Ride to the ATIC-Meeting in Tarifa - Spain

[franken]

Hi all,
yesterday we came back from our 7.500km ride to Tarifa and back. Autsch my ass still hurt. :-)

Heres the outline


First day only highway to make some km. We started in the afternoon just after finishing work. Looking for a hotel in Muehlhouse - all booked. Going on - catched by a rainstorm. Spend a hour at a parking, went on and found a hotel in Belfort.
Next day again highway. down the rhone valley. Spend the night in Narbonne.
Then we start to use small roads and entered the pyrenees. :-)



We reached Castellbo near Andorra and meet one guy from the german LC-8 Forum. So we mad a small tour in the rainy montains.

you guys from the advrider-meeting in Sort will know this area well :-)



skiing?


Time to leaf the pyrenees - we still have some km to go to reach Tarifa. :-(

Passing Zaragossa and heating down to La Mancha.

Space


and green


Sancho, Sancho - these ugly giants. I gonna beat them! Ho Rosinante. Attack.



You can find this mills near Belmonte. There some more villages with lots of them.

After defeating the giants, we went on through the real flat Mancha. It was green.
and red. :-)


Next highlight - Carzola national park. Here the entrance.


First you go up the hills and follow a small road. Then down to a big lake with a nice dam at the end. Round 50km of small curvy roads.
Heres the lake


We spent the night in Granada. The famous town of Alhambra, Sierra Nevada and much more things to see.
On the next pic - no clouds - the snow in the Sierra Nevada. Round 40°C at the parking where we did the pic.


Jumping into the next highlight. Ronda. Very crowded, lots of tourists, but realy nice to watch.
The famous bridge.


Tourists have fun


we too - the first look down to Gilbraltar form Sierra de Ronda


Storks - many of them. Hundrets of them - if they realy deliver the babies - oh my god. :-)


Close to the target. 2 looking to Africa - one to ... the ice-card ;-)


So near - so far away


We arrived at the meeting. 16 Bikes been there. We had a great time together. Riding during the day - party at night. (party was more bbq). Some pics from the 4 day meeting. More pics at the meeting page

Tarifa beach


beach next road


Autsch


don't fall


near trafalgar


bbq


jam jam


off course we did some off-road. Here a open road into the national park.


an other one


more


and one more - dead end after 100m more


we went to Jerez de la Frontera for Sherry and ...


group photo


Tarifa city beach


Tarifa itself


Estepona


Pueblos blancos - the famous white towns in the hills


and some birds looking for dead sheeps or cows.


The Meeting ended. :-((( so went to go on our way back. We went north to Sevilla and on to Cordoba. Then more north to Cijara national park.
Country chances it's face so many times. Spain is so wonderul in doing this. You ride 10 km and it looks differend.




One of the lakes at Cijara Park


Next step direction Madrid. We wont pass the huge city. So went north to Sierra de Gredos. We passed Guadeloupe and its famous church.


other view


a small break in an other town near the Sierra de Gredos.


Then we came close to Madrid. We passed the montains north of Madrid to El Escorial.
View to Madrid area


One of the places of the spanish royals. El Escorial


The King and his family where not there, so we moved on.
Crossing the Guadlajara montains direction Soria.
And again, Landscape changed so often. For maybe 200km we have been up to 1100m above sealevel and we saw this


and this


also this


we changed our rear tire in Soria and went on to reach the Pyrenees again. Before we crossed the Duro area.


The river


This pic is for Aurel. - he know this area well - Bardenas Reales de Navarra


Finaly we reached the pyrenees again. Our way in.


This valley is near Barbastro


Looking down to Tremp - Rain is comming


and catched us 1h later. :-( we made it to Castellbo again, where we meet the most others from the Tarifa Meeting.
Next day a bit off-road again. Following another tour from the adv-rider-Sort-Meeting. :-) --- if you guys watch this report you may know where we are.



next montain


parking


down near Espot


We where stoped by a bicicle race. So we didn't go to Andorra and moved back to Castellbo.
Next day we start the final stages of our way back home. Was a bad start. We passed a dead biker near Boug Madame. Then down to Perpignan. On the way down you pass this fort.


Nice place to watch. Pic Canigou is also near.
To make some km we used the highway till Bollene in the Rhone valley. Then we head up to Gap where we spent the night.

Possible the last day. First lake near Ebrum


Crossing the Montgenevere down to Italy. Short stop at Susa


Again on the highway. Torino - Milano - Como. We left the highway in Como, have been realy good in time, then -- Pfffff -- no air in the back tire. Fuck.
Found a garage. 3 punctures --- fixed after 3 hours (because of tubeless - with tube discussion).

On to Lecco and following lake Como.


In a tunnel a italian car rider wanted to kill me, after his stupid action i wanted to kill him. (i overtook a car - he came from behind close to some cm - he used his horn - i went to the right after passing the car and showed him some fingers - he get in front of me and into the breaks - was close -- Tina stopped me in following him to kill him :-) ).
Next tunnel finnished - Thunderstorm - 30 seconds to get complet wet. FUCK. Also it was dark. At Chiavenna we decide to jump into a Hotel.

Last day. short story.
The view over Chiavenna.


Maloja Pass road


Passing St. Moritz and down to Landeck. Pic short befor Austrian border.


At least Imst - Fernpass - Garmisch - back home.
Wuf - a long ride. A lot of fun.

Andreas + Bettina

[GB]

Excellent ride, report and pics! Beautiful Spain, thanks for posting all those great pics

[ClearwaterBMW]

as was said above
fantastic thread
loved every minute of it

what a great ride you had

[JackL]

Yeah, a great ride. Awfully quick too. I did the Spanish portion of that & it took me weeks. But I was in no hurry.
I can't wait to ride Spain again.

JackL

[Bob]

I always look forward to your reports and incredible photos.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by franken

Next day a bit off-road again. Following another tour from the adv-rider-Sort-Meeting. :-) --- if you guys watch this report you may know where we are.

Yes, I know exactly where you are

Great ride report, thanks for showing us some more of Spain

[Cooltours]

Originally Posted by franken

.... I gonna beat them! Ho Rosinante. Attack.

Lol, yes, that damn' windmill indeed looks like you've beeten the shit out of it;-)
Toller Bericht! Dankschön!

[franken]

Hi all,
thanks for your comments.
@Cooltours: :-) jep - was a short fight. :-)
@Tim: Doin my holidays in this area since 14 years now. :-)
@YackL: Your right, but i had to reach Tarifa and reach home and not soooo much vacation. It's much better to do it slow. (years ago we traveled 6 weeks arround spain and Portugal - wasn't enough time to see all).
@all: if i find some time i may post some more pics.

regards
Andreas + Bettina

[Jonnirocket]

Originally Posted by franken

Hi all,
thanks for your comments.
@Cooltours: :-) jep - was a short fight. :-)
@Tim: Doin my holidays in this area since 14 years now. :-)
@YackL: Your right, but i had to reach Tarifa and reach home and not soooo much vacation. It's much better to do it slow. (years ago we traveled 6 weeks arround spain and Portugal - wasn't enough time to see all).
@all: if i find some time i may post some more pics.

regards
Andreas + Bettina

Hi what sort of miles we you doing per day as we are going fron the UK to Galara southern SPAIN in August this year

[zadok]

Spain looks great. Thanks for the post.

[franken]

Originally Posted by Jonnirocket

Hi what sort of miles we you doing per day as we are going fron the UK to Galara southern SPAIN in August this year

Hi Jonnirocket,
very differend - if we want to cross Spain - 1 day in the north (San Sebastian - Burgos - Salamancha - Portugal) - otherwise 2 days -- Means riding the hole day.

Doing shorter steps will be more fun - but realy depends on what you want to do. In that case we needed to reach Tarifa for our Bike Meeting.

regards
Andreas

[Jonnirocket]

Originally Posted by franken

Hi Jonnirocket,
very differend - if we want to cross Spain - 1 day in the north (San Sebastian - Burgos - Salamancha - Portugal) - otherwise 2 days -- Means riding the hole day.

Doing shorter steps will be more fun - but realy depends on what you want to do. In that case we needed to reach Tarifa for our Bike Meeting.

regards
Andreas

Hi Andreas looks like you had a great trip fab photo's, we will stop in Limoges then down to Somport on the Spanish border, then 2 nights in Alberacin finaly onto Baza will post some pics when we get back.
Keep up the good work

Regards JT