Spain and more 08/02/2010
 
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to blog, or at least post anything, because access to the internet has been scarce and when we have had it, it has been poor.   So, here is the catch all blog to update ya’ll.

7/18: Brad, Joe, and I headed to the Mediterranean cost, not knowing exactly where we would end up, but just hoping to find a place.  We ended up at a medium sized city called “Peniscola”.  Yeah, it made me laugh, too.  It has that little Spanish squiggle over the “n”, so I guess that makes it sound a little better.   We made it there at dusk and the beach was packed with people walking up and down the boardwalk.  There is a big castle on a hill right on the coast.   Unbelievably, we found an old Spanish styled hotel with a vacancy and a fairly normal sized (American normal) room; and they had internet.   We headed out to try out some of the cuisine.  It’s ok, but kind of strange.  Of course, they serve French fries with every meal.  I don’t know what it is with these Europeans, but they love a French fry.  I definitely like Mexican food much better than Spanish.  

Being the flan connoisseur that I am, I attempted to order it, but the waiter said the kitchen had closed.  Huh?!  I’ve never had a meal somewhere and been told they are closed before the meal is over.  Well, that’s Europe for ya….    We walked around the beach for a while and watched a few street performers doing the same juggling comedy act that street performers do all over the world.  There must be a Street performer college somewhere.   We had a couple of drinks and walked up to the castle.  I sure do love a castle.

7/19:  We headed out of Peniscola (Lol) and toward Madrid.  The plan was to make it a two day trip, but after riding with Brad many times, I know better.  I told Joe that Brad would want to ride on into Madrid.  He gets this “We’ve got to get there” mentality and we always end up riding until we drop.  I had seen a castle the day before and wanted to stop there.  I could tell  Joe and Brad weren’t keen on the idea, but damnit, I wanted to see the castle.   Did I ever tell ya’ll how much I love a castle?  So, we stopped and I told them I would check it out and be back in 10 minutes.  Well, wishful thinking !   It is way up on a hill, and inside the wall is a city.  I started walking up and would run into a dead end or have to turn.  It probably took me 20 minutes just to get to the castle, and then it was quite a hike to get inside.  I’m guess it is about half a mile up the hillside.   It was definitely worth it.  It had been in service from the 700’s until the early 1900’s; being used by the Romans, Muslims, and the Spaniards.   The last person to use it put a big canon there in about 1920.  It was truly incredible, to think about all the people that had lived and died in that place.   So, I got my castle fix and headed back down the Joe and Brad with drinks in hand.  I, again, took a few wrong turns and ended up on the wrong side of the walls and had to walk all the way around.   They were laid out in the shade and I was drenched from the hike. 

 

We took off from there and rode for a while before stopping for a coffee.  Spanish coffee is either “con leche” or “solo”.   I preferred no milk, which means it comes in a thimble and is strong as motor oil.   I guess that’s why it comes with a giant sugar packet.   It’s definitely got some kick to it.  I’m thinking we might solve our crack problem if we brought it to America.

Another thing about Spain that’s awesome are the roads.  I had heard they are great for motorcycle riding, and we rode some of the best roads I have ever ridden on a motorcycle; small curves; big, sweeping curves; ascents; descents; in the mountains, in the plains.   You name it, they have.  By the way, we didn’t see any rain in the plains in Spain. ( I had to get that out of the way).

We rode all day and made it to Guadalajara, which is about 30 miles north of Madrid.  We decided to push on so we could get a room and not have to change for a few days. 

I could tell Madrid is fairly crazy when we started to get there.  The traffic on the interstate began to pick up immensely and we could see giant apartment complexes everywhere.   Spain is mostly apartments I have learned.  Someone told us the government discourages individual house ownership.  So, everyone is packed in these giant apartment buildings.   It’s wild.  We ended up downtown, and had to backtrack to our hotel.   It took us over 2 hours to find it.  We had GPS and maps and could actually see it, but could not get to it.  You can’t make U-turns in Madrid.  You have to exit and go through ten roundabouts, all the while being tailgated by some extremely impatient jackass in some little, ridiculous midget car( no offense midgets), who is in a hurry to go nowhere.   If you can’t tell, we were a little stressed.  Try keeping 3 motorcycles together through 50 roundabouts with cars cutting you off and everyone honking.   Joe’s GPS is not so great for city travel anyway, and it usually takes us a while to find anything, even in small towns.  But in the big city, forget it.  We looked like a combination of  Shriners at a parade, and clowns.  At one point, Brad got ahead of us and went around a roundabout.  I took a different exit from him accidentally, and had to turn around.  By the time I turned around, Brad was coming at me trying to find me.   I went back into the roundabout, only to find Joe had just given  up, and was going in circles.   By the time we got to the hotel,  I was almost ready to call it quits right there.  I forgot to mention one thing… it was 95 degrees at 10 p.m., and that is no exaggeration.    Of course, the room was made for sardines and it was basically 3 beds tucked in by luggage.   Who builds these rooms? !

 

7/20:  Brad returned his motorcycle to the rental agency.  It’s called Happy Trails, and is run by a Jose, who also services bikes.  We scheduled our service with him.  Let me just say, that in addition to being a very nice guy, he is an excellent and very meticulous mechanic.  If you are ever in Madrid and need to rent or service a motorcycle, please look him up.   He has a shop in his basement and everything is organized perfectly.   We left our bikes with him and he gave us a ride back to the hotel.  We walked across the freeway to the mall to look for a new camera.  My new Canon had crapped out the day before.   I love the pictures it takes, but I am a little upset it broke after only a couple of months.   We ate lunch and shopped for a while, and then headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.  We made reservations at the Botin Restaurant, which is the oldest operating restaurant in the world, serving since 1725.  

We grabbed a cab to head downtown, which took about 25 minutes and involved going through a several mile long tunnel that goes under the city.  It was creepy and made me a little anxious.  We arrived at the restaurant, which is on the outside of an old town square surrounded by shops.  We were a little early so we walked around.  Despite the sun being down, it was brutally hot. It reminded me of Phoenix in the summer.  At 8 p.m., (and not a minute early….we tried 4 minutes early and were told to come back at 8), we were brought to our table which was in the basement…. A very tight fitting basement, full of tables and other people.   It was difficult for me to fit down the winding staircase to get there.  I think we all were a little unsettled at first.  Of course, everything seemed to get better with a little sangria.  The food was pretty good and we spent a few hours afterward exploring the square, until finally catching a cab home, which took a while because the cab driver got lost….and yes, he had a GPS.  Crazy place!!

7/21:   Brad snuck out the next morning to catch his plane.  Joe and I were picked up by Jose and taken to his shop, where we picked up our bikes.   We actually made it back to the hotel without too much issue.   We later met up with Jose and his business partner, Sebastian, at a café behind our hotel.  We let them order everything, which was a strange mix of bread, calamari , salad, bread, tuna fish, something that was like dirty rice made into little discs, and of course, French fries!  They were just leaving town for a 3 day ride, so we bid our farewells and went back to the hotel.  That day, I ended up buying a new camera and a GPS with all of Europe in it.   Joe’s is just not getting it, and my other GPS does not have detailed maps of European cities.  We spent the rest of the day, uploading pictures, and charging batteries, and blogging.    I’m ready to get out of the city.   Staying in these big cities makes me a bit homesick.  I think it is just because they are stressful and I have time to sit around and do nothing.   I much prefer being on the road making progress.

 

7/22:  We loaded up and I put on my new GPS, ready to get the show on the road.  So, I was leading and no more of Joe’s GPS.  Now, we were getting somewhere.  Unfortunately, I immediately led us in a circle around the hotel.  After that, I started getting the hang of it. 

We headed out in the heat of Madrid, and just as Jose had told us, the temperature dropped about 30 miles north as we ascended into the mountains.

The topography of Spain is interesting and definitely more open than France.  It has beaches, mountains, plains, and lots of agriculture.  There is a lot of fertilizing going on, which is gives much of the country a nice dung odor.  Driving in Spain is interesting because the speed limits change so often. It goes from 120 kph to 100 to 70 to 50 and then back to 110 for about 200 yards then back to 50, then to 30.  Jesus!

 

We started looking for a campground around 7:30 but were having no luck.  The GPS took us to a skate park into some little town..  So, we headed back onto the road.  The next little town had no hotels.  It was no big deal to me, but if Joe can’t find a place by 7 p.m., he starts to turn back into a pumpkin.  So, we stopped on the side of the road on the edge of town to assess our situation and see where we were headed.  Joe had a minor meltdown because of the late hour, but he was fine after a few minutes and we hopped on and headed out.  We entered the Pyrenees at dark and it started sprinkling.   We finally found a nice campground and rented a cabin.   I couldn’t help but tease Joe and told him we should probably push on to look for a better place.  Actually, he couldn’t understand me because I was laughing so hard. We rushed to get dinner before the 11 pm closing time and all they had was the sampler platter.   Steak, a fried egg, tunafish, calamari, salad, fried cheese, and (drum roll)…. You guessed it:  French fries.   I’ve had more French fries in Europe in a month than in the last decade of my life.  I’ve probably shortened my life by ten years.

I had the feeling that we were finally getting back on course and making progress.  It was fun hanging out with Brad, but I was ready to get the show on the road.

 

7/23  There was a terrible storm the night before.  Thank God we got a cabin.  We had a cafe’ solo and hit the road.  One of the good things about Spain is I’m able to communicate a little better than France.   I don’t know a lot of Spanish, but I can at least order food and get around.

We rode to through the Mountains and made it to the little country of Andorra around dusk.  I had never heard of it either, but it is a country of about 60,000 people nestled between mountains, between France and Spain.  As soon as we crossed the border, we saw big, elaborate banks and a lot of shopping.  My suspicion was that it is some kind of tax haven.  That was confirmed by our waiter, Marco, originally from Canada.  So, that settles it.   Basically, the whole valley is full of buildings, resorts, shops.  We saw all kinds of nice cars, Porsches, Ferraris, etc.   We found a campground on a hill, above a soccer field,  in the middle of town.    We set up camp and headed to the camp restaurant and had Sangria and a pretty good meal.  Of course,  both meals came with fries.  Marco, then brought us some kind of liquor made from herbs in the mountains in Andorra, and he had a few shots with us.  It kinda tasted like a mixture of tequila and bourbon.  Hey, this place isn’t so bad.

 

7/24  I got up pissy because I couldn’t sleep the night before.  Someone was having a rave in Andorra until after 4:30 a.m.   Of course, Joe didn’t hear anything and slept fine.  I think a fighter jet flew through his tent at one point and he slept through it.     It only took us about 30 minutes to make our way through Andorra.  The whole place is just a few cities in a valley.     We made our way back into France and the traffic picked up substantially.   Mountain passes with lots of traffic, including big trucks and cars pulling campers, is less than fun.   Slow and hot is what it was.   We finally made it to the freeway, which runs along the coast of France.  I suspected this was a bad idea, especially since we had been warned about going near any beaches, with it being holiday and all.    Sure enough, traffic was very heavy, and the wind was blowing wildly across the road.   There are giant wind socks along the freeway indicating the wind direction, and the road is lined with windmills.  So, I suspect wind is not a rare occurrence in this region.  So, the wind is whipping us all of the road and cars are zipping by us.   The one good thing is people in Europe are very good about getting into the right lane if they are going slow.   The bad thing is they don’t give you a whole lane for your motorcycle.  They just give you a couple and feet and pass right by you, half in your lane.  I could have kicked a few cars that passed me…. And giving the chance, I would have liked to kick a few #$@% too.   Then, just when I was getting used to the harrowing 75 mph, whipping wind experience, the toll booths arrive.  This created a parking lot.   It was 98 degrees to boot.   So, there we sat.   People were still so crazy they were trying to pass each other in the toll lines, while everyone is stopped.   I was starting to crack at this point.  We are in full motorcycle protective gear, sitting in the heat, dying…. Not to mention, the fan on my motorcycle has been on for a while and I’m concerned about it overheating.   We finally make it through the toll booth, but traffic is no better.  I told Joe that I’m getting the Hell off of the freeway and we exit.  By that time, it was 4:30 p.m. and Joe was getting antsy to find a place to stay. This is where we sometimes have our only real issue.  He is so anxious to get a place early, he will take any place.  And he can sleep through anything, and any condition, so it has no effect on him.   I don’t sleep all that well and can’t sleep with lots of noise or in a really hot, cramped, unairconditioned room.   So, I end up not getting much sleep night after night, and it makes me a little cranky.   You probably didn’t notice, but it does.   So, Joe heads for another ETAP (if you’ve been following, it’s a crappy, tiny motel).    We get there and I really want to move on, out of town (Montpillier), which is big and packed with holidayers.  But, Joe wants to stay….. so, he gets a room.   I head up to the 3rd floor and I am carrying everything trying to find Joe and the room.   The hall is also burning hot and I can’t find him.  Finally, he shows up and opens what turns out to be the second room he has gotten.  When I get in the room, it is literally 90 degrees inside.  I just stood in the middle of the room and stared into space for a minute.  I was literally about to freak out.  The A/C was on high, which meant I could barely feel the air coming out of it and it was definitely not cold.   I just told Joe I couldn’t stay there.  I couldn’t go another night without sleep.  Things were tense as I stood there in silence, contemplating, while Joe unpacked.   I took off and went to a restaurant to cool off, both literally and figuratively, had a beer and ate a burger; with you know what:   freaking French fries!!   The burger was terrible and I just sat there thinking:  “What have I gotten myself into?”  I cooled off and headed back to the room.  I told Joe that I was fine, because I could tell he was concerned.  I don’t blow my top to often but this was probably the closest Joe has seen.  Of course, Joe being the good guy he is, bought me another room at an adjoining hotel.  I told him that was crazy; I was just going to a local campground.   He insisted, so I went to the other hotel, which happened to literally be connected by a hall to the ETAP.  I get to the room and it is just as bad; and the AC doesn’t work.   I go back to the room and tell Joe thanks, but I’m out.  He went down to try to get a refund but they told him it had been too long.  So, now he comes back about to blow his top.  He said he just left because he was about to lose it.   I took the key and went down to the desk, and finally persuaded the clerk to refund Joe’s money.   I’m exhausted by now and just want a quiet place to set up my tent.  So, I take what I need and head to the campground, which is packed with people.  Wouldn’t you know it, they gave me a spot right by the playground, which was teaming with kids.  Let me just tell you, they don’t tire easily.   There was also one weird kid playing by himself in the bushes by my tent, pretending he was sword fighting.   Also, I forgot my sleeping pad at the hotel.  I just got in the tent.   Thankfully, the day was over.

 


Comments

Paula
08/08/2010 6:34am

Hey U. Hope you guys are enjoyin Finland! :)

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