Sensational Horizontal Orientations

The d932, 918 & 933 are all very pretty roads, if anyone's planning a trip through south west France. Just thought I'd mention it. This morning started (after lengthly debate last night over dinner and spilt water and uninvited advice from the sociable German couple at the next table) as an A-road day: no motorways. Partly be wise they charge and mainly because they're just boring. So we loaded up, got our motors running and headed out on - well- the byways through the Pyrenees to Pamplona. Let me just say: at 08:30? The mountains are flipping COLD. In spite of several layers. But it was a very pretty road and we wound down one side of a valley and suddenly noticed as we went up the other side that we'd changed countries. I love that about Europe. It's so subtle (especially when the languages are similar/ identical, so you don't notice until the petrol station). In Spain, they have a very interesting way of warning you that the road has more switchbacks than Thorpe Park and you better be wearing tungsten kneepads. The immediate English translation (doubtless inaccurate) is 'sensational horizontal orientations' and boy, are they ever! It took us a good three hours to wiggle our way to Pamplona, and a further two to curl our way into Estella where I got the freezing hell in and stopped for coffee and patatas bravas (so prefer Spain to France for food). We then got confused by signage and roadworks and completely missed our planned route, instead wandering along some very pretty side roads which were great and pretty until we realised that none of the villages we'd gone through had gasolinera... At which point, we panicked. My bike doesn't have a fuel guage and lynn's has no reserve tank. Neither of us fancied pushing the things if we ran out of petrol. Been there, done that and really outgrew that t-shirt. So the hell with avoiding motorways. I took o er navigating and changed course for Logrono. We found petrol shortly after but I stayed in the lead because frankly? My sense of direction and cartography is better than Lynn's. Most people's are. Spain doesn't seem to do fences. In most places, the gap between the road and the field is a riot of poppies (which then also take over the field), alysum and what I think might be harebells. Every now and then you get a spate of yellow bushes that smell like honeysuckle. Sometimes the wheat/ lettuce/ random crop grows all the way up to the road and into the cracks at the edge of the hard shoulder. It's all extremely pretty when you have to pull over and wait for Lynn to take pics of the building sticking out the cliff face which you're beginning to wish you didn't point out. (I'm working on the photo thing. Today's pics will have to wait though, as my camera wasn't behaving. On facebook for now). Eventually, we got to Burgos and told satnav to find a hotel. It decided on a 4 star one with parking. I went in with trepidation as to the €€€, but I think Spain's economy is worse than I realised because it wasn't bad, especially to someone who slept in France last night. Tomorrow, if we're lucky, we might make Portugal. Otherwise I guess it'll be tapas for supper again. Like that's a hardship.