riding in paradise..

[albertaduke]

more pic from sunday 01th august
the maure castle spain is dotted with these castles at every turns of the roads

more horse **** on the road and with fine mist falling it is like ice. I nearly wiped out on one fresh cow patty, the infamy is after all the distress of breaking stuff on the bike you also have to clean all that **** from your leathers talk about the proverbial double whammy

I have exceeded my pictures quotas so from now on I will try to post on the eurotrip album

sorry guys !!

 

[Leif Almberg]

have you looked into Photobucket as a photo storage?
simple to upload. rather big quota, fast and good!

 

[albertaduke]

have you looked into Photobucket as a photo storage?
simple to upload. rather big quota, fast and good!

just going to check the photobucket hosting as of right now
thanks Leif

 

[albertaduke]

here is a link to see a lot more pictures about the euro trip if it works I will bring here all the pictures I have on the computer

 

[albertaduke]

thanks leif but I found picasa a bit easier to link to
the last batch of pictures..

 

[albertaduke]

friday 06 th (tomorrow for me)

will be departing from zazuar via soria and bunch of small towns with unpronounceable names but with nice roads now that I have found a way to post more pictures I will snap my shutter.more often I plan of stopping for the night at the top of the pyrennee in andorra small independant principality where sales tax do not exist and maybe do some shopping i see on the net that there is a big bike shop . the ride will be about 400miles starting at 7.30 am finishing at about 4pm
another day in Paradise.

 

[albertaduke]

Friday routing zazuar-soria-agreda-tarazona-gallur- tauste- egea de los caballeros –huesca-barbastro-benabarre- tremp-sort-la seu d’urgell- Andorre-porta . 400 miles and change

I left this morning at 7.30 am in 40 degrees farenheit I froze my face ,my fingers , and my feet, I must be T,I. Folks, one should always remember that regardless of peak temperature, mornings, altitude and evening can be quite different and I am the fool to prove it. Anyway by noon things got better .and not too soon.
In spain Storks do nest on churches’steeples and it is always a big nest, however cemeteries from small villages are… small very small indeed.
the first three hours I rode through a beautiful forest which the national electric company called Iberdrola has seen fit to change by cutting all the trees and planting those ugly windmills, they are everywhere, and sometime for a change of scenery we get solar power factories, , but fear not we get the castles ,, on every knolls it seems.
I stopped for a bite and I could not pass up the lady with the shopping cart, cute never seen one like that .

then I got into the foothills of the Pyrenees and I shot as many pictures as I could taking into consideration the road hazards etc..etc some of the small villages you see were abandoned (and I lost some great shots trying to move the pictures to picasa sorry)
but you get the feeling from the one I managed to save .
then I crossed the border into Andorra that small entity smack in the mountain , used to be a fiscal paradise now it is just a tourist trap with ridiculous prices for everything (5 pictures of downtown andorra la vella ) I had thought of sleeping there but when I looked at room rate I jumped back on the beast and kept goingmatter of fact right behind the big semi I shot going downhill. these guys are truly very good drivers , to negotiate the mountains passes and sometimes tiptoeing through the single lane in small villages man oh man !! too bad I lost the shot of the truck missing a mailbox on a door by inches !!!! The last eight shots are of the village of Porta where I stay for the night back on the french side and I love these small villages with small villages values the plastic bag beside the doorways is for the baker to deliver the fresh bread in the morning …and the map’s picture showing the yellow road is the first 150 miles of tomorrow’s ride from porta to Coudoux near Marseille.http:

pictures of the day on the link below

 

[albertaduke]

Porta to Montpellier(not coudoux) via the cerdagne valley left at UR up to font- romeu along the D618 to mont louis then left to Axat, right turn along D117 till saint paul de fenouillet left to rennes les bains right turn to mouthhoumet narbonne and Montpellier. Total mileage 280 and yes it took me all day to do that .

Got up in porta around 7 am
the sky in the Carol valley is already shining on the peaks of both side of this narrow valley the air is crisp after the usual coffee milk French baguette with butter I am ready to press the button on the right handlebar.
The hotel’s owner takes lots of bikers ‘in and he knows the region well so when he suggested a different road for part of my ride I said YES absolutely, after a few miles I was feeling exhilaratind good and when I turned to follow his road advice I realized that the locals really do know better than any computer map ,google or whatever is on the stupid screen we carry
I must say after a month on and off the road today was the best ever so far for everything a rider enjoy crisp clear and fresh air hardly any traffic, good pavement , unbelievable scenery, friendly locals, and unexpected situations which made me a believer that humans are not all bad and stupid. That is why my day was only 280 miles but I enjoyed all the hours on and off the bike.
after going to the very first world solar powered furnace providing electric power to the region I met on that road ( near font romeu a bunch of hand gliders doing their thing . it was around 11.00am some real gliders were flying over our heads around 8000 feet and the boys with the soft wings were getting ready I snapped a few pictures and some ladies seating there invited me to share in the local cheese and rose wine while looking at the goofy husbands trying their hands at handgliding .

Later I stopped at a village called fromigueres where a farmer’s market was in full swing all over the place and spontaneous old folks ( my age I guess) started dancing in front of the village church .
sat down with a beer and saussisson sandwich and watched the action .
I rode after the village a very narrow valley with a river called AUDE this is the region where the cathares People tried in 1240 to show the rest of the known world the benefit of Christianity without pope , priest and the whole enchilada well 200 years later they all but disappeared killed by the pope’armies what else never mess with authority . what is only left of that lofty adventure are a couple of medieval castle some like Queribus castle which must have been built with skycrane helicopters seeing where they are located . moving along I rode for one solid hour in that valley surrounded by trees without seeing a living being at the end a small hydro plant running on automatic was the first sign of civilization . I spoke to a very old man fishing there and lo and behold he was in Canada in his younger years. we shared some saussisson what else! and while he went to his moped to retrieve the ever present red wine bottle,( I love this lifestyle!! ). I held his fishing pole …and caught a fish .. a small insignificant fish but a fish nevertheless that we threw back in the water, the wine was not the finest but the feeling was genuine . I again left for the road passing by the perpeyrtuse catahare castle . realizing the time of day I cut the last 50 miles of twisties and hit the toll road perpignan montpellier where the worst of modern world caught up with me. Tomorrow on to coudoux north of Marseille to meet a good old friend and soak up the sun in his swimming pool.

 

[albertaduke]

sunday 08th august suburbs of industrial montpellier to coudoux small village north of the berre lake just west of marseille.

since today was going to be a half day ride I decided to go via the famous Camargue region rather than hit the congested highway.
the camargue is known for its pink flamingos, its famous rice , bulls ,(for bullfights) and small horses. the place is a delta where the rhone river separate in three arms and flows into the mediterranee sea.
typically water fowls, low lying waters, fishing boats and saltflats .are the main features
the local ranches are called manades they raise white bulls for bullfights and breed a special kind ofsmall white horses .
in today's world civilization is slowly encroaching on this pristine region. what I remember from 30 years ago is different from what I see now .tourists everywhere, noise, pollution etc,
I did not like what I saw hence just a few pictures .and an early exit
the aigues-morte village at the mouth of one rhone arm was the site on which a famous french king in 1100 or so departed for the first holy crusade to the holy land the walled in village is still there with the tower but the trafffic is diminishing the beauty of the place.in a few week all tourist ill be gone and the place will return to normal.for me the best I can do today is to rest in the pool at my buddy's place
.tomorrow i will go back to aix en provence(gt more cash)and then on to antibes and nice where we are planning some rides in the mountains again including a three days in switzerland.
bye for now


,

 

[Hardy]

Patrick wonderfull trip and good reportage. I commented at some of the pics. You missed two nice spots just at the road. After the Gorges de Georges you should have seen the even better Link Removed

And the Link Removed. But this can be saved for the next time.

And BTW the brown ice in Spain is even bigger! Here is a fresh one. See my size 13 sneekers and compare the size of this brownie ...oh my god.