I didn't want to clog up the Moto GP thread with my vacation pictures so I figured I would start a new thread. Me and the wife did a 1 week ride through Portugal and Spain on route to the Aragon Moto GP round. Its always been on my bucket list to see a GP race in Europe we sat in grandstand area 3C. Well I figured we would work it in to our vacation to the Islands of Portugal (Madeira and Sao Miguel, Aćores ) that we had set up with 2 other couples. We left Monday night the 12th from Chicago on our direct flight to Lisbon. Once we landed we went right to the Motorcycle rental shop that set me up with a BMW R1250RT. I rented it through https://www.imtbike.com/motorcycle-rentals/ Was able to leave our suitcase there while we were on the trip. Spent the Night in Lisbon and left in the morning. It rained the whole day but we were prepared and we brought our Dainese rain suits. It actually was still pretty fun as we railed on the curvy roads with no issues as the roads where in perfect shape. A far cry from our roads back home in Chicago. I planned out routes that a grabbed from the MAgazine RIDE as the had GPX files I was able to download to my Garmin that I brought. It was pretty nice to have these as they were routes they ride all the time and even recommended hotels and lunch spots. We did all the route on this particular link. They have route for all over Spain and Europe but we were limited in time so we road as much as we could in the time we had. For the 6 days we were on the bike (1 day was Moto GP) we put on over 3500km. 90% were curvy mountain roads. https://www.ride.co.uk/routes-content/west-of-madrid All I can say is the riding is the best I have ever done as the roads were amazing and Moto GP was just as I thought it would be in Europe. Very passionate fans and everyone was very friendly! I will post more about the trip and post more pictures if you guys want but I only had a few minutes as I am swamped at work since I just flew in late last night. Her are a couple of pics that I took I have hundreds more.
Awesome pics and awesome trip. We've gone to Portugal a few times and its one of our favorite places. Always wanted to rent a bike there and explore. Where did you rent from? Last time we drove south from Lisbon to Evora and then to Sevillia and saw loads of sport/adv bikes out in the countryside and mountains. You're right about the roads, way better than what we have here in the US. When we went to Aragon in '15 I though the road just going to the track from town was awesome.
I rented from here. Practically brand new bikes and very easy to deal with https://www.imtbike.com/motorcycle-rentals/
Looks like a fun trip. We mostly try to plan our "big trips" around a race event and try to ride if we can. It has been a while (Covid ruined our Japan trip), but seeing those pictures brings them all back. You generally meet the best folks and see the coolest stuff than a typical "tourist" trip going that way. Living in Florida, I've managed to see some of the folks we met overseas because they come over here for the theme parks. Hopefully, after going through some issues right now, we will be able to get back into the groove on that stuff again.
Looks like you were sitting in about the same place we were when we were there in '18. Even though we weren't on motorcycles, it was a FABULOUS trip!
LOL I was telling my wife I had my fill of it while we were there. I probably ate about 10 pounds of it!
It was a great spot we were able to see a bunch of corners and also have a big screen in front of us so we did miss any racing action.
