The Prancing, dancing and Flamenco - Horses ??

Saturday 19th up early, had breakfast and pre-booked our next accommodation The Hostile Fenix (no that’s not a spellining mistake, but that is) in Jerez de la Fonterra, not far from cadiz. Actually it wasn’t hostile at all, in fact the guy on reception was very very helpful. I think the real issue revolved around the hot water or should I say lack of it; it’s always nice to shower and freshen up when you arrive somewhere new and in this instance we were a little cold and slightly damp after our journey from Seville, having no hot water after we’d booked in, was not popular. We had met with some heavy rain on the way but it didn’t last too long and the wind helped to dry us, we covered the 110 km in about 1.5 hrs. In most cases we endeavour to avail ourselves of the scenic route and try to avoid the motorways because it’s much more fun and the scenery can, at times, be quite breathtaking. The problem with the motorways (besides some of them being toll), everything flashes by and you can’t really stop to take a look, so, when we do use them I have to rely on the beady eye and a commentary from D I Cronin perched on the rear of the bike.

Jerez de la Fontera is famous for it’s horses and has a famous equine school – The Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, sadly though, we were disappointed to find the school was closed for visits at this time of the year. However we did manage to smell them as we walked past – We thought we hummed, but I can tell you them horses were definitely competing - lol We didn’t spend too long weeping about it because it’s also famous for Flamenco and its wines and we soon managed to locate some life and entertainment at a local tapas bar where we ate some of the local food (which was very tasty) and slugged a glass of vinho or three along with it. Unfortunately there was no local flamenco to accompany it so Ann got up on the tables and danced to the tune I screamed out on the guitar!! I’m afraid there’s not alot more to be said about our walk around J de la F, we took a couple of photos and that’s about it. But now that I come to think of it there was something quite significant about the place, it’s the first town we’ve visited since our tour began that we didn’t get to see the inside of a church, we tried but without success – how strange and highly unusual!

Anyway we managed to get a hot shower the next morning, it turns out the electric fuse was switched off. We breakfasted and got our kit loaded onto our trusty steed who was waiting patiently outside for us, a turn of the key and she roared into action – the onboard computer gave us full clearance to take off and that’s exactly what we did. Our destination this morning Sunday 20th was Cadiz the oldest European City with more than three millenniums of history.

The sun was shining the sky was blue and the temperature, a delightful 20 degrees - bring it on. The journey was relatively short probably no more than 40 km; Before we knew it we were in Cadiz. It’s a long narrow strip of land a bit like the shape of your arm with your hand extended out and thumb pointing up. I can’t be sure whether it’s an island or a peninsular but there seems to be water all around and it’s accessed over a bridge. Our first port of call was the T I who were once again extremely helpful and assisted us in finding suitable accommodation (though I do have to say I did turn on the old ‘Tony Cronin Charm’ to get the girl to ring around for me).

That said we found our hotel in the old and historic area of the City, The Hotel de francia y Paris (sounds very grand), was situated in a plaza and a bit of a mission to find on the bike. It was surrounded by ancient and historic buildings in fact we were next door to a beautiful Church, where we attended the evening mass. Just as a point of interest, when we were on the bike trying to find the hotel we were hailed down by the ole Bill, well blow me down if this time The ArchBishop stepped right out infront of us with his Mitre and Staff in hand with the Bishop in tow leading a procession that included a wonderful array of military and naval personnel dressed in their historic uniforms with an old marching band at the rear. It was a sight to see and one unfortunately we couldn’t capture on camera, we were royally greeted into Cadiz!!

After our shower and change into civvies, we hit the streets, out on a walking sightseeing tour that eventually took us to the sea front. It was absolutely glorious the sun was blazing, in fact Ann had removed 3 layers of clothing and was at last enjoying some warmth from the sun( probably a new temp record 22 degrees). We stopped off at a packed local bar and through our exquisite multi lingual skills – (speaking loud and the usual hand sign language), we managed with reasonable success to get some grub (one good, one not so good) and a drink of beer. Being in Cadiz on the Sunday was a real joy, it seemed like every man and his wife was out with their children and families, eating, drinking and socialising it was like a festival , I genuinely believe it is their way of life, and the ‘Family’ is paramount – long may it last!!!! We carried on walking and thoroughly enjoyed ‘People watching’ taking in the scenes all around us, it can be very therapeutic, we even encountered a crocodile basking in the sunshine, whatever next.......

We had a very satisfying day and even managed to get to speak to our kids, that was a real treat, all three of them were back at home and we spent an hour sat outside our hotel in the square in Cadiz catching up and laughing while they they told us they were shivering at home (and before you say it Keith, about me being mean with the heating, I’m speaking metaphorically). We finished the evening with a nightcap at a bar close by, and then retired to bed looking forward to a good night’s sleep in a comfortable warm bed.

Love to everyone back home

The easy Riders xxxx

Ps Sorry Simon, but the whereabouts of them Katherine wheels will remain a secret, they’re only for very special people or very special occasions....... xxx (These are for Emma)

Back into Spain

I’d like to be able to write that we started the next day (Wed 16th) with a hearty breakfast but ‘I cannot lie to you’. If truth be told we were not really sorry to be leaving our naff accommodation. (By the way, Keith, I haven’t started moaning yet) We loaded up the bike, paid our bill and took our leave. The weather had improved somewhat from the previous evening, although there was still a considerable amount of low grey cloud hanging about, I think most it over the accommodation, and the temperature seemed to be hovering around the 13 to 15 degree mark.

So once again with the satnav programmed we headed due east, we were on our jubilant way, riding our sturdy steed heading out of Portugal back into Spain, destination - Badajoz (pronounced Bathaajojjj). The weather picked up, the grey clouds dispersed and the sun broke through with temperatures soaring to 17 degrees (I’m sweltering but Ann is still wearing all 5 layers of clothing - It’ll probably take Morocco before she starts to shed a layer or two). Life is good and we are really enjoying the easy carefree way of life, I reckon we could get used to this!! Anyone want to join us??? The roads are a joy to ride, very little traffic, great tarmac surfaces and gloriously twisting and turning bends – what more could you ask for?

We made Badajoz in good time and made a Bee line (Lisa you might appreciate that) straight for an eatery as we were ravenous. An hour or so later feeling fuller we set about finding a place to stay. The first port of call is generally the Tourist Info, whom to date have always been immensely helpful and in most cases multi-lingual. As most of you will know, languages are not a problem for me - I just ask Ann, “What did they Say”. Actually all joking apart we do really well with the communication and somehow it works out, it really is part of the fun!!

We located suitable accommodation and made our way to the hotel Condedo. D. I Cronin dismounted the bike and went about her business (for those that don’t know, D I stands for Detective Inspectoress). Ann is extremely thorough and generally puts the hoteliers through the wrangle (I’m sure it should be the other way, but there we go), she checks out their credentials and ensures the room is up to standard and meets her specification, sometimes she might even try to squeeze a little bit of discount, depending on how she feels. I’ve been told by one or two of the Hoteliers as we’ve been leaving, they thought she was from one of the Government Depts - I didn’t like to ask which one, just in case - hehehehe.

Badajoz appeared to be quite a modern city but for us it was only really a short stop over on our way to Seville,and with the weather turning a little nasty we didn’t get the opportunity to explore the sights. We did however, visit a few bars and even had the opportunity to watch Arsenal play Barcelona on the TV.

Thursday 17th Feb 2011, we loaded our kit onto the bike, had breakfast at a great little Spanish Bar just up from our Hotel made good friends with the barman who happened to be a biker, in fact he showed us a picture of his beloved Honda CBR on his phone which was more than I could show him on mine –food for thought. We bid him farewell, mounted our steed, set the Sat nav –destination The Beautiful city of Seville, heading due south and staying at the Hostal Jenthoff which we had booked over t’internet .

The journey took us about 2.5 hours we covered approx 205 kilometres (for you Keith just over 120 miles). The weather was dry and clear but very very windy and somewhat challenging riding the bike, the roads were once again beautiful to ride, undulating and winding, we eventually finished our journey into Seville on a dual carriageway and for those worldly travellers it was route 66!! The sat nav brought us to our destination and by 15.30 we were back in our civvies and walking into the centre of Seville. The sky above was azure blue, the sun was shining and temp soaring above 17 degrees, isn’t life good!!!

We’d decided to book a couple of nights in Seville, so Thursday was a bit of a recky for us in preparation for a Friday tour extravaganza, and my goodness that’s exactly how it turned out. I can only describe our visit to Seville as brilliant, it really is a magnificent city, steeped in history with many, many outstanding buildings both architecturally and historically. We took a total of 70 photographs whilst we were in the city, I’m pretty damn sure that’s got to be a record for us, however we will not populate the blog with all 70 so you can breathe a sigh of relief. There were many highlights and I’m not going to describe them all but there were three that stand out in my memory:





1. The Cathedral (Cathedral y Giralda) I’m just going to say ,outstanding, we were in there for over 4 hours (some pictures to enjoy).

2. The Bullfighting Arena (Plaza Toros Maestranza) – we had a thoroughly enjoyable tour of the Arena from a very well informed tour guide. She was excellent and we were lucky enough to have an extra 15 mins or so afterwards with the guide on our own when she told us all about the history of bullfighting. I only occasionally interrupted her just to put her straight on a couple of points that I felt she’d gotten wrong , (I think she took a bit of a shine to me, but I can’t tell you why, I probably reminded her of a famous Torero - Fr Ted (Marky Elsmore you might appreciate that).

 3.Plaza de Espana - An awesome building, built for the Spanish Exhibition in 1928. (some pics for you to enjoy) I should also mention the University, another outstanding building which we walked through and somehow had a bit of an impromptu & unofficial tour (we took a ‘wrong’ turn and managed to get on to the upper floors) we just walked around enjoying the facility and nobody asked us for id, well I suppose they must have recognised D I Ann Cronin!!!

Thanks for all the welcome comments, we really enjoy reading them and it makes home that little bit closer.

Congrats to Natasha & Steve on the birth of there new daughter Isabella – it was worth it wasn't it Tash xx    Also congrats to proud grandparents Sheila and Kevin - AGAIN!!

Lots of love

The Easy Riders xxx

Lashing Lisbon –The city built on 7 Hills

The sat nav behaved impeccably and took us to our 4* hotel which had been pre booked for us by Ann & Arthur, it was a valentine special - offering B&B for two nights (Sunday 13th & Mon 14th) + a bottle of champagne for the sum of 88 euros in the centre of Lisbon (an absolute steal). How ironic that we’ve been married for 35 years and yes, we’ve celebrated valentines day in different ways, but wow actually celebrating a romantic w/end in Lisbon was somewhat surreal .We wined and dined and generally enjoyed the opportunity to spoil ourselves in the warm and plush surroundings and even a hot cooked breakfast for two mornings, which we haven’t experienced in some time. I have to say, that whilst we were treated extremely well by the hotel staff, the weather, on the other hand was less kind, sadly it pee’d down the whole time we were there. Nevertheless, we did get out to see some of the sights, and experienced Lisbon’s hospitality, including the underground and the ancient tram system.

We decided to take our leave from Lisbon reasonably early on Tuesday 15th Feb, the weather had improved slightly meaning no rain in the immediate vicinity but still quite overcast and very ominous. Temperature (especially for keith) was around 10 o’clock GMT and according to the barometer probably 5 minutes on the median to rare side. Well after a full and hearty breakfast from our 4* Hotel Lucia we put on our gear, loaded up the bike, programmed the satnav and with an audience and a round of applause from the hotel staff we took off faultlessly, and turned up a one way street the wrong way – only joking.  

We were once again on the road heading due east to our next destination, Evora. As we left the city heading for Evora, we crossed over the River Tejo estuary on a bridge which I can only describe asawesome, it was at least 7 miles in length and some distance up in the air, a major fete of engineering and alot of EU money in the making I’m sure!! Sadly though I didn’t get the chance to take a picture, Ann wouldn’t let me stop.

By the by for the officianado’s of the blog we have logged over a thousand miles on the clock since we landed in Santander on the 2nd Feb; We’ve experienced temperatures as low as 5 degrees on the bike going up thru the mountains which, combined with the wind factor probably taking them down just below freezing, up to a pleasant 15 or so degrees of sunshine in Chaves. As far as rain is concerned we’ve been very fortunate indeed. We have witnessed some torrential downpours both in Torres Novas and Lisbon, but on each occasion, thankfully we were off the bike sightseeing.

We arrived in Evora in good time and after a search found some accommodation, which on reflection, left alot to be desired, but hey ho you win some and you lose some. The town itself had alot of history, Of particular note was an ancient Temple dating back to Roman Times, it also had a wonderful aqueduct structure, an absolute joy to behold, the type of structure that Mike Baggot would be proud to put his name to . (so Moira and Jim Nallen if you’re reading the blog see the pics and please take note, in my view this would be an excellent opportunity and a most worthy destination for those history and geography pupils of St Bens, to carry out some practical field study, subject of course, to approval from T S.) hehehehe. The weather later that evening took a distinct turn for the worse it absolutely chucked it down with a thunderstorm to boot – fortunately for us, we were tucked up in our pits and at best just out of reach of the rain.

So friends here end’th the reading, onwards and upwards, tomorrow’s another day.

Lots of luv

The essay writers. Xxx

God works in Mysterious Ways

We delayed leaving Coimbra (pronounced queenboro), due to the inclement weather, it was either spend another night traipsing up and down them feckin stairs or take a flier and head off to our next destination Fatima, which by our reckoning was not too far away. Regrettably we chose to ask a local bus driver a question relating to the direction in which Fatima lay, before we knew it he was programming the sat nav and advising us not to stay in Fatima due to the high costs. Well, of course I was happy to stand aside and let him carry on, he’d used those magic words TOO EXPENSIVE. Unfortunately a BIG BIG MISTAKE , we finished up in the middle of nowhere having bypassed Fatima. We eventually stopped off at a place called Torres Novas, well off the beaten track, but managed to find a very nice hotel which as it turned out was owned and run by a British woman and her Portuguese husband, they were indeed a splendid couple and really made us very welcome, in fact, so welcome we spent two nights there the 11th and 12th. What was slightly unsettling, the woman owner was from Stoke,(not a problem in itself but she supported the Potters - just an inhouse joke for Anns bro Pete and two daughters,who are Stoke City fanatics). But I guess I had the last laugh cos Stoke were playing B’ham that weekend and the Blues won!! Hehehehe.

We visited Fatima on Saturday and experienced the wonders of Fatima - prayer and belief, a truly humbling experience, and one we will remember always; We even attempted confession but sadly there was no English confessori hearing confessions at the time –Phew, a close encounter. We watched in awe at people who walked on their knees (no b.s.), for a distance of what must have been at least 300 metres, praying for their own personal intentions, we experienced the presence of God all around us and a feeling of great trust. Needless to say we made our own intentions and placed our own trust in Jesus - so all our M.E. friends watch out.

We left Fatima and headed for a place called Bathalia; What I’m about to share with you next Ballinger Bob will find difficult to believe, but literally 10 miles down the road from Fatima in the arse end of nowhere, there was a motorbike show similar to the NEC but on a smaller scale. What an amazing co-incidence, one of my prayers was answered at Fatima!!!! We spent the rest of the day wondering around the show and really enjoyed the event. We sat on numerous bikes and played about, it was great fun; but Mr Ballinger, I have to report,no purchase or bartering was entered into. Having said that, I think we may have converted Ann (see pics).

As we left the show it was astonishing to see the number of motorbikes just outside in the car park all parked up like dominoes and Tony had to somehow get out without knocking one of them down and creating carnage, but hey one of Ann’s prayers was answered for we emerged unscathed out of the car park.

We got up Sunday morning to face a deluge of wet and windy weather, not a great prospect ahead of us as we were heading out for Lisbon approx 120 kms away. We decided to wait and attend the midday High Mass, blimey knock me down with a feather if the ole Bishop wasn’t there himself. It turned out that he was giving Confirmation to the youngsters of the parish and every man and his olive grove was there – it was a lovely service. We said our goodbyes to The Hoteliers Ann & Arthur and headed due South (Specifically for Mr Wilkie), destination Lisbon and this time no bloody bus driver to mess the with the sat nav........


We will update you on how our romantic weekend  panned out – lol . That’s all for now folks

Luv to all
The Easy Writers  xxxxx

Back On The Road

Well we left heaven" on Tuesday 8th and travelled through some lovely countryside towards our next destination, Porto. We enjoyed a really great lunch along the way in a large roadside restaurant (a posh name for a truckers cafe). Unfortunately the journey was slightly spoiled by a wrong turn onto a 'Toll Motorway' - quite an experience particularly when you're not expecting it and you aint got the money to hand, (they're not known for their patience in Portugal!!)

Anyway we arrived safely at our accommodation in Porto, thanks to the satnav; A good hotel with a small underground car park that required careful negotiation! Once ensconced one or two of you will be pleased to know that we shed our 'minging' attire, showered and put on fresh and sweet smelling clothes as the picture shows, a big thumbs up from us both.

We decided to look around Porto and discover what was on offer, hey presto Ann magiced us into a market and for her next trick she turned me into a chicken in a cage full of "COCKS" and look she's wagging her finger about to perform some more magic (I’ll leave that up to you guys to decide what devilish deed she carried out)??????????????

We meandered our way around the centre of Porto experiencing the many beautiful and historic buildings and somehow managed to finish down on the river estuary, an area famous for its port wine. Due to the poor weather we took the opportunity to spend an hour or so touring the Sandeman Cellars which was very interesting and informative with the added bonus of some Porto wine tasting. The area down by the river was full of history with some significant structures, including the bridge across the river accommodating both road and rail links - quite amazing. Again we’ve taken a number of pics to show what Porto is like, one of the pictures happens to show a hat that Ann was trying on for Ladies day at Ascot

We agreed after spending two very full and interesting days in Porto, it was time to move on and so by mutual consent Ann decided that we should make an additional stop on our journey to Lisbon at a town called Coimbra. We arrived late afternoon and quickly found some very unsuitable (on the fourth floor, without a piggin lift) but affordable accommodation in the town centre.

We encountered rain for the first time so spent some time indoors discovering important facts about the town – it happens to have the third oldest university in Europe and specialises in Medicine and engineering, apparently it enjoys a similar status in Portugal as Oxford does at home.

The picture below illustrates the panoramic views from our bedroom, you also get an idea of the number of feckin stairs we had to climb to get to the fourth floor!!

That’s all for now folk. By the way it’s really nice to read your comments so a big thanks from the both of us to all of you, lots of luv The ‘Not so Hairy’ Easy Riders.

The Easyriders and Chav's (Chaves)

We found excellent accom in Chaves on Saturday 5th and just after mid-day we were in the shower fully clothed doing our personal washing (Ballinger Bob see picture).  After a joint discussion, Ann decided we would spend a couple of days discovering what Chaves had to offer and Tony was not too upset because they offered us a discount for a two night stay. We were lucky enough to have discovered there was another local festival going on over the two days we were there - quite an enjoyable cultural experience with dancing and foods from the region.

Chaves is most famous for its' thermal springs and people from all over the country travel to experience the waters and the associated treatments. Unfortunately the springs were closed till the 14th February so the prospect of a hot soothing bath was quickly dismissed, however there was the facility to drink the thermal water (natural temp 73 degrees) which we decided to partake of -BIG MISTAKE for tony, Yes Barb you were absoluteley right!!!!!!

 We really enjoyed the two days in Chaves relaxing and enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

We loaded the bike up early Monday morning 7th February, typed the next destination Braga into the Sat Nav and set off on the next leg of our journey. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the scenic route beckoned, little did we know that altitude tablets and blinkers would have been advantageous - the heights we reached were awesome and quite terrifying particularly for Ann, especially when Tony got too close to the edge on some of the bends in fact too close for comfort because he was looking at the view instead of the road (sorry kids).

We arrived in good time and in good spirits into Braga and sourced some excellent accomodation in the Hotel D'ora (Room 11-our kids will understand the significance), which although basic was comfortable and warm. We wined and dined and chatted with the locals who continue to be exceedingly kind and helpful towards us both and also assisting us in steadily building upour Portugese vocabulary. we also help to teach them a thing ortwo                                                  

 Braga was full of  ancient Religious buildings including a Cathederal, an old convent building, a seminary and lots of very old historical buildings. We took lots of pictures in Braga, below are a selection - one of the pictures shows some excavations currently underway at the seminary.

Ann dancing on the cobbled stones outside the church

We packed the bike again to set out for Porto on Tuesday 8th but decided that we must call and see a much visited and talked about attraction called Santuario Do Samerio - wow what a good decision. I can only describe it as something extroadinary almost heavenly, and what I can only imagine for us (Ann & I), as our  interpretation of the gates of Heaven -a truely uplifting experience as the pictures hopefully will illustrate

so onwards and upwards we left the 'gates of Heaven' and set out for Porto....

Our first border crossing !

We successfully negotiated the next stage of our journey along the A11 and arrived in Zamora (Spain) early Thursday evening 3rd Feb. We managed to find good WARM accomodation in the centre of the town, where you might expect parking would be an issue - truth be told it was!! We ate and drank our fill and nearly slept well, just to say that staying in town centre does bring it's own issues NOISE and lots of it. 

I'd like to say we woke refreshed and ready to face the next day but we were still half asleep, however scraping the ice off the bike soon brought us round. We left Zamora early Friday morning the 4th Feb bound for the border of Portugal as we headed excitedly towards Bragancia and the border crossing, the temperature soon rose above 12 degrees and the sky was blue, it was indeed a lovely morning. The journey was quite uneventful (there was no border control -how disappointing). However, we were stopped by the police close to Bragancia, being expert interpreters we quickly realised that we'd done nout wrong, in fact they were stopping all the traffic due to rock blasting and in typical Portugese style we hung around for some time, but hey we were not rushing anywhere.
Bragancia is quite a large historical town with its own university, and a castle to boot; We found excellent accomodation in the centre (but this time without the parking problems or the noise) after which We decided to climb the hill to the castle and scale the castle walls, we spent an enjoyable couple of hours, and a pleasent evening with dinner washed down with vinho.

Up early and after a good breakfast, we decided to take the scenic road to our next destination - Chaves. I have to say as a bike rider the roads were fantastic, twisty and winding, up and down mountains brilliant to ride (obviously I'm speaking for myself I have'nt asked Ann what she thought). Once again the weather was glorious, at one point the temperature got up to 14 degrees. We passed some interesing sites- farming at its best!!!!!

These are a couple of pictures of what it was like along the way. We arrived in ChavesSaturday 5th in good time, and found great accomodation. Till next time.........     By the way thanks to all for your comments it really is great to hear from you. Oh and a special thanks to Julie (Moore) for the return ticket for Ann she's on her way - NOT.

Keith get youself sorted, for some reason your comments are not being posted- they make us larf and need to be posted, ask Avril how to do it!! hehehehehee

Pictures in Palencia.

 



This is the amazing Cathederal in Polencia, the picture doesn't really do
it justice.



These are the pigs in Polencia we thought we were going to eat (later on
that evening), sadly we were disappointed and just as 'gutted' as the pigs,
 In fact there was a demonstration in how to butcher a pig, which Ballinger Bobs mate,
 Andy Smith,would have been proud of.