Index | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | References
Day 1
The disembarking procedure was the reverse of the previous day but a little more of a scramble.
Getting ready for the off!
Once off the ferry we stopped to check luggage fastenings and remounted and rode out of the dock gates. The best analogy I can muster for a description of downtown Santander when the ferry arrives is 'London rush hour traffic on the wrong side of the road' - fortunately it does not take long to clear the city and from there on you are in suburbia with the traffic gradually petering out.
Navigation was by GPS, a Garmin GPS III+ and
the Garmin MapSource program on which I had spent many an hour planning
the route. It served us well and on the few times we made a wrong turn
we either retraced our route or carried on and took the next turn to get back on
track. In 1200 miles of unknown territory we took less than half a dozen wrong
turns - mostly due to operator error!
We rode down the N623 towards Burgos which had a good surface and some pleasant and undemanding bends as it wound up through Cantabria. As we stopped to make ourselves more comfortable (your bladder shrinks as you get older) we were able to let a stranded English van driver use my mobile phone to summon assistance to rescue his broken hired van - we were able to give the recovery company the precise latitude and longitude, which of course was meaningless to them!
Day 1
Just after the Embalse Del Ebro (Ebro reservoir) [so big it looks as if you have taken a wrong turn and ended up on the Atlantic coast] we hung a left onto the N232 towards Logrono. Admitted they are currently resurfacing this (I know - I still have the bits of tarmac stuck to my wheel rims) but out of all the roads in Spain this had the worst surface, undulating sufficiently to make the ride on the Honda very uncomfortable - the Triumph was better at soaking up the bumps and made faster progress (obviously built with English roads in mind!!).
N232
However, there were some excellent bends on this stretch although the surface demands a little caution.
After crossing the Ebro through a magnificent gorge and once well into Castilla-Leon the road was well surfaced and very fast with virtually no traffic at all.
Then came Logrono - busy, dusty and much construction work - not at all enjoyable. Our first wrong turn came here has we took the NA134 instead of the N111, however this was left 8 miles further on and we travelled northwards on a road unknown to M$ Autoroute to rejoin the N111. It was along the NA134 that we found another hazard unlisted in the guides - a 4ft snake crossing the road!
Once well out of Logrono we started to look for an hotel. I already had researched this and, through the Internet, had found the Hotel Irache near Estella but was unimpressed by its appearance so was holding it in reserve in case nothing better was available. We dived up one side road to an impressive looking building near Villamayor de Monjardin to find it was the vineyard. A gentilhombre with broken English and many gesticulations gave us directions to the nearest hotel - Irache!
It was fortuitous he gave us directions as there was a 2.3 mile difference between the hotel's actual position and the position I had deduced from the Michelin web site maps - so much for technology. Although the hotel looks utilitarian from the outside it is actually very well appointed inside. The restaurant was excellent also with some interesting Riojas in their cellar (as you would expect) .
The Hotel Irache
With some picturesque views
We had travelled our first 166 miles.
Index | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | References