Our Spanish / Portugal 2025 roadtrip

[murph2309]

[murph2309]

A bit less clear the next day though…

[hot66]

DAY 5

A new day and for a change it was wet at the hotel. So breakfast at our usual time and all out to the cars for our 9:30am start. Strict instructions to keep it steady on the wet roads down the mountain to Potes as today we were back in travelling mode as we were heading west to another paradore.

Luckily for us as we dropped down the roads dried out and we headed back out onto the roads we did yesterday. The start of today’s route covered the first hour of yesterday and it was a pleasure to tackle them again….. (apart from more dipshit uk bikers who didn’t know how to corner and were too arrogant to let anyone pass even though they never went more than 40mph most of the time… we did all pass them when the opportunity arose )




Further on, we started on new to us roads away from the Potes loop and it turned out these were better again. Some of the scenery in northern Spain is stunning. What we did notice was that today was a weekday ( Monday ) and the roads were quiet … hardly any traffic at all. Such a pleasure to drive.



p155 stop





I’ll wait for Gary to post the photo of the tour …. Gary you know which one




We were having fun.. but luckily also we use Waze .. so when it flagged up police ahead we obviously were on best behavior rounding the corner…. I can’t deny I crapped myself when I saw what was ahead and thought they must be waiting for us , must have been about 15 police cars scattered around with police everywhere! We cruised through them all looking all innocent, to then realise they were all there having a mass training session with more of them further up the road and more groups marching .

Slight scare put behind us , we cracked on and again found some stunning quiet roads to drive on … sometimes the old main roads that had been bypassed by the new motorways.


One of my failings I will admit to, is not really factoring a lunch stop in ( who needs lunch after a big breakfast ? ) but turns out some in our group really do need lunch and it’s usually made quite clear to me over the radios . My unplanned lunch stops does usually mean we find some interesting local places and gin today was no different. A little bar in a village. We tried to order the nice looking Spanish omelettes but the girl behind the bar was having non of it … she pointed out the food wasn’t for sale but it was free as long as we bought drinks. Can’t fault that, so many cokes and coffees later we were well fed on the bars free tapas.








It was a longish day but we finally arrived near to the hotel, quick stop to fill up the cars where Gary managed to fill his up for about 10 euros ? Some how and then onto to the very pretty paradore for the night.. unfortunately a couple of our group got caught up at petrol station trying to calm down a moped rider who had a fuel bill for about 70 euros



Anyway, this paradore was very historic and had lovely food. Richard made some of us go for another walk which to be fair was nice .









As it stayed light until late JP also managed to repair the wiring to his fuel cut off microswitch to the relief of those who had followed him today..

Another great day washed down with great food and plenty of wine

[Gary71]

This was a very cool day, despite the fuelling mishap

And judging by the last photo James posted I really need to work on my parking

More lovely stuff, lakes and mountain always go well

An almost lined up parking pic, but hey, it’s DDK not PCGB so Sladeys car is hiding!


There is a sequence of these pics I’ll hold for future blackmail use


Leaving its mark at the hotel


Been on a track day sir? Nope just trying to keep up…

[hashman]

Fantastic posts, again.......thanks for sharing.

Karl

[markm]

Been on a track day sir? Nope just trying to keep up…

Still got some chicken strips on them, must try harder

[neilbardsley]

Stunning. Can you put the route file somewhere on here or email?

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[murph2309]

Rando traffic….the guy was genuinely asleep on his waggon…

[murph2309]

[hot66]

DAY 6

We were heading west today, but our route took us north, then east then south and eventually west with the aim of taking in some interesting roads.



It had taken a long time to design each days route as I was effectively starting blind back in October last year when we first decided on where to go and was limited by what hotels were open and had capacity plus secure parking, but with research, maps and importantly street view the days kind of fell together by Feb this year.

So today we headed out of the hotel onto a fairly busy and well used road which would take up to the start of one of the twisties … as it was on this main road we got in with some quick locals in the hatchbacks and we had a fun 20 mins or so running with them. Always enjoy following a local who knows the road and likes to drive it quick.






We eventually pulled off and onto a road that I think we all agreed was one of the best roads ever. Now wether things all fell into place I don’t know, but this was a traffic free, narrow twisty ‘death road’ up through a canyon and with tight blind bends, tunnels , waterfalls and hill climbs it was just wonderful.














At the top it opened out into a big fast sweeper road






The day continued with fantastic roads but I did manage to drag everyone down one of my famously rough and small tracks just to contrast against the morning run.



We were heading for a stunning paradore, another converted monastery , and as it was the views nearby were impressive.










The paradore was stunning !







To get to the paradore was interesting , felt like you were driving down a very steep pavement , but all was good and it had a large under ground car park.


It had been a shorter day which left us with a bit of time for a walk before our evening meal … we were booked in for 8:30 which as everywhere was the earliest we could eat !

So Richard checked his all trails app and got us all together and off for a stroll down to the river …. I’ll let the others talk about ‘the walk’ but let’s say we nearly didn’t all make it back.






What a hotel this was, the setting for our evening meal was amazing , over looking the woods with the sun setting , felt way more exotic than northern Spain.

[Bruce M]

Would be grateful if the hotel names & locations could be included. Figured out one or two but the last one looks stunning

[Gary71]

Didn’t get many pics from this day, too busy trying to hang on!


Whilst the others were off trying to die on a walk in 35c heat down the side of a cliff I took the more sensible option of exploring the monastery, amazing place, like something you’d see in Harry Potter or Game of Thrones.

[Gary71]

Would be grateful if the hotel names & locations could be included. Figured out one or two but the last one looks stunning

Last one is:

Parador de Santo Estevo, Ourense, Spain

[70sThrowback]

Loving this and a trip I am planning at some point, can't wait for the next update. Would also be great to get a summary of things that went well and things you may change next time

[neilbardsley]

No wonder my colleagues who are from Garlicia talk about it so fondly.

Keep the photos coming

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