Already half way, now done! - Christopher Columbus Tour (13.03. - 23.03.2011)
19 Mär 2012
Due to a technical problem we were not able to tell you out there how good the trip was so far. Allready almost a week ago we mounted our bikes on a wonderful spring morning in Malaga and headed towards the coastal mountains. Great roads, great scenery and a great group!
One of the many good roads ...
From the left: Hubert, Frank, Ingrid and Kit
Frank, Joe and Kit from US and Hugh from Canada were facing Hubert from Germany and the three Austrians Walter, Gottfried and Ingrid. The language barriere was no issue after the third evening anymor, were we did a short tour of Sevilla's tapas bars. Our second day turned out to become a hiking day - but we visited most of the mjor sights of Sevilla. Some tapas bars in the evening and some flamenco made it a perfect day.
The group taking a break at Placa di Espania
From tapas bar to tapas bar
Leaving Sevilla next morning we ewere heading for Portugal. Not to mention all the good roads we've been on, in the late afternoon, after Angelas excellent picnic, we took a ferry over to Portugal to get to our destination Faro.
Next morning Angela took the lead. A short briefing and of we headed into the Sierra de Monchique - endless curves and great views. Cabo Sao Vicente, Europes most Southwestern Point impressed with steep cliffs and rough sea. Boosted with another picnic, this time by Markus, and inspired by the surfers, we surfed through cork oak forrests to Santiago de Cajem.
While Angela briefed the group......
......the storks were busy too
Lisboa is waiting for us! Curvy roads for the morning sport and a relaxed ride afterwards took us to Troja, were we got on the ferry to Setubal. Exploring the town with a short walk we headed after a lunch at the beach towards Cabo Espichel. From there it was only a short trip to Portugal's capital. But instead of taking the bridge we aproached the town by ferry across the Tejo.
Cabo Espichel
Boarding the ferry across the Tejo
Today we explored Lisboa by tram, by elevator and - mostly - by foot. Bairro Alto, Baixa, Alfama, Belem - we have been all over the city! There is just too much to see in this great place!
Placa di Commercial
Torre de Belem
The time we spend in Lisboa was way to short! The buzzling city has so many things to offer that you could stay a week at least. But we had to leave and so we took the Vasco da Gama bridge across the Tejo. It is one of Europe's longest road bridges across a river.
Later in the day we were surprised by a stop at a cartodrom - a gocart race track. Motorcycling vanished out of our mind for 10 minutes - the race was on!
Vasco da Gama Bridge
Ingrid ready to race......
...and chase her husband Gottfried
After staying over night in Zafra we headed for Cordoba. Due do the fact, that there were curves after curves and asphalt from excellent to almost non existing, we couldn't take our hands of the handle bars to take pictures. We reache dCordoba in time to stroll the town and visit the famouse Mesquita.
Welcome back to Andalusia
Inside Mesquita
Our last day was not a chill out after a week of great riding - it was another challenging and great riding day! last curves through the Malaga Mountains took us back to our starting point. After the farwell to our bikes it is time to party now!