Day 17
After spending a few days with a friend in Aix En Provence I said my goodbyes to him and headed for the Spanish border. Leaving Aix En Provence I headed West on the D7N, D572 and D6572 to Montpellier. The journey was pleasant enough in the early morning sun but these roads were too urbanised for my liking so, after circumventing Montpellier I took a short trip West on the A750 motorway until I found the D908 that headed West through the Languedoc National park area. This was a stunning road to ride in the warm early afternoon sunshine. Lots of beautiful scenery, very few cars on the road and the odd picturesque village to stop in and admire.
Again, keeping off the motorways, I slowly wandered my way across this part of France, South of Toulouse in the direction of Tarbes. The empty scenic roads were great to ride along in the winter sunshine, however, as much as I was enjoying it I also needed to find a place to stop for the night. I eventually found a reasonably priced hotel in the town of Lourdes for around 30 Euros for the night and headed there, hoping to arrive before nightfall. It was just getting dark when I arrived and the temperature had dropped significantly. Once I got in to my hotel, I had a warm shower and then headed out for a coffee. Whilst drinking my coffee I began to shiver despite the fact that I was warm. It was a weird sensation. I decided to head back to my hotel and went to bed but I suddenly felt cold and was unable to heat up. I realised that I had a fever so I piled on extra bedding and tried to get to sleep.
Day 18
The next morning the fever had gone and I was feeling normal again so after a quick coffee I packed the bike and headed for Spain. Leaving Lourdes I headed for Pau on the D940. It was cold but sunny, however that did not last long as a big bank of cloud swept in from the Bay of Biscay. As the sun disappeared the temperature fell and it got much colder. I shouldn’t really complain about it as it was February and I was lucky enough to be doing this instead of going to work, but I really hate cold weather now that I am older. Anyway, along with the cloud came a little light rain, the roads got a little greasy and my speed slowed in response. From Pau I took the D817 to Bayonne and then the D810 along the coast to the Spanish border.
Earlier that morning I had envisioned myself taking a break in some picturesque coastal town, sipping coffee in the sun looking out at the Ocean, however somehow even such inviting places are diminished by cloudy and wet weather so I kept on going. Entering Spain at Behobia was uneventful enough except that a French police checkpoint at the border prevented me from stopping to take a photograph of the signpost. Taking the N636 I pushed on passing Donostia-San-Sebastian where I picked up the main Northern coastal road, the N634. At this point the rain stopped and the cloud started to break up with the sun breaking through it now and again. This road leaves the coast just after San Sebastian and winds in to the hills only to drop back on to the coast just before Bilbao. This road was in places, very twisty and passes through some dramatic and spectacular scenery. It rises and falls as it hugs the contour of the rugged coastline. I just had to stop and take while to soak up some of this.
After dawdling for a while a passing Spanish biker on a Suzuki GS500 saw me parked up and stopped for a conversation. Between my Spanish and his English we managed to work out what each other was saying. It turned out this was his favourite local road for a blast and when he saw my bike parked up he did a u turn to investigate. After saying goodbye I continued West on the N634 and as I approached Gijon I took the N632 in to the city where I decided to spend the night at a small older hotel that sat not far from the seafront which at 30 Euros was good value.
Day 19
Gijon, a city that I had never been to before, was a pleasant surprise to me. It still had an older and quainter part that I liked but the more modern part seemed to blend better with the older part than in other Spanish towns that I had been to. I had risen early and I took advantage of this to explore Gijon near to my hotel and in the early morning light it was quite spectacular.
I then packed the bike and was about to set off but I couldn’t resist to take a photo of the bike parked in front of the hotel bathed in early morning sunshine.
I then left Gijon and again took the N632 along the coast and rejoined the N634 at Cueva. The weather was mixed. Banks of coastal sea fog rolling on to the North coast combined with some low cloud over the mountains to the South made for a cool start to the day but by mid morning the sun had burned most of this away and it was a bright sunny day. An hour or so later I turned South on to the N640 in the direction of Lugo. Climbing up over the mountains I again hit some low cloud that for a time lowered the temperature but once on the decline it vanished and the temperature rose quickly.
Lugo is completely surrounded by an ancient and presumably restored Roman wall complete with gates meaning that the centre of the town can only be accessed after passing through one of these gates. I entered the city through the North gate only to find a turning area allowing cars to drop off people in to the pedestrianised city centre. Again unable to leave my bike unattended, I went back through the North gate and circumvented Lugo on the road that follows the course of the city walls where I eventually found the CG-22 and headed South in the direction of Monforte De Lemos. Just before reaching it I turned West on to the N120a and a few miles later I arrived at the home of my friend where I would stay for a while. By the end of the evening I was sitting on the balcony of my friend’s home sipping a coffee and enjoying the sunset whilst my mind wandered over the journey that I had just completed and where I intended to go next on my journey.