MotoWolff

We have just returned from a fall trip to Spain where my wife Sara and I spent a good part of the trip motorcycling in the Andalucia region of south. This area is full of ancient Roman and Moorish cities, whitewashed mountain-top villages and twisty mountain roads alongside the Mediterranean. A direct flight from JFK to Malaga made getting here quite easy. Here are some brief  highlights of our trip.

Arriving in Malaga a couple of days earlier, we had time to rest from the flight and see the local sights in Malaga before we picked up the motorbike, a 2010 BMW F 800 ST, from IMT motorbike rentals just outside of Malaga. They were very accomodating and had our bike ready and waiting for us when we arrived. We decided to travel independently and not with a group tour because we enjoy the freedom of solo travel, both of us being experienced enough travellers to do well on our own in a foreign land. IMT does not provide helmets or other riding gear so we brought all of our own, which we preferred anyway.

After picking up the bike we traveled east on the coast road, the N-340. Our first stop was the beach town of Nerja on the Costa Del Sol. It is a very touristy place full of Brits and Germans getting some sun. This is where we first came to realize what an advantage having a motorbike is in the cities of southern Spain. We maneuvered effortlessly through crowded streets to an underground parking garage, where it seems the local custom is for motos to simply drive around the entry gates and park wherever they like! We followed suit and squeezed in between the 1000 or so scooters that were already there. After lunch overlooking the Mediterranean on the “Balcon de Europa” we exited our “free parking” and headed inland and into the hills.

In this area the mountains rise steeply from the sea and are very rugged. Our road led us to Frigiliana, one of the whitewashed mountain villages that the region is known for. It seemed to be popular with busloads of tourists from Nerja so we just passed on through. It would be the first of dozens of these villages that we would see. After a rough section of road where we began to have some doubts about our chosen route, but soon we regained some good highway and continued on our mountain loop. We were headed towards the mountain village of Competa.

This is the world famous Arch of the Goats (my name for it) in Competa. It has no discernible purpose or meaning but it is interesting none-the-less. It seems to be in the style of Antonio Gaudi and is one of the many surprises that we would come to enjoy during our trip. The road to get here was ridiculously steep and winding with unforgiving drop offs at every turn. Goat herds tended their flocks on the steep slopes along the route and masterful bike handling was required and displayed by both bike and riders!

The streets of Competa were narrow even for the moto, and it felt like you were riding on a corkscrew! The village itself is built precariously on a hillside and the front doors of the houses opened right to the street! The streets here are little more than winding walkways through town, sometimes as narrow as 6 feet wide! Once you enter the village on the tangle of back-alleys it is hard to find your way out again! You simply must follow the street whichever way it turns. Eventually we escaped the maze and were dumped into a plaza at the lower end of town. You could spend much more time here exploring this village. Continuing on, the descent back to the coast was equally steep and ridiculous! We finished our day by returning to Malaga on the Autovia (Motorway) and back to our hotel.

Our second day on the bike started in morning rush hour traffic in Malaga. Drivers here are agressive and act quickly. If you do not follow suit you could get into trouble. Motorcycles and scooters seem to own the road in heavy traffic. When traffic is slow or stopped they will split the lanes left right and center. It was amazing to see. We rode more conservatively however, with a casual agenda.

The days destination was the old Roman/Moorish city of Ronda. We left Malaga on the A-357, which on the outskirts of town became a nice two lane rural highway. It was only about 120 kms to Ronda and we arrived after a two hour ride. We entered the old city via the Puente Nuevo (new bridge) spanning the Rio Guadalevin which was built in 1793. When entering a city like this navigation quickly becomes a challenge. Roundabouts, traffic lights and one way streets all seem to conspire against you. You just kind of end up wherever you are after a series of unpredictable events. Luckily we ended up in a nice plaza in the old city where we found a good place to park the moto.

There is so much to see here, so much history that I do not know where I could begin to tell about it. Suffice it to say that you could spend a lot of time here. On the return trip from Ronda we took the A-366 through the Sierra de la Nieves. This beautiful winding route through these rugged mountains had almost no traffic. The road surface was excellent and temperatures were in the low 70’s. With the scenery, the good weather and great roads this was some unbelievable motorcycle riding!

Day 3 began with another early escape from the city, this time on a different road, the A-45. This route took us north to our destination, the ancient city of Antequera. Like many early towns in this region Antequera was a Roman settlement before falling to the Moors. Later, the Spaniards pushed the Moors out and by the 1500’s the Moors were all but gone from Spain.

We started our tour of Antequera by visiting the Dolmens, which are Bronze Age ruins dating back to 2500 B.C. We continued on to the Alcazaba, which loosely translates to citadel and generally refers to an old walled Moorish city. If someone asks you if you have been to the Alcazaba, the correct answer is “which one?” There are many in the Andalucia region. This is where the motorcycle proved to be the best vehicle once again. Set aside for a moment the fun part of getting there, but when you get into these old cities and onto the little streets there is no better way to get around. We were almost always able to find parking within steps of where we wanted to be. A car would have been next to useless here!

On the ride back to Malaga we took another back road through the Sierras of southern Spain and ended up at Paraje Natural Torcal de Antequera, an interesting high overlook and geological area on a mountain top (about 5000 ft elev). The rock formations here were quite spectacular along with the views. You could see all the way to Gibraltar!

We headed down off the top passing through another white mountain village, this one was named Villanueva de la Concepcion. Turn after turn the descent seemed endless and continued well below the town. Finally we crossed the Rio Campanilias which finally indicated that we had reached the bottom. From here on in it was a great road for the moto, a twisty two lane with good pavement and very little traffic.

The next two days we did without the bike. Our destinations were Gibraltar then Granada and each day required very early starts and long drives. Since we had planned on spending a lot of time at those locations we left the bike at home. In retrospect the day at Gibraltar would have been better on the bike. We had gotten used to the advantages the bike offers in traffic which would have been great in Gibraltar.

We returned the bike to IMT and once again they were quite professional. They asked us how we enjoyed our trip and how we liked the bike. After a quick inspection of the bike they finished up the paperwork and we were done. They even had a cab ready and waiting for us! I can recommend them by saying we will enjoy using their services again. Check them out at their site Iberian Motorcycle Tours.

What a short trip! So much to see and so little time to see it. We only toured in Andalucia and we needed another month just for it! I guess the rest of Spain will have to wait. For more on Granada and the Alhambra read Washington Irving’s book “Tales of the Alhambra”which recounts his 1826 visit to the area.