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Continuing adventures of Suzi, Jess, and Dan... (Europe)
I have been a long time lurker on HU, always reading riding reports, and thinking 'One day, I will do that!' (Thank you to all the posters for your awesome reports/photos). Anyway, my to me has finally come and I am finally doing it. We have both quit our jobs and are doing 6 months around Europe. If anyone has any tips/advice/wants to grab a few drinks in a country, or go for a ride out, then please do message me. We are leaving the trip open, but the rough line is start in Spain, follow the med round to Southern Italy, hop across to greece, Turkey, then back round to the UK via Northern Europe. I will update this thread with posts from our blog. The blog is aimed at our none biking friends but I hope you will enjoy it too.
First blog post; Is it just us or is time speeding up? We left Yorkshire just over two days ago, but it honestly feels like over two weeks.... In the space of two days we have met up with Jess's best friend in Leicester, had a coffee at Costa, met up with Dan's best friend Ben in Bedford, bought supplies from Go outdoors, visited Jo & family (who are friends of Jess's family), walked around a nature reserve, had a couple of pints at the local pub, travelled all the way down to Portsmouth, and we are now finally on the ferry sailing to Santander. The two of us have both been talking about travelling for months and months. Now that we are actually doing it, it all feels very surreal. Suzi (the Suzuki (motorcycle)) hasn't had any major upsets so far - the satnav stopped working whilst we were travelling down to Bens, but we some how managed to navigate ourselves to Bedford. That said, we did require an escort from Ben once we got into Bedford... Anyway, not to worry, we figured out how to reboot the bloody thing, so we are hoping from now on it shouldn't give us too much more trouble. Apologies that this first post is a little short but we wanted to at least make a start. We promise that future posts will be longer, with a lot more pictures. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jsknSQvJta...1600/image.jpg |
Second blog post;
44 Cows... "There were 44 cows in this room when we bought this place" exclaimed Antonio. I think he was trying to teach us a valuable life lesson. Antonio and his family were the owners of the B&B that we stayed in on our first night in Santander. He went on to explain that over the space of 18 years, they had bought a very old, decrepit building and transformed it (with a lot of hard work from all of the family) into both their home, and their business. And what a great job they had done, it was wonderful! Antonio and his wife had a dream of having their children, and grandchildren under one roof, whilst also being independent - so they bought this old building, scrimped and scraped to get by, and eventually made it happen. Antonio said that someone else could have the end result that he has, but alternatively they may have worked in business all of their life, had a high paying job, then close to retirement bought their dream B&B for a considerable amount of cash. In the end they would both have got what they wanted, but would have walked very different paths to get there.After leaving Antonio's, we ended up in a small town called Potes in the Picos De Europa national park. If you love hiking, motorcycling, or just love the mountain air, then this place is for you. I remember Jess saying to me as we were riding along, "this doesn't look real!", and it really didn't - the contrast of colours between the luscious green fields, and the charcoaled snow capped mountains (I will post a video soon and you will see what we mean). It all just felt very grand, like we were in something out of 'Lord of the Rings' but without the Orcs. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tGu8wjY9Rj...1600/image.jpg (Frama, Picos De Europa) The day after we stayed in Potes we ended up riding over 400 miles to Foz de Coa, in Northern Portugal. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3rBx2FFYiC...1600/image.jpg (Foz De Coa, Portugal) Along the way we stopped off at a service station. When I say service station you will probably automatically think of a not very nice place with a Burger King in it, a WHSmiths, and possibly a Starbucks. Well, you would be completely wrong, the service stations in Spain are nothing like this. For about 10€ (roughly £7.50) each you can get the 'Menu del Dia' (Menu of the day), which consists of a starter, and main of your choice. The food tastes properly home cooked, and really flavoursome. We had a mixed salad with tuna to start, and then half a chicken with chips (home made) - this chicken and chips would have rivalled nandos. Therefore if you are ever in Spain, and stop off at a service station or in a small village, always order the 'Menu del Dia', it is such good value. The landscape has changed entirely but the sun is still shining, we are going to take it a bit more easy today, and ride for only a few hours west to Porto. If you are ever in Santander (the ferry only takes 24 hours from Portsmouth, and you can take vehicles onto it), then check out Antonio's B&B, Mies De Villa. |
Third blog post;
Picos De Europa |
Fourth blog post;
A week with an ageing hippie In the end we didn't go to Porto as there were no rooms available at any of the hostels on the Sunday night. Instead we went to a city called Coimbra, 75 miles South of Porto. Coimbra is the third largest city in Portugal (after Lisbon, and Porto). It is known as the 'University City' as there is such a huge student population, and everything centres around the university. We only stayed for a night, but we did manage to go for a lovely late night walk in the city centre, and found a really great little pizza restaurant. From Coimbra we went south again to a little village called Alvaiázere. It was here where we were going to spend the next week. We had been in contact with a chap called Gerry on workaway. For those of you who haven't heard of workaway the concept is very simple, you give someone a few hours of your time each day, and in return you get free accommodation and food, the experiences can be as varied as working with huskys in northern Scandinavia, to working on vineyards in southern Italy. Anyway, back to the story... Gerry describes himself as an 'ageing hippy', he moved to Portugal 7 years ago to escape the rat race, and become self sustainable. And from what we have seen he seems to be doing a pretty damn good job of it. Over 50% of the food we have eaten has been grown in his garden. The majority of the tasks we have completed have been centred around the garden; seeding, potting on, planting, clearing areas of land, weeding, etc. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6gU1MMxhd5...1600/image.jpg But Jess's favourite job was most definitely walking the dogs every morning. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-0N3ykB9P...1600/image.jpg Gerry was kind enough to introduce us to lots of his friends, from Mike (the German truck driver who used to drive around all the big 80s rock bands when they were on tour) to Astrid (a Dutch woman who was also a workawayer, and who used to work with the United Nations). One of Gerry's friends Peter showed us around the local area; http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ee7ue-WjAi...1600/image.jpg In Portugal they like to disguise things. At first glance you may think, "what a nice looking tree", but don't be fooled, it is an imposter! That tree is actually a mobile phone mast in disguise. Peter also showed us a cool (literally) cave, where the security was a little lax.... http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-62pZHwwVwz...1600/image.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_Ec2KzttJ...1600/image.jpg Gerry has been so kind to us, and has honestly made us feel really at home here. We will never forget our conversations about his conspiracy theories, or the many stories he has told us about his numerous neighbours. In the morning we will leave Gerry's and we shall ride all day until we finally arrive in Madrid. In a strange sort of way we are looking forward to being back in Spain as it feels some what more familiar (roll on the 'Menu Del Dia'!). http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1M12QBN7wk...1600/image.jpg |
Fifth blog post;
Our time in Central Portugal |
Seventh blog post;
Our Spanish Family The grandmother piled more food onto my plate. She didn't really speak any English so I think this was her way of making sure I was well looked after. It was only our second day here and we already felt at home. We have spent the last two weeks with a Spanish family, about an hours drive west of Madrid. The family consists of Marta (mother), Pepe (father), the three children: Noe, Lia, Sabina, the dog who is called Rayo, the three cats who's names I cannot pronounce (or spell), and then for the first few days Marta's Mum and Dad were visiting from Santander. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7r9YE93baz...1600/image.jpg From the outset we were invited to family events, and social gatherings. What struck us was that there appears to be a much stronger sense of community than in Britain. Everyone is always out in the garden, with lots of family and friends present (20+), enjoying good food (and wine) around a massive table. This is mostly down to the weather, it enables them to do this type of thing so much more often. It is Spring, and since we have been here it has rained maybe once. This obviously isn't limited to the Spanish or even the Mediterranean countries, I believe this is fairly common in most places with a warmer climate. But seriously, this is what life is about; great food, people you love, and good weather. More people need to leave the UK and buy a house abroad! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fpar7JLDyp...1600/image.jpg One of the cities we have visited whilst we have been here is Segovia. The old part of the city is an UNESCO world heritage site, and it doesn't take long to figure out why. The most impressive site is the Roman aqueduct, which is estimated to have been built around 100AD. As you can see from the picture below, it has been preserved in excellent condition, and as a result it is considered one of the most significant ancient monuments in the Iberian peninsula. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3Z0cYYlLZG...1600/image.jpg El Escorial is located on the other side of the mountain that we can see from the living room window. A couple of days ago we hiked over the mountain with Pepe, Lia, and Sabina. The picture below shows the view of El Escorial that we took on that walk. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Il9AUnFdbt...1600/image.jpg We visited the monastery in El Escorial on the same day we went to Segovia. We were quite tired after visiting Segovia, as a result of this we some what rushed round the rather large monastery and didn't take much note of the many religious paintings. However one part of the monastery that was quite spectacular was the 'Pantheon of the Kings'. This is a large, elaborately decorated chamber where the remains of all of the previous kings of Spain are held. Jess remarked that it looked like something out of 'Harry Potter'. Whilst on the walk over the mountain we discovered a flower which we were very lucky to see. As it only blooms for 2 weeks out of the whole year. However, please don't ask me what it is called, I have no idea. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_1RbnsTZUK...1600/image.jpg One thing I must remember is to always check if people speak English. Out of the major cities it is less common to find people who speak English. Jess and I went for a walk into the local village, and went into a bookshop. I asked if the woman spoke English, she didn't, but we managed to get by with the limited Spanish that we know, no problem. After the bookshop we went into the pharmacy, because I wanted to get some tablets as I had a cold. This is where I assumed that the woman behind the counter didn't speak English because the woman in the bookshop hadn't spoken English. I then began to make exaggerated sniffing sounds with my nose, whilst making a very sad face, and pointing to my head and nose. To which she replied "You can speak English.". Oh, did I feel a tit... It is funny how quickly you get into a routine, we are so used to getting up, eating breakfast, doing some work in the garden, the children coming home from school, everyone eating lunch around the table at 3, then maybe going for a walk or playing cards with Sabina/Lia, talking to the family, then eating dinner at 9, then going to bed. We have really enjoyed our time here, and we are going to miss them all, however we must press on. The plan is to leave on Friday morning for Rute, which is in between Seville and Granada, we will use this as a base for a few days to explore the Andalucia region, then we shall head on to Barcelona. |
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