Pedro

Assuming you would wish to get away from the snow to do that, I would recommend a April or May full Portugal trip, land in Porto, go up the Douro and explore the northern border after that, then head south all the way down to the Algarve only on tiny roads. You would see a Portugal most travelers don’t and some great roads that are often also missed. Sofia is making a mototour business, she would probably be interested in using you as a test for very little money and more for feedback and word of mouth potential, I’d be happy to colaborate with her and guide you if you want, just for fun. Smaller and maybe more interesting roads than for her normal older and less confident clients, with plenty of places to really enjoy riding a motorcycle like they’re meant to, and a mix of comfortable fancier hotels with more authentic and quaint locations, and a real taste of the diverse proper Portuguese food and two major wine regions. we could end in Faro for a day or two of relaxation by the sea before flying out of Faro, or back a little north to Lisbon or Porto and fly out from each of the locations. Bike hire would be possible with different pick up and drop off locations. Would you guys be two couples or two singles? Sporty riding or not really? Or, if you want to challenge yourself a little more, 10 days would be great for a Morocco trip, arriving and leaving from Marrakech. Not very European though.

I’ve got a couple of suggestions… will be on later today about them. How long would such a trip be?

Is this politics?

China makes good batteries though

Yes, but Fred would like some reports on it

Plenty of people come out of the closet after having grown kids, Pete.

I sat on one and thought it was a very weird sitting position with the feet a little too forward, almost like a Sportster.

A wooden crate like they use for fruit or vegetables, or a plastic beer crate, that’s the style for topboxes on that bike. Or a cardboard wine bottle box!

Think of the effort needed to hang on on corners. It doesn’t lean into a corner so you do have to hang on.

Happy birthday Pete, it’s sad that you were treated like that on your birthday, but I hope you find a way to have a nice time with Allie and a special dinner.

I voted for Sofia, because of the style

I don't think I am, but someone might have called me a mune que other day, as I was passing a row of cars stuck on a stoplight.

The day in which you ride a female?

You can feel the love from here I’m in Ericeira living my best life, playing vet assistant and enjoying Sofia’s company, and drinking cold wine at sunset. That might be the plan for the weekend, maybe riding home on sunday. The GS is 105.000km now, but what’s weird is that I get the urge to go on a big ride every few days, then it goes away and comes back every few days later. I might need to go to Morocco again later in the year.

There’s plenty of castles, maybe @Specs will find an even better horizontal one for tomorrow

I expect we might have a contender from @Specs too…

Not a great picture, but I just love the location and the views from this dirtroad. Somehow never translates the dimensions over my phone pictures.

Wait, there’s a video of me going there for the picture: There was a huge guard dog sleeping on the other bank, with some children playing around. As soon as I started crossing the river he gave me a look and stood up paying attention. I was happy to go back

Penedo Durão in Freixo de Espada à Cinta, go there via the N221 heading north. Can’t go wrong. Call me if you need anything, I’ll PM you.

Might be to not allow debris from flowing past, I'm not sure. Regardless of the primary reason for building it, it clearly is being used as stepping stones and I had to try it for myself. The picture after that was taken from almost halfway into the river. They're a little too far between each other to walk casually across but ok to take one big step at a time. The Portuguese love stone floors like that, but in this case they used uncarved stones just put into concrete to hold them. Also cool that the bikes sleep on that overnight. I don't remember it being tilted, the chairs felt normal so it probably is an effect of the sun being very low. That was 15, maybe 30 minutes before sunset.

We wake up sort of earlyish, and by 8 we´re putting the luggage on the bikes, ready to go back for breakfast and then leave in a stylish fashion, without fuss, like you do. After a proper breakfast, I stop to take a picture of a safe. This is an old safe, it's made out of wood and highly decorated, I will have to investigate what it actually is and if they actually build it around a treasure to keep it safe. After following the N2 south of Viseu for a while, we stop for lunch in Castanheira de Pera. Not much picture taking going on that morning, great roads and nice scenery but we didn't stop much except this once: Bikes looking good parked next to the cafe as we eat some traditional soup, a bit of a let down of a lunch compared to what I had planned, but it was hearty soup that made for a good motorcycling lunch. Fortunately, going out of Castanheira de Pera the road I had planned on taking was closed, we took a detour via a smaller road straight over the hills, turns out I had been up there before but completely forgot about the place. Good result, almost deserted roads with surprise views. We pass a couple of older gents cruising up the hill on 50cc two strokes on full speed, and a little later stop to take a scenic picture, the second one adopts a salt lake top speed record pose as the little 50cc screams past Right on top of the hill and before we start our descent towards the east and closer to the coastline, Sofia gets a call that is supposed to take a few minutes, so I go explore a dirt road leading 2km into a small chapel with a view. It was here that I realize I've been to this place before At Ansião we stop for a coffee, after the nice road going down the hill I take my helmet off and a bug comes out. This bug got into my helmet and tried to get into my ear a while back, I thought I had taken it off but turns out he was hiding in the linings, little guy just migrated 50km into the other side of a mountain. From Ansião we get on a fast IC roads and cruise to Jomotos, in Pombal, for a quick stop by a motorcycle shop, a treat for Sofia. I disregard the new stuff and take three fotos of interesting or quirky bikes. Jomotos is a dealership for BMW, Honda, Suzuki and KTM/Husqvarna/GasGas, they're properly big for Portuguese standards and the chief mechanic is a cool guy that has looked after my bike a couple of times for routine maintenance. They say KTM and Husqvarna and Gas Gas are the same bike in different colors, they're right: After they look at the Speed Triple chain and give it a spray, he head home on motorway mode, after a quick race we settle at a steady 80 / 85mph and make the last 150kmh a haste, in time for plenty of fun arriving home to puppies that missed her terribly. It was a nice trip, lots of bad weather made us appreciate the following days, I'll certainly be going back to Tras os Montes.

We woke up feeling good about getting on the bikes and heading south, I knew it would be quite a scenic day plus the weather was supposed to improve and I was expecting moody skies that are good for dramatic pictures, but no rain. Plus the roads were supposed to be nice ones, good surface and flowy so that the Speed Triple doesn't suffer. First stop was a castle in ruins, we left the Triumph down by the church at the village of Outeiro and Sofia rode pillion on the GS up the steep gravel road leading to the castle. I'm quite impressed with the Mitas, at 12000km they're still competent enough at finding traction on steep gravel, had to keep a steady hand as the rear was always about to spin but the bike was fully loaded, can't ask for much more than that. Quite the views from up there, Sofia's bike is by the church down there: The fortress was built around 1200, and is mostly ruins. There's no signs explaining anything or providing any information except a sign down my the road pointing up a gravel path. I tried to climb some wire steps to get to the top of the structure but the second one came off in my hand, clearly modern concrete not being able to cope with the weather half as well as old stones. I'm not really religious, but do like looking at a cool church in pretty skies. Chanting was going on inside, we hanged around for a little and left. About 45 minutes further south and Sofia gets a phone call, we park the bikes next to a bridge and I walk around a little while she's on the phone. Pretty road: Next stop was Castelo do Algoso, this was my favourite stop for the day. There's a perfect tarmac road right up to it, and we spent a while just hanging around looking at the views. The previous visitors were leaving as we arrived so there was nobody around except us. This place was formerly an ancient Castro, maybe not of military use but still occupied for ages, it was turned into a fortress or a castle at the end of the reign of Portugal's first king, D. Afonso Henriques, around 1150. ( I look this stuff up before posting, I'm clueless with history) It was perfectly preserved and maintained with just the right amount of wilderness going on inside, and a real treat to spend time alone there. You can see a roman bridge if you zoom into the tiny river in the picture below. The views from up there were just great, and you got a real feeling of history spending time just looking around. The smell of heather wafting in the breeze filled our helmets as we moved on. We stopped in Mogadouro for fuel and to buy some sandwiches to take along with us and further on, near Mazouco, a small village by the Douro river where you'll find an ancient carving of a horse by the river, we stopped by a nice picnic area and had our lunch. It was now getting warmer for the first time since leaving my parent's house, and temperatures by the water got to 23 or 24ºC. It was a perfect picnic, and we moved on to Freixo de Espada à Cinta via a small detour from the main road, right by the water. Another stop was made just 6 or 7 kms ahead, by a stone bridge and what looked like a manicured olive tree garden. Farming around here produces high quality grapes and olives, mostly from old plants that are rarely watered. This was a little bit of a contrast but then again right by the town too. We stopped at Freixo de Espada à Cinta to visit a pharmacy, but being a sunday it was closed. Closest one being about 50km onwards on our path. A friendly man was out on his mule and waved us goodbye and consented that I took as many pictures as I wanted, clearly not understanding the interest in his means of transport. A brief stop by Penedo Durão, plentifully documented on my previous ride reports, wasn't enjoyed as much as it could have been from Sofia's teeth aching. We made our way south via some amazing roads, this 20 or 30km or the N221 and the little road leading down to it are perfect. Sofia leading the way as I stop for a picture: Getting to the N221 right by the river, I decide to enjoy a little of the twisties and take off ahead for a while. Two conclusions come to mind: OEM replacement Brembo pads aren't a match to stock BMW pads, they break ok but overheat easily and stink, I´ll go back to stock when these wear out. The Mitas are amazing for the offroad confidence they provide, but not a match to the TKC70 for nice twisties, I think I'll get them again though. Sofia after enjoying some perfect Speed Triple twisties: A stop by Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo and while Sofia goes for a coffee and gets chatted up by sunday bikers, I wait 30 minutes at the pharmacy for her pain medicine, because I'm an awesome guy! They sell Ducatis at this pharmacy We sit on a garden bench and decide where to go next, dark menacing clouds mark the direction we were heading, to the base of the Serra da Estrela. That area is very cool to ride through but can have severe weather as the mountain traps storms near it. It's also a cold region with continental weather on the eastern side of the mountain, we give that a wide berth and book a great hotel in Viseu. I've been to Viseu for work a lot of times but never as a tourist, so quite looking forward to it. We continue on the N221 south and the road turns more to my liking than Sofia's, the twisties continue but now with harsher and bumpier surface, I can't help it and take off for a little, while Sofia chases and entertains herself at a spaniard on a Kawasaki cruiser scratching his bike on every corner. A few kms later, one of the weirdest events ever happened. We show up at a village and the GNR is closing the streets for traffic, a bicycle race is taking place. We have to wait for a few minutes, while the last cyclist finishes the course. I strike a conversation with the guard blocking the traffic, and tell him where we're headed. A lone cyclist on what looks like a painful effort pedals by, followed by the brush car (the final car that follows behind a cycling race picking up lost or abandoned stuff) and the closing police car escort (towing a police Yamaha Fazer). The friendly guard waves us through and we then proceed to follow them at cycling pace, this continues for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, at cycling pace. Bear in mind this isn't an Alpine descent on the Tour de France, this is the last guy trying to finish his race and there's some uphills, it's painful work for the Speed Triple to go that slow. What made this amazing was that we were the only two vehicles following this slow spectacle, all other intersections were full of cars and motorcyclists stuck behind a barrier being denied access to the road, plus everyone that was cheering the pedaling guy on and encouraging his efforts with shouts of enthusiasm got a big royal wave from me so proceeded to cheer us too. It was a fun surreal experience, but a helpful one as I would hate to be stuck behind the traffic once all those streets opened at the same time. We made it to Viseu before sunset, to our amazing hotel located in an old historic hospital built in 1842 and later abandoned, converted into a hotel in 2009. It was right on the center and allowed us easy walking access to the historic center of town. We had a nice dinner, of high quality but less food than in Tras os Montes. Those last dinners were frankly too much eating, and I had enough beef to last for the month. Viseu has a University and quite the lively academic life, walking back to the hotel we are faced with hundreds of students getting ready to one of the yearly traditions of academic life in Portugal, the serenade when students music groups put on shows traditionally to serenade girls. Here they are concentrating on a big square with their traditional black capes. You can also see the traditional portuguese taxi decoration, black car with a green top. Quite the eventful day, we settle into one of the sofas on the center of the hospital and I have a negroni while Sofia has something else. The next day we'll head to Ericeira, via some forrests and mountains, and I have a surprise stop by a motorcycle shop for Sofia, she lives out of the way of proper motorcycle shops so unlike me loves to just visit them.