European Road Trip

Wanted to share with you all we are taking our SWing from the UK to Portugal and back!

Currently in Spain, and the bike has been BRILLIANT! So comfy, more than capable of handling all of the long French motorways and has more than kept up with faster bikes. We went for soft panniers and have found them really good, easy to pack and take off the bike and helpful for navigating through long traffic jams!

We are heading to the Picos mountains, the Douro valley, Porto, Lisbon, Algarve, Gibraltar, Valencia, Barcelona, Andorra and then back up through France to Calais and back to England!

Has anyone got any must sees or tips that we can follow?

A couple of pics for your viewing pleasure!

Can you tell we're excited?!

Thanks!
Beth & Mark

Cool. Or should that be hot? A few folks I know have been over Spain & Portugal over the last few weeks and said the heat was horrendous.
I love the onbike pictures, especially the sunset, those are the pictures we can't take as riders but it's what the holiday is all about. More please

Nice, I did a similar and shorter trip on a MZ Supa 5 250 forty years ago. Portsmouth to St Malo, Rennes, Nantes, Biarritz, San Sebastián, Huesca, Barcelona, Andorra, Brive-la-Gaillarde, and then I had to hammer back to St Malo for the ferry.

Gibraltar is a bit weird, I was there for nine months as a squaddie in '68 to '69 and it was very old fashioned. We stopped there on a cruise a few years ago and it's now all modern and developed, there's even a Morrisons supermarket. Pretty good if you want to buy stuff as everything is tax free.

Andorra has some great riding roads and is another place that's good for tax free stuff, especially motorcycle gear.

Mrs M and myself had a three night stopover in Lisbon a few years ago en route to Toronto. Really nice place I but had a load of Euro's stolen by a pickpocket. I could have bought a shed load of Pasteis de Nata, the delicious Portuguese Custard Tarts with that money. Apparently pickpockets are a problem in Lisbon.

Meldrew wrote:

Nice, I did a similar and shorter trip on a MZ Supa 5 250 forty years ago. Portsmouth to St Malo, Rennes, Nantes, Biarritz, San Sebastián, Huesca, Barcelona, Andorra, Brive-la-Gaillarde, and then I had to hammer back to St Malo for the ferry.

I have one of those and nice and all as the handling is, the seating position would leave me in a hospital after that. I'd love to take it on long trip like that but it would need footrests and handlebars first. I think the ballcrusher tank goes with the bars and footrests to give a very long and usable dual seat - and with a sidecar, good socialist family transport.

We've made it to Porto! We travelled over the Picos mountains and followed the Douro valley all the way to Porto. The views have been incredible and the bike even better!

No issues with comfort we are both feeling great! Here's a few more pics...

Here's a few more pics ..

Heres the Picos mountains


the picsos

Great pics. Thank you for sharing.

Don’t forget pics and a review of some memorable café meals.

Hopefully “Rotten Ronnies” (aka McDonalds) hasn’t ruined the townscapes there.