Fast forward through Spain and France!

I'm running short on time and I need to get a move on through Spain and up into France.   Problem is, I need service on the bike and desperately need a new rear tire!

All those little stone streets in Portugal ate my tire right up and it's completely bald.  But there is no where around here to get a new bike tire, the kind I want anyway.. so I take my chances on getting to Pamplona Spain and hope for better luck there.

A few photos from the road between Portugal and Pamplona..

I'm in the middle of "nowhere" north Spain.. and there is half a man out here!!  NO idea why!

 

 

Taking the back roads is always the most fun.. who is the man walking down the road?  Where is he going?  AND.. Who is the alien walking in the field next to him?????

Then I come across these hillside homes.  I'm traveling way off the beaten path.. nobody around to ask, so I don't know the story..It's way out in the country, no big tourist thing happening around these places.  Reminds me a bit of the cave houses in Santorini Greece.

The villages out here are always a pleasure to explore.. but no stopping for me today.. gotta keep moving.

For most of the day, I passed a lot of dry farm land.. now I start entering grape growing territory - again.

I eventually got my new tire north of Pamplona.. only needed the one. It took lots of time around Pamplona going from dealership to dealership.  They were all good guys who really wanted to help me find my tire, but nothing to be found in this city with my size.  One shop made many calls on the phone and got a guy in a small town on the French border who had a Pirelli Scorpion the size I needed. So that's where I headed the next morning..  No "running with the bulls" happening in Pamplona this week, so might as well move on.. hey?

I cross the border and head east in France for 2 reasons.  Even though I am meant to be traveling the coast of France north to get to England.  First, I desperately need a complete service done by KTM mechanics and the only one that was available in France during my time limit was due East.  Secondly, the coast of France has really bad rain now and not letting up for the 10 day forecast I can see.. So I decide to go around the weather.. why not!  Why ride 10 days of rain when you can go somewhere else and have fun!  Being that the service is East, and Switzlerand is east.. I'll go that way!

Some views from the road in South France....

The architecture changes dramatically after you cross the border from Spain.. EVERYTHING is red and white!  This is "Basque" country.. a region and culture of people that follow along the north side of Spain and the Southwest of France along the Pyrenese.  A very proud culture who straddle both countries as they have been under each others rule at times during history.

Anyway, without all the culturual detail, I simply like the buildings this way.. a nice change from stone and earth colors.  I was super hungry and well past lunch time.  I couldn't find anything open at all since I was past the lunch mark, but before dinner.  So I popped into a village hotel and went to the bar.. and with my totally non-existent French (and the bar lady with zero English!)  She was able to make me a sandwich.   I knew I wanted green (verte in Spanish is verde).. tomato (tomates).. simple one. and fromage (cheese) on bread (le pain in Spanish is pan).  I know enough Spanish and the words are similiar enough that if you work with the lady we eventually totally understand each other!

Gee whiz, she brought out my sandwich.. only those bits on it, but with the super fresh French bread.. why would you want anything else..!  It was soooo good.  Welcome to France! Normally in my real world, it's habit to put a sauce on of some sort, either Mayo or pesto whatever. But it was the best simple sandwich I had in a long time!

The Basque color houses slowly dwindled away in each village as I went further.. and I found.. guess what!!!  ANOTHER CASTLE!!  Check out the old mote around this one.

My  bike is parked near the building, but I wanted to show how incredibly thick they build castle walls.. standard in all of them really, but it still amazes me to think of all the hard work to build.  This wall surrounded the entire town.. all stacked by hand.

Traveling through country then villages then country and more villages.. is a lot of fun.. even though you are only seeing a snipet of it! ;-)  I remember thinking they are all so picturesque and sooo French!

 Beautiful country.. South France

And then I get to my favorite favorite favorite castle of all time.. Carcassonne!!

I've been here before, many years ago with my sister... doesn't get more spectacular than this..  I have always recommended to anybody I know coming to France over the years to not miss Carcassonne!  It's a super strong fortified city.. with a huge amount of history as you can imagine.. I'll leave it up to you to google search if needed to read more about it. ;-)

While your here.. might as well visit the Australia Park????

Well there you have it.. my quick pace marathon through Spain and South France..  one last stop to send a telegraph.. (just kidding! was just surprised to see that it's still part of society today..) and then on to Switzerland tomorrow..

Portugal Part 3

Just a little blog post I would have liked to have included to finish up Portugal on the last one, but ran out of time. 

Back on the road again north of Porto, I get a text message from Miguel asking where I am.. I told him I was heading back into Spain shortly. He said wanted to show me more of Portugal first.  Mmmm.. should I? I was feeling I moved too quickly through this country, so.. okay! ;-)

 We meet again..

 
Northern Portugal is quite different to the south.  Much more populated and green!  And they are well known for the vineyards in this area.  We leave the region of Porto and head into District of Vila Real.

We are headed toward the River Douro.  One of the major rivers of the region, this area has a microclimate that grapes and olives seem to love which are most important for making that famous Port Wine!  The rivers end is in Porto, where the wine can be shipped to the world.

These ceramics on the town walls (every town, house and building has ceramic something or other, if its not a small decoration, they ceramic the entire house!)  Anyway, here's some ceramic of how it used to be..

I know.. it's a wee bit boring for the blog, but I like the ceramic stories and it will be history I'd like to remember when I read these posts when I'm 80... ;-)

Miguel explains to me that the area is very protected.  The small farms or quintas are rarely sold and if so they are extremely expensive.  There is no room for new construction in the area as none of the farms will be giving up their unique vineyard land anytime soon!

 

We did well following the river ALL day, a gorgeous ride on a motorcycle!

This is where we stop for the night.......  ;-)

Just kidding!!

We were hungry.. Unfortunately, the "Meat Boutique"  was closed..  I would have never thought to put those 2 words together!

And we found dinner elsewhere..

This was another fun diversion.. thanks Miguel! However, I really should be on my way heading north.  I have a booking to get on an airplane from London Heathrow over to North America in a weeks time, and I am nowhere near the place!

Portugal

Aha!!  New Camera project accomplished in Seville Spain.. finally!  I've got somewhat normal photos again! Hallelujah!!

Now I can get on the road again.. yay!  I'm going to Portugal!~!  I've been looking forward to this as it's one of the main countries I wanted to see in Europe.  As normal I follow the back routes from southern Spain into South Portugal.  Not sure where I'll end up today, don't really care.  One of those days I'm just happy to ride wherever the wind blows.

Always castles around here.. castles castles castles... If only I could find a Spanish Prince who would like an Aussie/American Princess!! ;-)  Awww come on.. I heard you laughing.. Anything is possible in my world! ;-)))

This is the land of the stork.  I notice many telephone poles or anything up high, they've got that big nest. Now I understand why Storks are used in baby stories.  They could easily pick a baby up and fly it up to the nest and be tucked away.

Long slow day riding, but this is just a part of the world I connect to, really love it here.  Really beautiful countryside.  I see the next castle coming up and I'm tired enough to pull into town and figure out where to stay tonight.  I see a sign for camping.. yay!  I follow the signs all the way up the village until I passed right through.. not sure how I missed it.. go back and try again.. rode right pass all the old timers sitting along the village street watching the world go by so, but still no luck with campground.  There is one other sign in town that says "Hotel Rural".. I see a Harley parked outside and decide to at least go ask about where the camping might be.  (Usually most hotels have somebody inside that can speak English no matter where I stop in the world.. it's my little "need to know" technique!)

Well the guy behind the counter wasn't real sure why they have camping signs in town as he's never seen one either.  So I ask about a room, because we are very rural and I heard from everyone that Portugal is much more affordable to get around.  He told me a room was 105 Euro.. and I go "Ha!!"  Sorry, no way.. not in my budget..so much for that!  Then he brings the price down, and I explain, not possible but thank you.. I'm not on a holiday, it's a long world trip and I'm a budget traveler.  He eventually ends up at 45 Euro.  This is still far more than I pay for accommodation, but for one, this place is so good looking and authentic Portugal.  Two, this is the night of my 1 year anniversary for being on the road.. !!! I shouldn't do it.. hadn't thought to do anything special for the anniversary, but since the opportunity presented itself..  ;-)

So have a look where I'm staying tonight!

S P O I L E D !!!

I'm so excited to stay in this place I hardly wanted to leave the room and waste a single moment here. However, I was also very excited to explore this Portuguese village by foot (this is always a different experience than the bike), I took a quick shower and ran out the door.

The name of this town I ended up in is called Portel and here's a look around including the castle that drew me in.

A very common sight all through Spain and Portugal.  These are the boys sitting around watching the world go by...

Oh dear, I love this village.  I think I found the best place to get my Portugal experience I had been imagining for so long.

Came back to the hotel, and the director who checked me in, Miguel, I didn't realize is the owner of that Harley parked out front.  He said he leaves tomorrow morning for his first 20 day holiday on the bike and asked me where I'm headed.  I said North. He asked if he could ride along for a while.  Okay, must be an all right guy, gave me such a great discount on a room, why not?  So we make a plan to meet in the morning.

First stop, guess what, is a Castle!!  Reguengos de Monsaraz to be precise.  An absolutely gorgeous and charming place.  As with most castles, they are more than just a castle "house". Inside the walls are more homes, shops etc. as a medieval era protected village.  Lucky we don't have to live behind the walls anymore.. or do we??  (I think they're just more invisible these days..)

It's very small, but I really loved our walk around.  I can only just imagine what it would have been like in the day.

This is just plain lucky.. to be shown around the land of Portugal by a Portuguese man.. who doesn't know of my travels on facebook or the blog.. just a really nice guy who happens to ride a motorcycle I met the night before.. and look where I am today.. I love my life! ;-)


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And into Evora for more................... Roman ruins! 

Gotta be quick.. Miguel has organized us a lunch in a 5 star hotel he knows.....

Seriously??!!  Have a look at me..  can't do that..! But it's part of his business and needs to meet his business friends there. Oh well, it's their hotel, if they want a grubby ol' moto girl in the building, there ya go! ;-)  You can only imagine what a great meal we had.. so good!  Local wine!  Plus desert!!  SPOILED!! I'm happy..  Had a 4 star night and a 5 star day.. seriously happy!

After lunch I went for a wander around the town outside the gates while they discussed more important Portuguese secret mens business.  I'd spy and listen on them if I could, but I haven't caught on to the language quite yet on day 2.. ha!

The tunnel into the old town is now managed by a stop light.. to replace the silver armored men and a little red stop sign (sword?)  Just my imagination..!

 

Same on the inside.. of coarse!

Another quick stop, where Miguel wanted to call into his favorite sweet shop and bring out some traditional Portuguese candy... good man!!!!  SMART man!! ;-)

I didn't realize when Miguel wanted to plan a ride with me today, that he would plan so much!  The day continues after that late lunch to cross a mountain pass at over 2000 meters. It's called Serra da Estrela and is Portugal's highest mountain peak..  I wouldn't put it in Everest category, but with that extremely strong cold wind, I'll give it respect.

My photos don't come close to describing how pretty of a mountain pass this was.  It was super duper windy and so cold.. we took the quickest little snaps and kept going.  I wasn't so bad, I had heated hand grips, but Miguel was not so good with very little for warmth.

Sheez! We did over 400 km with a late start.. many stops to explore and a very long lunch. Big day!! Back down the other side of the mountain we make it to Miguel's home town of Viseu.  He organized another top hotel for me to stay in town, and after dinner went back to his Mom's house to stay..  with plans to ride a bit more together tomorrow..  See you!