittany in early May. Out via Portsmouth > Le Havre and then back via Roscoff > Plymouth, longer crossings to a/ put us in the right places given the fact that we only have 4 days and, b/ make it feel like a bigger journey.

    A bit of planning and preparation and, despite crossing a body of water, meeting people who don't speak your language and sampling some great food, it's no more scary than a day's ride in the UK. It's an addictive adventure on more than just a geographical level.
     
    • Like Like x 2
    • Agree Agree x 1
  16. HI ALL new to this site
    i am going to the alps in july via Amsterdam to arnham -stuttgart - eagles nest then fiss the back to black forest b500 road then back to amsterdam back to glasgow what tyres should i use on 1299 want to put a set on before i leave glasgow and is there plenty
    of petrol stations at the alps or do i take a small petrol container with me
     
  17. Hi we have done Spain on bikes and done the return Bilbao to Portsmouth and regretted it got bored wish we had rode back this year we going via Portsmouth to st malo riding through France overnight stop into top of Spain then 2 nights stop then across Spain to coast resorts for 2 nights then Andorra 1 night onto milau viaduct then back to Caen through France 2 nights stop for overnight ferry home can't wait
     
    • Like Like x 1
  18. Metzler M7RR.
    Plenty of petrol stations.
     
Do Not Sell My Personal Information