We are pretty excited as it is finally time to go back to Spain to continue traveling on the Falcon. He has been safe and sound in the garage of our friend Modesto in Mojacar Playa, which is in the south of Spain.
The long journey started with a 15 minute walk from our house in Victoria to the BC transit express bus to the ferry. We arrived on time and on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon to catch the 2 pm sailing to Tsawwassen . The BC transit bus is also waiting at the terminal on this side and you arrive to the Bridgeport Skytrain station in just under an hour. We are staying at the River Rock, which is across the street from the station and so it’s a quick trip to YVR in the morning.
It was a drizzly morning when we set out for the airport for our 1 pm flight. Security was pretty quick except I was sent to secondary for inspection of the oil filters for the 1250 that I didn’t think to pull out separately. We were there pretty early and even ran into some old friends Jag and Badna Ubhi, who coincidentally are on the same flight as us from YVR to Paris.
Overseas flights from the west coast leave in the early afternoon and are 9 to 10 hours and so it’s difficult to sleep and you often arrive a bit of a wreck. Our flight was late so our layover shrank to 40 minutes. This meant we had to run across the entire airport, go thru security again as well as pass thru Schengen customs. Luckily we only had carry on luggage and Canadian passport holders can use the automated machines like Schengen passport holders instead of standing in the huge customs line like everyone else. We then ran to the last gate and managed to get on board before the last call. Then just an hour and a half flight to Madrid.
It’s raining in Madrid too and kind of gloomy, but at least we got lounge access and can have showers during our 4 hour wait. The flight to Almeria is under and hour and was a bit turbulent. We were so happy to see Modesto when he picked us up at the airport , which was going over and above since it is about 90 km from his house.
We were warmly greeted by Kata and well fed before we absolutely crashed at 9 pm. We are staying here for the weekend and our only plans are to get over the jet lag and hang out with the “family”. The weather here is perfect it’s sunny and 23 degrees. Their apartment is on the waterfront with a beautiful view and cooling sea breezes.
We had ordered new tires and had them delivered to a friend of Modesto’ s who runs Tyre King here in the village. Dan also did a GS 911 checkup and all systems are good.
Sunday we did a ride out with Modesto and some British guys from his riding club. We left the house 9 am and returned at 8 pm, but this included a typical 2 hour menu del dia of large plates of food in the tiny village of Benizalón. We spent the day going up and down mountain passes. There was essentially no traffic even on this sunny Sunday. We even managed to try out the new drone, which battled the windy mountain top conditions.
Watch the VIDEO PART 1:
https://youtu.be/elhz7MIJVFw?si=mzJylsbU-gK2PyKt
Watch the VIDEO PART 2:
https://youtu.be/HkDPowWaBKs?si=c3NjG0SvnoaH4BB1
Today we are traveling north 424 km to Valencia, because it’s about half way to the ferry dock in Barcelona. The route was a bit shorter time than expected since there was construction of the more inland Libre road and so there was a detour with no toll on the Peaje. We set out on another beautiful 20 degree day which was spent essentially on the highway. Spanish drives might drive fast, but they are not chaotic and are very courteous. We made good time and arrived before 2. Our hotel is a 25 min walk from the historic Center, but only a km from the motorbike shop where we are having the oil changed. We dropped the bike off after their 2-4 pm siesta and it will be ready by 1030 am. Now it’s time for a menu del dia!
As promised the bike was ready at 1030. This is a super nice shop and they even threw in a brake check and turned off the service light at no charge. This gave us a casual morning for an el frescos breakfast before the 348 km drive to the Grimaldi dock at the port of Barcelona. We spent most of the day on the AP7 and the truck traffic is incredible, but again highway driving here is not at all stressful. About 150 km away we got onto a secondary road and eventually found somewhere for lunch at about 4. The last 60 km into the city there was quite a bit of traffic especially the last 15 km on the Ronda Litoral. Barcelona has a strict Emissions zone and you need a permit to drive there or risk a 200E fine. It’s basically is the entire city from 7 am to 8 pm. The Ronda Litoral is the border which everyone uses as its permit free. Despite that the flow was courteous and we made it to the port plenty early.
The boat is supposed to embark from Dock F3 at 2145 and you have to be there at least 2 hours before. We arrived at 6 and were not the first bike. Most of the 8 others arrived before 7. Check in is easy you ride up as directed and the attendant tells you where to park. You then go inside with your printed e ticket and they give you your boarding passes and cabin keys. Then its a long wait while they load an amazing number of cargo trucks, which all have to back on board… takes hours. 11 buses of high school kids showed up and they finally boarded at 830 there looked to be 1000 screaming teens boarding as foot passengers. Apparently the other bikers here said it was the same on their way over and the kids are unsupervised and are up all night screaming and singing in the halls, running up and down and slamming the doors.. should be an interesting night. After several hours of waiting suddenly the staff are “ motos now!” Finally boarding at 930. We all hopped on and followed the pace car to the front of the ferry where trucks are still backing onto the lower level. The cars and bikes have to manoeuvre in and around the other mayhem. We proceeded up a steep ramp to deck 7 and to the designated motorbike spots at the rear of the ship. The cars then followed. There were already hundreds of new cars with sales stickers crammed in on this deck. The staff tie down the bikes so all we had to do was secure our helmets and grab the bag we would need for the next 22 hours.
Watch the VIDEO HERE