Motorcycle trip to Barcelona by BMW 1250 GSA and Triumph Tiger 900 – Ep 1

This first episode sees us leave our overnight stop near Stonehenge and head for the. Plymouth Ferry port. Attempting to escape the grey, gloomy English weather and spend a few days making our way across Spain and eventually making it to Barcelona to visit my Son and his family. Initially, this first stage takes us as far as Logrono in the heart of Rioja country. Thankfully the weather does eventually brighten up and we ride some beautiful sweeping roads and enjoy some great tapas. We finally figure out a strategy to deal with the Spanish tradition of eating late! We go out early for a light bite and beer to keep us going before venturing out much later than we normally would – staves off the”hangry” feeling!
We hope you enjoy this first episode – please give us a thumbs up, comment and share if you do!
Accommodation: The Holiday Inn, Stonehenge £119 (Booking.com), Gran Hotel Balneario, Puente Viesgo £103.52 (booking.com), Sercotel Portales, Logrono £95.60 (Booking.com)

The route: Salisbury – Plymouth – Santander – Puente Viesgo – Logroño
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Well good morning folks we’re welome to a very gray Sunday morning here at the holiday in about 10 minutes from Stonehenge but the question is where are we headed So today we’re off in a new adventure we’re going to bike all the way to Barcelona to see Eevee and Max

Who are very excited about having a ride on granddad’s motorbike so we’ll see you on the Road Not that you need an excuse for a road trip to Barcelona it’s a beautiful city but when my son and family moved there it was a perfect opportunity to take another bike ride and in typical MMD fashion we were going to take our time and spend a good few days getting

There but right now it was time to get to Plymouth and jump on the ferry we decided to stay overnight at the holiday in near Stonehenge so it would give us a relatively Easy 3-hour Ride the following day first into the fire watch the Flames rise higher

Low we were burn so damn bright just like a shooting star turns into d all the fighting all the crying reality caught up with and riding the a303 it always affords a fantastic view of the iconic Stonehenge no I wasn’t the one but I gave it all I’ve God when all

Is said and done with all is said and done sadly as we approached Plymouth the threatened rain did appear as a kind of drizzle more like the fine rain you know the fine rain that kind of wets you Through see it clear I tried but couldn’t give you all you were a great one at the wrong time I could never give you what you need and deserve we went head first into the ways until we crashed and burned no I wasn’t the

One but I hope you think of me with love when all is said and done when all is and Done we are folks in beautiful sunny Plymouth not at all wet not raining at all we’re looking forward to getting on that Bo and getting to some warmth in Spain maybe in another life we could have worked it out but we got too close to the

Sun maybe in another life we could have worked it out but we got too close to the sun when all is set and not a set w w now is said and done know set done another said and done wo well we made it folks that was hot and

Sweaty tring around the ship carrying lots of baggage trying to find our cabin and here we are room with the view over there and let’s H take it’ll take quite a long time to show you around the cabin but let’s see if we can make a start

Actually where’s the other one then it’s here on bed comes and the other one falls down there I did that you’re on the floor again and here we’ve got the delightful on sweet you know but it’s got yeah I won’t get lost in there so the adventure begins folks

We’re on the P of V waiting to sail to S andere and soon it will be beer o00 yippe and Think find a friend friend so we’re off on our next big adventure Now’s the Time to go and explore the Delights of the ponent here we are even got Rugby cheers not slun time for dinner you bring me to all the best French restaurants down self serious men we got it in the end I’m not sure what it is I think pork por cheeks I think it looks like beef cheeks it’s pork cheeks and por cheeks and smoked salmon

Smoke salmon but I’m having my main C before my starter good cold fairies are certainly up their game since I was a kid with decent food some entertainment on board and a pretty comfortable night’s sleep and so hoping the Bay of bisc was going to behave

Itself it was time for bed very we woke up the following day to a warm and calm but very Misty Bay of bis can’t see a thing if you’ve never sailed on the Pont of En Ferry before beware it’s a very tight squeeze how warm are you then babe it’s about

48° it’s um it’s a bit jam packed here while we were waiting to disembark the ferry I got chatting to a lovely couple traveling to up through Europe he would say I’ll be just fine yeah he would tell me we have time time to laugh and time to heal a favorite song is on PE drinking wine until the door knowing soon we’ll be back home ooh I’m thinking about You I wishing that you knew unfortunately exiting Santander Port proved to be a little more problematical as I couldn’t get a GPS signal and we ended up going around in circles for a while before finding the right Road your Face you told me about the hidden Place fortunately when we eventually did find the correct road which was the n623 basically it took us all all the way to our first Destination song is on repeat drinking wine until the dawn knowing so we’ll be back home o I’m thinking about you Oh I’m wishing that you knew o that I’m thinking about you I’m thinking about about you oh and I’m wishing that you knew and I’m thinking about You I’m thinking of about You [Applause] uh well good afternoon folks we finally arrived we’re here in Spain and uh after very hot sticky disembarkation from the ferry the ponent in Sant andere we had a short ride here to buente Vigo and we’re staying here Grand Hotel Balerio pretty nice actually so let’s go and check out our Room room 310 Hell quite plush really nice large bed nice nice large bed that’s the view over there we’ll go and check it out later on bathroom yeah really nice very nice bit bigger than bit bigger in the pon arrived desperately trying to find somewhere to get somewhere to eat or

Drink but we’ve managed to find somewhere where it’s be a [Applause] clj your Ju this is the view from our bedroom looks like it’s rain last night might still be raining now kind of up in the mountains a little bit over the hills well let’s hope it’s going to brighten Up w that was interesting wasn’t it I think I’ve burnt more calories going to get it than they’re actually in it that took some time arriving but here we are and there’s the rain coming and there’s the sing pool so how would we rate our first night’s stop at the Grand Hotel Balerio Grand Hotel Balerio is in puent Esco a very small pretty town about 35 minutes from Sant andere so easy to get to if you arrive on a later Ferry it’s home to about 2,800 people and is surrounded by hilly green Countryside to be honest it feels more like a Swiss

Alpine Village than a Spanish Town with its lodge-like buildings all that was missing was the snow our room was a decent size number 310 on the third floor and reached by the smallest slowest lift we’ve ever been in so slow it was quicker to climb the multiple

Flights of stairs with our mountains are junk than wait for it the large double bed turned out to be two singles pushed together which doesn’t fool anyone when there’s a huge gap in the middle and the bedding is also single fitting the bathroom with a large shower room L and

Bday was fine and there was some welcome space for storing toiletries the service H well the receptionist was friendly enough but given the headset and Spanish conversation going on all the way through check-in we had the feeling she was also responsible for taking all the calls coming into the hotel

Service in the breakfast restaurant was very self-service not just the buffet but coffee toast everything the queue for a very slow coffee machine was irritatingly long and the wait for empty hot food Trace to be refilled by nonchalant staff pretty unimpressive there is a restaurant at

The hotel but it doesn’t open until 8:30 in the evening we’ve noticed on previous trips to Spain that the culture is to eat dinner later but half eight is just a tad too late for for us so we crossed the small road to a cafe and had tap

Pass with our beer clock the hotel does offer parking but charges 20 it wasn’t locked but this quite little town seemed very safe and today we’re off to Lono hopefully for some warm weather and a bit of sunshine but as you can see the sun is breaking through up there

Somewhere and here we we’re checking on the road today’s ride to L Gro was going to take about 3 hours so we’re hoping to break it up and have a coffee stop somewhere halfway along the Route A Eventually the n623 turns into the n232 in some beautifully sweeping Roads Down by the sea at the edge of the Water the common way kiss my Feet the touch from the war let BL re minded let me be of you I don’t know for how long I can carry on pretending that things are right and that it will be fine in the end I step into the water to wash away the F the deil sprad on my we planed to stop halfway in the little village of Ona because I’ve been on Google Maps and found out a nice little cafe on the main road sadly when we arrived there was nothing open must

Have been CEST time so we had a quick break a leg stretch and we pressed on hoping to find something further down the Road I don’t know for how long I can carry on pretending that everything’s all right well overdue for a coffee we spotted the universal knife and fork sign indicating refreshment was close in the in the in the end in the end in the end in the air in the end in the End suitably refreshed we pressed on to the gro As we cross the river and bypass laa de laa we found ourselves deep into raka country and we’re looking forward to sampling some beautiful wine when we got to Lono N So we arrived at our hotel and soon stay with the bikes while I went and checked out the access code to the underground Parking these lifts to underground parking are really common in Spain and we’ve used them many times before but it’s still a strange feeling riding your bike into a Lift Well afterno folks here we are just arrived in Lono apologies again for my constant mispronunciation of Lono after a really ride um some really great roads and we’re parted at the cir hotel ptalis hotel in what it’s very common in Spain underground parking which you pay more

For of course but it’s I think it’s worth it for security piece of Might anyway let’s go and check out the room shower area with a little bit of a tub that’s not bad although it’s been too hot for a bath B I’ve stayed in places like this before for work and

It’s kind of a room and parking and nothing else yeah that’s all right it’s a central location we’re going to explore the old town of Lano the RKA region very shortly find out where we’re going to have some dinner and beer o clock or surve at oock

Yeah it’s a basic hotel with no bar no restaurant just a place for breakfast but hope hopefully luckily there should be plenty of bars and restaurants around anyway we’ll check in later it’s 3:30 a civiliz time to arrive at any destination and we’re going to go and

Check out where we can get uh I don’t know find a tapa Bar for a be or a clock we generally prefer to eat early around 6:30 so we decided to change our approach and find a little tap pass at beer o00 to TI is over until the restaurant’s opened at around 8:00

And it’s now survey 3:00 CL so we’re going to try and find that little bar and get some U tapers some beer and maybe maybe just a little glass of RI [Applause] yeah here we are found little Tapas Place cayer Del Laurel is famous in L

Gro for having some of the best tapa SPS in the Hall of Spain so we’re just going to have a big glass of wine it’s r a little bit of tap coming no idea what it is ah gracias the rest of the evening was spent very pleasantly trying different

Tapa bars drinking different kinds of wine and then sue decided she fancied a small gin and tonic so what did you order I ordered a gin on the Rocks there is about a pint of gin and this was your beer yeah maybe they’re not used to serving Jin here but

If I drunk that it would definitely have been the end of our evening so could be a long night a very short Night So L grono is a great place for Tapas and raka but how would we rate the Cotel the circel is situated in the city of Lono about 130 km south of Bilbo it’s in the old historic part of the city with lots of bars and tapas restaurants and a good place to stretch our legs after 4 hours on the bikes our room was very basic I’ve

Stayed in these functional room and very little else type places before when working in Mainland European cities but the lack of any facilities wasn’t a problem as we were a short walk to everything we needed there was a tub in the on suite and plenty of storage space the hotel didn’t offer evening

Meals but there was a buffet offering the usual hot and cold options at breakfast time the lady on reception was friendly but unable to correct their error of allocating a twin rather than a double room as the hotel was apparently fully booked turns out not to be such a

Big deal following a little Furniture relocation the parking costing €1 15 was below ground and access v a secure lift so there was no danger of the bikes going Missing