Mark and Steve were suffering from a lack of sleep due to Tim's 'sleep noises'. While we were packing Tim decided to learn Portuguese, he'd heard of a new technique where you repeat each word 14 times and then it sticks. He'd chosen 3 phrases; 'thank you', 'I would like', and 'menu'. Part way through his repetitions he stopped to ask which was which again. 30 seconds later he'd forgotten all of them.
We went to the bikes to put the bags on and this is where the first failure occurred, Tim's key wouldn't go in his ignition, after much wiggling and shouting it started working and we were on our way to Portugal. However both Marks and Tim's radios had stopped working so we were all going to be without commas for the day.
The traffic lights leaving Vigo were mental, they randomly flash orange then just turn red, it's like the drivers are on a constant reaction test, not that any of them stop for the lights of course. This is when Mark discovered that his horn had stopped working.
It was an eight hour ride ahead which would be a test for us, it involved some quick roads, a ferry and some twisties. We were soon out of Vigo riding along a nice coastal road when we thought we'd stop for some brunch at a small seaside town.
We parked the bikes and ordered the menu, some OJ, and coffee. What we got instead was a diet coke and a bottle of wine. Steve quickly ordered some toast for us, but the waiter just brought him some. Just when we thought we'd mastered ordering in Spanish...
After breakie we jumped back on the bikes to find that Steve's BMW wouldn't start, so we spent 5 mins pushing and prodding everything and it suddenly burst into life. Mark's horn had started working again though, but his LCD screen had gone a different colour. The bikes were definitely not liking the heat.
We ragged it to the ferry port before anything else broke only to find that the ferry wasn't running until 5pm due to the water being too low, as it was about 1pm we didn't fancy waiting so we found an alternative route and went on our way.
We then entered the realm of awesome roads, starting in a narrow windy road up and around a mountain. Not a car in sight, in fact there was nothing for some time so we took the opportunity of stopping at the first cafe that we could.
The cafe was run by hill billies who made us quite welcome, probably because they hadn't seen a white person before and we were riding some kind of magical jet cycle. We had some ice creams and went on our way when Steve's bike failed to start again. We tried everything and nothing would work so we wheeled it into a cow shed to cool down with the help of the locals. In the end we poured a gallon of water over it and it started, the locals saw this as taming a dragon.
More great roads followed, in fact, the best yet, fast flowing constant bends, it's a shame that we had the luggage on the bikes which meant we couldn't push that hard. More footage will be uploaded shortly.
We went through a very pretty national park and then went down the steepest hill ever, we took a wrong turn and as we were turning around Tim's leather jacket zip broke. The holiday had taken its toll on that suit, earlier he had ripped his trousers and now the top, at this rate he'll be riding home in his pants.
One last pit stop for a drink before pushing on to Porto. The temperature was about 32c which isn't fun in leathers. Another thing went wrong, while sat down Steve's knee slider fell off, the adhesive had melted in the sun, it was that hot.
Back on the road we had about 40km to go and we hit traffic, it was tough to filter properly as the roads were narrow and the Portuguese are not that bike friendly. This party of the journey nearly killed us, the bike temps were well over 100c which was soaking through to us and with the slow speeds we couldn't cool down.
While filtering, Steve's bike cut out, luckily he cold make it to the side of the road and it started again fairly easily, but it really showed how tough a time the sports bikes were having.
Finally, finally, we got to Porto and found the hotel (it wasn't easy), we ditched the bags and Tim got directions for the secure parking, 'Take the first right, then the second right' is what he was told. Yea, that didn't work and we were pushed into a one way system and lost in the city with no sat nav. With luck and google maps we eventually found the hotel again. We then corrected the womans directions. To get to the parking you go right, then the second right, then up the wrong way of a triple lane one way street, then p a pavement, over a junction and you're there. I don't know how we went wrong the first time at all!
The hotel is pretty rubbish, it's down a small quiet alley next to some empty bars. Inside the rooms are tiny and you're only allowed two hangers each. The shower door is broken and the toilet roll dispenser is the other side to the toilet, so you need to plan ahead.
None of this mattered, all that did were cold showers. We actually had two rooms between the three of us. It was a unanimous agreement that Tim should have his own room as he likes to spread out. Also mark and Steve might actually get some sleep.
Beers were necessary, so we tried the bar next door who only sold beer in 20cl glasses, so about half a can of coke. Rubbish. After a few of those we moved on to a busy ar that sold proper pints. We also had some meals there which came to about £20, we're liking Porto after all.
The ride today had been 11 hours so we were tired and decided to go back to the hotel. This is where we found that our quiet little street had turned into Marde Gras and it was the centre of the cities entertainment. The bars had spewed out into the street and the music was pumping, so we thought it would be silly to go back to our rooms and settled on a night cap.
Tim ordered what appeared to be paraffin in a glass, so much so that the fumes blinded you as you raised the glass to drink from it. Mark had a decent measure of Baileys and Steve had a glass of red.
Finally we hit the hay, the noise from outside bled into the rooms, but it was still quieter than Tim, plus it couldn't go on that long surely... it turns out that they turn the music off a little after 6am.
No comments:
Post a Comment