6th and last day of trip - Portugal safe & sound

As i mentioned in the last post, the night was spent in a gas station truck park. As a safety measure, tried to park in one of the corners, where presumably less movement would occur. And the place had security, i mean, once in a while there was a guy in a scooter going around the big park. This left me thinking that maybe this wasnt the safest place to be. On the other hand, what profit could someone take from a guy sleeping in a Fiat126P, while there were so many other trucks there so steal more valuable stuffs.
As far as i noticed, the night went smooth, so at 8 a.m. there i was starting the last day of the trip. About 700km to go yet.Crossing Madrid was very easy, even if was rush hour, but the M40 (a circular highway) was no big deal with no stop-and-go. Exiting Madrid i could all the way by highway until Badajoz (without paying tolls), but going by highway is so boring that i wanted to leave as soon as possible. Unfortunately could only do it when exiting in direction of Caceres.From Caceres to Marvão (already in Portugal) it was fairly easy since the national road was good. And then, around 15h there i was: entering Portugal!!!!!! Not without first putting gas (in a spanish gas station just in the border), enjoying the almost 20cents difference per liter in the price. And one thing that was very nice, was to see the difference in the landscape. On the spanish side much more dry and poor in nature terms. On the portuguese side, a lot more greener!!!! For those who dont know, there are some mountains on this area, which causes these climate differences.Then, it was just a matter of doing some 80 kilometers by A23 until Torres Novas, and then heading to Golegã, Chamusca, Almeirim and home! But these 80km proved to be hard. Never in all the trip the car suffered so much with all the up and down of the highway. All this due to the great skills of the portuguese enginers, that dont understand the difference between a highway and a roller-coaster. In some parts, i could not go quicker than 50km/h. Shitty and dangerous. Alps, Pyrenees, nah. What is really hard to cross is the A23!! Even more stupid is the fact that there are not even real mountains.

Before arriving home, time still for a pit-stop in Torres Novas to have coffee with a friend. Though, i suspect that because i was with that car and with 6 days trip on my face/hair/clothes it was fairly quick, and she convenientely had an appointment in the hair dresser, so could not stay long.
And this was it, arrived home at 18.15, on 4 of April 2008, after 3912km from Poznan.
This is not the end of the blog, since i still want to explain the preparations before the trip......

Day 5, 3/04/08: Didnt slept in Madrid

Havent talked much about the landscape in Spain, because the center of Spain is something as pretty as this:

or:

How the hell a big city like Saragoza was created in the middle of this landscape remains a mistery to me. So, boring trip, through highway almost near Madrid. I was too sleepy, so at 22.00h decided to pull over in a gas station in the highway near Gualajara to sleep in the middle of trucks. 800km this day

Day 5, 3/04/08: Mis amigos

To be accurate, i had experienced already in France a taste of the behaviour of some spanish truck drivers, giving me light signals meaning that i should go faster. But honestly, although i was expecting more bad behaviour, in the road between Lerida and Saragoza it reached its peak.

Sure, it was not an highway but the road was in good conditions. But it was up and down, so my poor Maluch sometimes was just trying to survive the hills.

This would be ok, if this wasnt a heavy traffic road for trucks between Barcelona and the Northwest of Spain and with very few areas to overtake. To cut short, i was thrown out of the road by spanish trucks about 5 times. Meaning, if i hadnt went on the right side and brake, they would have hitted me (on purpose). Sadly, i could not identify any of the drivers. Although, i believe these guys that drove trucks resembled something like this:

Note: Dont do this road: Lerida-Saragoza. Way too dangerous.

Day 5, 3/04/08: Entering enemy field

After a night sleep in Béziers on some residencial street choosed in a somewhat random (but not that randomly) way, i was close to the spanish border. So, at 8am, engine started and 100km to reach Perpignan by national roads.

But, because i needed to do more than the 600km of yesterday, i entered in Perpignan on the highway directing Spain and to cross the Pyrenees. Although the mountains looked high on the distance, after having no problems crossing the Alps on highway, i was pretty confident all was going to be ok.

In fact, not only went well, but almost near the border and uphill i was taken over by a polish truck that obviously greeted me, and still with some energy on my 652cc engine i was able to overtake him a couple of km ahead to thank him. In fact, i believe all the polish drivers greeted me during the trip.

At the border, and because they still do some random checking, i was pulled over by the police. Luckily i believe they just wanted to check a bit better the car (their exact words were: "esto es la ostia, nunca he visto uno igual"), so they just asked for my ID. Nice guy. I didnt had to show them any documents of the car, which could lead to some questions, starting by the fact that the car was not registered in my name. My excuse to give would be: "....its from a friend....". Never will know if it would have worked....

I was still undecided if either to stop in Barcelona to visit a friend and rest a bit, or continue trip until Madrid. Because i was ahead schedule, decided for the second.

Status of the trip (so far)

- Mechanical problems: 1 (solved with purchase of spare part still in Poland)

- Almost accidents: 1 due to my mistake

- Problems with the police: 0 (even asked stuff to Austrian policemen..)

- Problems with truck drivers: 0 (no stupid horning or light signals)

- Times i used the jerrycan: 1

- Money spent in hotels/pensions/hostels/camping: € 0

- Days: 4

- Bigmacs: 2 (plus a kebab)

- Baths taken: 0

- Km: 2400

- Countries crossed: 4

So far, so good

Day 4, 2/04/08: oooohhh, la France

Because the day started with 35km/h averages in Italy riviera and the time in Monaco also delayed things a bit more, the schedule was getting tight. Besides that, start and stop driving maybe was not the best for the car. This is why i skipped visiting Nice, Cannes, Toulon and Marseille.
Instead, 200km of french paid highway (4 times) and no sightseeing at all. I would like to reach at least Montpellier. Already in Montpellier, i was almost causing an accident when i was cutting right and didnt saw (badly regulated mirror and luggage covering all the back) that there was a car there. Luckly it was just a close call.
Because i got lost while crossing the city, i saw a little bit more of it than i was counting. And it looked a very interesting city to visit on a next opportunity, as well as all the region of the Languedoc. The day finished in Béziers, after crossing a beach area (during the night) where i parked/slept somewhere that i dont even recall any more. Only 600km on this day (2400km in total).

Day 4, 2/04/08: Monaco

THIS IS MONACO!!!!

Shortly after entering France, Monaco is there, stuck near the sea with mountains behind it. If i would have to define Monaco in one word i would say: bluff. Honestly, i was not expecting much of it and it really looked ugly to me (way too many tall buildings and spread in a not organized pattern). And ok, you can see great cars (i saw a Porsche Speedster....or a replica) and luxurious hotels, but there are also a lot of normal medium class buildings and not so glamorous areas.

As for doing part of the track of the F1 circuit, from what i could identify, the most obvious part was that famous set of tight curves. As you check on the picture, my performance was below expected due to the bus ahead.