Hubbard Motorcycle Adventures

And this can surely only be London - But again lets go back a bit to San Sebastián. Here is a sign on San Sebastian beach that had me amused. . I spent 15 minutes memorising  what I was allowed to do and not do. Them - oh dear - I suddenly farted !  I quickly looked at the sign again to see if that was allowed or not allowed. And it was not even  covered by the list of permitted or non permitted activities ! . We then have a nice short100km ride from San Sebastián to Le Mont St Michel - the iconic abbey that is almost immortalised as a symbol of la belle France. And it is breathtaking  And inside is fascination to see all the layers of development over about 1000 years  Glad I don’t have to ride a motorcycle up these streets   In the castle they have giant wooden wheels near the top. They used to put prisoners inside the big wooden wheels ( the island was a prison for about 60 years ) to make the wheels turn and thus lift loads up into the castle. If ...

But firstly you have to like this - says it all really  Anyway back to Santiago de Compostela. We visit the famous cathedral where lots and lots and lots of happy walkers are gathered in the courtyard  Regal buildings  As we head East  there are Camino walkers everywhere  And the Camino trail itself  We stay at a town on the Camino trail  Then w head to Bilbao - home of the famous Guggenheim museum. It does not disappoint. Stunning architecture that is impossible to capture on camera.  So having had our shot of culture we do a short hop down the road to San Sebastián where there is a shot of culture of a different kind  It is quite incongruous to see determined Camino walkers with their packs and walking sticks walking at a determined pace on the promenade next to all the topless sunbathers on the beach who are - dare I say it - “ basqueing “ in the sun !   And to finish off on that note from the ladt  post where I talked about “ T...

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 mo...

We leave Luchon and ride through  Pyrenees to Andorra. As we ride  we cross three mountain passes -  And pass nice Spanish villages  We get to Andorra  Now about Andorra. It is an independent country. It has a population of 77,000. The official language is Catalan. It is very small and the people live just in one tight valley. The town was established by Charlemagne yonks ago Because Andorra sits between France and  Spain and sits in a valley between the two it’s main activity was smuggling up until the formation of the E.U.  And here are two interesting statistics. Firstly Andorra has the highest average life expectancy for males in Europe. Secondly it has the highest annual per capital cigarette consumption in Europe ( 6397 cigarettes per person per year )  Go figure that one!  Then after Andorra we head down the coast to Valencia. Yes, there are Valencia orange groves in Valencia ! And the famous Caletrava architecture  South, south ...

There is not much you can say about them really. But we travelled on about 6 different motorway systems as we moved from one side of France to the other over two days  So we leave Chamonix and head down the  valley to the start of the motorway system.  Then 4 motorway systems and 7 hours later including the very busy (and fast )  motorway from Marseilles to the Spanish border  we come off the motorway system and head into the true French countryside  We come to a roundabout and there are the famous French Yellowshirts having a little protest ( as you do in France)  But the French country roads are delightful. So quintessentially French I almost start singing the Marseillaise !  As are the lanes  And the villages. Note to self - must get a black beret !  We stay at a wonderful restored French farmhouse that has been converted to a small boutique hotel. I like to think of it as a micro chateau!  It was superbly restored and just as i...