Day 14 - Guimaraes, Portugal to Lisbon, Portugal

 

Click HERE for all the pictures of Day 14

Posted by Armando

Day 13 - Geres, Portugal to Guimaraes, Portugal

 

Click HERE for all the pictures of Day 13

Posted by Armando

Day 12 - Santiago de Compostela, Spain to Geres, Portugal

 

Click HE for all the pictures for Day 12

Posted by Armando

Day 11 - Burgos, Spain to Santiago de Compostela, Spain

 

In every trip there is that special day you look forward to and this was the day. When we started putting together this trip we spoke about doing the Camino de Santiago and this was the day. The first time I heard about the Camino was from a book from Paulo Coelho called "The Pilgrimage" (1988). Paulo is one of my favorite authors and if you have never read Paulo do yourself a favor and read one of his books. The most well known is the Alchemist although for me my favorites are Warrior of Light and By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept.

But I digress. The Camino de Santiago In order to better prepare for the day, I had spent some time on the Internet and found a great application Camino 2.0 which divides the way from Burgos to Santiago into d

 

Click HERE for all the pictures of Day 11

 

Posted by Armando

Day 10 - Santander, Spain to Burgos, Spain

After a short night, as we arrived quite late the night before, we woke up to a foggy morning. There was no forecast for rain but it would be foggy close to the coast so we decided to go inland and visit the small town of Potes which is right in the middle of the Picos de Europa.

 

However before we started our trip we decided to do a quick tour of Santander, Spain. With a population of 200,000 it is a medium size city and the standard of living is quite high. Out of the cities I have visited in Spain I would consider this one high in the ranking order in terms of best places to live in Spain.

During breakfast Paula and I spent some time discussing what we would be doing for the day as distance between Santander and Burgos (where we would be sleeping that night) was about 220 Kms which would put this as the lowest mileage day we had done so far.

As we were very close to the mountain range Picos de Europa (literally: "Peaks of Europe", often abbreviated to the Picos) which is a range of mountains 20 km inland from the northern coast of Spain. The most widely accepted origin for the name is that they were the first sight of Europe for ships arriving from the Americas.

We travelled West from Santander parallel to the northern Spain coastline and then turn South towards Potes, Spain where we had lunch. The way is very nice as we are very close to the coastline and to towns like Santillana del Mar, Spain and San Vicente de la Barquera, Spain.

But the real riding started when we turned South towards Potes, Spain with many Kms of winding roads between the mountains and with a river to make every picture a special one. Highly recommended road.

After pure motorcycling riding bliss we arrived at Potes, Spain which is a very picturesque town nested in the middle of the Picos de Europa. We were again very surprised with low price of food and not too many tourist which was a reminder that Europe is in a deep recession and Spain one of the most affected countries. The day was beautiful, temperature just right and we enjoyed having lunch outside.

After some quick shopping of memorabilia we saddled up and rode towards the Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liebana which is a Roman Catholic monastery located very close to Potes, Spain. It is located in the Cantabrian Mountain and is one of the five places of Christianity that, together with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Caravaca de la Cruz, has the privilege of perpetual indulgences.

For me I was looking for a place with a great view and monk-like calmness. It turned out to be a good call to visit and we were amply rewarded by beautiful views, singing birds and just a feeling of peace.

With all of these detours, a day of plenty of time to get to Burgos was starting to be stretched as we were having just too much fun. It was time to hit the road.

And what a road it would turn out to be. There was a lot of fog, which was a pity as we were not able to see the great panoramic views and the road were quite technical with a lot of quite narrow switchbacks. This is where I really enjoy the GSA as she loves these challenges and always responds in a five star way.

We arrived in Burgos and rode to our hotel that was bang in the center of the city right next to the cathedral. It was sureal to be in a room that one looked out of the window and saw the city's cathedral just there. We took a miriad of pictures to try to capture what we felt. It was amazing. The hotel was also very using and service and breakfast were very good. All at 75 Euros per night, it was a big difference from prices in France and other countries we had visited.

As we left the hotel for diner we noticed that something was going on, lots of people in the street and great festive atmosphere. It turned out we had arrived right in the middle of the city's homage to their patronage saints. I am sure in the past these festivals had a lot to do with religious reasons but now they are used for people to meet and have a great time. A great time we all had. Lots of music, great food and great company as Fernando (a colleague of mine) and his wife came to meet us for dinner. They are both from Burgos and there is nothing like having a local on your side. For dinner we had tapas very well "watered" down with local beer brew. Thanks Fernando for a great evening.

After dinner, we walked back to hotel. We really like the way that in most European cities the center of the town has been closed up for motor traffic, cafes are set up outside and people are walking with their families and/or friends just having a good time.

We stopped to see a very nice show being put together by a group called Anaconda. They played well known music, we're accompanied by lots of light and energy was all around. The most amazing thing was that their stage (including massive light show) was all at the back of a very large trailer that gets pulled around the country and literally in matter of hours this truck turns into a latest-technology mobile stage. Just amazing ...

By the time we got back to hotel I was beat and went to sleep quite fast. Paula told me the next morning that the fiesta continued until 3 in the morning. And this goes on every day for one week. Wow. No wonder they beat the world in soccer ...

 

Click HERE for all pictures for Day 10

 

Posted by Armando