Spain - Montalban to Heliin

Day 11 - Tuesday 7 May, Montelban to Hellin

We stuck to our usual ritual, up at 7am, breakfast at 8am and off at 9am. It was another hot Spanish day. Badger and Eddy were navigating and we were staying on fast A-roads so I didn't pay a huge amount of attention as to where we were headed, I just let them get on with it. When I was leading, I simply asked them to point me in the right direction and headed on off. As with the previous day, the riding was great fun, the road surfaces were good, the drivers considerate to bikers and the bends well sign-posted; Eddy reckoned that a good rule of thumb was to ride round the bends at the speed indicated by the signs - only at mph rather then kph on the signs, it seemed to work pretty well.

We stopped for coffee about 11am at a place called Teruel, which seemed a rather affluent little place. I nearly came a cropper in the cafe when paying the bill, I missed a step and nearly went over, I only just managed to stay on my feet. Imagine a drunken elephant on roller-skates- you'll get the general idea. I've no idea what the locals made of it all. However - apart from my pride - all was well.

Elevenses at Teruel

In an effort to get some serious miles in we decided to only have a picnic lunch and popped into Requena to but bread, cheese, ham and drinks, which we ate at the roadside outside town.

Roadside Picnic

After lunch we pressed on headed roughly towards Albacete. By about 6pm we had gotten as far as Hellin and decided to stay the night there. We were all pretty hot and tired and getting a bit fed up as we driove around looking for a decent hotel. Eddy had asked some locals who had said there was a place around the corner, we however chose to go to find the tourist office and after a frustrating, unsuccessful and very hot 40 minutes drove back to where the locals said and found a basic and very cheap hotel. We decided to go for separate rooms, Eddy and Badger got quiet rooms round the back, but I ended up facing the very noisy road.

Outside the Hotel in Hellin

After showering and changing we went out for supper and a wander round Hellin. We ended up at a restaurant on the main shopping street - we hadn't got into the Tapas habit and it was not easy to find somewhere that was serving food early. The locals only started to appear for supper as we headed for bed. This was our last night with Eddy as he was headed home in the morning whilst Badger and I were headed towards Granada and an appointment with a Triumph dealer to get his fork seals changed and charging circuit tested. We had a farewell toast then headed back to the hotel past the bullring, which looked like it had seen better days.

Day Summary

Day	11
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	1900 approx.

Spain - Lleida to Montalban

Day 10 - Monday 6 May, Lleida to Montelban

Eddy and I again had time for a leisurely breakfast. The staff in the station buffet, which doubled as the hotel restaurant were used to our needs by now and served us 2 croissants each with butter and jam as wel as the usual cafe con leche and zumo de naranja without us having to ask. By the time we finished breakfast we had received word from Badger - he had bought and fitted a new battery and purchased fork seals that were to be replaced by the Triumph dealer in Granada. He had not however had his charging circuit checked out so we were more than a bit concerned about his making it out to Lleida. We advised the hotel that we were checking out, and also that there was a chance we might have to stay another night and need another room for Badger.

I got my gear ready and went out to look for earphones for my ipod and a tubi-grip bandage for my still-sore left arm. I found an Asian store selling selling cheapo ear-phones and a farmacia, however I had to go to another type of store an orthopedia or something similar. A very helpful lass in the Farmacia pointed me in the right direction, but walking around in motorcycle boots as the day started to warm up was not my idea of fun so I gave up. In fact the whole trip out was a waste of time, when I unpacked that evening I discovered I had packed my mobile phone earphones and also that there was nothing wrong with my ipod earphones - I had forgotten they had their own volume control, which simply slid down to the Off position - DOH! Anyway by the time I got back to the hotel Badger had arrived and it was time for a quick coffee, a catch-up and off again.

Once we had cleared Lleida went headed off towards Fraga on an N road. Once in the countryside the going was very easy; little traffic on the roads, a willingness to move over for motorbikes and good road surfaces made for fast going. Badger and Eddy, as ever, were getting excited over old mine workings and seemingly abandonned industrial buildings. I was quite happy just letting the world go past and concentrating on the next bend. We stopped for a snack at about 2pm at a sports bar in Caspe it was pretty hot by then about 30 degrees. We also stopped for an ice-cream in Alcaniz about 4pm

We ended the day at a hotel by a roundabout somewhere near Montalban. It was an excellent location and pretty cheap so for the first time on the trip we all got separate rooms. The place was very quiet, clean and comfortable and we all took the chance to catch up on our washing. We ate in the hotel restaurant - we were the only diners, I guess the financial crisis has hit tourism pretty hard. We met a spanish guy who worked for Nissan and travelled regularly to Washington (Tyne & Wear not CD), but he only stopped for a coffee and a snack then headed off. The food was a bit disappointing, but this was made up for by the cool and very quiet bedrooms. After dinner we headed off for an early night as it had been a pretty hot tiring day.

Hotel Near Montalban

Day Summary

Day	10
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	1700 approx.

Spain - Lleida

Day 9 - Sunday 5 May, Lleida

We had a leisurely start for once as Badger had to ride from Lloret de Mar and wasn't scheduled to rendezvous with us until about lunch-time. Eddy was receiving a steady stream of texts as Badger set off. His battery was flat so his rugby team had to bump-start him to get going. He got as far as Barcelona by midday, needing directions he got off the bike and left it running, when he returned, it had stalled and he was stuck in Barcelona. Unfortunately for him it was a Sunday so everything was shut. I don't know if it was the heat or just frustration, but we couldn't reach a joint decision as to what he should do. Eddy and I quickly decided to extend our stay in Lleida, but Badger was unsure as to whether he should try to get a bump start and head out to us or stay in Barcelona or even leave the bike in Barcelona and come out to Lleida by train and return there on Monday morning.

Eventually it was decided that he would stay with the bike in Barcelona as there are a couple of Triumph dealers there. He called out his bike recovery service and after an hour a chap turned up, but Badger couldn't explain what he wanted him to do, which was to check if the bike charging circuit was working. After much pointless gesturing the spanish recovery guy simply jump-started the bike and Badger had to decide what he was going to do. At that point he didn't know the location of ther nearest dealer and hadn't decided upon a course of action. In the end he found a hotel, left the bike there and spent the afternoon on a guided bus tour of Barcelona.

Back in Lleida Eddy went off for a walk round the city, while I caught my my email and the blog. Eddy walked up to the castle, which offered panoramic views of the city. He particularly liked the curvy lines of the railway station, which were only really apparent from above - someone carried out a very clever modernisation, which kept the best of the old but added sensitive new features. In the evening we decided to go out for a wander round looking for a tapas bar or two. We wandered through the town centre and main square then crossed the river and ambled into the local park. Despite the fact that it was May the "Feria de Abril" was in progress - a sort of cross between a fairground and a county show. We wandered between stalls sampling tapas and local beers and generally had a fun time watching the Flamenco dancers - every food tent had a raised stage and there was a constant stream of ladies young and old doing their gypsy thing. We went for a finak drink in a cafe in and got talking about music and ended up back at the hotel room watching different guitarists on youtube.

Trivia for the Day

• Spade Lugs - Eddy spotted an ancient tractor that was on permanent display in the Park. He informed me that the metal spike-type things providing traction on the wheels are called Spade Lugs
• Flamenco - every country seems to ascribe a different - and wroing - country of origin for Gypsies. In the UK we think they come from Egypt, which yields the word Gypsy. In Spain they thought that they orginated in Belgium i.e. they were Flemings - hence Flamenco.
  FYI Gypsies are believed to come from India - Roma has nothing to do with Romania, it's related to the Sanskrit word for a man.

The River in Speight

Sunday Evening in the Park

The Latest in Tractor Technology?

A Food Tent at the Feria

Lleida at Night

Day Summary

Day	9
Miles Covered in Day	0
Miles Covered in Trip	1500 approx.

France, Andorra & Spain - Carassonne to Lleida

Day 8 - Saturday 4 May, Carcassonne to Lleida

I didn't get the best night's sleep due to traffic noise and when I opened the curtains I realised that Carcassonne market was being assembled right in front of my room. I got up pretty early and met with Eddy for breakfast. It was a good job that we did get down early as the restaurant filled up very quickly. Breakfast was excellent and suitably refreshed, we loaded up the bikes and got ready to head for the Pyrenees.

Carcassonne Market

We got out of Carcassonne easily enough and headed for Andorra. The weather was initially a little unsettled - it alternated between dull and sunny spells and there was a threat of rain in the air. Luckily the rain never materialised and we blasted through the countryside on fairly quiet roads towards the Pyrenees for a couple of hours or so. At first they just look like a bunch of hills on the horizon but as we got closer they started to rise up and dominate the landscape. We were eventually forced to pick up the motorway a little north of Foix and headed into the town for coffee about 11am. The town which has a magnificent chateau was busy with market day shoppers and traffic, we found a table at a cafe and discussed our route. Eddy suggested that we cross the Pyrenees via Andorra and then it was about 2 hours to Lleida, where Badger was scheduled to rejoin on Sunday morning.

Chateau de Foix

Foix

After coffee we got back onto the motorway, which soon turned into a single carriage-way road. The sun came out and the road got more interesting following steep-side valleys and climbing all the time. I went through places like Ax-les-Thermes, which I'd only seen on the Tour de France coverage. Eddy and I had picked up our pace and were zooming along overtaking cars and trucks. We then turned right for Andorra and the roads really began to climb. I led the way and as I was starting to get more confident started to give the Pan plenty of gas and Eddy had to start to work hard to keep up. We were soon up past the snow lines and the temperature started to drop quite rapidly - thank goodness for heated grips!. After about 30 minutes of serious climbing we were in the queue for the Andorra frontier crossing. It took quite a while to get through, but eventually we were waived through without checking our passports.

My first impression of Andorra was not a good one - it looked like someone had dumped some aluminium warehouse onto the top of a mountain. I should have taken some pictures at the top of the Pyrenees following out testosterone-fueled ascent, but opted for a quick swig of water and day-old croissant from Eddy's top-box. There were loads of 50 kph speed restrictions in place so we just dropped gently down through to Andorra la Veille stopping only for fuel, which was about €1.40 per litre as opposed to €1.60 plus in France. We seemed to be descending for ages but at last the Spanish frontier appeared and we whizzed into Spain.

It was nice to be able to get a bit of a wiggle on again and it was much hotter once we got off the mountains. Eddy spotted a road-side cafe outside La Seu d'Urgell so we stopped for lunch. €12 for a 4-course lunch - excellent! It must have been good as the local police were dining there! Much to my obvious disappointment Eddy suggested that we skip coffee and postres - so off we went again. Eddy wanted to get at least as far as Balaguer to stop for the night so that we only had a little way to get to Lleida to meet up with Badger on Sunday morning.

The ride down to Balaguer was very dramatic. The road seemed to follow huge gorges containing rapid flowing rivers, we spotted white-water rafting going on a lot. They seemed to empty out into huge lakes surrounded by mountains. The road tended to follow these river valleys and frequently followed tunnels cut out of the mountains followed by viaducts. Whilst it was very hot, there was a strong cross-wind, which coupled with the scenary, tight bends and high-speeds made for an exciting afternoon. Eddy led most of the way through this section.

After an hour or so we cleard this landscape and moved on to a flatter, more fertile area. I pressed on at the front and we were zooming along on virtually empty roads at over 90mph - great fun. In my exuberance I drove straight through Balaguer, which didn't look that appealing anyway and we pressed on to Lleida. We got there just after 4pm and tried to get into the old part of the city, but weren't allowed to because of a demo - we could hear the drums banging and saw loads of people streaming into the town centre. We got diverted south across the river, which must have been fed by the melt waters of the Pyrenees as it was very full indeed.

By now it was swelteringly hot so we stopped as the first bar and had a cold drink then headed back towards the town centre in the hope that the demo had finished crossing town by then. There seemed to be no vehicular access to the town centre so I stayed with the bikes while Eddy reconnoitered on foot. He had no luck in finding a tourist office so we just followed the traffic and ended up in a side street. I tried my broken Spanish on a local, who took me to the local Indian shop, who in turn suggested there was a hotel round the corner. So off we went and came upon the rather lovely train station, part of which was the Catalonia Transit hotel. We were able to get a decent room for about €30 each per night.

Lleida Station and Catalonia Transit Hotel

We had definitely fallen on our feet. The hotel was basically just a section of the station that had been given over to the hotel. Our room looked onto the platforms - but was totally quiet and mercifully cool. We unloaded the bikes and left them in a bike park a few yards from the hotel. Unlike France where you can leave a motorbike pretty much anywhere Spain seemed a bit more restrictive - you had to use a proper bike bay and couldn't just leave it on the pavement. The rather pretty hotel receptionist spoke decent English and was very helpful - we even managed to get a smile out of her. Once we had unloaded our gear, it was time for a quick shower and change of clothes then off to explore Lleida.

I had never heard of Lleida, but it's both a province of Catalonia and a major town. We went for a walk through the town centre just as the entire town was out promenading on a Saturday evening. The town is overlooked by a major castle and the town centre looks to have been tastefully modernised. The centre is totally pedrianised and is one huge shopping arcade, filled with lots of local shops as well as many of the global outfits. The demo we had seen as we entered the town was in fact a Catalonian Independence demo that finished with an open-air concert in the main square. We watched for a few minutes, everyone was draped in Catalonian flags and very excited. We then walked for about 20 minutes until we found a nice bar and had a few beers. The atmosphere was great, the entire town seemed to be out being seen and chatting to friends. We walked back the way we had come and people were starting to thin out a bit, but the concert was still in full flow, a pretty good band had replaced the acoustic singer/guitarist. Everyone eats late in Spain and not wanting to try a Tapas bar we headed back to the station and had a meal in the cafe, which doubled as the hotel restaurant.

The Castle at Lleida

Drummers in the Town Centre

Catalonian Independence Concert

Concert Crowd

Day Summary

Day	8
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	1500 approx.

France - Montpelier to Carcassonne

Day 7 - Friday 3 May, Montpelier to Carcassonne

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day when we woke up in Montpelier. Sid and Lottie laid on a lovely continental breakfast, to which we did more than ample justice. Then it was time to get the bike gear back on, pose for photos with Sid and Lottie, thank them for their hospitality and set off again.

Sid and Lottie with Badger and Eddy

Badger was heading off to meet up with his rugby club - Cuffley - on tour in Lloret de Mar, which Eddy and I had decided to pass on. Instead we were going to Carcassonne then meeting up with Badger in Lleida on Sunday. We headed down the costal route to Sète avoiding the motorway, but we couldn't avoid the wind - a really stiff breeze was blowing onto the sea and we were leant over to stay straight. At a roundabout I asked Eddy if he had a tip for this situation. "Hold on really tight to the bars" was his reply.

At Sète we turned inland towards Béziers onto really tight little roads with tiny roundabouts every kilometre or so. The traffic was really heavy and progress, even on the bikes, was frustratingly slow. Just as we got onto decent roads on the outskirts of Béziers, Eddy and Badger spotted a nice little canal-side cafe so we stopped for a couple and route-planning session before we went out separated ways.

Badger Planning his Route to Lloret de Mar

Posing with the Bike before Parting at Béziers

After coffee, ice lollies and much discussion Badger set off for Spain, whilst Eddy and I headed west for Carcassonne, which I've never been to, but always wanted to see. The quality of the roads was definitely getting better as we headed up into the hills and vineyards around St Chinion. Eddy and I found a rather nice truck stop place for lunch. After lunch we soon found ourselves high up in the Parc Naturel Regional de Haute Languedoc headed for Castres before turning left for Carcassonne.

We were soon very much on our own in the mountains. The roads got gradually narrower and twistier as we climbed up bend after bend. I wouldn't have liked to have had an accident there as you might wait a long time for help to come by and I doubt whether you would have got a mobile signal. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only 40 minutes we finally started descending heavily forested slopes. The air was definitely a lot cooler up here and the roads were wet from a recent cloud burst that we must have just missed. The beech trees were in full blossom and the rain had covered the roads in a fine layer of beech-mast, which we kept a very careful eye on as it can turn the road surface into a slippery might-mare. In the event the descent was incident-free but very demanding. Really steep slopes culminating in tight 1st gear bends that required plenty of braking. Fortunately there was virtually zero traffic on the roads so we could use the full width of the road, but even so it was really had work and we stopped at the first town we came into for a rest.

Once we got down off the mountains, the ride into Carcassonne was a breeze. Finding the Tourist Office and a hotel was not however and we were starting to get more than a bit hot and bothered before we found a very modern Ibis, at least they had free secure parking for the bikes. This turned out to be a less than inspired choice - the hotel was on the market square and very noisy. After a shower and change we headed across the bridge into the much quieter old town and climbed up to the medieval town. This was amazing - but very popular. The medieval walls and streets have been incredibly preserved but the whole place is given over to tourism. It felt very similar to Rhodes both in scale and atmosphere. to

I was on strict instructions from Claire to "take lots of pictures" so I did. You can see all the pictures from this trip on my facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/mike.dennison.716. We had a very refreshing beer at a bar and then had a decent cassoulet at a tourist restaurant then back for a reasonably early night - Andorra and Spain tomorrow!

Carcassonne Old Town

Day Summary

Day	7
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	1300 approx.

France - Brive-la-Gaillarde to Montpelier

Day 6 - Thursday 2 May, Brive-la-Gaillarde to Montpelier

When we got up in Brive, the beautiful weather had disappeared and the rain had come back. After an excellent breakfast we loaded up the bikes. Badger was relieved to see that his throw-over panniers were still on the bike. We put on our wet-weather gear, posed for a group photo then set off again heading for Figeac. It stopped raining but the roads were still damp so we took our time getting into Figeac. By the time we arrived the sun had come out so we stopped for a coffee and took off our waterproofs.

Badger Ready for the Off in Brive

Team Photo in Brive

Coffee Stop at Figeac

We went to Rodez for lunch, which was just a quick sandwich and headed off for Millau, which I was particularly keen to get to as I'd cycled up a huge climb there in 1993 and I wanted to do it again on the Pan, I also wanted to see the magnificent new Pont de Millau. I set off in the lead for a change, spotted a sign for Millau and charged off at high speed. Unfortunately in my exuberance I had picked the right road, but the wrong direction and we ended up on the motorway heading for the new bridge. We pulled into a picnic area and made a new French friend - a retired motorcycle, who'd come from the Isle de Re, where he'd experienced huge hail storms. I was more than a little hesitant when we set off as I plain don't like heights and the sightings we'd have of the bridge had done little to inspire confidence. I warned Eddy and Badger that they might have to wait for me to cross in my own time. I'd done the Forth Road Bridge years ago, got into a panic when I saw the water below in the gap between the carriageways and screamed off the bridge at 100 mph. In the event the crossing was fine, some clever Spanish engineer had foreseen the issue and had designed the sides of the bridge to prevent views from crossing vehicles.

A few miles after the bridge we turned off the motorway onto a backroad which started off as a bumpy, twisty, tight lane crossing some very scrubby heath land but turned into a series of up and down s-bends that had us doing some very serious bend scratching. To be honest I was amazed that I could keep up with Badger and Eddy, but I more or less managed it. Apparently I was braking far too much - I should have been letting the front wheel scrub off speed in the corners, but I was still adapting to Eddy's recommendations and a quick dab on the brakes made me feel much more confortable. We ended up in Ganges on the banks of the Herault, where we stopped for a quick ice-cream before the final thrash into Montpelier. Badger had texted his mate Sid who arranged to meet us on a roundabout as we entered Montpelier. Fortune smiled on us and Sid arrived at the roundabout at exactly the same time as us. We followed him back to his house.

Sid and his wife Lottie welcomed us with Cold Beers and spicy olives and after a quick change of gear, we went out for a meal in Montpelier. The restaurant turned out to be an excellant choice and several bottles of wine and a good steak later we headed back to Sid's. Badger and Sid caught up on their respective news over a couple of post-prandial drinks and then time for a reasonably early night.

Day Summary

Day	6
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	1100 approx.

France - Thouars to Brive-la-Gaillarde

Day 5 - Thouars to Brive-la-Gaillarde

I woke up when it was still dark and it looked like it had stopped raining overnight, but the sound of rain hammering onto the windows soon put paid to that hope. We got up at 7am, breakfasted at 8am and were under way by 9.30.am. We were hoping to call in to a Le Clerc store to get some new ear-phones for my iPod - mine were broken - and a tubiflex bandage to support my left elbow. We rode off to our previous night's destination - Parthenay and found a huge Le Clerc - it was closed apart from the filling station, which was automatic. I asked a van driver if the town was en-fete and he looked at me as if I was stupid, which I was. It was the 1st of May - a national holiday and virtually everything in France was shut for the day.

Having given up on the Le Clerc idea we pressed on to get some miles in. The rain gradually eased off and by 11.30 it was bright and sunny. I tried out riding in my cheapo Aldi summer gloves using the heated grips and it worked really well, well done for the tip Eddy! I also tried out his advice on keeping the bike in its power band for corners and the difference it made was incredible. The bike just felt rock-steady and you could feel the tyres working, gripping the road. No wonder other bikers zoomed past me on corners. I'd been handicapping myself seriously. The only down-side was saying goodbye to 50 mpg, I was lucky to see 40-45mpg, still I could do at least 200 miles on a tank of gas.

We stopped for a coffee in a sports bar in some little place in or near Confelons and took off our wet weather gear. Apart from the cafe, the only things open were a couple of Patisseries, so we bought some pastries and a couple of apples for lunch as it seemed unlikely we would find somewhere open for lunch on May Day. We rode on for a few miles and stopped to eat in a little village where the entire population was ensconced in the local bar for a celebration lunch. France and its roads were deserted.

The first few miles after lunch were on long straight contry roads that just rolled up and down. Badger found an unclassified road and we found ourselves on a very bumpy road with no white lines. It was fun but slowed us down a bit so we got back onto the main road somewhere around St Junien and came into Brive on a very fast and windy road that went through Objat. It felt like we were in the Dordogne - fast flowing rivers with dramatic chateuax perched above them.

By the time we got to Brive it after 4pm and it felt like we had finally shaken off the northern weather, the sun was shining and everyone was clad in summer clothes, whilst we sweltered in our bike gear. Eddy managed to locate the tourist office and we got rooms in a modern-ish 3 star place overlooking the market square, where we left the bikes overnight. We got changed and headed off to find a bar, luckily for us there was a modern sports bar / restaurant just round the corner. We had a couple of celebratory wheat beers and set off to explore Brive and find a decent restaurant. Badger wanted to check out the local railway station architecture. Claire and I had taken the car on an overnight sleeper from Calais when the girls were small and all I could remember was a pretty non-descript platform, so more in hope than expectation we set off up the hill to the station, which was - of course - rather impressive, if you are into railway stations, which Badger is. We had a wander round the station and platforms, a quick beer then off to find an eating place.

The Bikes in Brive Market Square

The lighthouse-like building is the tourist office, seems to be a theme in France. The hotel on the left is the Quercy where we were staying.

A Very Impressive Library in the Square

A Happy Badger at the Station

To put it simply Brive was closed for the day. Apart from a few kebab shops and an Indian the only other restaurant open was a very haute-bourgeois hotel restaurant, who probably would not have let us in anyway. So back to the sports bar. The food was OK and filled a gap, but so far we were 0 for 2 in the food stakes. It didn't help that I ordered Fegatini and instead of the beautiful spicy chicken livers I was expecting ended up with some fairly bland pasta. I guess it serves me right for ordering Italian in France. So time for bed.

Day Summary

Day	5
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	900 approx.

Health

Pretty much the same as the preious day - all fine except my left elbow and neck. Although strangely my elbow felt better as the day progressed, perhaps the sun helped.