Gareth Owens
Spain Motorcycle Tour - Day 9 - Marbella to Granada

From: Marbella Via: Monda and Antequera To: Granada Distance: 145 miles
We spent a very lazy morning lounging on the beach, making the most of the sunshine, even though it was cold enough to get goose bumps. As the only day we had on beach and the only opportunity to get more than a bikers tan (face and neck), we wanted to make the most of it!
Alex and Lizzy met us at 1 pm and we all set off for Granada. We took the tip from just about everyone we met yesterday and took the road to Monda. It was fast and sweeping though not that exciting - I much preferred the little twisty back roads.
We passed lots of windmills, a sure sign of a windy location, then stopped at Antequera for lunch. As usual at this time of day there was no one about and not many options for parking up or for finding somewhere to eat.
Eventually, near the fortified wall, we found a cafe with a few locals in to eat, so we founds somewhere to park the bikes and settled in for a 'full Spanish', an absolute bargain at 6 euros.

Feeling rather sleepy after the huge meal, we went back to the car park to pick up the bikes only to find that the Triumph Explorer had picked up a phillips head screw in the rear tyre - typically the tyre was brand new for the trip.
As the tyre had not gone down, I decided to screw it in further, in the hope that I could ride for a while and that doing so would effectively seal the tyre.

Given the puncture we took the fast route to Granada. Alex and Lizzy peeled off to their campsite and we headed to our second hotel in a convent.
The hotel was a Marriot apparently, though you would never know it! We would be staying here for two nights to give us time to explore Granada and to visit one of the highlights of the trip, the Alhambra...
