I’ve done two recent Northern Iberia road trips with some of the folks here…
This year SWMBO decided to take a month to more fully explore this fabulous part of Europe.
Went both ways Portsmouth-Santander-Portsmouth
Far far better way to travel if your primary focus is Iberia.
Not much to say that hasn’t already been said,,
The road network is just amazing…so many roads have been upgraded..makes you weep about the state of British roads.
The scenery just keeps on giving..go around another bend and it’s another change of scenery.
In 3,000 miles and 30 days we saw 2 F Types, 2 TTs and a Disco that were UK plated..after the port. Only saw one E85 Spanish reg..
Only the Northern European drive roof down…only saw one Spanish reg cab..roof firmly up.
There were a lot of UK reg, a few hundred, bikes buzzing around the Picos…losing its charm due to the number of bikers there..
Elsewhere we saw thousands of Spanish reg bikes..plus almost exclusively Spanish registered hum drum cars..very little exotics of any kind.
This time we had 5 bases which we rented plus 4 hotel stops.
In the end we took the F56 Mini Cooper SD..primarily for space..I felt the need to take a space saver to avoid the issue of being stranded literally in the middle of nowhere without recourse to a simple solution.
Overall we did 3,500 miles door to door…if we had driven there n back through France it would have been over 5,000 miles.
That, plus self catering plus two up rendered the E89 not feasible.
Some of the places we went any Z4 would have struggled with entry / exit departure angles..a few would have been impossible for a G29 even with mirrors folded.
No one speaks English so sorting out food especially for vegetarians is very hard work.
If you are a fussy eater then best to stick to city centre hotels….
Never saw a traffic cop..only two fixed speed cameras, no mobile enforcement and two Guarda Civil stops..they gave up seeing a British reg.
If you can leave a burger and chips comfort zone this is THE place for a European motoring trip.
The Spanish side of the Pyrenees were much better than I’d hoped for.
Spanish folks look surly but after the initial engagement they are super helpful..
Only issue was our iPhones updated to iOS 18.5 whilst out there and we lost all connectivity..which proved interesting..
What can I say?
Just do it!
This year SWMBO decided to take a month to more fully explore this fabulous part of Europe.
Went both ways Portsmouth-Santander-Portsmouth
Far far better way to travel if your primary focus is Iberia.
Not much to say that hasn’t already been said,,
The road network is just amazing…so many roads have been upgraded..makes you weep about the state of British roads.
The scenery just keeps on giving..go around another bend and it’s another change of scenery.
In 3,000 miles and 30 days we saw 2 F Types, 2 TTs and a Disco that were UK plated..after the port. Only saw one E85 Spanish reg..
Only the Northern European drive roof down…only saw one Spanish reg cab..roof firmly up.
There were a lot of UK reg, a few hundred, bikes buzzing around the Picos…losing its charm due to the number of bikers there..
Elsewhere we saw thousands of Spanish reg bikes..plus almost exclusively Spanish registered hum drum cars..very little exotics of any kind.
This time we had 5 bases which we rented plus 4 hotel stops.
In the end we took the F56 Mini Cooper SD..primarily for space..I felt the need to take a space saver to avoid the issue of being stranded literally in the middle of nowhere without recourse to a simple solution.
Overall we did 3,500 miles door to door…if we had driven there n back through France it would have been over 5,000 miles.
That, plus self catering plus two up rendered the E89 not feasible.
Some of the places we went any Z4 would have struggled with entry / exit departure angles..a few would have been impossible for a G29 even with mirrors folded.
No one speaks English so sorting out food especially for vegetarians is very hard work.
If you are a fussy eater then best to stick to city centre hotels….
Never saw a traffic cop..only two fixed speed cameras, no mobile enforcement and two Guarda Civil stops..they gave up seeing a British reg.
If you can leave a burger and chips comfort zone this is THE place for a European motoring trip.
The Spanish side of the Pyrenees were much better than I’d hoped for.
Spanish folks look surly but after the initial engagement they are super helpful..
Only issue was our iPhones updated to iOS 18.5 whilst out there and we lost all connectivity..which proved interesting..
What can I say?
Just do it!
