My Travel Route

This map shows the route I took. Red is the part completed in 2007, from Munich to Barcelona, and the green is from Barcelona to Frankfurt.

July 10, Vancouver

Here's how my bike arrived back in Vancouver, all wrapped up like a present. The cargo guys undid the straps and removed the plastic. I connected the battery, started it up and drove home.

July 9, Frankfurt

Well, everything comes to an end. Today I leave to return to Vancouver and the trip to Europe ends. But....maybe not.

Over the past four days I've seen Frankfurt. I moved into a hotel in the center of the old part of town. Great location, nice hotel, but everyone parties all night. The best part of Frankfurt was seeing the Stadel Museum.

Kevin Murphy came to visti from Berline, and we spent a lot of time talking...and eating....and drinking a little beer. We also went to see the Stadel Museum. For me it was the second time, as I had gone just a few days before. But, it was just as good to see it again.

Here's a photo of Kevin, for those who know him.

July 4, Frankfurt

Today I turned over my bike for shipment back to Canada. First I had to burn off fuel since there is supposed to be less than a gallon left in the tank for shipping. I drove up and down the freeway at the airport until it got low enough.

Last night at the hotel I met a couple of guys heading back to Denver, Dave and Rich. We had a few beers and dinner together. If you guys see this can you re-send me your e-mail addresses. I lost the ones that you gave me.

Turning it over was a lot more complicated than receiving it in Munich, and ended up taking most of the afternoon. It was pretty simple, but a lot of papers had to be filled out. So now it is done, and now I wait five days in Frankfurt before heading back to Vancouver.

Okay, one last picture of my bike.

July 3, Frankfurt

Here´s my bike at the hotel at the Frankfurt airport. Tomorrow I turn it over for shipping to Canada.

Last night it started raining, with tremendous thunder and lightning. When I got up in the morning the rain had stopped, but everything was soaked. Being the experienced camper that I am I had left my bike jacket outside to dry out from the trip. So, of course, it was soaking wet. As was my tent when I packed it up.

I got underway pretty early, but not long after starting out it began to rain again, really rain. I could only see one truck length in front of me. Almost all the way from Basel to Frankfurt I drove along with the trucks. This is the last day of my trip, and even though it was raining it didn´t seem too bad. Although I kept thinking about stopping along the way and driving straight to the cargo terminal tomorrow. But, I kept on going and all of a sudden the airport was alongside the road.

July 2, Basel

Leaving Geneva in the morning I followed back roads up along the East side of Lake Leman, through Lusanne, Neuchatel, Biel and Delemont. Most of this drive was pretty slow since the freeway is under construction. At some point the language switched from French over to German, but I was still in Switzerland. Just before Basel I saw a sign for a campground and turned off to stay at the Camping Waldorf. The people who ran the campground were really nice and made me a pizza for dinner.

July 1, Geneva

Today Monica left us to return to Barcelona.

Anamaria and I headed out of Vichy with plans to get as far as Geneva today. On the way out I had the only accident of the whole trip. We were stopped in traffic and all of a sudden I heard a screech of brakes behind me and someone crashed into the back of my bike. Fortunately it wasn´t serious and we were able to carry on.

The trip to Geneva was easy. We drove along the freeway and passing through a tunnel were all of a sudden in the Alps. When we got to Geneva, Anamaria contacted her friend Adriana and we drove to the train station to meet her. The traffic though was incredibly bad and it took a long time to get there. At the train station we separated and I headed up along the east side of Lake Leman to find a campground. Coming out of Geneva was also difficult. It took over two hours to drive through the city and get to the campground. Now, I need to get to Frankfurt in two more days. So, I didn´t even see anything of Geneva. It´s just set up camp, sleep over and pack up in the morning.

One of the great experiences of the day was that we stopped at a little restaurant on the side of the highway for lunch. It was a truckstop and full of truckers having lunch. It turned out to the one of the best lunches we had. It was three courses including a plate of cheese and dessert. The waitress even gave the kids a little present when we left.

June 30, Vichy

Gouffre de Padirac was well worth it. After packing up in the morning we went to the caves and took a tour. At first you ride down an elevator into this huge hole in the ground. At the bottom you walk a ways through the caves until there is a boat landing. From there you ride in a boat over an underground river with a guide explaining everything (in French). At the end there is another walk and then back to the boats for the return. It´s sort of Dysneylandyish, you almost expect to see rails under the boat. But, it was very beautiful and interesting both for us and the kids.

We drove on through the day, making our way towards Vichy. Everyone was tired and it took awhile to find a campground. Eventually we found on, right on the side of the river and so full of mosquitos. This is to be our last night together, as Monica is going to return to Barcelona tomorrow.

June 29, Gouffre de Padirac

We´re getting pretty good at packing up and leaving. Today we got up fairly early, packed and left. We drove along the Lot river towards Cahors. Along the way we stopped at a winery to do some wine tasting and ended up buying some wine. We turned off for the Gouffre de Padirac. This is an underground cave complex, which when we got there was closed. So we decided to camp nearby so we could see it in the morning. The campground was another great one. It had a huge playground for the kids, and an even bigger tv screen to watch the soccer game between Spain and Germany (Spain won!!)

June 28, France

So, now we´re crossing France. I have to get to Franfurt by July 3 to turn over my bike and Anamaria has to get to Geneva by July 1. We´re going to travel together to Geneva. Today we just drove, with a couple of rest breaks. We´re not making a lot of distance but it takes us a while to get anywhere. We stopped at one town with intentions of staying in the municipal campground, but after looking all over for it we found it was closed. Continuing on we just looked for a sign indicating a campground along the road. We saw one and turned off and the road wound back the way we had come for what seemed like a long time. But finally we found the place which was right on the side of an old boat canal that follows the river Garonne. There were three boats tied up there, two of them from England. And next to us in the campground was a couple from France who were making a bike trip along the canal and were going to meet up with a couple from Canada the next day. All of us had dinner together in the little restaurant at the campground.

June 27, France!!

So, we just came across the border and all of a sudden everyone speaks a different language. We left Laredo after spending the day on the beach. Well not me, but Anamaria, Monica and the kids did. We only drove a short distance into France and stopped at another beautiful campground. We went down to the beach to watch the sunset and Niko throwing half the stones on the beach into the water.

And here´s a picture of the gypsie camp. We´ve gotten pretty good at setting up and tearing down.

June 26, Laredo

This morning it was sote of drizzling, so we decided to go in to Bilbao and see the Guggenheim Museum. This was not a real good venue for the kids, but we managed to look around quite a bit and it was pretty impressive.

In the evening we did a barbecue of fish and squid. Everything was going great until the clouds built up and it started to rain. Not just rain, but pour, with thunder and lightning. We ate under the little tarp that I had, but in the end we were soaked. After eating our wet dinner we went to the restaurant at the campground and watched the soccer game between Spain and Russia. Spain won, great.

June 25, Laredo

Monica and the kids went to the beach in the morning, while Anamaria and I packed up to leave. We were not too happy with this campground so we decided to move a little way along the coast. We ended up at a fantastic little campground near Laredo.

But, not before trying another one that was just unbeleivably bad. We followed the signs to this place that was built right next to a huge prison. The walls were right next to the camground. And on the other side was a cemetery. And, there was no shade and the guy who ran it was kind of spooky. So, we maded a wise decision and moved on to Laredo. Here, the campground was perfect. The site had a view out over the water and right next to it is a barbecure pit. So, we decided to stay here a couple of days. Besides we wanted to watch the soccer match and they had a huge television.

June 24, Santander

In the morning we packed up and then went into Covarubias to look around. It turned out to be another beautiful medieval town, with a flee market set up in the plaza mayor. Anamaria and Audrey both found things they really liked.

We drove the rest of the day over back roads up to the north coast of Spain near Santander. Here we found a campground perched on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. We set up camp next to a couple of German guys who were travelling on motorcycles too.

June 23, Covarubias

Anamaria, Monica and the kids packed up their car and headed off north. I packed up my bike, said goodbye to Raquel and headed in the same direction. A couple of hours later we met up on the autopista and I began following them. We turned off the autopista and headed to an area where we hoped there would be a campground. It turned out there was one in Covarubias and we set up camp there. They gave us a site right next to the playground, which was perfect for the kids.

After we were installed we went to a town closed by called Santo Domingo de los Silos. A very beautiful medieval town. We spent some time walking around and had dinner at a restaurant there.

June 22, Madrid

Last night was Francisco and Ana's wedding. This took place at the casino near Madrid, with a beautiful outdoor ceremony followed by an incredible dinner.

June 20, Madrid

Today is the day of Francisco's bachelor party, or something like it. It's a get together in Ana's parents apartment to meet all of the family. We were all there when Anamaria called to say they where coming into Madrid and again asking Francisco for instructions. We went down to the street to wait for them when they arrived to the neighbourhood, and soon we had four more people in our group. Audrey and Niko fit right in, even though there was a bit of a language barrier.

June 18, Madrid

We had a great time in Segovia. It was a nice tranquil place to relax and take it easy.

The we moved to Madrid to be there for Francisco's wedding. Anamaria and the kids had arrived in Milan and were making there way to Madrid via Barcelona to pick up Monica. Raquel took the train from Segovia and I rode my bike. When I got to Madrid I had no idea where I was so I stopped and called Francisco. I was only a few blocks away from his apartment and made my way in what I hoped was the right direction. And, what a surprise. Francisco was standing on the side of the street waving to me. We parked my bike off the street and went to his apartment. A short time later Cecilia and Jose Ramon showed up, and a little while after that Raquel showed up. So here we all were in Madrid.

June 15, Segovia

OK, In the morning I got off to an early start. Yeah, early, like around 11:00 AM. Raquel is flying into Madrid and then taking the train to Segovia. I drove around Madrid, about the same time she was arriving, and headed up to Segovia too. We have an apartment rented there and the guy who runs it came down and met me outside the city to show me the way. Good thing too, the apartment is right in the center of the old town, just below the Cathedral. A fantastic location, but I never would have found it alone.

Raquel came up by train, arriving at 6:00, so I walked down to the train station to meet her. We took a bus back and went to the plaza mayor to catch up on the past five weeks.

June 14, Santa Elena

Another beautiful drive. Now I am heading towards Madrid to meet up with Raquel, Anamaria and Monica for Francisco's wedding.

El Chorro was great. The people who ran the cafe were from England and they served English breakfasts. I stayed there for a couple of days, driving around the mountains and lakes. Really had a great time.

Today I packed up and drove over a back road to catch the highway to Cordoba. The road was paved, but just barely. It was one of those country roads were you feel like you've gone back a few generations in Spain. People on horseback and muleback.... and lots of gravel and things to watch out for on the road.

I stopped at a gas station for a break and it just happened that there was a campground right next to it, so I decided to stop for the night. The Eurocup is on, so they were showing the games on tv. So, I watched soccer and drank beer.

June 11, Garganta el Chorrro

I spent the last few days in Tarifa driving up and down the coast, which is really beautiful. And, a major milestone...I got my sleeping bag cleaned. I saw the ruins of Baelo Claudia, which are pretty spectacular considering their age and the fact that it was nothing more than a roman fishing village.

On Wednesday I packed up and had a spectacular drive up through the mountains to Ronda. Along the way I passed some really nice little villages perched on the side of the hills. I ended up in El Chorro. This is a place that I had wanted to go a few weeks ago, but it was raining too hard. It is an area of spectacular mountains with several reservoirs. The campgound is really nice, simple and with some really nice people. I camped out next to John, from England and Tam from the Netherlands.

June 8, Tarifa

Well, four days have passed since I last blogged.

On Saturday I left the hotel and headed down to the coast to Cadiz. This is the Atlantic coast now. From Cadiz I headed in towards the mediterranean again and found a campground near Tarifa, right on the beach. This is the windsurfing capital of Europe. The winds are so strong it is hard to drive my bike.

Sunday, I went to Gibraltar. It´s a strange place, like something from the 1950´s. I road the cablecar up to the top of the rock, but could not see anything because of the clouds. The picture at the top shows it all. The one below also seems to have its' own Gibraltar quality. The apes were all over hoping to get handouts but there were lots of graphic signs warning against it. On the way to Gibraltar there was a motorcycle stopped on the side of the road. An old Harley. I stopped to see if they needed any help. They didn´t but invited me to a motorcycle "concentracion" where I would be sure to have a great time along with hundreds of other bikers. Just what I needed. Then waiting to go through customs at Gibraltar a guy came up and offered me hashish. Great! I don´t know if I would still go through the "nothing to declare" line if I bought it.

June 4, Sevilla

I´ve changed hotels to the one that I had reserved for Raquel and I. Since I´ve been here I´ve gotten together with Nacho and Monica. Nacho is from Sevilla and has shown us all around the old part of the city. The cathedral is incredible. It is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. And inside has the tomb of Columbus. At least that is who they think is buried there. I climbed to the top of the Giralda which is the old minaret from the mosque that existed here up until the 1500´s. A small tower was added to the top, with bells, to give it the Catholic touch and show the world who was in charge now.

Today I went to the museo de bellas artes, which has an exhibit of Sorollo from the Hispanic Society of Nueva York. Pretty impressive, but it seems strange to see art devoted to Spain that has been brought from New York.

The photo is taken in the Alcàzar. This is a palace complex made up of three styles of buildings. The oldest being a Mudejar palace. It doesn't take long to realize the impact that the Moors had on the culture of Spain.

June 1, Sevilla

Sevilla is really beautiful. I spent the first day here just walking around the old part of town. I went to the archeological museum in the Plaza Americas. It´s primarily a roman museum with exhibits from the roman city of Italica which is near Sevilla. This is the city where Hadrian was born.

I haven´t added any photos to my blog for some time. The computer does not have a USB connection. As soon as I get to an area that has one I will add some photographs.

May 30, Granada to Sevilla

Time to move on. I packed up and had breakfast with Axel. Then on my way!! Well, the weather had been gradually getting darker and darker as I packed. When I came out onto the freeway it started to rain. And did it rain! My plans were to drive a short distance and turn of into a mountain area called Garganta del Chorro. But, I decided with this weather I did not want to drvie on mountain roads (or set up camp in the rain), so I kept on going all the way to Sevilla. When I got here I stopped at the first available hotel near the downtown area and checked in.

Sometimes I miss having my camper.

May 29, Granada

Granada is beutiful! I´ve spend the last few days wandering around seeing things in the city. My neighbor in the campground, Axel, has accompanied me on these trips. It´s great to have someone to see things with.

One of the most incredible sights was the cathedral of Granada. It is huge and very beautiful. At the side of the cathedral is the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabel. You can actually go down into the grotto where their caskets are. For me, that was the strangest feeling. To be standing alongside Ferdinand and Isable. It kind of makes the more than 500 years since they died seem like a much shorter time.

We also wandered around the Abaicin. This was were the moors lived up to the conquest and even afterwards for some time until they were expelled. I´m reading a very detailed book about the rebuilding of the Alahambra and it mentions one of the Moor workers who was baptized and lived out his live in a house next to the Puerta Elvira. Well, the gate is still there and probably so is his house.

May 25, Granada

The drive from Castillo de Baños to Granada was very short. I found the campgound in Peligros easily and set up camp. It´s a beautiful little place built into a hill. First thing I did was book my entry to La Alhambra for today.

In the morning I took a bus into Granada and another little bus up to La Alhambra. Once there, I spent the next four hours just wandering around. It is far more incedible than I had ever thought. It feels almost like the Moors abandoned the site when it was conquered by Ferdinand and Isabel and it has sat there ever since just as they left it. It seems that Isabel wanted to keep the Moorish atmosphere and tried to restore the palaces to what they had been. La Alhambra was the last holdout of the Moors in Spain. I think it took ten years before it was actually taken, so the last sultan had let it run down quite a bit because he knew he was going to loose it.

May 23, Alpujarras

The Alpujarras are a range of mountain just behind the campground that I am staying at. They have many little towns that used to be Arabic and are noted for their white color and many flower baskets in the windows. I drove up into the mountains on little back roads and spent several hours just wandering around (Lost).

May 22, Castillo de Baños

Yesterday I left Valencia and drove along the coast this time passing by Cartegena, which was as far as I got last year. So now I´m into new country. I was going to camp out along the coast, but the campground that I stopped at was too fancy. This whole coastal area has been way overdeveloped and it is not what I have in mind for Spain. I kept going and ended up staying at a hotel in Torrevieja.

Today I left Torrevieja early and drove farther than ever before on this trip. Still not a great distance, but I made it to a place called Castillo de Baños. I think it´s called that because there were some arabian baths here. The whole coast is lined with old watch towers that were put up for protection against attack. The campground that I am stayin in is really nice. It´s simple, but with all the necessities to make it agreeable. My tent is about ten meters from the ocean, so I can hear the waves all night.

May 20, Valencia

Today was a beautiful sunny day. I rode into Valencia and spent several hours at the Bellas Artes museum , before walking around the old part of the city. Although touristic, this city feels a lot more authentic than Barcelona. There are all kinds of tours everywhere, but there are also a lot of Valencianos doing their thing.

May 18 Valencia

I sat out a few days in the rain and then decided to move on as soon as possible. Today it was clear so I packed up my bike and headed for Valencia. It´s not a very long drive, but I got lost trying to find the campground which is just South of Valencia on another lagoon (so of course there are the sounds of explosions all night). This lagoon is called La Albufera, and again it is very threatened ecologically. But there is a tremendous bird population here, both migratory and permanent. After I got my tent set up it had clouded over again, and then it began to pour, with thunder and lightening like you get in Ontario in the summer. So, I stayed in my tent again. In the restaurant they were having comuñones for all kinds of little girls all dressed up in white and very proud of themselves. So here I was in my motorcycle road clothes trying to look inconspicous.

May 15, Delta de L'Ebre

Well I finally got moving. Monica left in the morning and I packed up my bike and took off towards the South. I only planned a short trip to the Delta de L'Ebre. This is a huge delta area almost totally devoted to rice production. I found the campground out at the end of the Delta and right on the beach. It´s a great spot, mainly because there are not too many people camping at this time of the year. In the summer it must be packed. It is a nature preserve, but there is still a lot of hunting and fishing. In fact they were crop dusting from the air which must be great for the wildlife. But in spite of it there are a lot of birds around.

At night I was kept awake by explosions that kept occuring. Apparently it's something they have installed to scare off the ducks so they don't eat the rice. It goes on all night and is very loud.

That bull at the top was one of a herd that was in the fields around the camp. They looked like bullfighting bulls to me.

Sitges May 12

Here´s a photo of Monica and Jaume when we went out for lunch in Barcelona last week.

My motorcycle was ready last Friday, but it was pouring rain so I came to Sitges by train. I´m going to go back and pick it up on Tuesday. The weather has been unbelievable. I haven´t seen it rain so hard here. The ocean in front of the apartment in Sitges looked like the Pacific Ocean off Vancouver island. By today (Monday) it had returned to normal and the weather is supposed to get sunny in the next few days.

Yesterday, for my birthday, Monica, Jaume and Jaume´s Dad took me out for lunch at a fantastic seafood restaurant here in Sitges. I don´t know why, but the seafood here is way better than in Vancouver. Maybe it´s more variety and a different way of preparing it.

I´m beginning to have doubts about going to Cadeques again. I´m becoming impatient and feel like going someplace that I haven´t been to before.

Barcelona May 8 (Thursday)

Since my bike tuneup won´t be ready until Friday, and the hotel in Badalona was booked up I had to move to Barcelona. That was my whole days activity. I took the train in and checked into the Hotel Rembrant. Which is a two star hostal type place just off the plaza catalunya. It´s actually quite nice, but pretty basic.

Badalon May 7

In the morning I went into Barcelona and just acted the tourist. Although in a very relaxed way. I sat around watching people go by rather than hurrying from one touristic site to the other. After having a great lunch in Barceloneta I came back to Badalona to take my bike into the motorcycle shop for service.

Then in the evening I went back into Barcelona to meet up with Monica. We went to a little local that specializes only in beers. I think it was called La Cerveceta. From there we found a really unusual little tapas bar and had tapas: octopus, shrimp, mushrooms and potatoes (bravas). Then we went to the Harlem Jazz club for a show. But, it was soooo bad we couldn´t stay.

Badalona May 6

Because it´s going to take some time to get the service done on my bike I needed to find another hotel. There was nothing here in Badalona so I went into Barcelona and found a room in a hotel we stayed in previously. Then I met Monica at her work and we had lunch together. From there we went to the catalan museum and hung out for awhile.

It´s strange being back in Barcelona. It´s still full of tourists, but not as much as it will be in a short time. At first I didn´t like it, but maybe that was because I was tired from the trip. Now it seems a lot more interesting to see people being just tourists at all hours of the day or night.

Badalona May 5

The BIG DAY!! I went first thing to see my bike. When I turned the ignition on it looked pretty good. The lights were bright. It took several attempts fo get it going, but the engine started up okay. I checked out of the storage and drove it back to my hotel. Monica came to meet me for lunch and afterwards we walked around looking for a place to get a tuneup done. When we found the HONDA dealership they at first said they were booking for next week, but I think the mechanic took it as a challenge to take care of me and we ended up agreeing to bring it in on Wednesday and he would have it ready for Friday.

Vancouver to Barcelona May 3 and 4

The flight from Vancouver to Barcelona was not as bad as I thought it would be. For one, I had some nice people sitting beside me and the cabin crew was very relaxed and friendly. It was still long, the food was minimal and there´s not that much more space between the seats. When we arrived in Frankfurt it turned out the connecting flight check in was right where I came out so it only took a few minutes to get checked in. Soon I was on the flight to Barcelona, then in Barcelona, and then there was Monica and Jaume waiting for me. They drove me to Badalona and we had some tapas and beer before I crashed. The hotel that I´m staying in is great, the room is terribly small but the price is right. It´s on the beach, although across the railroad tracks. When the first morning train came by I thought I was in an earthquake.

One week to go

So...Only a little over a week to go before heading back to Spain. Time to reactivate the blog. Yesterday I took my van over to my Dad's place on Vancouver island to leave it there until I get back. Only trouble was I left some things in it and now need to go back again to pick them up. My flight leaves on May 3rd, so I will be in Barcelona the night of the 4th. The next day I will pick up my bike and get it going again (I think the battery is dead) and after spending a few days in Barcelona I will head West.

The goal this time is to go all around the perimeter of Spain and Portugal and then to Madrid for Francisco's wedding. From there I will head North to Frankfurt where I have to turn in my bike for shipping on July 4th. The travel route is not firmly fixed, as I am thinking about cutting across to Madrid from Liboa to see Merida and even heading back to Barcelona after Madrid to see Monica for a few more days.

Hola Geraldine Feliz Cumpleaños