We next started back northward to the coast and hoped for better conditions. The roads traversed beautiful mountainous areas, and we arrived in Santillana del Mar, a medieval town with a well-preserved town square that houses a Paradores hotel.
In Spain, Paradores are historic lodgings owned by the state that are usually in scenic areas. They also typically have on-site restaurants that serve authentic local cuisine. The Paradores de Santillana Gil Blas was our base for a few days while we thawed out, dried out, and started to embrace northern Spain. We also got a chance to see the recreations of the Paleolithic cave drawings at the Caves of Altamira. The actual caves are closed to the public for preservation, but we got to see the replica at the Altamira Museum.
After our stay in Santillana del Mar, we made our first ride into the Picos de Europa. The roads were very twisty and incredibly beautiful with scenery that went on and on. However, the weather was cold, there was road construction and most of us did not want to spend a lot of time off the bike looking at the surroundings. As I had researched prior to the trip, there were only a few hotels that were open at this time of year to pick from, and we settled on one near Riano. Riano is near a beautiful reservoir and at high altitude. In the summer, it would be a wonderful place to use as a base for day rides.
From Riano we headed north on N-625 traversing the Picos to the North. Then we took a westward swing with the hopes that we would eventually get ourselves well situated to get into Northern Portugal. However, we were making a lot less progress than I had predicted. As my routes had us avoiding cities and areas of congested traffic, we stayed on a lot of secondary roads which had much lower speed limits.
Additionally, the weather was not getting any better. We overnighted in Grado, just west of Oviedo, in a small bed and breakfast where we were the only guests and then in Vilalba where we stayed in another Paradores built in a medieval tower. It was here that we entered the province of Galicia and enjoyed the regional cooking found here.
Because our progress was slower than I had hoped and the weather was really holding us back, I punted our plans and accepted that we would only see Spain this trip. Our next destination was Santiago de Compostela, and this would be our western-most destination. But we made a slight detour to see the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Tower of Hercules in A Coruna. It is the oldest known Roman lighthouse still standing and was built in the 1st century.
And it was here that we had our most fun SDF experience of the trip. SDF stands for “Spyder Delay Factor”: a phrase we coined when people see our riding machines but do not know exactly what they are. These people feel compelled to ask about them and kids always want to sit on them. This happened in A Coruna with a family that had four kids and all of them wanted to sit on the Spyders at once!
We spent two nights in Santiago as we just had to tour the cathedral, which is a part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. It is a significant religious hub and its Old Town, where the Cathedral is located, is another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
At this point, we were all worn down by the weather. We called Paul at Celtic Rider and found out it was warm and sunny in Ireland. Was he kidding? No! So, we agreed to start heading back to our starting point in Bilbao and get the ferry back to Ireland early so we could do a little riding there to warm up.
It took us four days, travelling about 150 miles each day, to get back to the city of Bilbao. It was brutal and on the last day before the city we even rode through snow and hail! I give my crew a big applause and lots of appreciation for putting up with the conditions. In Bilbao, we stayed two nights and visited the amazing Guggenheim museum there as it was on Bell’s bucket list of places to visit.
The ferry back to Ireland was uneventful and we had four glorious riding days in Southern Ireland where we got to ride through Waterford, Cork, Kenmare, and Tipperary before returning the bikes to Celtic Rider. We rode the Ring of Kerry including the Gap of Dunloe and even visited the Waterford Crystal factory. It was a grand time back in Ireland! We were also able to partake of the famous “Full Irish Breakfast” every morning!
So, is this area of Spain worth visiting on motorcycle? I would say unequivocally yes with the caveat that you have to expect it to be a bit rougher than other places where motorcycle touring is more common. The roads are phenomenal, but the support services for tourism are sparse. If you don’t mind a 1-star accommodation with winding steps up to your room on some nights, consider it worth your time.
Would I do this trip again? Probably not. I think that the logistics of getting Spyders to Spain are too difficult to overcome and I don’t think I would have wanted to be riding a BMW or other 2-wheeler on some of the mountainous roads we traversed. Everyone had a grand time and there were no accidents so, from that perspective, it was a success. What more can I say? Any trip where the riding buddies are flexible can be made fun if you allow yourself to just roll on the gas, keep smiling as the view goes by, and enjoy it all! Even if that view is accompanied by rain!
