A motorbike trip across Spain and Portugal.

Just four hours of flight later the verdant vineyards under the warm sun of Andalusia replaced the Moscow landscape with its snowstorm and waist-deep snowdrifts.This year the beginning of the traditional winter trip to the south of Spain by BMW motorbikes coincided with the Day of the Defender of the Fatherland, which is celebrated on the 23th of February.

There are mountain serpentines; sandy beaches of the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal; great highways and narrow paths, which cut through olive groves and endless vineyards; big cities and small snow-white villages; ancient castles and Gothic temples ahead! We are going to have a whole week of adventures and new experiences!

Day 1. Marbella → Ronda → Tarifa → Cadiz.

There is one of the oldest cities named Cadiz on the southwestern coast of Spain. It is located on a small peninsula, connected to the mainland by a thin strip of land and an amazing five-kilometer cable-stayed bridge.

Cadiz is more than three thousand years old! The city isn't that big. It is populated with a little more than 100.000 people, but it is ancient, very cozy and unusual. For three hours we were slowly wandering along its cobbled streets, squares and embankments, breathing in the fresh breeze of the Atlantic Ocean. Cadiz is a port city, which Christopher Columbus set off on his legendary journey from. And later it was one of the trading centres of Europe, which welcomed ships from all over the world.

37 kilometres from Cadiz there is a small town Jerez de la Frontera. It is famous first for being the birthplace of one divine drink of the same name, Sherry.

This is a wine made by a special technology from grapes that grow exclusively in this area. If you happen to be in this area, make sure to visit one of the most famous wineries "Gonzalez Byass".

The company traces its history back to 1825 and produces not only sherry, but also brandy and even whiskey. You can go on a tour around a perfectly clean and well-groomed territory with a visit to warehouses, where hundreds of barrels, in which wine is maturing, are stored. Then you can also taste this unique and wonderful drink, which will make you feel that until that moment you have not lived in vain, of course, but you have actually missed a lot. :)

There's a little more than a hundred kilometres from Cadiz to Seville. It will take you an hour's drive along a modern expressway. Having wandered a little along the streets of the old town, we found our hotel, left our bags in the room and went to have dinner.

A huge number of small restaurants and cafés, crowded with loud-talking locals and tourists, made up a wide range to choose from, so we didn't stay hungry. For Spaniards any meal is not just a process of filling the stomach with food, but a communication, first of all. However, it looks quite funny: they talk very loudly and impulsively and pay absolutely no attention to the fact that at the same time the interlocutor does the same thing. And when there is a big company at the table, the hubbub sounds the same as in our TV political talk shows. We did not settle in Seville for long, although it is one of the most beautiful cities in Spain and it would take us more than one day to get acquainted with its sights. We made a stop at the fantastically beautiful square of Spain and after that headed first along the highway, then along the narrow roads following the coast towards Portugal. We saw Huelva and Faro, the small port towns with sandy beaches and old churches, where residents are never in a hurry and live a quiet life. In the afternoon I reached the southwesternmost point of Europe, the San Vicente Cape (Cabo de São Vicente).

This is a huge vertical rock 70 m high that protrudes into the ocean. There is a fortress and a lighthouse at the cape. A few kilometres away you can see another cape named Sagres. And if you look at the map, these two capes will seem to you similar to a snake's tongue. The view is certainly awesome: the huge waves crash against the rocks, the foam is bubbling and an incredible wind tears everything out of your hands and tries to throw anyone, who dares to approach the edge of the cliff, into the ocean. That was so exciting!

We arrived in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, at night, having gone over the longest cable-stayed bridge in Europe, which is named after the great traveller Vasco da Gama ("Ponte Vasco da Gama" in Spanish). To be more precise, it had been the longest one until May 2018, when the Crimean Bridge was constructed.
Searching for a hotel wasn't an easy task as we were squeezing through narrow streets with tram tracks, which were lined with paving stones.

A motorbike trip across Spain and Portugal.
7 days. 2100 km.
What is possible to visit in one week? Actually, quite a lot if you travel by BMW motorbike (the best one in the world) along the gorgeous roads of Spain and Portugal, together with a friend. And it's even more fantastic if you both are active, inquisitive, do not sleep until lunch and are lucky with the weather, in addition!
The third day we reached the westernmost point of Europe, Cabo da Roca, where the free waves of the Atlantic ocean crashed against the rocks. I put my sticker on the board, on which the signmark "Cabo da Roca" was already scarcely visible. (38°46'49.82"N 09°29'56.48"W)

And you can also visit one of the most beautiful castles in the world called Pena, which is located on top of a mountain near the small town Sintra, thirty kilometres west from Lisbon. (38°47′16.32″N 09°23′25.41″W)

Then don't forget to wander along the narrow cobbled streets of the capital of Portugal, which is one of the oldest cities in the world. Take a ride on a funny tram, which looks like a toy, and you will climb slowly from mountain to mountain by it.
You still have time left to ride over the Singing Bridge "Ponte 25 de Abril" in order to admire the panorama of Lisbon from the hill on the other side of the Tejo River. On the top of that hill there is a huge 27 m high statue of Christ with his arms outstretched. (38°40′43.12″N 09°10′17.06″W)

And when you get tired, you can have some rest outdoors at one of the numerous cozy cafés and taste the famous local custard pastry dessert called "Pasteis de Belem", which is incredibly delicious.
And in the evening you can relax a little with a glass of the legendary beverage Porto for dinner and discuss a further route (that hadn't been planned in advance) across these beautiful countries and former empires, which were a homeland for the world famous people: discoverers of new continents, travellers, scientists, kings and dictators.

A motorbike trip across Spain and Portugal. 7 days. 2100 km.
If you are going to travel around Portugal, I recommend you make your route to a small but very interesting town Evora and spend a day there. (38°34'18.25" N 07°54'23.78"W.) It reminded me of the Russian town Suzdal.

No, of course, you will not see here the golden domes of churches, wooden houses with carved platbands and coachmen wearing sheepskin coats and valenki. Evora is an ancient Portuguese town that has preserved its authenticity and architecture of the Middle Ages. It is very cozy and compact. The labyrinths of narrow stone-paved streets will surely lead you either to one of the majestic cathedrals, or to the square with a marble fountain, on which witches were burned and heretics were executed in the Middle Ages.

And at the St. Francis Cathedral (38°34'07.58" N 07°54'30.88"W) you can come into quite a large chapel, the walls of which are lined with human bones and the ceiling and columns are decorated with patterns of hundreds of skulls. That's a horrific sight! A life-affirming inscription in Latin above the entrance to the chapel seemed to me especially inspiring. It says: "Our bones are already here. We are waiting for yours". And at the exit, on the right, there is a small niche left (it's the only empty space, so it really looks like it waits for our mortal remains to rest in peace there).

In spite of this atmosphere, Evora is a very friendly and quiet town with many restaurants, cafés and shops, where you can have a tasty and inexpensive lunch or buy an original handmade souvenir.

Travelling across Europe by motorbike is very comfortable. There are excellent roads and a developed infrastructure along them, so you have no problem with searching for overnight accommodation. You can find hotels and hostels for any taste and budget (Booking.com is of much use!) The distances between large cities are rather short: up to 200 km maximum. A minimal driving experience would be enough there and you can actually go by any two-wheeled bike or even by 50-cube scooter! This way a trip to Europe can be compared to a beach holiday: just relax and enjoy your resort, including the nature around, architecture, fine wine, beer and so on. Have fun until your money runs out! Or until your holidays come to an end.

However, after a few days of this type of journey, I began to realize that everything is great, but I missed something. Maybe I needed more action? More adrenaline? Everything is too predictable and clear: you can go here, but you are not allowed to go there… or you may go there, but there's nothing interesting. It's like you can't ride off the asphalt because there are fences made of stone and wire everywhere (around the private lands). It seems that there is not a single piece of land that doesn't belong to anyone. And if you want to take a ground path leading to the forest or to the top of the hill, you will probably hit a fence with a lock or a stretched chain, which means that there's a private territory further.
Yeah, everything is not like in Siberia, Central Asia or Mongolia, where you are as free as your imagination allows you.

Nevertheless, despite all these artificial barriers of European civilization, we managed to find a "hole in the fence" and get to those places, which are generally not recommended to visit. I needed just to relax my mind, so to speak, by riding along the bed of a half-dried river or through some vineyards and then climb to a stone plateau, which offers an awesome view. After that we were taking the trunks off the motorbikes and having a simple lunch right in the middle of an olive grove!

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