Portugal and Spain - Celorica da Beira to Burgos

Day 23 - Sunday 19 May, Portugal and Spain - Celorica da Beira to Burgos

Sunday dawned sunny but cool and windy as Badger and I went down for Breakfast, after which I carried out a few emergency repairs on the Pan European with some red electrical tape; basically just taping over the indicator lense cracks and adding some tape to keep the mirror attached to the fairing. By about 9.30 we were on the road headed for Spain. Badger reckoned that we should aim to get to Salamanca by lunch time and then stay overnight at Valladolid - leaving a day's ride on Monday to get to Bilbao and then the ferry back to Portsmouth on Tuesday morning.

We basically just climbed out of the valley in which Celorica da Beira is situated and kept climbing - it was all very dramatic and very picturesque. The road swept dramatically round to the right just before it topped out and - for a few moments - we had an amazing panoramic view of Celorica. We seemed to have left the sunshine behind in Celorica as the skies clouded over but it still made for reasonably pleasant riding conditions. We must have been crossing quite a high region, the road rolled up and down and we crossed a dramatic gorge on what looked like a smaller version of the Millau bridge but there was no obvious major descent. It took about 45 minutes of fairly relaxed riding to reach the Spanish border.

Not long after we had crossed into Spain the road became a motorway - the Autovia de Castilla, which was the only practical route to Valladolid. I don't know if it was the weather or end of holiday blues, but Sunday's ride felt more than a little melancholic. By late morning we were both ready for a coffee break so we got off the motorway at Cuidad Rodrigo and went into the town in search of a cafe. This proved to be a good choice as Cuidad Rodrigo has a beautiful and historic centre with a castle, cathedral and city walls. We found a place to park just outside the cathedral and a cafe that was showing the Moto GP as we enjoyed our coffee and cakes. Badger and I were half inclined to hang around to watch all the races, but we still had quite a few miles still to do.

Cuidad de Rodrigo

After filling up we got back on the motorway and decided to head for Salamanca for lunch. The ride was uneventful, the traffic was pretty light and we took the opportunity to get some fast miles in. At about one o'clock we went into Salamanca and headed for the station to find a lunch-stop. We spent about 20 minutes or so looking for somewhere but nothing was forthcoming and Badger was distinctly underwhelmed by the station. In the end we decided just to get back onto the motorway and stop at the next services. These turned out to be quite a few miles down the road but we eventually found a reasonable truck-stop place and were able to catch the last few laps of the Moto GP whilst eating a very reasonably priced lunch.

Once the GP had finished we got back on to the motorway and pressed on. We got to Valladolid long before 4pm and decided to just keep going. I suggested that we try to get as far as Burgos so that we had a easy morning's ride to Bilbao on Monday, allowing me an afternoon to catch up with the blog and Badger was happy to go along with this. By about 4.30 the skies in the distance were getting very dark and threatening and we could see a heavy rain storm heading our way fast. We were riding without waterproofs and had just passed a service station a few miles back - we ended up in a race to find another service station before we got soaked. We eventually found a garage but not before it had started raining - luckily it was only light so we were only a little damp. We filled up the bikes and had a quick coffee before donning some warm gear and our waterproofs then setting off.

The rain storm turned out to be heavy but brief - the worst was over in about 30 minutes. The Pan European did an excellent job of keeping the worst of the weather off and I was very grateful for the heated grips although the left-hand side wasn't working properly they still did a good job - my cheapo Aldi boots worked too. The rest of the journey to Burgos was a bit of a drag - it was cold, damp and a bit miserable. I was very pleased to arrive at Burgos by about 6.30. We got a bit lost going into the town but were soon heading into the historic centre.

The place seemed to have pretty much closed for the evening and we couldn't find anything that looked decent but cheap in the centre so we drove around for about 10 minutes or so before finding a 2 star place that had some parking bays reasonably close. To be honest I was a bit disappointed by Burgos - I'd only been there once before and had had an excellent evening, but that had been in summer when the town had been en fete and very lively. Our room was fine however and we found a bar that did grub just down the street - it felt like very pub-like and quite cosy. We both felt a lot better once we got on the outside of some pasta and a couple of pints of local beer. We turned in pretty early, we were both tired after the day's ride and wanted to get up early to avoid any hassle over where we had parked the bikes.

Day Summary

Day -	23
Miles Covered in Day	260 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3900 approx.