And then reality hits you hard in the face. When you thought everything was under control, an invisible enemy you thought you were save from, proves you you are just another rider on the road. The day before yesterday I was enjoying the road, enjoying the ride in good company, and didn’t want to stop for other reason than to refuel. And that was my mistake, because althought I didn’t feel it, temperatures were close to 40*C most of the day. But I wasn’t conscious until we got to our destination. Then, all the heat of the day stroke me. I was dehydrated and starting to have symptoms of a heat stroke (dizziness, high body temperature, I even puked…), and that is no joke, my friends.

Fortunately it wasn’t serious and I’m fine now, after two days, but it could have been something way more dangerous, that could’ve been avoided had I done what intelligent people do: stop often and drink. As simple as that.

I’m serious with that. The last hours have been horrible. I’ve felt like shit. Powerless, sick, and exhausted. I promise you is a feeling you don’t want to experience yourself. Trust me. So, my dear friends, learn from my stupidity, and don’t repeat my mistake. Stop often and drink. Don’t wait to be thirsty, that will be too late. Don’t think that this is something that only happens to newbies, because is not. It can happen to you too. Be smart. Let me be the only stupid on the road.

Take care out there.

See you on the road!!

And doing more miles is an easy task. There is always a secondary road that take you to your destination…. but taking the long way. And our bikes tend to have a good “nose” for those detours, so we’re quite often having an extra dose of extra miles. No complains so far.

Our tour has a great combination of roads, so we can have some time to ride fast (it may sound weird, because 110kms/h is our fastest register so far, but we call that fast…), and spend some time on solitary roads too, enjoying the magnificent views at really slow speeds. Besides that, since we are following Cid Campeador’s footsteps, we are constantly passing by casttles, old monastirs and walled cities in different state (from total ruins to perfectly conserved ones) so we have plenty of excuses to stop, take pictures, and imagine the battles fougth there centuries ago…

The weather is also respecting us, and today we’ve had a sunny day, with no clouds at sight. It is forecasted to stay like that for the rest of week. We hope the weather man has done his homework right, since we had enough rain on the first day…

Today we are sleeping at Daroca, and tomorrow we plan to get to Albarracin, and sleep at El Rincon De La Talega, a small house I’m really looking forward to visit, since I’ve heard lots of nice things about it (and about Santi, his owner).

We have another five or six hours on the saddle tomorrow, but before that, we’ll have a “Pacharan” on the rocks, to sleep better… )

Take care out there.

See you on the road !!

The first day was an intense one. Not because it was a long day (indeed it wasn’t), but because we had 4 different storms on our way to our destination. Actually, on the first 75 kms, we had to stop three times and look for shelter, since it was raining so hard we could hardly see the road ahead.

Anyhow, we kept going, full rain gear on, and in the end we reached our destination: Vivar del Cid, the starting point of the Camino del Cid, that will take us to Valencia in a week. Once there, we founded the “Legua 0″, and the owner of the “mesón” – now retired – joined us as soon as he heard the sound of our Harleys and our laughs, and even brought with him a replica of “Tizona”, Cid’s sword. We had a beer with him and his wife, to try to compensate the litters of water we’ve been forced to drink while under the rain, and then go to find a place to sleep. We did, at a nice guest house just a few meters from there, and that put a nice ending to our first day on the road.

Today the weather was totally different. Sunny and fresh in the morning, sunny and warm in the afternoon, but not to the point of being too warm. So, we’ve had a fantastic day on the road, even tough we’ve found some road works on our way that made the ride a little uncomfortable and dusty some times.

We are now at Atienza. A small town surveilled by a big casttle, that can’t deny it was the landscape for some epic battles back in the days. The weather forecast for tomorrow is also good, so we’re pretty sure we’ll have fun. Even if the forecast is unaccurate, we’ll have fun, because life’s good when you are on the road, with friends, on your Harleys. We’ll keep the motor rollin’…. and that will keep our smiles growing…

Take care out there.

See you on the road!!

Only one day left to hit the road again !! This time we’re going to follow the Cid Campeador’s footsteps, and will be riding from Burgos to Valencia. It’s going to be a 2.000kms ride, mainly on secondary roads full of spanish history.

Here is the route plan we’ll be following along

I’ll try to update the blog everyday with news and pictures.

Looping forward to feel the air in my face again….

See you on the road !!

Last weekend I attended the Harley-Davidson Euro Festival at Saint-Tropez (France), and the previous weekend I went to the Cider Rally, at Weston-Super-Mare, close to Bridgwater (UK). Nice events packed with nice people and superb bikes.

As I thought that it was the best place to talk about touring rides for harleys in Spain, I did my best to try to promote Spain On Twins on both events, by hunging a specially designed flyer on every bike’s handlebar. In total, I gave away over 2.000 of them, and the people I had the opportunity to see getting to their bikes, kept the flyer with them. Let’s hope this translates in more visits to the website, and into clients after all.

Pictures of both events soon to be available on the Spain On Twins’ flickr account.

Keep riding, my friends.

See you on the road !!

Road trip on my Harley

Finally the day has come. Tomorrow I’m hitting the road again. This time I’m going to the UK, to attend the Cider Rally, an event organized by the Bridgwater Chapter on the west coast of England, exactly in Weston Super Mare. I’ll be travelling from my hometown to Santander, in the North Coast of Spain (400 kms) tomorrow morning. From there, I’ll take a ferry to Plymouth (20 hours…), and I’ll ride – 200 kms on secondary roads – directly to the rally. I’ll stay there untill Sunday, and on Sunday night I’ll ride back to Plymouth – using a different route… – to catch the ferry. This time, the ferry will take me to Roscoff, on the French coast, and I’ll ride from there (1.100 kms) back home, using a route I have never ride (secondary roads, again, obviously). I hope to be able to make it in one go and be back home safe late on Monday night.

I’m really looking forward to arrive there and meet again with some friends I haven’t seen since last summer, and with othe friends from Antwerp (Belgium) to whom I payed a visit to last October to take part on the 2008 500 miles.

I’m really excited, and I just want that tomorrow comes, so I can fire up the bike and be on the road again. The bike is already fueled up, tire pressure and oil checked, saddlebags in place and the route selected. The only thing left now is me on the bike !!

I just hope the bike enjoys the trip as much as I’m expecting to, and that it doesn’t brake (last trip to Antwerp the bike broke big time, and the engine has to be rebuild. You can see pictures on flicker). Let’s be positive. I know she loves travelling long distances abroad as much as I do, so everything is gonna be OK.

I’ll take pictures, videos….and lots of beers.

I’ll keep you posted.

See you on the road.

Keep Riding !!