Portsmouth to Portugal 13: 26 September
The castle won the prize for most varieties of cake offered at breakfast (some of them were wrapped, and made their way into my pocket for later).
It was still blowing a gale, but there was a rooftop pool and by golly I wasn't going to miss my chance to swim on top of a castle. It was a small pool, but I had the whole rooftop to myself for some reason...
The rain set in as we set off, and persisted all morning. To add to the fun, I dropped my bike turning it round on a patch of gravel after we took a wrong turn, and it took the two of us to pick it up. We stopped for coffee and a cheese sandwich, and to dry out, at a roadside bar full of locals in their work clothes. When we emerged, the sky was blue and things felt better.
We switched to the motorway as we had a lot of miles to travel - still scenic, carving through the corner of the Picos and passing through rocky tunnels. Shortly before 6pm we arrived in Bilbao and lucked into a motorcycle bay two minutes’ walk from our basic but central hotel.
Soon afterwards we were heading out on foot for an evening of pintxos, little tapas-like dishes, mostly on bread: cheese, olives with anchovies, fish croquettes and chunks of pork with crackling. I love snacks and grazing, and could happily live off this sort of thing.
Miles: 218.5
It was still blowing a gale, but there was a rooftop pool and by golly I wasn't going to miss my chance to swim on top of a castle. It was a small pool, but I had the whole rooftop to myself for some reason...
The rain set in as we set off, and persisted all morning. To add to the fun, I dropped my bike turning it round on a patch of gravel after we took a wrong turn, and it took the two of us to pick it up. We stopped for coffee and a cheese sandwich, and to dry out, at a roadside bar full of locals in their work clothes. When we emerged, the sky was blue and things felt better.
We switched to the motorway as we had a lot of miles to travel - still scenic, carving through the corner of the Picos and passing through rocky tunnels. Shortly before 6pm we arrived in Bilbao and lucked into a motorcycle bay two minutes’ walk from our basic but central hotel.
Soon afterwards we were heading out on foot for an evening of pintxos, little tapas-like dishes, mostly on bread: cheese, olives with anchovies, fish croquettes and chunks of pork with crackling. I love snacks and grazing, and could happily live off this sort of thing.
Miles: 218.5