Portsmouth to Portugal 2: 15 September
I got up at 6:45am UK time (after a very good sleep) to find some coffee, then we headed on deck to watch Santander arrive simultaneously with the sunrise.
Parked at the front of the motorbike section on the car deck, I made a swift getaway by merging with the exiting cars rather than waiting our turn. Howard got yelled at when he tried to follow, but I made it triumphantly out into the Spanish morning.
Our first stop after disembarkation was Santander's funicular, because I love funiculars. Stop 2 was a nearby café where we had coffee and a wedge of ham and cheese omelette.
We were headed for the Picos de Europa mountains, a playground for bikers. Soon after leaving the motorway we found the tail end of a long queue of traffic. Filtering to the head of it, we found a herd of cows being driven up the Main Street of a little town for a festival.
This was a little hairy, with breakaway cows diving into gardens and side streets, mothers out to protect their calves, bulls trying to get their ends away and lots of brown slippery stuff on the road, but we made it through unscathed.
After that it was miles of pure delight, climbing through bend after bend to ever more spectacular mountain views, stopping at the top for photos then down past a wide blue lake, waving to other bikers and watching birds of prey on the thermals. A final stretch of motorway brought us to our hotel in Astorga, with a view of the cathedral.
Miles: 209.8
Parked at the front of the motorbike section on the car deck, I made a swift getaway by merging with the exiting cars rather than waiting our turn. Howard got yelled at when he tried to follow, but I made it triumphantly out into the Spanish morning.
Our first stop after disembarkation was Santander's funicular, because I love funiculars. Stop 2 was a nearby café where we had coffee and a wedge of ham and cheese omelette.
We were headed for the Picos de Europa mountains, a playground for bikers. Soon after leaving the motorway we found the tail end of a long queue of traffic. Filtering to the head of it, we found a herd of cows being driven up the Main Street of a little town for a festival.
This was a little hairy, with breakaway cows diving into gardens and side streets, mothers out to protect their calves, bulls trying to get their ends away and lots of brown slippery stuff on the road, but we made it through unscathed.
After that it was miles of pure delight, climbing through bend after bend to ever more spectacular mountain views, stopping at the top for photos then down past a wide blue lake, waving to other bikers and watching birds of prey on the thermals. A final stretch of motorway brought us to our hotel in Astorga, with a view of the cathedral.
Miles: 209.8
