Week 19: Portugal to Madrid

After spending a night in Vila Nova de Foz Coa, I decided to change my route slightly, I noticed there was a small road which went through the hills and then across the countryside to Salamanca. The ride was really nice but all the way to the border the weather was horrible, cold and wet. Luckily the weather improved as I crossed over the border into Spain, but every time I looked in my mirrors I could see the dark clouds following me.

I arrived in Salamanca during the afternoon, checked into the hostel, hung all of my wet clothes to dry and had a hot shower. I spent three nights in Salamanca, taking some time to explore the city. There are some really nice areas and a lot of students.

From Salamanca I drove to Madrid, I decided to avoid the motorway, as you have to pay. The road I took headed up through some hills or mountains, suddenly I was surrounded by thick clouds, visibility dropped to about 3 meters and it cold very cold and damp. I was driving slowly but apparently not slowly enough, one moment the road was straight, then there was a tight right hand bend. I tried to slow down and the next moment the bike was skidding out from under me. Luckily there was very little traffic and any traffic that was around was driving slowly, because of the bad visibility. I picked the bike up and pushed it to the side of the road, I wasn’t hurt and the bike was fine too, other than missing some paint on the crash bars. I got back on the bike and drove down out of the clouds and into Madrid.

I spent this weekend here in Madrid, exploring the city and chilling out in some of the bars. The city is really nice, I’m sure its even better with good weather, luckily it didn’t rain, but the days were very grey. All this cold wet weather is making me more excited to get out of Europe and head down through Africa. Only a couple of weeks to go…