Travelling Tales - Part 10

I actually started this post back in July, can't believe its taken me so long to get back to it.  I promise to get this and the rest of the trip documented by the end of the year.... so without further ado the trip continues.  Remember if you want to read the previous posts then search this blog for USA Trip 2004 or Travelling Tales

Encinitas was where we ended our day – booked two nights for a bit of a chill out.  A good Italian dinner with wine was a real treat, nice to have something fresh cooked and not mass produced. Spent the following day walking the beach, eating and doing touristy things and getting sun burnt.  My back was playing up big time, After nearly 7 weeks on the bike it had started to complain.

Week 7 –With no real plan on where to go next, we followed the Pacific highway, very rugged scenery and very hot, lots of sand and boulders, real desert country.  Stopped for fuel in Yuma and spoke to a guy who said it was 109F, not fun on a bike I can tell you.  After about another hour of this I started to have a panic attack, my boots made my feet feel like they would explode and there was no escaping the heat.  We had a stop and tried to cool off, we were in the middle of nowhere so had to carry on.  Luckily we found a motel in a place called Gila Bend (it was still 108F at 7pm) nothing much to eat apart from what we could get in a service station so it was beer and snacks for dinner then bed and pain killers for my back.

A marginally cooler day , breakfast in a Cracker Barrel outside Tucson then on to Tombstone. Tombstone was a strange place, touristy, usual trashy gift shops. Checked out Boothill Cemetery  which was fun. We got a real shock when we went to go out for dinner at 8pm everywhere was very quiet, we then found out that everything closes at 8:30, so we had a very rushed dinner, they practically threw the food at us and rushed us out the door.  There were a couple of bars open, one full of locals, the other just 3 people neither felt very welcoming so we decided on an early night as we had a long ride planned for the next day.

















The weather was still very hot, 98 degrees by 10am as we reached Phoenix - tempers were very short.  Our planned route was to go via Wickenburg then on to Prescott, as we climbed you could feel the air cooling and the scenery changing, lots 20mph bends so fun riding for Peter. The atmosphere was still a bit frosty between us when we checked into the hotel. I went off to do a wash and by the time this was done it was happy hour and by the time we had 3 margaritas under our belts we were friends again.





Thursday 17 June - we were heading for Williams and the Arizona State HOG Rally - just a short ride lots of twists and turns, the scenery was lovely, lots of piney smells, one of the joys of motorcycling is you get to smell ALL the smells and look at stuff above your head too.  Spectacular views around Sedona, a great day.

Weekend review - a weekend with Rufus

Its been a mixed weekend weatherwise - rain in Stamford on Friday but dry at home, so I was pleased to be able to let Rufus out in the garden once we got home.  Saturday - wet, what a miserable day. I am so pleased we have the garden room, as it at least feels like you are out of the house.  Plenty of room for Rufus to play and run around.  He did however decide to have another go at knitting.  I hope that this interest continues, it would be great to be able to teach him my craft.

These are the hats I've produced this week, and I promise to write up the patterns and share.

Sunday was a totally different day. Dry and lots of sunny intervals, we managed to get loads of jobs done.  I had planned to go to Fibre East but decided that I'd rather spend the day with my husband and grandson.

Here they are mending the rotavator - he actually looks like he knows what to do

Next he decided to service his tractor

A ride on the Harley in the drive

and this is how much my husband loves his grandson - letting him help wash the Harley (its his pride and joy).  Believe it or not he actually stayed dry through the whole process

And because the sun was out - some flowers from the garden that have survived the rain

In case you are wondering it's RAINING AGAIN.  Is there no end to it!!

       

To Portugal and back.... its a long way

 This years' summer holiday was 2 weeks on the Harley going to Portugal - thats 3291 miles, hard on the bottom to say the least.  The weather was mixed, but the predominate feature was the wind, followed by rain.  We did see good weather through Spain and Portugal but always with the wind.  Something to do with the jet stream I believe. 

Our route took us from Cambridge on 8 June - by the time we were ready to leave it had stopped raining.  We crossed via Eurotunnel to France on the 9th to overnight in Tours (Fr) - St JeanDe Luz/Ciboure (Fr) - Salamanca (S) (2 nights) - Badajoz (S) - Cascais/Sintra (P) (2 nights) - Porto (P) (2 nights) - La Coruna (via Santiago de Compostela) (S) - Burgos (S) - Angoleume (Fr) - Chartres (Fr) - St Omer(Fr)- Home

The photos are in no particular order as Blogger has decided to mix them up and I can't be bothered to move them around.



Jambon Serrano & Iberica

Cascias Harley Davidson European Rally



Port in Porto!

  

Flowers around Cascais

Porto - see the use of corrugated tin as siding for houses!

Along the coast from Cascais

Cork Chalet at the Pena Palace - Sintra

Pena Palace Sintra

Cathedral in Salamanca

Cascais - Rally

Salamanca - the first of the tapas

Porto

around Salamanca

Street art in Salamanca



Salamanca

 

Views from Pena Palace

More Pena Palace

Lock Garden in Salamanca

We really liked Salamanca and when looking through the photos, most are from there.  We loved the tapas culture, not actually eating a proper meal, just tapas and beer or tapas and wine.  We had lots of jambon, lots of coffee.  They really do make good coffee in Spain and Portugal. We couldn't find the yarn shop, and lets talk about shops, why oh why do they close for so long during the day, so frustrating.

Portugal, we'd not been before and I'm not sure I'm actaully that keen to go back.  Cascais was ok, full of Harleys as you'd expect, it being the host town for the European Rally, but I don't like resorts with huge hotel complexes and really that is all you can see along the beach line.  Along the coast we did find some beaches with less buildings, but with it being the Atlantic Coast the sea is very rough. Sintra old town was lovely and we enjoyed a good breakfast - see pic below. We did enjoy the Pena Palace and Park, and spent a good proportion of the day wandering round the grounds, the Chalet,  the Palace which we went inside but no photos allowed. 

Portugese Custard Tarts - Peter's favourites

Porto we found really dirty away from the main river/tourist area and we actually felt a bit uncomfortable, also their sewage system leaves much to be desired, I'll spare you the photos!!!!  The best thing was the glasses of Port and the sardines.

We called into Santiago De Compostela on the way to La Coruna, amazed at all the walkers doing the Pilgrims Walk, and its a long one.  Found a yarn shop - closed.

Found another yarn shop in St Omer - but the selection was dismal, lots of nasty cheap acrylic

So there you have it, our summer holiday for this year.  Not sure we will do another long bike trip, think we are getting to old for all the one nighters and the packing up every day.  What a difference the years make.

TGIF

A gift from a dear friend

Wind blown rose - wish you could smell this

 Oh well!