picos europe trip

[greenduck1966]

ok so planing my yearly trip now.this year i am off to spain the picos and s/w france so if you know of some good road in that area pls let me know. 

[Roy]

I'll be very interested in how you get on. We're heading that way later in the year and Picos is our first stopover after a night in Santander

[greenduck1966]

Was going to go on the ferry but it only sails at the end of the week and takes at least 24hrs so going to ride down .

[Roy]

We're doing the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander and treating it as part of the holiday

[1675]

Ive done the Plymouth to Santander route before, though it only goes on a sunday. Goes later than the Portsmouth boat and gets there earlier. I guess it must have a Triumph engine in, where as the other boat must be fitted with a boxer motor!
Picos area is good as is the Green Coast (called that as it is very wet). Plenty of nice roads in the Pyrennes and if you are near Carcassone, try to take a ride on the little yellow train which is 100 yrs old and goes to the top of the mountain. For very reasonable ferry rates, contact Julia at Sport Travel Solutions (Northumberland area and has a website), a one woman band who is very reasonably priced

[Roy]

Hopefully I'll be able to upload a few photo's of our trip

[Phil]

Wife and I did the Camino de Santiago a couple of years back.  (no we did not walk it). 

Got the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao and then turned left.  Kept off the motorways the whole time and did miles up in the North Spanish mountains.   Superb weather the whole time, actually a little too warm some days,  the north of Spain is green as it gets the morning mist and dew from the mountains. Not so much as to spoil the trip.   

For those who don't know the Camino de Santiago is a Christian pilgrimage that takes in all the medieval villages en route.  Many of the restaurants in the north don't have menus in English and some of the locals don't speak English.  A bit like Spain use to be 50 years ago. 

We travelled from Bilbao to San Sebastián, Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos, Leon, Ponferrada,  Santiago de Compostela, Escalas and then followed the coast road, as much as possible back towards Bilbao. 

Took it easy on narrow twisting road.   My only concern was the fact that we had pre-booked all our hotels and managed to find then in the centre of medieval towns with very narrow, very steep cobbled streets.  I only had the bike two days was was not use to the weight + plus two up with luggage and the high seat.  Some of the cambers on the roads were like the north face of the Eiger.

Still, it w\as great un and I would do it again without hesitation.   

GOod luck with the tri and enjoy.

kper
 

[greenduck1966]

thanks phill will look it up.trevor told me about the fire sorry to here about that hope all is well now.