After about 5 mins sleep due to the snoring twins it was time to get up, partly because it was breakfast time and partly because the room stunk so badly we had to get out before our lungs dissolved.
We then went for our free breakfast, it should have cost £7 but got a deal when we booked. It's a good job really because it mostly consisted of a raw hash brown, some bean juice and a portion of salmonella.
We then were going through the Bay of Biscay where you often see dolphins and whales, in fact the viewing is normally so good some people take the ferry just for the whale watching. Obviously we didn't see anything, not even a newt.
An hour later it was time to prep the bikes. For some reason they were 45 mins late letting us off the ferry so it was like a sauna. It was quite an orderly system with the ferry crew waving you out in turn. Tim got bored of this so we just cut everyone up and made our escape.
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| The sweat box. |
Just off the ferry despite all of our planning, two of the radios have failed, Marks had no battery despite charging all night and Steves had no mic. Off we went anyway for approx 2 mins before we needed a break, we'd stopped at a tiny bar type place full of people who apparently hadn't seen a motorcycle before, we ordered some drinks and ice cream and they gave us free olives and crisps. Tim didn't want to leave as he's partial to the odd freebie.
On to the mountain roads and they were as good as we remembered, lots of twisters and switchbacks, all pot hole free and no traffic. If Carlsberg made roads...
After a couple of piss stops we ended up in a picturesque town where we could try on suits of armour and have more ice creams. The place really was gorgeous but also deserted, we've no idea where it is but recommend it!
It was then a short hop to Bilboa, our destination for the day courtesy of Cheesy so we checked in and freshened up.
We decided to see what Bilbao was all about so Steve led us on a 45 minute route march across the city climaxing at the Guggenheim museum which is the weirdest building ever. Steve has been going on about this place since we first thought about doing this trip so he wasn't impressed to the point of crying to find out that it's closed on Mondays, the only day we're here.
It was getting on for beer'o'clock so we stopped at a bar for one, they only had Heineken which was disappointing although it wasn't like Heineken back home and was actually quite nice. Following this Tim called the shots, he'd seen a ribs restaurant earlier so it was a case of retreading our steps back there. It's worth saying at this point that Bilboa has some gorgeous architecture but for some reason we decided to eat in inside the darkest restaurant we could find.
We had the giant Godzilla mega combo mofo platter between the four of us which consisted of so much meat we could've rebuilt the cow. We also ordered several buckets of beer which had a novel built in bottle opener. We couldn't figure that out though so the waiter showed us and spilt half the bottle over himself. He the came back with a normal opener.
Full up we headed to a more lively district to find some lively bars. We found one, as it turns out that Monday nights aren't that popular for getting smashed but as most of the Spanish don't have jobs they have nothing better to do. We ordered some gin and vodka based drinks that were served in oversized wine glasses but the barman kept getting the orders wrong and ended up throwing half of them away.
On to the next bar which was full of Germans, they were all merry because Germany had beaten Ronaldo 4-0. We talked to these guys for a bit and had a laugh, they'd been told that the English are good to drink with so we tried not to disappoint.
The Germans hadn't heard the rule about not mentioning the war and kept going on about his grandfather who was shot seven times, two grenade wounds and stabbed with a bayonet once. He died after the first bullet mind, but he felt that he had to tell us several times. He also told us that the war was finished by the English giving the Germans a bowl of pea soup, must have missed that one when we learned history.
Following feedback from yesterday's blog entry we were given the challenge of learning a new swear word, so we asked a German. He told us of the word "Hurensohn", we don't know what it means but apparently it was so bad that if it was said to his friend then it would start World War 3. He did go on to say that as we're English he'd then lose WW3 but he may beat us at football. Next challenge please.
We also met a suicidal Ukranian called Schlucha, he was so depressed as he also wanted to tour Europe on a motorbike. Tim fixed this by just telling him to get a motorbike and then go on holiday, a concept he hadn't considered before so he was a bit happier after that. Hope he doesn't choose Russia as a destination though.
Today's piss stop tournament was won 3-2 by Cheesy.
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