Two4Charge

Thinking forward to October (when the leaves turn), we are thinking maybe going up to the Washington, D.C. area via the Amtrak AutoTrain (we can carry the bikes on it) and then taking the Southeastern BDR back down to Pensacola. This part is supposed to take like 10 days. May have to get some light off-road bikes for this. Thinking maybe a CRF-300L for myself and a Yamaha XT-250 for Sabrina.

We are finally back home after 20 days of motorcycling through southern Morocco and southern Spain. It was an incredible adventure, and we managed to avoid any significant issues, not even a single day of heavy rain. everybody we ran into was super friendly and welcoming.

Our approach of traveling without a set plan worked out perfectly. It gave us the flexibility to adjust our route on the fly based on the temperature and local conditions. The trip was low-stress and a lot of fun, leading us to several great places we had never visited before. Of course, the amazing food in both countries was a definite highlight as well.

If you want to get into the details of our routes, the following links let you zoom into all the details:

Morocco Ride: https://spotwalla.com/trip/4a4b-25a8b1d-8319/view
Spain Ride: https://spotwalla.com/trip/2dc2-18ea3e5-df24/view

We made it to Ronda! It’s our final stop in Spain before we have to drop the bikes off in Málaga, and man, this place is just as epic as I remembered. Honestly, it has to be one of the coolest towns in the entire country.

It’s definitely a bit full of tourists, but that doesn’t take away from how incredible it is. Between the deep history, the great architecture, and that one-of-a-kind location perched right on the cliffs, it’s absolutely stunning.

If you’re ever planning a trip to Spain, you 100% need to put Ronda on your list. 🇪🇸✨

Always fun to stay in a castle! In this case, it's an entire little town enclosed within a castle. We're staying at one of the high towers and, of course, if you look at all the pictures, you'll see in the last one I did the obligatory Game of Thrones one. And yes, that is Gibraltar that you see in the distance.

Wandering through southern western Spain, Jerez we arrive!

Welcome to the Spanish town of Los Blázquez. An interesting piece of personal trivia is that I was actually born with the last name Blázquez. Though I was raised as a Flashman, and that is how I identify. In researching my Blázquez heritage, I found that the family mostly came to the new world from Zaragoza, which is on the eastern/northern side of Spain. But when researching the DNA, I learned that my genetic origins are actually on the western/southern side of Spain, closer to the Portuguese border.

A quick look at the map and right in the middle of where my DNA report says I come from I found the town of Los Blázquez. So, here I am!

Riding without a plan led us through miles and miles of grapevines until we stumbled upon a tiny mountain town called La Parra. We picked it because we found a convent on Booking that had been converted into a hotel for a great price, we figured it would be a fun place to check out.

To our surprise, the history here is incredible. La Parra was originally an entirely Spanish-Jewish town, dating all the way back to Roman times according to local folklore. People settled here either with the Romans or shortly after to plant some of the very first vineyards in the region. In fact, "Parra" is actually a medieval word for grapevine.

The Jewish community here thrived for nearly a thousand years under both Roman and Moorish rule, and even took "Parra" as their own surname. Sadly, that changed in 1492 when the Spanish Inquisition ordered either conversion or expulsion. While many converted, many others left for places all over the world. Today, Parra is a common last name found globally, all with unique Jewish heritage tied back to this tiny village of maybe 200 houses.

It’s been such a wonderful, unplanned discovery. I’m pretty sure we’re the only two tourists in town, and it feels like they don’t get visitors very often. So glad we found this gem.

On top of that, our convent stay is rather impressive. It’s a fully original convent, and we’re literally staying in one of the nuns' rooms.

They’ve modernized it without changing it too much, so everything remains as original as possible. You can tell when you’re inside the convent that it is of a Moorish design originally; I’m not sure what it was before that, but it seems to be really well kept and it’s a great stay.

We are big fans of Medellín, Colombia, so of course while in Spain we had to go visit Medellín, Spain, which is where the name of the city originates from. It was in this town that Cortés was born, and hence Medellín, Colombia, was named in his honor. Do you remember Cortés? He was the conquistador who, when he arrived at the New World, supposedly burned his ships to motivate his crew.

In any case, it's a beautiful little town that has been recently rebuilt. The town was decimated when Napoleon invaded, going from 400 houses to 150. Then the town suffered greatly in the Spanish Civil War when it took the wrong side and was eventually conquered by Franco and his government. He proceeded to punish the town by refusing to invest in its rebuilding or its economy until he died. But now, the town seems to be coming alive and vibrant with several really good restaurants and some great historic sites.

Today's home stay in an over 600-year-old estate was truly amazing. They had all kinds of animals, all kinds of bizarre sculptures and eclectic items, and an amazing dinner. We really enjoyed ourselves. Plus some amazing artwork throughout the house.

The Spain rental bikes.