pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Mar 28, 2011 12:10:19 GMT 1
Hi,
This is the first in a series of posts about my short trip through Spain, updates will be published three times a week(mondays, wednesdays, fridays) during the next three weeks.
Hope you enjoy reading about this adventure as much as I did enjoy riding it! ;-)
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pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Mar 28, 2011 12:22:53 GMT 1
Spain Winter 2011
Why?
A year and a half ago I bought my first bike, the NTV, for the solo purpose of touring, eventually it ended up being my main mode of transportation too… But it was meant for touring around! Travelling is something I love, so any reason is a good reason.
So in the beginning of 2011 I found out that there was a date around March that I wanted to be in Andorra, so there it was, right in front of me, a reason to grab my bike and ride it through Spain for a week!
When?
From the 5th until the 11th of March, but it ended up being just till the 10th, mainly due to weather forecasts and the short distance from my last stop to home.
Planning
This was my first bike trip, didn't want to mess anything up, so I started planning almost to months ahead. This is painful, in the sense that you get really excited while preparing everything, choosing the routes, stages, doing lists, buying stuff for your bike, and then you've to wait a long time to leave… Anyway, planning is part of the joy, and when done right can improve your experience a *lot*!
There's so much to write about and so little time! Four days have already gone since my arrival home and the excitement is still around.
First and foremost, don't pack anything extra in the last minutes, just don't! Things like, "Another sweater might come in handy", or, "Let's take another pair of pants, just in case…", are utter crap and made up by an anxious mind! Remember, at the end of the day all the weight your bike as been carrying, will be carried by you! With that in mind, travel light, wash if needed. You're not going to the catwalk, I just can't stress this enough, guess why… The thing that occupied more volume and weighted more, were the ones I packed last minute and I didn't need them at all.
Being my first ride, I didn't know how much was too much, nor how long was too long on the bike, specially in a foreign country, on unknown roads to me. The feeling of time and distance gets a bit different when you're lost, or anxious.. Having said that, I started to choose a few waypoints, places I wanted to visit and good places to sleep. From that point on, I could divide the trip into stages and go to Google Maps to have an overall idea of the routes. Priority was to avoid tolled roads and highways where possible, still entering and leaving big cities is easier if you take the highway, otherwise you'll be just wasting time and patience on traffic or trying to find your way out. Yes, it's easy for locals, but not for you. The navigation device chosen was…the michelin map 734 for Portugal and Spain! GPS devices are very useful for driving around in the city and that kind of stuff, but they will never feel like a real road map… Who doesn't love a good map? Opening it on your desk, laying it on the hotel bed, having it on your tankbag… (sigh) The thin white lines on my michelin map were just amazing roads, not in the best conditions, but passed through wonderful places with magnificent scenery! (just don't go for long stretches on them, you'll take a beating and the fun is gone)
It was time to mark the route on the map, make a few changes from the google maps suggestion, look for good mountain roads and done! Drawing a table with the estimated travelled distance, estimated time on the bike and ETA for each stage proved to be of big value and helped me finding my pace and feel more comfortable and less stressed.
I did some best and worse case scenario costs predictions, I ended up spending less than expected, but was prepared for worse. Took into account gas mileage, sleeping and eating costs and some extra expenses. Eating and sleeping is crucial for me to enjoy what I'm doing, doing it at home, or away, it doesn't matter!
Enough of this talk, you want to read about the trip itself, not my first planning experiences… One more thing, it's *great* to have a tankbag, the only con is when refilling the tank, but our NTV's tank is big and gas mileage is great! Pros: Good place to keep your tools, spare bulbs kit, tyre repair kit, HiVis vest; Pen&Paper; Water bottle; Food; Camera; Map(s); Disk lock; Whatever items you know you'll need to take in/out lots of times when you stop; manoeuvring in the parking lot or slow traffic triggers your horn :-)
The pros outweigh the cons in a flash, you just spend less time when you've to stop to look at the map, eat/drink something, take a photo, or whatever. It's worth every cent!
Now that's enough!
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Post by yellowmelos on Mar 28, 2011 16:49:18 GMT 1
Yeah.. keep posting on your travels.. and add pics if you can.. all good stuff and an interesting read
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Post by De Graaf van Salland on Mar 28, 2011 20:09:53 GMT 1
Hi Pata, I want to know all about your trip, because I hope to go on my first big motorbike ride this summer ( see: www.ntvhonda.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=2011&action=display&thread=1795) Anyway, planning is part of the joy, and when done right can improve your experience a *lot I agree completely ! Do you have a list of stuff that you packed ? If so, could I have a copy ? Did you go camping ? Or was it hotels / B&B ? Who doesn't love a good map? I do love a good map, but nowadays I rely mainly on Google-maps. I make a detailed description of the route and put that in the map-pocket of my tank bag. But an improvement is on the way: I have devised a way to fix a paper roll to my bag (more about that later). I do have a sat-nav, but I use it maily just to see where I am. GvS
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pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Mar 29, 2011 12:44:24 GMT 1
Yeah.. keep posting on your travels.. and add pics if you can.. all good stuff and an interesting read Thanks! The photo album will come in the last post, but every update will have a "picture of the day". ;-) Hi Pata, I want to know all about your trip, because I hope to go on my first big motorbike ride this summer ( see: www.ntvhonda.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=2011&action=display&thread=1795) Anyway, planning is part of the joy, and when done right can improve your experience a *lot I agree completely ! Do you have a list of stuff that you packed ? If so, could I have a copy ? Did you go camping ? Or was it hotels / B&B ? Who doesn't love a good map? I do love a good map, but nowadays I rely mainly on Google-maps. I make a detailed description of the route and put that in the map-pocket of my tank bag. But an improvement is on the way: I have devised a way to fix a paper roll to my bag (more about that later). I do have a sat-nav, but I use it maily just to see where I am. GvS The weather forecast dissuaded me from camping, I overnighted at hostels mostly. I did have a list, but was kind of sloppy and ended up not using it. My advice is to split the list in two, bike gear and personal items. Bike gear: - Tools + Repair kits(tyres; bulbs; etc.) - First aid - HiVis Vest - 12v chargers / satnav - Maps Personal items: - Documentation (bike; id; drivers licence; passport(if needed); European Health Insurance Card) - Clothing (tshirts; sweater; underwear) - Hygiene (shampoo; shaving stuff; deodorant; tooth brush; etc.) - Towel + slippers for public showers) Probably I'm missing something, but the less you pack, the better. The satnav is very useful when entering/leaving cities, otherwise didn't miss it. It would be just one more thing to carry around and worry about. This is just my opinion, but GoogleMaps and similar tools take a key role when planning the trip, but are not very useful when you're out there. Written directions kind of suck, at least for me, having a map always open on your tankbag is a plus plus! Stop for 10 seconds and you're back on the road, interpreting a map is easier than reading a text. But the most important thing, is that you do as you feel more comfortable and confident. You'll learn a lot from your first trip, that's for sure! Beware, once you do it, it becomes an addiction!
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pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Mar 30, 2011 12:27:50 GMT 1
The trip
Day 1 (Lisboa - Salamanca)
It was hard to swallow breakfast, the butterflies in my stomach revealed the anxiety and excitement of my first big trip! I had filled the tank the previous day, but didn't have the chance to check the tire pressure, so off I went to the gas station, first of many stops. Still didn't feel real, even after crossing the bridge and entering the first road heading to Spain, it just felt like a one day ride. After riding for one hour it was time to stop in a small village to eat something and take some photos… I could feel in my bladder that I was a bit nervous, this was a problem on the first morning, but as I got confident and nearer to my destination it sorted itself out. You can learn a lot from your mistakes and this first day was full of them, from not managing my stops very well, to getting lost due to not stopping to read the map carefully, or spending an eternity to find a specific gas station in a town. Oh, and my phone's battery went flat after crossing the border, that was just plain stupid! First day, out in the middle of nowhere, in a foreign country, without a cellphone. Better stop ranting!
As I got closer to Spain the roads got twisty, at last some fun! Less and less cars could be seen and there I was on my way to Salamanca. Crossing the border brought me an unexpected surprise, the road I planned to take was closed, but the sign was in the middle of an intersection and I couldn't understand to which one it did refer to, so I rode up the mountain anyway, and what a view!!! It was totally worth driving all the way up to discover it was blocked and than going all the way down astonished by the surroundings! It was getting late and I was way behind schedule, picked an alternate route and didn't regret at all, more curves, more fun! That is until I got to Ciudad Rodrigo, from there opting for the highway seemed the wiser choice, it was getting cold and I was getting tired, more than 500km had already gone and I still had to find a place to sleep.
Tired and hungry, stopped at a traffic light, decided to ask the driver in the car by my side for a place to sleep nearby, and there it was, just a few meters behind me, drove around the block, twice, found a parking spot and…there I was in my room! The hot shower was left for later, otherwise I would get to lazy to go out for dinner. Before dinner it was time to find a supermarket, or a place I could buy food for the next morning/day, you know, breakfast food, cookies, fruit, water… Right in front of my "Hostal" was an italian restaurant, they did have a superb pizza, not the fast-food kind! It won't be soon until I find a pizza like that one!
After a hot shower I took some time to write down some statistics, read the map and pack! Getting everything ready to leave early the next day is crucial, so everything you won't need anymore must be packed before going to sleep. Time to rest, recharge batteries with a good night of sleep! Now it was for real!
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ED-CASE
All Weather Rider, well hard
Posts: 172
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Post by ED-CASE on Mar 30, 2011 21:49:13 GMT 1
Thank you for the story so far, really enjoying your style of writing Looking forward to more to come Keep up the good work ED-CASE
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paulie73
Bad ass biker
Still loving the NTV's
Posts: 208
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Post by paulie73 on Mar 30, 2011 22:02:20 GMT 1
Brilliants posts, cant wait to read the next segment!!!
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pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Apr 1, 2011 10:01:24 GMT 1
Hi,
Thanks for your feedback, and I'm glad you're liking it ;-) More follows in a few minutes, stay tuned!
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pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Apr 1, 2011 10:05:49 GMT 1
Day 2 (Salamanca – Zaragoza) First night of sleep and it felt good! I was still a bit sore, but once I got my body moving it quickly faded away, so with a grin in my face it was time to jump out of bed. Peeping through the window revealed my NTV parked in the same place I left her the previous night, nice! Breakfast is probably the most important meal of the day, it doesn't matter if you're going to drive just for a few hours, or the whole day, starting on an empty stomach won't do you any good, neither it'll bring you joy or pleasure.... Now, I thought I had bought two pieces of pastry for my first meal of the day, at least it looked like a pastry we've here in Portugal… You know when you expect the food to taste like something and after you put it in your mouth it tastes like something completely different? So there I was, half awake, half asleep, sitting in my hostel room, opening a tetra brick of juice, expecting to eat something really sweet, with apple jelly, and there I was stunned after my first bite, tuna with tomato sauce! I swear I heard someone laughing madly, oh those Spanish guys… After an unorthodox meal it was time to leave Salamanca, ultra-heavy topcase in one hand, tankbag in the other, helmet in a bag hanging on my back and down the stairs we go! Five minutes later I was pushing my bike up the road and thinking about going downhill to start the bike… This was an one way road, being the way, well… upwards! You get a bit desperate when your bike doesn't start on a Sunday morning(specially in Spain) and you're hoping to be somewhere else far away by the end of the day. After a few tries she probably got a bit warmer and started fine, anyway I didn't want to stall the engine for the next few minutes/kilometres. d**n you, cold mornings!! Time to refill, refilling before leaving is your bike's breakfast, no bike goes happy on a half empty tank and she'll nag the rider after a while… Oh, now I've a great comparison in mind, it's just like when you travel with kids, you tell them to pee before leaving and five minutes later they're asking you to stop to take a leak… That's what the biker feels when he refills an hour after leaving, or what the bike feels when the rider stops after 45 minutes to grab a snack. It just screws with the momentum! I'm here rambling and nothing about the trip itself, so sorry! When heading east after leaving Salamanca you'll feel like crossing a desert, a very green one, just plains and a village every now and then, sometimes you can see a mountain far ahead, but that's it. The sky was clear, sun shinning and still an ice cold morning, where are my hand wind deflectors? Oh where? I was very warm and comfortable, expect for my hands, it's always like that for me, not only when I'm driving. Luckily for me, after 10am (time of my second breakfast), that problem was gone, this proved to be true for every day of my trip! Drove the whole morning without incidents, just enjoying the peaceful roads, the great scenery, watching the recently arrived storks and swallows, and smiling! So glad I remembered to pack my sunglasses, driving east in the morning has its drawbacks! Roads in Spain are great, traffic signs are consistent and give good feedback on what's ahead of you, drivers respect the rules and more often than not make a good judgement on the driving speed. This makes it easy to keep your pace, no matter what it is, no need for constant overtakes, or being crazily overtaken. Being able to keep my pace made me feel safe and enjoy this trip even more! Everyone respects the speed limits when crossing villages or small towns. Here I am, floating around the subject, deviating… By lunch I was arriving in El Burgo de Osma, a few bikes parked in front of a restaurant caught my attention, an u-turn later and there I was asking for a good place to eat and for the best roads nearby! My previously chased route matched the advised roads! Order of business, empty bladder, eat, refill tank, hit the road! There isn't much to report after this stop, that is until I got about 60km away from Zaragoza… Thin white line on the map, in the middle of the mountains… Should I stay or should I go? That's not a question you would usually ask, but after more than 500km it becomes a reasonably question. So how to decide? You guessed right, time to sit down, eat some cookies, walk around, take some pictures and see how you feel! Lets do it! The road was narrow, sinuous, in pretty bad shape, with pot holes and some gravel here and there, but the surroundings, the scenery, the smell, the feeling, those things made it totally worth it, that road had just made my day and was burned in my memory to last a long time, that's for sure! At times I asked myself how it would've been if I had a Translap, or BMW GS, but then it became clear, no matter what bike you're riding, these moments are just extraordinary, these moments are what dreams are made of! I could go 5km/h faster on another kind of bike, or could perform technically better on the bends, but the fun, the amazement, the experience, it was all there with me on my NTV! Arriving in Zaragoza wasn't very hard, but finding the hostel that I had booked earlier was. Now that was a good lesson for me, after asking at a pizza take-away how to get to the desired street, I started driving around trying to find the street… That's just plain stupid, even in your home town is hard to drive(car or bike, doesn't matter) and try to find a street at the same time, what about in a city you've never been to? Half an hour later I decided to park my bike and just walk, again you guessed right, 100meters ahead I found the street, great! You know the drill already, checked in the hostel, this time I went for a shower before having dinner. Also, on my way to find a place to eat I bought a few chocolate croissants for the next day, crucial! The distance travelled was the same, give or take 10km, but by leaving earlier, being much more relaxed and comfortable, and not getting lost all the time, I didn't feel as tired, enjoyed the ride even more and had more time to walk around in Zaragoza and rest!
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Post by rj2para (Bisto) on Apr 1, 2011 13:15:38 GMT 1
I agreed with ED-CASE on your style. looks like an interesting road, always feels more like an adventure even in the car, when the tarmac gets thin at the edges.
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Post by De Graaf van Salland on Apr 1, 2011 20:10:27 GMT 1
I agree with RJ2 and Ed-Case. Love your story and I compliment you on your english.
Are you 100% portugese ?
GvS
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pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Apr 2, 2011 23:01:33 GMT 1
Well, again, thanks for your feedback!
I'm 100% portuguese, but got a little help from rj2para, he proof read and made some correction to all the texts before going online.
I'm truly glad you're enjoying, it's good to be able to give something back! This forum and it's members provide a wonderful resource on NTVs and bikes in general, this spirit of information sharing is what makes the internet what it is!
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pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Apr 4, 2011 12:12:12 GMT 1
Day 3 (Zaragoza - Andorra) It's hard to face a blank page, but let's give it another try! When sleeping on a shared dorm either you bring your own room mates, or hope for the best, there's also a third option, be so tired that you don't wake up with anything. I remember some guys entering the room in the middle of the night and talking out loud before going to sleep, they also were kind enough to turn on the lights, I was about to wake up, but before going to bed made the wise choice of… being to tired! After gathering my stuff, packing the sleeping bag and dressing up for another ride day, it was time for breakfast. Predictable, huh? By now you've realized that I don't like to leave home/wherever without having something in my stomach, so I always feel really smart when having breakfast that I bought the previous day, looking back, it's more like smart-ass… Losing myself here… The biggest thing on my mind the whole day was getting safe and sound to Andorra, it was a very important milestone for me and made quite an impression. The night before, just after dinner, checked how to leave Zaragoza with the help of Google Maps, which made it trivial the next morning, no highways, no traffic, in less than ten minutes, I was in the country side…and it sure smelled like it! Didn't see any cattle, but the peculiar odour could be felt the entire day, very odd if you ask me… It's hard to highlight a part of the day, took another bumpy road, many miles straight ahead in the middle of green plains, coming across just some pick-ups and tractors, all so quiet. The road to Andorra is just amazing and gets better by the mile, for the first time there were some fellow motorcycle travellers in sight! Warning, here comes some free advertisement, but I just feel compelled to recommend the place I stayed in Andorra. It was in La Cortinada, Ordino, a five minute drive from Andorra la Vella, very cozy, very quiet, very familiar, run by a very nice guy! Hostal Anem.com, www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/andorra/ordino/63688/ Wouldn't say anything if it was just a regular place, but it isn't. Saying I was lucky with the weather is kind of an understatement, a sunny day in the Pyrenees just makes the views overwhelming, snow shinning by the side of the road and up the hills, you could feel the end of the Winter and a warm welcome from Spring! I'll let the photo speak by itself, it was taken on the way down from Col d'Ordino, in the middle of the road that goes from Ordino to Canillo, it's a connection between two valleys that goes all the way up the mountain and then back down…amazing! Too bad the sun was already setting and some spots were in the shadow, water on the hairpins made me ride slowly, afraid of catching patches of ice! By the time I arrived back at the hostel I was happy, truly Happy! Had dinner with Abdiel, the guy from the hostel, in the restaurant next door and afterwards we had a few beers with a friend of his in the common room. Well spent evening after an exciting day! No matter what happened next, this was already a spectacular trip!
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pata
Restricted to 33BHP
Honda NTV650P
Posts: 50
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Post by pata on Apr 6, 2011 10:13:33 GMT 1
Day 4 (Andorra - Valencia) As time passes some details fade away from your memory and others get stronger. It's just a natural filter and might give you a better insight of your trip, still I prefer to write while things are still fresh and later, sadly I failed miserably at that! Oops! The thing is, after driving for the whole day writing tends to be postponed, it's a low priority when you compare it to showering, eating, walking around, preparing the next day. So what I usually did was to take some time before going to sleep, but you can easily spend an hour or more getting your day into nice little sentences without noticing. It was only a few months before leaving on this trip, that I become active on this forum, but I wanted to give something back to this great resource of information. The fourth day was probably the saddest, I had reached the furthest point of my trip, despite having three days ahead of me, the feeling of coming back made me blue. The grey sky, the short distance from France, the way I felt welcome in Andorra and a lot more, made it even worse. Less complaining and more driving, destination Valencia! I had sinuous roads ahead, waiting for me, ready for some fun! There isn't much to talk about, took the same route from the previous day to leave Andorra, then headed to Tortosa along the Ebro River, it's just a luxury to be able to drive on these roads for the whole week, curve after curve, bend after bend, in a up and down hill scenery with the river as a companion. Now, I made a beginners mistake, choosing a regular road(marked red on the Michelin map) that goes side by side with an AutoPista(tolled highway) is asking for a boring road full of lorries… I mean, there was no visible road, just lorries, oh, and more lorries. Luckily they drive at a reasonable speed and I already had had the fun for the whole day, fair enough. Arriving in Valencia was easy, instead of driving around I just parked the bike and looked for a tourist kiosk. They usually have a list of places to spend the night in the nearby area, I had the vague idea of having seen one of those on the internet days before leaving, it seemed nice, it was cheap and there was nothing to point out about the location. I had plenty of time to walk around, pick up the bike and park it in front of the hostel. It gets easier by the day, you feel less tired, you arrive earlier and enjoy even more. Had dinner at a nice cafe and as some rain drops started falling I decided to head back and have some rest.
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