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Head west young - old - young man !

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It’s time to leave Gibraltar with it’s cacophony of English voices and head to the most westerly point of the whole of Europe. And of course we were so close to Africa 





But first we have to now get to Portugal. A click of the fingers and there it is -



And then we enter the Algarve 



With tens of thousands of British tourists stranded there as a result of the Thomas Cook travel collapse in the UK this is not a happy place 

There is some useful signage on the road of how to ride a motorbike. Note to self - must practice riding on the front wheel only when following a car 



We stay at Faro on the Algarve - a forgettable town with a forgettable hotel.

Then next day it is on through Lisbon and out to Cabo del Roca - the most westerly point in Europe. The little rock  there is the most westerly tip of the tip of Europe 



And the  Cape  itself







And there are lots of self congratulations  as this is the most westerly point of Europe and therefore the most West   from Vladivostok in Russia. We have now crossed from the most easterly point of the Asia/Europe land mass to the most westerly point which is about 22,000 km and three and a half months on the route we have taken. 

However there is still work to be done! Back in the office it is and we head up th the delightful seaside town of Nazaré where we catch up with our ex Queenstown American friends ( not our ex friends !)  - Ann and Joe - who are also travelling thru Portugal at the moment. Nazere is a quaint old town and the old Portuguese town designers made the streets nicely suitable for motorcycles. Such foresight !   We have a delightful night with Ann and Joe. 



Then it is back into Spain to head up to Santiago de Compostela which is the end point of the famous Camino pilgrims walk 

As we travel up we try to beat the on coming rain which seems to be ahead of us 



But then I realise that I didn’t really have to worry. You see , Santiago de Compostela is quite hilly. And as I was told when I was young - 

                                                                   “ The Rain in Spain stays mainly on the Plain” 

That reminds me of a true story I recalled as I rode along. . . A number of years ago when the King of Spain - King Carlos - was a young man he took up flying aeroplanes.  He got his commercial pilots licence and flew passenger planes. He spent so much time flying that there was concern in Spain by some people  that he was so preoccupied  with his flying that he was neglecting  his princely duties. An English language newspaper took him to task and came up with this headline -

                                                                       “ The Reign of Spain stays mainly in his Plane” 

Sorry about that one folks ! 

And thus having sorted this out in my head we fight with the rush hour traffic of Santiago de Compostela. Perhaps this walking idea is not a bad one ! 





               










Comments

Mark said…
Well done you two. I love the concept of that east-west journey. Shiny side up for the rest of your trip.
26 September 2019 at 17:27
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