A Malaysian Biker in Europe

[Checkswrecks]

Amnother great trip report and photos Nik

You da man!

And yes, there's another "Revel" near Grenoble & a previous Tour de France. One of us has to go check that one out, 'cuz the roads look fantastic, too!

 

[nik.hisham]

Thanks all, for the kind words.

Way to go Nik!! :yahoo: And when you make it to the US BLT's are on me!

Bigbeavk, I'll hold you to it! Only thing is, the US of A is a long way away for me. But I might reach there some day.

Gawd how we loved to ride around over there, you sure bring back the memories! Thanks!!! :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:
I also remember the "tout directions" (all directions) signs and if that didn't work, try "l'autra directions" (other directions). Gotta love those French road signs!

I found "Perpignan" on my Autoroute map, from a sign in a picture of the village square but I can't find "Coullioure". Any chance of giving us a rough idea of the route you took?

Sure. I have a map as well as the entire planned trip in pdf format but I don't know how to share it. I tried to cut and paste just the map but the pic came out blurry. If you let me know your email, I can send the file to you as an attachment. Do pm me.

Thanks

 

[puppychow]

Only thing is, the US of A is a long way away for me. But I might reach there some day.

Just do it! We have forum members all over the country, you could stay with us on your stops.

 

[phroenips]

Only thing is, the US of A is a long way away for me. But I might reach there some day.

Just do it! We have forum members all over the country, you could stay with us on your stops.

...you'd have a place in Colorado

 

[nik.hisham]

Continuation.

First off, I must say thanks to all the kind offers for places to stay. I won't be making the trip to the US anytime soon but it is on my mind. And if I do, I will definitely let the good folks here know about it.

So back to the ride report.

We start off the day with breakfast at a little cafe in front of the hotel...

It seems like orange juice, coffee, croissants and baguettes is the standard breakfast menu anywhere on the french side of the border. So that's what we had every morning. I must say the coffee is really good and the croissants are really, reaaaallly soft inside.

The typical conversation at breakfast usually covers where our destination will be for the day and what route will we take.

Before departing Coullioure, we refueled - I found out later that this was the most expensive fuel stop we made. €1.43 per liter for RON95. :blink:

In Malaysia it is only RM 1.80 per liter or about €0.43 per liter (or USD 0.50). How's that for cheap? :yahoo:

Anyway, after refueling, we rode along the coastal road for about 40 minutes before coming to this look out point.

It was really, really windy and the riding was extremely difficult. So I thought I'd meditate for a while to get myself in the zone...

We continued our ride for another half an hour or so before deciding to stop for more coffee. Wind was gusting really hard and we thought we'd take it easy...

We were enjoying or 'cafe' as the french say it when we see a commotion where our bikes were parked. Apparently, my CBR900RR had tipped over. The wind was so strong that it blew the bike over. Unfortunately, I have no pics of the bike on its side, but the rear right hand indicator broke off, and the brake lever was bent.

After inspecting the damage and testing that the bike was ok, we were off again, but the tip over was a big let down - I was hoping that the entire ride would go without incident... But there would be more to come.

We continued up and reached the Spanish border and stopped for pics when this happened ->



The wind was gusting really hard. When she fell over, Sandra was stopped on gravel - so that didn't help the situation. You notice that none of the three others on the bikes (me on the CBR, Feizal on the black GSX-R1000 behind me, Ian on the white GSX-R to my right) could help even though we knew what had happened. It took all my strength and balance to keep that bike upright. Feizal told me later that he was clinging onto the sign board to prevent his bike from tipping over as well.

Anyway, in between gusts, we managed to get out of that spot and continued our trip.

Just a note - it was difficult on the road as well. At times, we were riding in a straight line, but leaned to one side. When the wind stopped, we had to be quick to catch the bike before it went into the on coming lane... that was scary.

After some hard riding - we stopped at this Spanish restaurant for lunch.

The mood was pretty sombre considering two bikes toppled over in the space of an hour.

We finished our lunch, which was just sandwiches and "Aqua" or plain water and continued our ride along the mediterranean coast. Our next stop was this lookout point.

By this time, the wind was more bearable and riding became enjoyable again.

So we continued until we were about to leave the coastal roads to get onto the highway that took us straight into the center of Barcelona and right to Las Ramblas. But before doing that, we stopped for a final round of drinks for the day.

This cafe was right across from a beach - so I went exploring on the beach looking for stuff to shoot..

Nearby were these boys pulling of some amazing stunts - I just had to photograph them.

After rehydrating (I had some Coke instead of coffee this time around), we continued to Barcelona.

I'll continue with more shortly.

 

[tmc]

Man... too bad about the tip overs. At least nobody was hurt.

The pics of those kids are awesome! I'd love to stick them on a wakeboard or snowboard and see what they could do!

 

[BwanaDik]

This picture shows some really bad news. Notice the thin, wispy cloud pointing down to the disturbance in the water? Almost looks like the beginning of a waterspout (offshore tornado) like we have in the Gulf of Mexico. Or at least one hell of a downburst. Damn that must have been windy!

Keep it coming!!! :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

 

[fjrchooser]

I love what your mind's eye captures with your camera Nik. Your's is a unique and beautiful view of the world, please keep them coming !

 

[nik.hisham]

Continuation.

We got to Barcelona at around 4 pm and checked into the leMeridien on Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas is an awesome place but you do need to be alert of the pick pockets.

Here are pics for the rest of that day.

From the 4th floor of the hotel.

As usual the biker babes transformed for the evening.

There're lots of street performers on Las Ramblas.

Some landmarks

And sights and sounds in general. Btw, There lots and lots of bikes in Barcelona. Both motorcycles and bicycles.

We did have our usual drinks before dinner and Ian insisted on having the 'Grande' sized mugs.

We walked around a bit more before having dinner, by which time I ran out of batteries on my camera.

But I got up early the next morning and captured these before having breakfast and pushing off for our next stop.

Las Ramblas is a fantastic place for street photography. There is so much life to capture. Plus, the Spanish girls are some of the prettiest I've seen. And in general, when compared to the French, the Spanish seem to be more loose and laid back whilst the French are more proper.

Anyway, more pics to come later. Hope its not too many.

Nik

 

[Old Michael]

Nik, I've got a cheap print of this Van Gogh (Bateaux a Saintes Maries) -

- right by my monitor here,

and when I saw this beautiful image you'd captured -

- I glanced at it... and smiled.

Truly wonderful, wonderful stuff, my friend.

Every one of them.

Can't thank you enough for sharing them with us here.

What a treat!

 

[flyball]

More fantastic photography Nik. Enjoyed the report, thanks for sharing.

 

[FJR-RemingtonRider]

Again, a pleasure to see some fantastic photos.

A trip around the globe thanks for taking us along.

 

[ahchiu]

Nik,

Great ride report and great pictures as usual, I'm inspired to take pictures as good as yours. Every picture you take I'm drawn in like I'm really there.

That is my goal to travel Europe on a motocycle with my wife and a few friends. Now back to reality..rainy Seattle on a Holiday weekend and no place to ride..argg

Thanks for the Road Trip.

 

[nik.hisham]

Thanks all for the compliments.

Here's the continuation. Sorry for the slight delay - was out riding with the wife for the weekend. She let me do Europe without her, so I had to repay her with a weekend ride up the mountains and some quality time together

Anyway, back to the pictures. I think this would be day 4 and the second last day of the trip. We would be riding up to Ax le Thermes, through the Andorran mountains.

We started the morning with, what else, but croissants, orange juice and coffee. Love the coffee.

Sandra and Chrissie speak fluent French, but we're in Spain and they're having a laugh trying to communicate with the waitress.

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel to get our bikes and ride up to Andorra. I got these pics on the walk back to the hotel.

Everything was packed and just had to pick up my helmet and gloves. This Le Meridien is a really cool, 5 star hotel. Even had a place to showcase my lid and gloves

We weren't very far out of Barcelona when we stopped for fuel. Didn't refuel the day before so had to do it now. Behind the gas station was this view.

We continued our ride up the Autopista de Montserrat, and we passed through Cercs, where we stopped for these pics.

(If you want to look this up, here are the coordinates from google maps: 42.145396,1.86258)

EDIT - Sorry, I think I got that wrong. The place is Guixers and not Cercs. The coordinates are 42.13071,1.606665.

We headed up the road for a few more miles and stopped here for lunch.

EDIT - and we stopped for lunch in St Llorenç de Morunys, Spain - which is exactly here 42.134286,1.593026.

We placed our orders and as usual, I got busy with the camera.

*If you're wondering, FANI & DICS = Feizal, Adriana, Nik, Ibrahim & Dave, Ian, Chrissie, Sandra. Unfortunately, Adriana and Ibrahim couldn't make the trip.

We stopped here for some pics.

I have no idea what that means. Maybe its just the name of the place. If you know any Spanish, feel free to translate

We rode on and it was at this point that I realized that I had not taken any pics at all from the bike. I did shoot a lot of video though. So I took one. And only one. I should have done more.

Because I shot a lot of video, I ran out of battery on my camera a couple of hours before we got to our destination. So I had no pics of Andorra nor of our arrival, drinks and dinner at Ax le Thermes. This was the last shot from the camera for Day 4 - just a few miles before we reached the peak at the Andorran Alps.

So that was day 4. The last day is in the next post.

 

[phroenips]

According to google, "mirador la Traba" translates to "viewpoint lock"

 

[nik.hisham]

This is the final installment - day 5.

I ran out of juice in my battery before we arrived at Ax le Thermes, so there were no pictures from Andorra to Ax le Thermes. Because of this, I rode back up to Andorra to get the pics that I wanted. After all, its not every day that a Malaysian gets to see snow. Anyway, it was only a 30 minute ride up the snow capped mountains.

So here are the pics.

Before riding back up to Andorra, I walked around the small, ski resort town of Ax le Thermes to capture some images.

Our bikes parked and locked in front of the 2 star hotel where we spent the night.

Ax le Thermes is known for its thermal hot springs.

For some reason, I like photographing doors and windows.

As well as small back lanes like this one...

Cold mountain water running through the town...

This was where we had dinner the night before. I had a whole pizza all to myself - plus some desert as well.

The church is the most recognizable building in Ax. Ironically, its situated beside the other most popular building in Ax - the local Casino. Notice the sign for the road to Andorre. I0 took this route to go back to take pics that morning.

Another view of the hotel we stayed in. Its called Hotel Le Breilh.

Feizal and Ian having a chat. I think they were talking about me wanting to go back up to Andorra for pics...

Ian and Chrissie elected to stay behind...

So they looked at some of the tourist information to try and figure out what they were going to do for the 2 hours or so that I planned to be away..

While Feizal and I geared up for the ride back up into the mountains.

We rode at quite a sedate pace - wary of ice on the road so early in the morning. We took these up at the top...

Note the elevation below - 2408 meters.

After a few pics, we decided to return to Ax le Thermes. This is a glimpse of the twisty descent.

As soon as we made it back to Ax, we were off again, joined by Ian, Chrissie, Dave and Sandra. This was the final leg as we headed back to base at Pollmuir in the little town of Revel - where the adventure began.

On this final leg, Dave let Feizal ride the monstrous Triumph Rocket III.

Our route back to Revel took us through the Pyrenees. Here are a couple of pics of this world famous biker route.

Note: for the above two pics, the bike is actually facing the wrong way. I rode past this spot and decided to ride back to take these pics.

All along the roads were these red markers with white strips on top. Apparently they are there to indicate where the road is during winter, when the whole area is underneath a couple feet of snow.

Along the way, we managed to take a wrong turn and wound up here. The town in the valley was the place where we made our first stop of the trip for some coffee.

While Dave and Sandra debated on where we went astray, I took the opportunity to go shoot some pics.

This would have been a really nice wallpaper for my desktop, except my knee managed to find its way into the left side of the frame. Rats!

Feizal shot this one of me. I was thinking about how this ride was coming to an end too soon. Wish it would have lasted longer.

We continued our ride after Dave sorted out the directions and wound up at the town of Mire Poix, where we stopped for lunch.

The food finally arrived so I took this food shot.

Of course, we had coffee too.

As well as some company. I used an ultra wide angle lens. This pigeon was less that six inches away from the camera. The one behind was probably standing guard in case anything happened to his buddy..

After lunch we rode the remaining short distance towards Revel - less than 40 minutes away now. But along the way, we were stopped by police and asked to keep to the side of the road. These riders showed up a few minutes later.

We finally made it back to base and ended the ride with a group shot, celebrating our safe return.

From L-R: Nik Hisham, Ian, Chrissie, Sandra, Feizal, Dave.

We gave the bikes a good wash..

Before ending the day with a dip in the pool!

That was the entire trip in pictures. Hope you've enjoyed the pics. I do have tons of video that I took while riding, but it will be a while before I process those. But if/when I do finish them, I'll share them here as well.

Thanks for looking.

Nik.

 

[N_Lindz]

Good read and GREAT pictures. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Checkswrecks]

Fantastic as always!

Thanks!

 

[Harald]

Nik,

Thanks for the awesome ride report and wonderful photos. Although I've been to Europe numerous times, I've never had the opportunity to ride a motorcycle there. It's on my list of things to do!

Las Ramblas is an awesome place but you do need to be alert of the pick pockets.

Isn't that the truth! I was there last August and had to get physically violent with a guy that was trying to open the zipper on my waist pack while his buddy was reaching for my pocket as I was boarding the subway with my family. I didn't lose anything (including my cool because I really wanted to inflict serious pain on those scumbags). In the week I was in Barcelona, I saw 2 FJR's on the roads and of course a lot of scooters. Can't wait to go back!

 

[rogdeb]

Really fantastic stuff Nik :clapping: :clapping: You have a wonderful eye for detail and the unusual. Keep it coming -- we enjoy it immensely.

Rog n Deb