Spain/portugal

[fastbysuzuki]

Hi we travelled down to Portsmouth yesterday 350 miles to catch the ferry to Bilbao sailed at 22-30, today we have docked at Roscoff (France) to change the crew we are here for 90 minutes then we sail for Bilbao we arrive at 8-30 11th July having problems getting photos onto Flickr the internet on the boat is not great will keep trying.

[mf70]

Keep 'em coming! Standing by...

[GS1150Pilot]

How was the ride to Portsmouth?

[gordinho80]

My family is from Portugal. I've visited many times. Where in Portugal will you be going?

[fastbysuzuki]

The journey down was tedious long stretches of motorway restricted to 50 mph if only you could keep the speed up, just enjoying last beer as we have to be up early tomorrow to be ready for docking at Bilbao. We intend to camp near Leon (Spain) first night the go into northern Portugal

[fastbysuzuki]

Hi docked at Bilbao this morning have now travelled 250 miles to a campsite around 20 miles west of Leon (Spain) will overnight here and continue into northern Portugal tomorrow.

[GS1150Pilot]

Fun ride or tedious again?

[fastbysuzuki]

Fun ride or tedious again?

Hi no the rides through Spain/Portugal have been good some great scenery and no safe place to stop for a photo we are in northern Portugal at a campsite staying tonite and tomorrow night just wish I could get this Flickr thing to work.

[fastbysuzuki]

Hi the last campsite in northern Portugal was called Lima Escape great place to chill out it's in a national park the food was excellent and very reasonably priced.
The petrol cost is more expensive in Portugal and the road system is second to none (no one around using them) the on confusing thing is the toll system on motorways some motorways you have to take a ticket and pay when you exit others you just use and expect to pay on the off (not so) it seems you have to buy a prepayment card activate it by phone or Internet and when you go through the camera it takes the money off the card we only found this out the day before we are due to leave Portugal so as a token guesture we got a 10€ card but did not activate it so if we were pulled by the police we could have shown them we purchased one to be honest the amount of motorways we used it would have cost quite a bit of money apparently the fines are quite heavy so I guess the Gs will not be going back there again as they have the reg number.

[fastbysuzuki]

Hi back again on the 14 th we travelled down from the last site to this campsite http://cegonhas.nl/en/ close to Guarda (Portugal) again great value and food the staff were great as was the owner it's the kind of place to get away from it all just the one night here and we are off to Badajoz (spain) on 15 th were we have a small hotel booked for two nights we plan to use this as a base to go to Merida (was the roman capital of Spain) to have a look around.

Got to be honest the amount of mileage we are doing and the heat and having to set up and take down has been tiring so until we gat back to the boat in Bilbao it's small hotels, age has caught up🤧

[fastbysuzuki]

Today we had a change of plan and booked a hostel right in the centre of Meridia very clean and a decent room with all facilities €43 we asked if they had parking she said it was 9€ for the night but her brother and father rode motorcycles so it was free of charge to us. Today we have been around all the Roman sites then we paid 7€ for a trip on a tourist train for a ride about town tomorrow we have to start to head back it's quite a long riding day 270 miles on these roads around 6 1/2 hrs I guess.

[GS1150Pilot]

Glad it's gone so well! Stay safe.

[fastbysuzuki]

Rode up from Benevete to the port at Bilbao long ride on motorways (boring) but it had to be done am now on the overnight +1 day ferry back to Portsmouth arrive 20-45 then it's a 300+ ride back home over night the old Gs has been faultless up to now, really enjoyed it. Love Portugal and Spain ordered a bottle of white wine in the restaurant that belong to the hostel we stayed last night €3 and it was decent. Get well ripped off back home. Will try to post some pictures when home Flickr and the iPad seem to disagree with each other.

[fastbysuzuki]

Hi back home, they closed the A34 so we had to take a detour around Oxford then when we got to were the M42 splits to go on the M6 north that was closed so we had to take the toll road ( not that it is expensive for a bike) just a pain getting the money out when your a bit cold (it is the uk) dry run untill we got around 10 miles from home then rain. Anyway really enjoyed the trip bike has ran well just got to start to prepare for fitting a new kitchen now!!

[londonboards]

Love it that you took the old Suke over to Spain. I thought I was the only one doing these trips on an old Suzuki.

Here is one of my trips on a GS1100G: Trip to Italy

I now tour on my 1984 GSX1100 EF and we are off to France again in September.

Last time I went the chain broke (my fault!): France Photo and ended up having to be taken to a local bike shop:



I think my mates on BMWs take me a long just for the fun I bring them when I have issues. I love it. Every trip is a major victory.

PS. Just visited Lancs to go see DynoJet (see my Dyno project www.dynabike.co.uk) and for my sons graduation from Lancaster University. I love it up there.

Greetings