Sunday 1 Sept 2002 Day 1 Total 360/ Today 360 miles

Third year on the trot of doing the western Europe trip; France, Spain, Portugal but this time not Italy. Maybe I want to cut down on the 5000 miles of it. This year I am going to pick Pat up in Lisbon. We now do what we call "Fly Ride" where she flies out to join me, we have a couple of weeks of limited riding and then I drop her off somewhere else. This year it is Malaga. Not a bad trip for her; Lisbon to Malaga. It suits us both. It spares her the ordeal of the three day ride down, I get to do some spirited riding without backseat monitoring. No matter how slowly I edge past 80 she notices and I get the royal tap on the shoulder to slow down. Can't say as I blame her as I would hate to be on the back for hours on end.

Bike was serviced and ready for the trip, or so I thought, but as it's 13 years old, one does begin to have reservations. Justified as it happens because on the first day the brake master cylinder sprung a leak. Kept on having to pump the brake. Not a good sign. When I finally thought to check the fluid level, there was no fluid! On the very first day. Stopped in a garage and bought some Dot 4 to fill it up. Now working fine but it will have to be repaired.

I'm now in Le Mans in a Formula 1 hotel. Basic, clean and cheap. Preferable to some of the dives I've stayed in. Pity there's no ensuite but for €27/aka $27/£18 including breakfast, what more could you want?

Monday 2 Sept 2002 Day 2 Total 902 / Today 452 miles

Left the Formula 1 hotel in Le Mans by 9.00 am. Virtuous or what? The usual mixed day of motorways and back roads. Nice slow roads, picuresque an all, but slow so as per usual, dive back on boring motorway for high speed blasts at 100mph plus. It certainly ups the mileage. Lunch in Biarritz. Reminds me of Nice and Monte Carlo dahling. Obviously fin de 19th siecle an all dat.

Front brake still leaking so to avoid it all blowing fluid on me I've wrapped a cloth around it. Looks like a bandage. Pat phoned Moto Bins today and will be bringing out a complete cylinder. Bit of a hiccup as they wanted to know if it was an ABS model and whether it was 6 or 8 mm. As if I'd know the latter. Let's hope it's the correct one! Had to text her to stop phoning me as I too am getting charged and my credit is down to £5. I arranged for direct debit top up but that won't start till Wednesday. Heads the phone companies win and tails too.

S'funny going from France to Spain. No more frontiers which still takes some getting used to. Having to switch from fractured French to almost non-existent Spanish. Still manage to make myself understoond as far as getting a beer and a room. All you need really. Love the Euro! Avoids the pain of previous years of having several currencies, some of which of course ended up unused.

Ended up in Pancorbo, an hour south of Bilbao, on the N1. A nice small hotel recommended by Dick Edwards. Clean and functional. All you could ask for. A bit tired after 10 hours in the saddle. Thank goodness Pat and I do the "Fly Ride". We would have stopped long before! Not that I'd blame her.

Sitting here eating tapas with a toothpick. Namely a saucer of squid with carrots, onions and assorted vegetables and another of olives and peppers, all smothered in olive oil. Good job I'm not fussy. Think I might just need a fork. Wonder what's the Spanish for that??

Tuesday 3 Sept Day 3 Total 1707 / Today 805 miles!!

A few more miles than was good for me today! Eight hundred and five miles! Repeat, Eight hundred and five miles. Left Pancorbo at 10.00am. Later than I really wanted because my watch was an hour slow on UK time. Set off in the rain which luckily didn't last more than an hour. This I didn't need. Fortunately it didn't last too long. And so, on I went, through Burgos, Valladolid, Salamanca then into Portugal. Everything was going nicely until half an hour in Portugal when the signs for Lisboa petered out at Guarda. The Spanish and Portugese are busy building a motorway from Salamanca to Coimbra and the Portugese are ahead in motorway completed but even they run out at Guarda. Well, I pottered around that bloody town for half an hour before finding the right road. Didn't have this problem last year on exactly the same trip. Must be old age. And on and on I went. Finally made Lisbon about 8.00pm. No probs thought me, the Algarve in three hours. Dunno how I did it , again, but I got lost in the back roads. By this time it's midnight and after 14 hours in the saddle I am a zombie. Finally I see signs for Lagos and our friends live just five minutes west of there. I go into Lagos and then bugger me what do I do. Complete and utter zombie, living dead by then I go on another 60 km to Faro. Totally befuddled. Thing is we always land In Faro when we come here and we were only here in May. All the way to Faro when the penny finally drops that I am in the wrong town. So Back another 60 km in to Lagos and finally into our friends' yard at 1.30am - on the road for 15 and a half hours. Totally and utterly spent. Woke our hosts up and so to bed. My right/throttle hand was killing me by this time. Could hardly move it. It still aches a bit now.

Wednesday 4 Sept Day 4 Total 1707 / Today 0 miles!!

An at home day spent drinking and eating. Don't know which is harder on the body, riding all day or drinking all day. As well as our hosts Dick and Caroline, Paul and his wife Ace are over from the Mumbles, Wales. As Paul said, over here one is in the Drinking Premier Division instead of the First Division. Definitely playing with the big boyz. What works for me is to alternate one drink with one glass of water. Slept the sleep of the righteous! And no hangover the next day! Virtue is its own reward!

Thursday 5 Sept Day 5 Total 1707 / Today 0 miles!!

Just got in from a beach bar lunch and actually bestirred myself to go online and collect my email. The nightmare journey of two days ago is rapidly fading into the distance and now it's chillin time. We leave for Lisbon tomorrow where I will pick up Pat at 8.00 pm. We should have a good week together. Let the good times roll!

Am at present in Mojacar, Costa Blanca, for the next week as there are a few things I have to sort out with regards to my mother's flat. Pat and I didn't enjoy Lisbon so much, especially as the Estoril motorcycle grand prix was a wet affair and it was the main reason why we were there. However Seville was much better. A really top city which we thoroughly enjoyed for the two days we were there, especially as we stayed in a super hotel. Could get used to this! Then it was on to Malaga last Wed to see Pat's mum and brother Barry and Phil, who are all fine. Pat left yesterday for home while I continue on biking. We plan to meet up in the last weekend in Sept in Paris for a romantic weekend. Aah! Guess I will manage to squeeze in some supply teaching in October. The funds are running low! Did I tell you that Merton contacted us all to say that they were desperate for teachers because of the backlog of teacher clearances waiting to be done? Pity I'm here eh. Brakes are fine. The leak seems to have stopped! How strange. However I shall strip them down this week and maybe replace it with the new master cylinder Pat brought out. You can't be too careful eh.

Friday 6 Sept Day 6 Total 1942 / Today 235 miles

And so on up to Lisbon and Sintra for the Portugese Motorcycle Grand Prix this weekend. It proved to be a nice easy trip up. I avoided the highway for most of the way. Drove through some very pleasant, green countryside. We all made it to Sintra by the late afternoon. Dick and Caroline came up in their truck and Paul and Ace in their car. Very early Monday morning Paul and Ace (must find out her real name!) will go up to Bilbao while Dick and Caroline return home to the Algarve and Pat and I go on for our two days in Seville.
Pat landed at 8.00pm at Lisbon airport and there I was to meet her. Haven't been late yet for these furrin pickups! I must say that I find the road system in Lisbon a kernightmare. They certainly have sold their soul to the road lobby. You have to know where you are going or else the highway system which crisscrosses this city will take you miles from your intended destination. Plan that journey well. Strapped Pat's bag on the bike and off we went. We got to Sintra without any difficulty but then finding our way to the hotel took another 20 minutes. And we were actually in Sintra! Thing is that lots of Lisbon is hilly and to get from one part to the other you sometimes have to go around hills. After what seemed like an age we got to our very nice hotel and decamped. We then joined the rest of the party at a local restaurant, too late for the meal sadly but the wine was palatable. And then to bed.

Saturday 7 Sept Day 7 Total 1963/ 21 Today miles

At breakfast by 9.30am. What an early start. We'd just stepped outside when a parade of old bikes chugged by. One pre-war (WWI that is) had to be given a push up the hill. Could hardly see the rider for clouds of blue smoke. We all went for a walk up the hill to some point of interest at the top. The aim of the walk was the walk. None of use were bothered about the building/castle or whatever it was that drew hordes of tourists in coaches. We'd virtuously walked. Maybe that was why we crashed out in the afternoon. That and the bit of boozin the night before. Or something. Managed to go into Estoril Track with Dick and Caroline in the truck. That just reminded me that Pat and I will go on the bike tomorrow. Later on, at 3.00pm I went back by myself on't bike as everyone else was having a siesta. Got into 'Gate E' and saw a half hour of the practice session. Then left. What is it with all these fans with their "Viva Rossi" banners? I won't pretend to understand sportsfans. Still, they're happy and that's all that matters.......

Pat's brought out the new front brake master cylinder. I haven't even looked at it yet for at present the leak is pretty minimal. Don't fix it if it ain't broke. We'll see how it goes but it's reassuring to have it. The bike's been brilliant actually. I've put in near a litre of oil in 2000 miles which is a lot higher than usual but I have been abusing it with sustained runs of 100mph with forays into 110 and above but that's all it can manage. I've complained about this bike ever since I got it three years ago. It's an '89 and so is getting on a bit but the thing won't give me any excuse except for the low seat on the K75C model. The engine is bullet proof. I service it as needed and that's all. Amazing build quality.

Sunday 8 Sept Day 8 Total 1971 / 8 Today miles

Grand Prix day. Wash out day more like. Racing went ahead but we watched it from the hotel lounge. Don't know why I bothered but I togged up in me gear and went there to watch the final 500cc race. The boy Rossi came through once again.

Monday 9 Sept Day 9 Total 2267 / 296 Today miles

Leave Sintra arrive Sevilla. Long six hour day, esp for Pate. Checked into the Alfonso XIII for a spot of luxury. Bliss. We last stayed there in the early 80's when we were still flush with Cayman dosh. Happy days indeed

Tuesday 10 Sept Day 10 Total 2267 / 0 Today miles

An in-Sevilla day. Even took the open top tourist bus to get an idea of the city's layout. It is one of the most pleasant cities we've stayed in. A lot of it seems to have been designed and built for the 1929 Exposition and much later the 92(?) Expo. It really is a city with a theme and well worth a visit. Of course the suburbs don't quite match up and it is like TV antenna city.
Dining out ain't all dat although it is fairly inexpensive. Don't really think much of Iberian cooking in general. Got to travel further up the Med for that, to France and yum, Italy. While we're here we will stick to the salads. That they can do. Either that or fish.

Wednesday 11 Sept Day 11 Total 2443 / 276 Today miles

Leave Sevilla for Malaga. Easy trip. And an enjoyable roadside restaurant lunch! Esp the salad. The calamares, battered, was okay but a bit tasteless.
Arrived in Arroyo de la Miel at 5.00 pm. Everyone was in, Barry, Phil and Maisie and of course Jazz the dawg. We're staying at Gina's villa up the road. Hardly suffering with our own private end of the house and pool and ting.

Thursday 12 Sept Day 12 Total 2465 / 22 Today miles

Had a recce around Benalmadena then down to the coast. Was really looking for a laundromat but no luck there. Place is buseee with loads of cars. This is the place to have a moped. On that subject, still don't unnerstan their helmet laws in town. Compulsory or not? Think it is but there is a sizeable number of bikers sans helmets, mostly on scooters but some on big bikes. Riders in sandals and shorts. All part of that Latin temperament ah guess. According to a nurse we know who lives here apparently A&E is full of 'em at the end of each day. Went to Barry's club in the evening and really enjoyed the show

Friday 13 Sept Day 13 Total 2469 / 4 Today miles.

A relaxed day by the pool. Stirred for a late afternoon lunch and in the evening took Maisie for dinner.

Saturday 14 Sept Day 14 Total 2473 / Today 209 miles

Time to leave for Mojacar on the Costa Blanca. Easy three hour trip up. Think this is about my tenth time up this coast. The Costa isn't all tourist land as a lot of it is turned over to market gardening with simply hundreds of square miles under cover with enormous plastic greenhouses. Quite ugly but they must be profitable. From the distance it looks like a blanket of silver snow. Some of them are built in the most amazing and inaccessible places and you wonder why they'd bother.

Sunday Sept 15 Day 15 Total 2682 / Today miles

So here I am for the next week with not much to do. After doing all the business I must do as regards bank, lawyer and ting.

Laters,

Gerry