Los Molinos

A fairly short ride to day from Quenca to Consuegra.  Only 200K through flat to rolling countryside. Some areas of grain fields, grapes and olive trees. We saw ans smelled quite a few wineries along the way. The whole area is quite dry but apparently fertile. Without irrigation I doubt that much would grow. The name for this area, La Mancha, is derived from an Arabic word meaning "the dry land".  It could also be called "the windy land". The warm wind today was strong and gusty.  No surprise since we came here to see the windmills made famous by Don Quixote.

The windmills (los molinos) are located on a ridge that runs south of town.  From our hotel it was a short hike onto the hill.

I Added this photo, taken a grocery store in town. Zoom in and look at the prices.  Add 50% to get the price in C$.

Bot to Cuenca

Yesterday we put on about 350K travelling from Bot to Cuenca.  There is no direct route between these locations so I set the GPS to "shortest route" and "avoid tolls" and followed what it selected for us.

For the first half of the route, the GPS route was what I expected.  We followed nice 2 lane highways through rolling semiarid agricultural land. Mostly olive trees and vineyards with a few grain fields.  Nice sweeping turns. Our elevation for the first half of the trip stayed close to 300 metre above seas level.  Temperature in the mid to high teens. Very little traffic. Easy cruising at 100 kph, slowing to 40 or 50 through the towns and villages along the route.

After stopping for lunch and fuelling up we turned onto a divided highway. After about 30K the GPS indicated a turn off the highway. At first we thought something was wrong with the GPS but since the route was taking us away from the rain falling in front of us, we decided to see where it took us. We wandered down a few lanes, turning back and forth through a small village. We almost turned back at one point but decided to continue on.  It turned out to be good choice.  The route that we followed to Cuenca was phenomenal.

El Ventano del Diablo (the devil's window)

Location of route

The route from Abarracin to Quenca passes through the the Serrania de Cuenca  (the mountains of Cuenca). It is fabulous winding road that climbs to over 1600 metres.  There are several scenic and historic villages throughout the route. Lakes, forests, steep canyons. Nice scenic rest stops and hiking trails. Attractive cafes and restaurants in the villages. It is 115K from Abarracin to Quenca and the road hardly ever stops winding. Great on a motorcycle. Not so good if you get car sick.  We loved it. We will come back to this area again. One could easily spend a week exploring this area.


We arrived in Quenca at about 5pm. and set about trying to find a hotel. (not my favourite activity) The first one we checked was full.  The lady at the hotel desk gave us directions to another hotel but we were unsuccessful finding it. We even had trouble finding our way back to the bike!  When we got back to the bike the driver of the car parked in front of us arrived at his car.   I'm always shy about asking for directions but Linda prodded me on, so I approached him and asked if he could recommend a hotel.  He was very nice and suggested one. Then he went back to his car and grabbed his iPad and showed us the directions on google maps.   He wanted to make absolutely sure that we knew the way.   We have found the Spanish people friendly and helpful.

We likely never would have found the hotel he suggested without his directions. The hotel is called "NH Ciudad de Cuenca"    Without "Hotel" in the name we never would have found it.  It is very nice.   We decided to stay 2 nights and spent the day discovering parts of Cuenca.

Cuenca is small city in the area known as  Castile–La Mancha. The city
is divided into two parts by the river.  The older part (now a UNESCO heritage site) is built along the cliffs along side the Huécar river. The newer part is on the flats on the other side of the river. It is an easy walking distance between them.  There is an abundance of cafes, restaurants and stores of all types.  There were a few tourists around but not too many.  I think that this is good time to be here.  The weather is very nice. Mid 20s in the daytime, mid teens at night.

We had lunch at one of the cafes shown here.

An attractive street view of the old town

Wide stairs and a narrow road.

Small lanes and stairs on the way up.

We spent a pleasant  walking round town.  Tomorrow we are heading Consuegra, a small town in the area made famous by Cervantes in his novel, Don Quixote.  Consuegra is in the area known for it's windmills. 

A Weekend of MotoGP Racing

Since this was our first experience attending a MotoGP event we didn't know what to expect. These premier motorcycle races are very popular in  Europe. It is not surprising that most of the competitors are of European origin... mostly Spanish and Italian. An abundance of national pride fuels the excitement!

I picked seats based on track location. A spot where we had good view of several corners, since that's where all the action takes place.  Most passes are made at the corners. Late braking and fast cornering are two of the most important rider skills.  It turned out to be a good choice.

We didn't know it when we booked but our seats were in a set of stands that were allocated to club members.   ie...  areas booked by the Spanish riders supporter groups for their club members.  To our right were the Marc Marquez supporters. To the left were the Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa supporters.   We were sitting in an area of mixed rider supporter, although it was very clear that most were routing for the Spaniards.  The enthusiasm of the crowd added to the enjoyment. The fact that Spanish riders did very well helped keep the crowd happy.  There was a group of guys sitting behind and around us. We switched seats with some of them so they could all sit together. We enjoyed listening to their comments. It was a fun race day.

A panoramic shot from our seats. It makes the straight in front of us look curved.

First lap of MotoGP race

Marquez greeting his fan club after winning the race.

                      On the far side of the track is the big screen where you can follow the race.

Just one part of one of several parking lots. 

We went to the track 3 days in a row. Friday and Saturday are practise and qualification days.  Quite few people come to watch these events but it is not as busy as race day.  Race day attracted about 70,000 attendees.

We were very impressed with how well organized the entrance and exit from the track was handled.  As you approached the track there were road signs indicating the flow of traffic. The traffic was divided into cars and motorcycles. Each category followed separate routes to and from the event.   Two way roads were made one way.  Intersections and major road crossing were manually controlled with flagmen. Although it was a little congested leaving the parking lot on the way out, traffic never stopped moving.

The interesting part was leaving the track.  I have never liked riding in a group of bikes but when you leave the track you are in very large group. With 70K in attendance and most on motos, I would guess that there were in excess of 25,000 bikes all leaving at more or less the same time.   On the narrow roads there is not much space. For us who are not used to riding in such close quarters, it was intense.

Add to this that most of the bikes were high powered sports bikes ridden by hyped riders who just watched a race.  Reving their engines. Impatient for the open highway.



As I mentioned earlier, we stayed in the small town of Bot. It is located about 65K east of the track.  It is a small village of about 700 residents.  3 bars, 2 restaurants and 1 grocery store.  Is located on a "Via Verde" , a restored rain line for walkers and  bicyclist.  For those interested in this activity I would highly recommend it.

Accommodation in this area is quite limited and this was the closest place to the track that we could find.  Cal Tomas is small guest house. It has 4 rooms, all with en suite bathrooms and a common area including a living room / dining room and a large kitchen.  The owner does not live in the house. Once you check in you are on your own.  Each room gets a shelve in the fridge. We prepared most of our own meals. Buying our groceries at the local coop market.  Also we had access to a washer and dryer so we could do our laundry.

The kitchen

Stairs to 2nd and 3rd floor

Living and Dining room

This morning we are the only ones here. We have the house to ourselves.  Just having a bit of breakfast and then we are heading toward the town of Cuenca, about 350K south of here.  We are taking the same 2 lane highway, N420, that we have ridden each day to the race.  It is nice winding road mostly along the ridges of the hilly, quite dry, country side.

Linda is checking out some accommodation options in Cuenca now.  If we find something nice we will stay 2 nights in Cuenca.

Here is a view of the town of Alcaniz from the highest point of land in town. The first day we went to the track we got disoriented and took the wrong roundabout exit. We couldn't find a place to turn around until we reached the top of the hill.  As you can see from the layout of the town, it is easy to get lost in the narrow winding streets.



That's it for now...

Arrived in BOT

We arrived in Bot at about 2pm today. 

The ride from La Seu D'ugell was very enjoyable.  At the beginning of the ride the  terrain was quite mountainous. We passed through narrow canyons and tunnels.  Gradually the mountains gave way to rolling hills, still quite steep and red clay coloured. At time is felt like were in parts of southern Utah or Arizona.  As we continued west the hills became smaller and we were in semi-arid rolling farm land. At first we saw mostly harvested grain fields. Then we started to notice the olive trees and grape vines.  Within about 100 kilometres we had descended to roughly 200 metres about see level and the temperature had risen from 16C to about 24C. A beautiful sunny day for a ride.

Arriving in Bot we were greeted warmly by our host, Tomas.  "Cal Tomas" is small hotel / Guest house. It is an attractive stone house located in the centre of the village of Bot. There are only 3 rooms, all with en suite bathroom and all beautifully decorated. 


After unloading the bike we immediately headed out to find the restaurants Tomas suggested.  The only on that was open was the restaurant in the larger, but still small, hotel. 

They had quite a fancy dinning room with a large windows facing the high ridge in the distance. It was fancier than we were looking for but with few options we decided to give it a try.  The menu format was interesting.  It was the menu of the week. On the menu were  3 separate section, one above the other.  starters (Salads appetizers, etc) , main course and dessert.  Within each catagory there were 6 selections.  You could choose one selection from each catagory. The meal also included wine or beer,.   The price 14.90 E. ($22.00 C)  Everything included. Tipping is not normal practice in Spain. For exceptional service it is optional.

I ordered a beer and Linda ordered red wine.... not just a glass but the 1.2 liter you see on the table.

I don't normally show pictures of what we eat but I would like to show you what you get for this price in a very nice restaurant.  It was way more than we normally eat. We won't need to eat again today!

First Course...  Catalan Salad  A variety of ham and sausages, cheese olives, lettuce and tomatoes.

Second Course...  Pork chops with BBQ sauce, potatoes, 

 

mushrooms and red pepper.

Dessert  ---  vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate sauce

The coffee in Europe is fabulous

 After lunch / dinner we went for walk. Running though Bot is one of the "Via Verde" trails. These are old abandoned rail lines that are use by walkers and cyclists.  Below is a photo of an overpass taken from the trail.

View from the trail.. terraced olive fields with a national park in the background.

Tomorrow we are off to watch some of the MotoGP  practise sessions.  Were we are staying in 65k from the track. It is the closest place we could find and we booked last March.  The other 2 hotel rooms are also booked by people going to the race.  It is expected that the attendance on race day (Sunday) will be close to 100,000.  It should be interesting.

Day 3 and 4... Into Spain

Day 3  

Leaving Valence, we jumped on the autoroute and boogied south once again. Despite nearly being wiped out by flying car parts we really enjoyed riding on these roads. The road conditions, signage and services are all excellent.

We stayed on the autoroute until Montpellier, then we headed for the sea side. The area of the coast around Montpelier is quite marshy with long sand bars that parallel the sea.  We rode along the sand bar roads to the town of Sete.  Sete looks to be a fairly major port town with a significant tourist element. We worked our way to the centre of town looking for a place for lunch.  There is a canal that runs right though the centre of town and we found a nice outdoor cafe for lunch.

The canal in the centre of Sete

After leaving Sete we got lost trying to find our way to a hotel we had selected. It turned out be long day. We thought that we were about 15 minutes from the hotel but we ended up wandering though some interesting wine country for an hour or so... no problem! Thanks to the GPS.

One of the things that we knew about, but are still trying to get used to, is the fact that restaurants are not open in the afternoon.  They close after lunch (2ish) and reopen at 7 or 8pm.   You can still get a drink at most cafes but food selection is minimal.  In fact I am sitting at an out door cafe now sipping beer waiting for the 8 o'clock opening.

Day 4

Today was a great ride.  We started on the autoroute for about 45K then cut off onto a 2 line highway into the Pyrenees.  Once again we wound through the wine fields of Languedoc before climbing into the mountains.  Beautiful countryside...   Small village, some built on steep slopes, stone chalets, winding roads, sunshine, great motorcycle country and not much traffic.    We were headed for the town of La Seu D'urgell, located at the intersection of the road to Andorra.

On the way we stopped at a couple of cafes.  First for coffee, then for ice cream... two essentials on our travel diet.

 

Linda's shirt says it all!

A couple of railway bridges (left and centre) on and the road on the way to Andorra

Located in La Seu D'urgell is a large kayaking park / training facility. The first picture is of a training session and the others are of other parts of the park.

The Olympic kayak training facility on La Seu D'urgell

 There is certainly an excellent selection of good, cheap wine. (Cheaper than a bottle of Coke) 


We stopped for ice cream in this cafe. Ya gotta love the label on this bottle.  Especially the disclaimer below the name of the wine.


After reaching La Seu we found a nice hotel, showered and went out for a walk through the historic part of town.   It was about 4 in the afternoon. Hardly anything was open. The old town was beautiful, but deserted. 

After a relaxing stroll through the old town and kayak park we went back to the hotel and ordered a wine and beer and sat on the sidewalk deck.   After a few minutes we were approached by a fellow who introduced himself and told us that he recognized our motorcycle in the parking lot. He had seen it at Stefan's place in Heidelberg.   Rod was from BC as well. A veteran European motorcycle traveller.  We chatted for a while over drinks and later met for dinner. 
  

La Seu D'durgell

La Seu D'durgell

We are happy to be in Spain now. Language is not as much of a problem.  Some of my French came back but attempted conversations usually ended up in a mixture or French, Spanish and English words all in the same sentence???  However, you can easily get by with English only.

Tomorrow is the last leg of this trip segment.  We have about 220K to cover to reach the town of Bot. Most of this leg will be through the mountains.  We will be staying at a hotel in Bot for 4 nights and plan to attend the Aragon MotoGP race Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

2nd day though France: Montbeliard to Valence

It was a good day on the road today. We only came close to dying once. (As far as we know!)

The weather is definitely improving. This morning it wasn't raining but it was a bit foggy. The roads were still damp but no rain. Yahoo!   The further south we went, the better the weather became. By the time we reached Valence it was sunny and 20 plus degrees.

We planned to check out then French Autoroutes today and it was generally a positive experience. Unlike the German Autobahn, there is a speed limit on the French Autoroutes. If you think 130kph is too slow, you won't agree with me, but it is fast enough for us.  The road surfaces, signage,  rest stops in an ample supply  (some with gas stations, restaurants and playgrounds) made them far superior to our Canadian limited access highways. (Albeit... there is a toll, about $30 Canadian over 400K, but it cuts the ravel time in half, if this is important to you.)

Also,  compared to the Autobahn, the ride was quite scenic.  Along the Autobahn there are high hedges or walls that block the view.  I am told that this is intentional. With no speed limit the German authorities do not want to provide any opportunity to distract the driver.

Tomorrow, we will continue south to the Mediterranean coast.  Once again we will continue on the autoroute until we approach the coast. At Montpelier we will leave the autoroute and follow the coast, looking for a place to stay.

That's it for today.   Oh yeah!  The close to dying part.  A car in the lane beside and slightly in front of us, on the autoroute, either lost a part or ran over a  car part that was on the road. It flew out from under the rear wheel of the car and struck us. It hit the crash bars along side the engine and bounced off my knee, with a fair amount of force. If it hit either of us it could have been fatal.  Had hit the front wheel we likely would have crashed.  If I had not been wearing padded motorcycle pants the impact would have seriously injured my knee.  We were lucky.

You can see the damage to the engine guard and bodywork.

On The Road

Last evening the rain started. Just drizzle, as we walked out for dinner to an Italian restaurant nearby, but it was steady rain as we walked home.  Not that this was a complete surprise. Rain had been forecast for a few days. We weren't too worried. The rain was forecast to continue through the next day but the forecasts are seldom accurate in BC.   Damn that German precision!  They forecast the start of the rain almost to the exact minute and it rained all day today.

We looked at the possibility of delaying our departure but after considering the options we decided to hit the road.  The fact that it is Sunday, was a factor. In Germany there are very few trucks on the autobahn. We were told that trucks are prohibited from operating on Sunday with out special permission and the permission was only given to trucks carrying perishable items or those with urgent deliveries.

Suited-up and ready to go.   Ain't we cute?

We also altered our planned route and decided to miss Switzerland. We entered France about 20 kilometres north of the Swiss border.  There were three reasons we decided to bypass Switzerland. Firstly, one needs to purchase a "vignette" to legally drive on limited access highways Switzerland. The vignette costs about E50 and is good for one year. The fine for being caught without one is about E150.  Secondly, gas, food and accommodation are more expensive that other countries.  Thirdly, with the rain and cloud we wouldn't see much anyway. So... here we are hunkered down in a Ibis hotel in Montbeliard, France.  It is comfortable and the staff are very friendly. Aslo the wine is VERY good!

It was a wet ride. The intensity of the rain fluctuated but continued for the entire day. We covered just over 300K...  riding on the autobahn (A5) to the French border then we moved off the limited access highway to the main two lane roads.  These roads were definitively more enjoyable and much more scenic than riding on the autobahn but progress is much slower. The last 100 kilometres took as much time as the first 200.   Who cares?

Just getting back to Stefan Knopf's operation in Heidelberg, for a moment.  It is a mecca for motorcycle travellers. Casual, but clean and organized. There are a lot of bikes, in storage, in various sheds and garages as well as Stefan's rental fleet. There is a workshop completely equipped with tools. You can do your own work or pay someone to help you. There is a "lounge" with a complete library of maps, travel books and motorcycle repair manuals. There is a kitchen, BBQ and a pizza oven. Breakfast is provide with room rental.  If you have a question about where to go, how to get there, what to do if you run into problems, etc. Just ask Stefan or any member of his family. I'm sure we will go back to Stefan's place at sometime.  Highly recommended!

Linda & I relaxing on the patio beside the kitchen.

Tomorrow we are planning to try out the French Autoroutes and try to make good time moving south and hopefully into warmer weather.  Despite the rain, we enjoyed the ride today. It is always interesting to experience something new.  Our rain gear did the job and we stayed warm and dry. 

Having said this... we are looking forward to reaching southern France and the warmer, drier weather.

Arrived in Germany

We arrived in Heidelberg Friday afternoon and are staying at Stefan's Knopf's B&B.  Stefan has a motorcycle tour company, storage facility, workshop, campground, B&B and general hangout for adventure motorcycle travellers.

Our bike parked in front of our room.

B&B row at Stefans

I think I'll add a bathroom for one of these!

We left Fernie last Wednesday afternoon and spent the night at Lee's place in Calgary. Many thanks to Lee for putting us up, lending us a parking space and shuttling us to the airport. This was a good start to the trip. The flight from Calgary to Frankfurt, on an Air Canada Boeing 787 Dream Liner, was not exactly dream like.  We found the seating in the economy section of the aircraft was very tight, even for us relatively small people.  We did manage to a few hours of sleep but the trip was far from comfortable. There was no gate available when we arrived in Frankfurt so were on the aircraft for a little over 9 hours. 

Clearing customs and immigration was very simple and efficient.  We found the meeting point for our ride no problem. The trip to Heidelberg was an exciting experience. I was our first look at the the autobahn traffic.  With no speed limit, cars are speeding past you in the left lane. You feel like you are on the race track.  I think that we will be steering clear of the fast lane!

We are taking the day to relax and prepare for the ride to Spain, as well as doing some visiting around the local area. We took a tram to downtown Heidelberg this morning and strolled around the almost completely pedestrian area of old town.  The area is a total mix of retail stores, bars and restaurants. Being a Saturday it was a busy spot A good mix of locals and tourists.

An interesting old hotel in Heidelberg.

A typical pedestrian street. Lots of bikes!

Lunch with a glass of Prosecco

Linda loves vines...

 


After a  nice lunch at one of the many outdoor cafes we walked back to Stefan's place... about 4K. This time passing through a less touristy part of town.  One thing that we noticed was just how orderly everything is here.  Perhaps it is just that we have spent so much time in Mexico where exactly the opposite is normal!

Tomorrow we will leave for our trip to Spain. Our first destination in Spain is Bot, Aragon. It is about 1500 K from here to there and we have 5 days to complete the trip. Tomorrow we plan to stop for the night in Switzerland.  Somewhere near Biel.