Bilbao to Salamanca. We may have a new favourite place.

4/1/13

We had a little reorganise of our gear today before we got going. We wheeled the bike out of reception at the hostel and started to pack. Somehow we ended up with a bottle of wine and half a bottle of Baileys to fit on the bike with all our other stuff.

Once that was complete and our panniers were bulging, we set our sights on Salamanca, about four hundred kilometres to the south west. Motorway time unfortunately. It was a pretty uneventful ride apart from being a bit cold. The road and terrain was a little boring after being spoilt in the mountains and snow for so long. In fact, it was a bit like riding back home. Long straight roads with farmland either side. At least we could sit on reasonable speeds for the trip.

 Leaving Bilbao.

 The traffic was hell.

 Just like home, but the hills are bigger.

Cool little village.

We rode into Salamanca and straight to the front door of our hotel. For forty euros a night we got a very nice room with a bath, free Wifi and breakfast. Check in was a bit of a laugh. MaTe (Maria Teresa) the manager spoke little English and there was lots of gesturing and pointing. The funniest part was when she gave us the code to get in the front door late at night. She showed us the card with a number on it, pointed to the front door and said "Bip, bip, bip, bip, barrrrrrrrrp" while making pushing button motions with her fingers. As we left to go and park the bike she said "You must learn some Spanish". We're only here for a couple of weeks or so, but seeing as it's our sixth visit to Spain, she may be right.

Meet our neighbour, Mrs Stork.
Penthouse with the best view in town.

Once we were sorted with the room we went exploring. Within a few minutes we found the Plaza Major. What a  fantastic place, and teeming with people at ten at night. The Christmas lights are still up in the streets and they made the scene as pretty as a picture.

We then made our way upstairs to the restaurant that MeTe recommended, Meson Cervantes. It was only about eight o'clock, so we were the first ones there and scored a window seat overlooking the Plaza. Brilliant. We enjoyed a great feed of five different Tapas, a bottle of wine, and a beer.

Unassuming entrance. 

 Interesting décor.

 First in best dressed.

Something different.

A plate of egg, potato, and eels.

 Suzanne tucks into some eels.

When we were done, and completely satisfied we asked for the bill. The total came to...wait for it...18.80 euros. I actually queried the bill as I though they may have forgotten to charge us for the bottle of wine and was politely told "No, that is correct sir. You get a free Tapas when you order a glass of wine." So I'm guessing if you order a bottle of wine you get four or five Tapas included? Whatever, I don't care. it was a really nice meal, and an absolute bargain.

We then went for a walk and did a lot of window shopping. Prices of things here are so cheap compared to back home. I might have to price up a container to ship home I think.

Here are a few shots for all you Imelda Marco wannabes...

All of these shoes were made of leather, not vinyl, and according to Suzanne they were very well made. I find it interesting that there is not a lot of stuff here that is made in China.

We came across a supermarket and stocked up on a few goodies. I also found a few things that were interesting, like..

 Cammo duct tape. Cool.

 A six pack of Heineken for 2.95.
OK, they are only 250 ml stubbies, but it's still cheap.

Mumm for 28.95.

When we got back to the hotel we immediately booked another night, and had a few drinks at the bar, along with a very long, deep and meaningful discussion about our previous lives.

Salamanca is a great place. It has all the cool and Spanish essence of Barcelona, but not the bright colours and noise. The people here are all very tastefully dressed in quality gear and make us look like homeless people in the clothes we're wearing. NO ONE wears sneakers or trainers. It's polished leather shoes or boots thank you. It's so cool to see an old couple in their eighties or nineties dressed to the nines in suites and fur coats out for a stroll in the Plaza.

Our plan of being in Gibraltar for the weekend is well and truly shot to pieces. It's not a problem though. Bilbao was really nice, but Salamanca is so good we have to stay another night, at least. 

It's our twenty second wedding anniversary tomorrow, and I can't think of a better place to spend it than here.

Cheers Salamanca.

Portagaff, me, Suzanne, and Nougat

on our wedding day.

Crazy neighbours in the hostel.

3/1/13

What a night. Apart from my back giving me grief, we had a crazy neighbour move into the room next to us at the hostel. First there were the noisy moving-in noises. You know, the lift, the suitcases being dragged, the door to the room opening and slamming closed, and so on. Did I mention it was three in the morning? Then it started. Yelling and carrying on like a pork chop, and it went on until six am complete with slamming doors, crashes, and god knows what else. No amount of swearing at them would shut them up. I fired up the computer and played music as loud as I could to try and drown them out, but it only just worked. Needless to say when we woke up again at ten am, we weren't going riding, and I was VERY grumpy.

We took advantage of our extra day in Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim Museum. Well, there's a few hours of my life I'll never get back. The building is interesting, being constructed with a lot of titanium, but aesthetically I think it rivals Perth's new sports centre in the ugly stakes. You couldn't call it nice by any stretch of the imagination.

Our moto friend Ivan said not to bother going in because the art on display was pretty ordinary. I think he used the word crap actually. Well, I think he was being kind. Let's start the whole what is art debate...

I have no problem with someone "creating" something to express their feelings etc. I do however have a problem when a gallery pays stupid amounts of money to buy something that really is a huge con job by an artist, and then charges me to go and look at it. Here are a few examples...

Really? 

 Year eight art assignment.

 I couldn't even work out what this was until I saw the photo.

 I didn't mind this one. It has a cat in it.

Why?

Honestly, I've picked up things off my lawn that have fallen out of the back end of my dog that were more creative than this stuff.

OK, that's the end of the negative side of today's post.

On the way home we stopped in a little bar next to the hostel for a drink. By the way, we counted nine bars between our hostel and the corner of the street it's on. Suzanne had a glass of wine and I had a beer. Total bill? Two euros. Yes, two! That's almost as cheap as buying them at the supermarket.

We were both pretty tired after the previous night's carry on, so we had a little Nanna nap then headed out for a late dinner. We went to another little bar across the road and had  a feed of three large Tapas and three glasses of wine each. The bill this time was an outrageous, nine euros thirty! How can they do it so cheaply?

Then it was off to bed to enjoy a good night' sleep. We have a four hundred kilometre ride tomorrow to Salamanca so we need a good rest. Luckily tonight we have the whole floor of the hostel to ourselves.

To finish off here's a photo of a piece of art outside the Guggenheim that I really did like...

The springtime photos show it covered in bright, colourful flowers. I might put one in my front yard when I get home.

The girl on reception told us we'd love Salamanca. We'll see tomorrow...

Bilbao, day two.

2/1/13

I woke up with a tweaked back this morning and it's bloody sore, so I spent a fair bit of time in a soft, comfortable lounge in the chill out room at the hostel. I must have slept crooked on my shoulder or something. I need Nat my Physio here to fix it. I guess we'll be staying in Bilbao for another night.

Cool, comfortable, and quiet,

apart from the stereo I had playing in the corner.

Those bean bags looked tempting, but I wasn't game to get in one in case i couldn't get out.

We went across the road and did a quick shop at the supermarket for our lunch / dinner to save the budget a little. We got a good feed of bread, cheese, and some very fatty sausage (way tooooo fatty), along with a couple of bottles of Coke, an iced coffee, a bottle of Codorniu Cava (Champagne) and a bottle of Baileys. All for a pittance. 

Check out the Moet price in the Supermarket.

The bottle of Mumm was under thirty euros as well.
I didn't see the Pommery til I looked at the photo.

Check out the mushroom chart.
Twenty four different kinds on sale throughout the year.

Yum!

I don't know what I've dome to my back but carrying the shopping home was a strain. I hate getting old. Or should that be I hate having gotten old?

We had our own cheese tasting at the hostel for lunch.

Budget lunch, not too bad either,

apart from the fatty sausage.

So that was the content of a pretty average day. Still tomorrow will be much better I'm sure. Here's hoping...

Sam and Clare's bike storage problem solved.

3/1/13

Great news guys, our moto travelling friends Sam and Clare have their bike storage problem in Italy sorted. A huge thank you to everyone from all around the world who helped out. It's good to know there are a lot of good people out there.

Happy New Year everyone!

1/1/13

We spent our New Years Day riding from Lourdes, France to Bilbao, Spain. Luckily we had fully recovered from yesterdays "altitude sickness." 

We rode out of Lourdes at about half past ten and it was raining. We can't complain too much because we've been away for six months, including this winter and we've encountered very little rain while we've been on the road. Even in the UK we really only had one three hour ride in heavy rain.

We had about three hundred kilometres to travel so we hit the motorways. The motorways run on a toll system and I don't have a problem with that, but it's a real pain on a motorcycle. You have to stop, balance the bike, take your gloves off, get your wallet out, pay the toll, and do everything in reverse order before you ride away. It's OK if it's not busy, but I get pretty agitated when there are three of four cars behind us. It probably looks very funny from behind to see someone trying to balance five hundred kilos of bike and bodies as he leans over to pick up a dropped five euro note.

As I said, I get agitated, and flustered. That's why what happened next, happened. We'd gone through four toll booths and had just left the fifth. We got up to speed and had been riding for about five minutes, when I felt something hit my arm. At first I wondered what it was, then in a split second the thought flashed through my mind. "I didn't put my wallet away at the last toll booth. I left it sitting on top of the tank bag." 

We pulled up on the side of the motorway and a quick check revealed that I didn't have my wallet. Damn! We were both off for a walk down the motorway looking for a small, black wallet in the rain. After a bit of a walk we reached a bridge. I was hoping that the wallet hadn't gone over the side, then I saw a five euro note in the middle of the road, then another, then a ten, then a fifty, and then the jackpot. My little wallet sitting on the white line in the middle of the road, intact, complete with all the cards, license, etc. What a relief. I dodged a few cars on the bridge and quickly retrieved it. I can tell you, avoiding cars doing 130 kph plus on a motorway is a lot scarier than riding a bike. On the plus side, we saw a large stork glide into a field on the side of the road. It just floated by in slow motion very close to us and looked amazing. I checked it's beak pretty carefully, and no it wasn't carrying a baby. It must have already dropped it off somewhere else.

Something we noticed on the side of the road were white lumps of what looked like spider webs in the trees. We thought they were too big for spider webs, but didn't think a bird would build anything like it either. A bit of Google research gave us the answer.

This is what we saw.

It turns out they are Pine Processional Caterpillars nests.

 This is what they look like up close.

 This is what they do, hence their name.

...and this is what they turn into.

These things are amazing and well worth a bit of a read on Google. We also saw a lot of bird life in the fields on the sides of the road.

We rolled up at the Moon Hostel in Bilbao. We really have to start watching the budget a bit more carefully from now on. The hostel was great, but there was nowhere to park the bike. There were push bikes parked in reception, so we thought...

Meet Natalia, our bike's new friend.

Natalia was very kind and offered us a few solutions but the last one was the best. We could park the bike in reception and put all the bags in a lock up room out the back. AWESOME! Thanks Natalia.

After a quick freshen up it was off to dinner. We've worked out it's easier to take our laptop with us and if the restaurant has Wifi we can Google translate the items on the menu that we don't understand and it makes life a lot easier, especially if the restaurant is busy. Half way through typing the name of one item into the computer, this came up: 

For those with poor eyesight, here's a close up.

Hmm, not sure about that one.

A quick look around Bilbao tomorrow and we're on our way south to Salamanca.

New Year's Eve.

31/12/12

Damn you Ivan. We both woke up at about ten suffering from severe "altitude sickness". Ivan banged on the hotel room door at about half past ten, ready to go. We weren't going anywhere so today was declared another rest day. Sorry Ivan.

We spent some time catching up on admin duties, I can't believe there is so much work to do when you are travelling, then went out for a nice, early dinner.

This week's itinerary: We'll leave Lourdes tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and head for Bilbao, Salamanca, Lisbon, Seville, and then be in Gibraltar for the weekend. Anyone want to catch up for a coffee along the way?

Happy new Year everyone. See you on the road somewhere soon we hope Ivan.

We meet a fellow moto traveller in Lourdes.

30/12/12

We're in Lourdes, France and after the last few big days of riding we decided to take a day off and had a big rest in our very comfortable bed. It's funny, at home I can ride six hundred kilometres and feel fine, but riding here in these mountains I'm exhausted after a couple of hundred kms. It's bloody great fun though.

When we went out to find some dinner we met a fellow moto traveller.

Great restaurant, great food, great service.

Lousy photographer.

He's English, rides a Honda Dominator with the biggest panniers in the world, and his name is Ivan. After seeing some of Ivan's photos we worked out that he likes a bit of fun.

Meet Ivan.

We sat and swapped travel stories and tips over a beer or three until the restaurant closed and they threw us out. We must have been thirsty because we went and found a bar that was open. We played pool and had a few more drinks.

Rack 'em up. 

Suzanne gets another round.

We also discovered that Ivan only lives about twelve miles away from a very like minded female friend of ours in the UK, so we gave them each other's details. Who knows what might happen?

Luckily Ivan's hotel locks the door at one am, so at five to we left the bar and all staggered home, otherwise we could have been there til all hours.

I was a great night of  fun and frivolity.