CCC 2303 - Final Christopher Columbus tour of this year !

Day 1 of the tour is there! After a rainy day yesterday, the sun came out this morning and oromised a beautiful day! And it is like that. With 6 persons of our group we were heading out today to downtown Malaga for a walking city tour. Starting at the old central market where we had thenfirst flavor of the real Spanish life, we walked along the beautiful park and seaside of the harbour in Malaga. Then after a coffee we went up to the roof of Malaga to pay a visit to the Gibralfaro and Alcabazar castle. Followed by a nice lunch and saying hello to Pablo Picasso, we made ourselves up for the welcome briefing and welcome dinner

our first riding day started with a beautiful clear sky above the Mediterranean sea. In two groups we started our first part on the highway towards Marbella and from there on the famous road upnto Ronda where we had a nice lunch next to the famous bridge. Our second riding part went through the mountain areas around Zahara de Sierra. A great first opportunity to test our riding skills in the  numerous curves. At the end of the day we arrived on the beautiful city of Sevilla where we will stay two nights.!

After a nice evening and a little sleep in in the morning, a part of  the group decided to go on a restday ride and the rest of the group went into town with the tourguides for a nice city walk. Visiting the royal bullfight arena, the famous Cathedral of Sevilla with the Christopher Columbus tomb, having a good cup of coffee, meeting John Bon Jovi at the terrace ;-)) and  finally walking over the Metropol parasol. After this we had some free hours to stroll around the city before we went with the whole group for a very nice tapas dinner with entertainment of Willie Nelson. And as a final conclusion of the day we went to the famous Los Gallos flamenco theatre which was fabulous. A very nice day in a very nice city!!

Weather was good today. As we had two guides on motorbikes and some wanted to ride more, others to do sightseeing in Faro we went for a short and a long route. The short one direct to the Christoper Columbus Monument, while the others were heading to it trough the mountains. We had lunch in the same beach restaurant, but one group after the other. The group arriving first to Faro went for sightseeing, the others took the ferry to cross the border to Portugal. Sunset followed by diner on roof top restaurant

Another day with perfect wheater was witing for us. First we went to Lagos with its beautiful beaches and cliffs. Further on we went to the southwesternmost point of the european continent, Cabo de Sao Vicente, just impressive there. As we were not able to follow on, we had to go to the north. After a short ride, Gregor was waiting, he prepared the well kown Edelweiss Picknick for us at the top of a cliff. Then heading to Sines where we spent the night in a lovely Hotel with a grat view over the Atlantic Ocean. Cabo de Sao Vicente

Today was a bit hard to leaveour beautiful hotel in Sines. A very good atmospherre and fantastic dinner and breakfast are some of the good things in life!  a bit of a windy and rainy day along the coast of south Portugal today so dressed up in raingear we headed north towards the ferry in Troia whoch took us to Setubal on the other side. A short but nice ride took us to the fish restaurant down at the seaside. After visiting Cabo Espichel it was time to cross the bridge over the Tagus river which was a very wet adventure this time.! Upmnow for two nigjts in Lisbon

The restday in Lisbon started with a pleasant morning sun and a blue sky!  The majority of the group used the day to explore Lisbon , either walking , by tram or by bus or even tuctuc.  Another part of the group checked in for a restday ride along the coast , up to Cabo di Roca and the hills of Sintra.  we concluded the restday with very nice dinner in a fado club with several fado artist. Great end of the restday! 

This morning was dry, but a bit chilly and we had to take major roads to get out of Lisbon additionally a part of portugese highway in order to catch up one hour because of another Timezone in Spain. As we did not want to lose curves, we stopped for a Karting Session to recover and warm up driving fast. Afterwards we went for a visit to the Bones Chapel of Evora, which is just huge. After bordercrossing and a stop at a roman aquedukt we enjoyed the nice curves down to Zafra.

With a bit chilly wind we left our beautiful parador hotel in Zafra tomridemover the open fields in this agricultural region towards the ancient city of Cordoba. After our pleasant coffeestop at a real Spanish plaza, the roads became more swerving and hiilly. At noon chef Bernardo prepared us a great picnic. Then amoart of the group went straight to Cordoba to pay a visit to the Mezquita while the rest was joining tourguide Gregor for some twisties in the Andalusian mountains great day with a nice dinner as conclusion !

And suddenly it is there: the final riding day of this exciting tour ! Leaving a wet Cordoba the weather didn't get any better: heavy windgusts and hard rain showers. But nothing could break the positive attitude of this group! Having a nice coffee break and latet a relaxed lunch in Antequera, we worked our way down back to Malaga. And by the end of the ride it of course became warm and more sunny! And so after the boot beer and a nice farewell lunch, it was time tonsay goodbye. We really enjoyed this two weeks with this great group full of stories and fun! Thank you all for your companionship, laughters, good stories and friendship. We all hope to see you back at a new Edelweiss tour somewhere, somewhen ! Take care and have a safe trip home ! your tourgyides: Ted, Bernhard and Gregor