Motorcycle Diaries

Jump to Comments

Seeing as I have found some inspiration, a little time, and remembered my login details, I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell you some tales of things that have been going on over the last six months whilst A Berlin Diary lay fallow. Aside from babies and earning some money and spending time with my girlfriend, I also learned how to ride a motorbike. I don’t think I have ever been so scared, but also exhilarated, as the first time my instructor let me loose on the streets of Berlin, bombing up Prenzlauer Allee towards Pankow at what felt like at least 100 kph (it was more like 45). At times it was tough - I don’t think I have had that feeling of “having” to do something I really don’t want to since I was at high school, and I nearly gave up, oooh, twenty five times. Riding on the autobahn in the rain was truly terrifying, whilst trying again the next day, in the dry, whilst singing in my helmet as I overtook a big truck was strangely relaxing.

I passed my test in October, and a day later headed off to Spain with a bunch of friends for what was the object of the exercise in the first place - a motorcycle trip to the Pyrenees. I’ll hold my hands up and admit that on arrival in Barcelona I freaked out, and a good friend had to ride my bike up to the mountains for me (thus leaving his behind in the city), but the next morning, under blue skies, I puttered around the tiny hill-top village, dodging stray dogs and potholes, and found that it wasn’t so scary after all.

For the next few days we made trips from our base at Campelles, just north of Ripoll, including a journey across the Catalunyan hinterland to the seaside town of Cadaques - where Dali painted and a few miles from where Adrian Ferra does strange things with food at El Bulli - including a windy stretch between Roses and Cadaques that was simply breathtaking (even if, at one point, the two beginners on their bikes were overtaken by a guy on a moped with his girlfriend hanging off the back). Thankfully, for all our journeys, we had two or three very experienced riders who looked after us and guided us up and down the mountains like sheepdogs carefully coralling and protecting their charges.

Yes, we may have been slow, but we made it home each day in one piece and back to Barcelona and then Berlin without a single broken bone and only slight bruising from a low-speed incident in car park behind a furniture store. Was it worth the struggle to get my licence? Undoubtedly, especially the trip over the high pass to Puigcerda that was not only a truly exciting ride but offered up some of the finest mountain views I have ever seen. Will I be climbing aboard again? Possibly, although maybe an exploration of the quiet country lanes of Brandenburg should be next on the agenda…curvy mountain roads are fun, but misjudging one corner and drifting over onto the other side of the road (as I did once) certainly reminds you that one lapse in concentration could have some less than pleasant consequences.

Anyway, here’s some photos of the trip to Spain - Catalunya is one of the most beautiful places in the world, from the mountains to the sea, and hopefully these give some flavour of that…

(above): This is the village of Campelles where we stayed, 8km off the Ripoll-Puigcerda road with only one road in and out. Nowadays it seems to have been mainly colonised by second home owners from Girona and Barcelona, judging by the different tempo from weekend to weekday, and the number plates on the SUVs parked around the village.

(above): My motorbike. A Triumph Daytona. Otherwise known as “The Flying Banana”.

(above): The road to Cadaques from Roses. It was just around the next corner that two bright yellow Triumphs were overtaken by a clapped out moped spewing exhaust fumes.

(above): The beach in Cadaques. A wonderfully atmospheric former fishing village, in October it was lovely. I imagine that in the height of summer it might be a bit of a nightmare.

(above): Two bikes…

(above): …and the open road.

On the Atari DJ Tapedeck: ‘Living on a Prayer’, Bon Jovi.

8 Comments

Filed under Elsewhere, General, Photos