No Clue Between Them

 We left Ponferrada this morning to cover the 80 miles to Chaves. We travelled through empty roads with sweeping bends up and down the hills. The scenery was spectacular in the  fine weather On reaching Chaves we did our customary tour of the centre to find a parking space and amuse the elderly gentlemen who frequent the squares and cafes.  The apartments are beside the river in an idyllic setting. Ross and I did a walking exploration of the old town. Along with an old castle there were some old motos.  On to Porto tomorrow.

 

 Holed up in Ponferrada in a lovely Air BNB curtesy of Colin's "Genius" status.   The plan is avoidance of bad weather at the minute and to head into Portugal along the Douro Valley tomorrow at Chaves then onwards to Porto for two nights hopefully avoiding some rather nasty weather that is in the offing. Ponferrada has undergone a transformation from industry to tourism over the the last 40 years and is quite small, in the centre but perfectly pleasant, a fortnight here might be a bit of a drag though.  Today has been a down day with no motorcycling and some sightseeing my personal preference was to visit the radio museum whilst the others ventured to the castle and managed to get lost or something. Thereafter we had some lunch in the centre involving beer and then a much needed sleep. Hoping the weather holds although the end of the week may be a little challenging, looking at previous blogs we seem to travel at the wrong time!

 We had a pleasant crossing to Santander in the Pont Aven. It took nearly 24 hours. It seems they have slowed the ship to burn less fuel. This allows more beer to be taken. Anyway, the motorbikes were first onto the boat and last off so as the front of the boat opened ready to disgorge the peloton of bikes into the Spanish sunshine, we were very disappointed  to be met with rain, particularly those wearing mesh jackets (Ross) and those who had removed their inners from their outers and packed away their fleece (Morna). Some adjustments were made and we headed up the road to Arenas de Calabres where we are staying in the Picos de Europa hotel. We came through a nice road which led through a deep gorge with some friendly bends. Now we remember why we came here. And there is even some blue sky

 M and R set off from Bristol, where we had been overnight and who did we find on the M5 but C and M on the spiffy new motorbike. It was sporting a brand new set of tyres due to a nail incident the previous day. Colin was also sporting his new suit, thanks to his mum. We were in good time for the ferry and have now installed ourselves in the bar with some beer…what can’t it fix.

 We are looking forward to returning to Spain on the motorbikes, where out travel adventures started in 2010. There will be 2 Beemers this time.