Northern Spain Part 3 - Cangas de Onis to San Vicente de la Barquera

We left the campsite near Pamplona probably around 10:30am and started our journey back toward the coast. For the trip north I'd organised a ride up and around Cangas de Onis to visit the famous Roman bridge over the river Sella. I guess by now we were all a bit tired and jaded after the festival and lack of quality sleep. It was quite a challenge to park the bikes Lindsay and Peter couldn't find a place to park because the place was so packed, Lindsay being a tired bunny by now was 'grumbling' with frustration. I guess following two Harley-Davidsons was taking its toll in that heat so he decided to sit on his bike fold his arm, snooze and wait while myself and Mark had a quick walk across the bridge.

Now in the stunning region of Asturias the next part of the planned ride took us up the windy road to the incredible Covadonga to visit the Basilica de Santa Maria and look across to the tiny chapel built in to the cave within the hill itself: Cueva de Santa Maria. A fascinating place to visit but being on a schedule now to make it to our final night we skipped a tour of the Basilica and settled for a break sat in the main square outside.  

Eventually we made it to the main coastal road and our lunch stop was in Santillana del Mar a stunning medieval town that features as part of the pilgrims route on the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St James). Again a busy tourist destination and we parked up in a car park unsure if we would require a ticket and made our way near the Parador hotel. I'd heard about the government run Paradores before and quite fancied staying in one sometime, but this one did seem quite pricey given its touristy location. We settled on lunch and I had some wonderful Sardines Pimentos (Peppers and Olive Oil), definitely worth the stop.

Earlier en-route before heading back into the Picos we stopped in Bilbao and visited the world famous Guggenheim Museum. I'd planned a stop here but surprised to find there was now a David Hockney exhibition displaying many of his famous paintings. We paid our entrance fee to include the exhibition despite none of us being modern art buff's, but since Peter was the token Yorkshireman he could recognise some of the locations depicted. A most enjoyable hour or so wandering around. Speaking to my Uncle Dave before I left he explained how I must visit the Guggenheim if near Bilbao, and was fascinated when I called him up to explain about the Hockney exhibition.      

After wandering around in and outside the museum looking at other exhibits we made our way back along the main road to our bikes and continued our ride on. After stops in Cangas de Onis, Covadonga, and Santillana we found the Hotel de Ancla in Laredo. At some point on the trip I do recall stopping in the pretty coastal town of Saint Vincent de le Barquera an old fishing village with the Picos de Europa mountains as a backdrop recommended in the Toby Ballentine book mentioned earlier. Beautiful location I must return sometime, we enjoyed riding over the bridge/causeway looking at the boats stranded by the tide.

I do recall myself and Peter having our long awaited Seafood Paella and Lindsay settling on a Burger and Chips. I can't recall what Mark ate that night but eventually we headed back to the hotel for a few beers to celebrate. The proprietor was a short stout fellow with moustache who let us park our 'moto' in the garden area. We all agreed it had been a superb tour with the San Fermin being the real highlight along with those amazing roads in the Picos mountains. The bikes performed well and for the most part the navigation and pre-prep' paid off with few mishaps along the way with our group riding.  

The first time across the Bay of Biscay with our bikes and the Pont-Aven was superb with facilities almost like a mini-cruise ship although a bit crammed in the four berth cabin. The return was spent sleeping off the late nights and resting up. This final picture of Peter dozing off summed up how we were all feeling after our ten days away riding some great routes and having a lot of fun in the evenings!

Routes & Accomodation

All planned Routes can be found hosted on My-Route-App by clicking the folder link below:

• Routes: Northern Spain 2012

• Monday 2^nd July – 3 Nights Camping.

Camping Laviorna :

Carretera de Santo Toribio 

39570 Potes - Cantabria 

España Telf: 942 73 20 21 / 942 73 21 01

http://www.campinglaviorna.com/en_situacion.html

Latitude: 43.15443  Longitude: -4.64352

• Thursday 5^th July  – 1night Hotel, in Laguardia, Basque region.

Hotel Villa de Laguardia 

HOTEL

VILLA DE LAGUARDIA ****

Paseo de San Raimundo, 15

01300 Laguardia (Álava)

Tel. +34 945 600 560

Fax. +34 945 600 561

42.54858,-2.58123

Direct  Website:

http://www.hotelvilladelaguardia.com/en/index_en.html#

 

• Friday 6^th July to 7^th July (2 nights) Camping

Camping & Bungalows ETXARRI

Paraje Dambolintxulo, s/n

31820 - Etxarri-Aranatz

Navarra

ESPAÑA

42.91294,-2.07973

Tel.: +34 948460537

Fax.: +34 948461509

http://www.campingsonline.com/etxarri/index.asp

 

• Sunday 8^th July 1 Night Hotel, near Santona on the Cantabrian Coast

Hotel El Ancla, Laredo nr Santona

C/ Gonzalez Gallego, 10

Laredo (Cantabria) 39770

España

Tlf.: +34 942 605500

Fax: +34 942 611602

Email: ancla@hotelelancla.com

43.40892,-3.42424

Direct Website

http://www.hotelelancla.com/

Northern Spain Part 2 - Rioja, the Basque and Fiesta San Fermin

Our Spanish adventure now well and truly underway as the four of us started our ride south east toward Pamplona. We soon found ourselves riding some amazing scenery in this remote wild almost 'forgotten' Spanish countryside. We would ride for miles without seeing another vehicle on the smoothest of asphalt I'd ever ridden. By lunchtime we pulled into a 'truck stop' diner near a small village just on the outskirts of a trunk road. It was quite hot by now and I recall us being seated overlooking the valley. I ordered a plate of lamb stew with fries and have to say it was really tasty and filling. The local workers were drinking either wine or beer with their meal, were were very tempted too but settled on a cool coke instead, a much safer option, the heat was already making us quite drowsy as the afternoon warmed up above 30 degrees.

After lunch we rounded a large bend on a steep mountain pass along the NA-120 North and found a large cross. We pulled over to take a look at the view point Mirador Del Puerto De Lizzaraga and marvelled at the plateau below. We never did find out the significance of the cross only to assume it being a shrine or to signify the top of the pass. At one point Lindsay appeared to get on his knees and pray at the foot of the cross, but as it turned out was looking for a good photo shot!

Later, we arranged a photo shoot where I'd ride on a while and stop to take a pic of the other three riding along the plain and then we'd swap over to include me too. Good fun and I think our pics came out quite well and capture those long deserted roads. 

We came across a cafe on top of a hill and went inside to order cold drinks. All of the staff were gathered around the wall mounted TV and served us without paying us much attention. Their gaze fixed on the TV I assumed it was a football match when Mark suddenly pointed out it was the start of the San Fermin festival where we were heading all of the staff and customers were watching the festival start with a firework being launched from the balcony of Pamplona Town Hall. Below in the square a huge gathering of people all dressed in white with red scarves were chanting something we couldn't understand but the cafe staff were joining in so clearly an important part of the proceedings. We were quite excited by what we were witnessing since we couldn't get available accommodation in Pamplona I had decided to book us into a campsite in the region of Navarra near Etxarri-Arantz about 20km away from Pamplona and accessible by train. That night we stayed in the mediaeval walled town of Laguardia in the very nice Ville de Laguardia hotel. A last bit of luxury before our upcoming fiesta camping ordeal!

We made the campsite in good time, and managed to get a quiet pitch by some log cabins behind us. Mark had sorted his tent out quickly using an electric pump to inflate his bed, leaving us all to 'puff' and hyperventilate while inflating ours. We all settled for a a bit of a snooze in the afternoon - siesta style before we all headed off to find the railway station. Tonight we would sleep on the streets of Pamplona. The first bull run would be around 8am and apparently there is limited space to get a good view so the plan was to sleep there amongst the crowds. 

Peter treated us all to a huge sausage based evening meal and beers to start us off and we bought some San Fermin 2012 official t-shirts and the red scarf they were all wearing. This was great the atmosphere was electric and later while walking around at night we noticed the cobbles were sticky from the red wine being sprayed out of the hip pouches most were wearing. The scenes were chaotic as we started to party it up with alls sorts of nationalities including a few Australian lads who were going to take part in the bull run opting to get chased down the streets. For a while we contemplated it but I'd seen videos of the injuries and didn't fancy trying to ride my bike back to the UK after being trampled underfoot by a large bull. Later we found a spot each on the rampart overlooking the holding pens for the bull's ('El Torro') and settled down for the night. By now it was about 4am so we tried to get some sleep, dozing off intermittently on the hard floor. As we sobered up during the early hours of the morning it was quite cold and windy but the excitement was building as the crowds ready to run were gathering below us.

We were all amazed as Peter seemed wide awake and ready for the mornings events. Our very own 'El Torro'!  Waiting for the guy to open the gate and let the bulls loose there would be a chant:  "We ask Saint Fermin, as our Patron, to guide us through the encierro and give us his blessing" '. The guy on the gate kept rattling the latch to increase the tension as some of them started to run before realising it was a a ruse, but eventually he did open the gate and the bulls ran through the streets. The first part of the route offers no protection, no doorways and we saw a few people get flipped up and trampled with paramedics following behind - one guy did look quite badly injured.

After the bulls had passed and the crowds dispersed the giants and big head parade started. This was some spectacle and we watched in awe as people would block streets to watch with people displaying the Navarre flag from balconies above. Some time later feeling quite tired we headed back to the railway station to return back to the camp site and we crashed for the remaining afternoon. Thankfully our bikes were still where we left them but I can't recall what we did for the rest of the day but I do recall being awoken in the night by revellers in the cabins. It was all a blur after all of the excitement. 

What an amazing time, incredible celebrations and it happens every year with people travelling from all over the world to take part. Tomorrow we would travel back north west toward the coast.

Northern Spain part 1 - Into the Picos

During the previous Winter I had ear-marked a trip to visit the Harley-Davidson rally in Barcelona. Myself and Peter had a good trip a few years previously at the rally in Lugano, Switzerland so were keen to catch the ferry to Santander and ride down into Spain for the first time. While researching I stumbled across details for the famous San Fermin Festival (Bull run) in Pamplona and realised this would take place around the same time. While discussing at work Mark seemed interested in joining us on his Suzuki Bandit too so I changed our route options that meant we would forsake the rally for the festival instead. 

I created some .itn route files for my TomTom Rider with a daily itinerary to suit a good week riding visiting some sights I had read about. I booked a four berth cabin on the Brittany ferries for us aboard the Pont Aven leaving from Plymouth. Some time later Lindsay (from the Sunday Harley ride out crowd who didn't have a Harley!) tagged along to take up the remaining cabin so the four of us met up on the Sunday morning at Strensham services for the ride down and the overnight ferry crossing with Lindsay having to re-calibrate his TomTom Rider using the ships GPS system!

I was quite excited about this trip and spent hours researching good routes and creating route files mostly from books and other resources. The plan would be to camp in the Picos de Europa mountain range near the popular town of Potes for 3 nights then move on through Rioja for a hotel night in Laguardia, then camp again near to Pamplona and attempt to take part in the famous San Fermin festival watching the first of the early morning bull runs. Later we would move on up the coast taking in Cangas de Onis for our return after riding more of the Picos and a night stay on the coast. 10 day trip in total with 7 riding days in Spain.

The stay in Potes was excellent with some hot weather as we disembarked the ferry followed by a fantastic ride through the mountains before reaching the campsite. Potes is quite popular amongst the touring biker comunity and outside activities and popular for climbers with its proximity nestled within the Picos de Europa mountain range. Our campsite 'La Viorna' on the outskirts was probably the best campsite I've ever stayed at with a sublime view and excellent toilet and shower facilities.  I found the campsite recommended by Toby Ballentine in his excellent book; 'Motorcycle Journey's through Western Europe' and I do recall a very nice cafe too serving excellent Cafe con leche (coffee with warm milk).

After a night out in Potes drinking Asturias Cider the four of us went out for a circular route out in the mountains stopping at the Deer statue first and then riding out to the lake at Riano. My Harley-Davidson Dyna Low Rider was running well, with Peter riding his purple Dyna Sport, and Mark and Lindsay riding Suzuki Bandits 600 and 1200 respectively. Quite an odd mix of bikes but we seemed to be keeping together nicely. I do recall coming across a group of cattle in the middle of the road with us quite nervous a Spanish biker two up on a BMW GS made his way through the cattle by blipping his throttle. I watched with interest has the GS disappeared effortlessly into the mountains and I did think I'd like to take a GS out for a test ride at some point on my return. We really enjoyed riding in the Picos, the roads mostly clear of traffic, great fun riding through that valley gorge back into town.