Catalunya winter sun riding break

Nestled in the rolling vineyards of Spain lies a rustic 12th Century farmhouse, this little slice of heaven offers the opportunity to build a motorcycling holiday around you and your desires. Armed with several apartments comprising of double/twin rooms with private showers, kitchens and roof terraces, it’s a home away from home under the glorious Spanish sun. With a swimming pool and many private little courtyards and gardens, as well as various walking trails through the wooded hills, there’s more to this tranquil place than hours of sitting in the saddle.

The surrounding area offers all that you would look for in motorcycle adventures – perfect climate, spectacular roads and wonderful scenery not to mention mouthwatering food and delicious wine.

The farmhouse is owned and run by Geoff and Amanda. The dynamic duo offer a range of motorcycles and routes to suit any style of riding. Geoff trained as an aerospace engineer and has over 40 years of experience building, maintaining and riding motorcycles of every type, size and vintage. While Amanda has years of experience in the hotel and catering industry. She is also a qualified therapist specialising in spa retreats, which she provides at the house.

Magellan have teamed up with Geoff and Amanda to create 3 and 7 day stress buster breaks for riders and pillions, to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Whether it’s winter sun, putting miles on a bike or just a much needed break, these trips will cater for every need.

Always making sure we find the best roads for you, we put together a few of our favourite days from our recent recon trip, to get you packing your bags and on the first flight out!

Day One
Our first ride out was a gentle route down to the local beach, Arrabassada, just on the outskirts of Tarragona. The journey starts on the local road to Vila Rodona, which is perfectly surfaced like most roads in the area. The twisting road is home to one of the key sections of the RACC World Rally championship, which is an extraordinary spectacle in October. It is chosen as the venue for this important race because of the spectacular undulating bends that sweep past the farmhouse and into the mountains. From the house to Vila Rodona this epic road opens out into a series of ever more open sweeping bends before dropping into the village itself.

From the village we headed east towards the coast and onto the famous cava producing village of Nulles, before turning from the “main road” onto gentle twisting roads through the forest.
Just 10km of this section takes us into the outskirts of Tarragona and the perfect sandy beach of Arrabassada and its lovely little beach bars, known as chiringuitos. Here, we enjoyed a quiet coffee and cold drinks, looking at the calm Mediterranean Sea. After a relaxing chat, we returned home, happy with our travels and using the same road. Our evening meal of paella was cooked by Paco, an Argentine chef who by happy chance had been working with Geoff and Amanda for the spring.

Day Two
We decided on a repeat of our ride to Arrabassada beach and after a fuel stop in Vila Rodona, just 4km from base, we decided to continue the journey into Tarragona, for a brief look at the fabulous Roman amphitheatre before heading up to the Balcon Del Mediterraneo at the head of Tarragona’s Rambla Nova. The views from the Balcon are wonderful, and the rambla offers a range of cafes to enjoy people watching in the sun. This town offers the joy of Barcelona, but without the crowds. From here we walked into Placa Del Font, where we stopped for an excellent tapas meal of epic proportions at Café Quatro. Our return to the bikes took in the cobbled streets and further Roman remains of the old medieval/Roman walled city and its spectacular cathedral.

From here we rode through the heart of the city to visit the Roman aqueduct Pont Del Diable (Devil’s Bridge). This 2000-year-old structure stands proud and strong despite the passing centuries. You can walk across this incredible piece of history, and from its 25m height you are afforded wonderful views of the forested hillside and the outskirts of Tarragona. Our return to the bikes was punctuated with an ice cream stop where we were served by an extraordinarily enthusiastic waiter who reminded all of us of Robin Williams! The people of this region are so friendly and helpful, that when we said we didn’t like the sample of cake he bought us, he quickly brought another delicious offering to make sure that we were happy.

Nothing seems too much trouble for these lovely people who take great pride in their service, food, drink and traditions.Our route home was on ‘fast modern roads’, although they were as windy and quiet as the rural mountain roads, giving a total round trip of 75km and 1.5 hours in the saddle.

Day Three
By day three we had all gelled with our bikes so we took to the mountains to see more of the real motorcycling gems of this area. Our route today was from the house to Querol – Santa Colomba De Queralt – Sarral – El Pla De Santa Maria – and back to base again creating a distance of 82km. The ride takes us past Santes Creus, home to an extraordinary monastery that dates to the 12th century. This is the resting place of two of Spain’s Medieval Kings and Queens and is well worth a trip! From here we headed to the castle village of Querol up the beautiful winding roads of the Querol valley.

Wide open views from the mountain pass beckon at each turn as we climbed higher, reaching an altitude of nearly 2,500 feet along the way. These roads are virtually empty of cars, but is unsurprisingly popular with the local bikers! These roads are perfect for biking, being both smooth and mountainous. The twisting road gives way to more open sweeping bends and more climbs, giving breath-taking views to the far distant Mediterranean. After our initial ride of 35 minutes, we dropped from the highest point to stop at the astonishing castle and ruined church of Santa Perpetua De Gaia. The castle dates to 1015 and looks like it belongs on a film set! It’s one remaining tower stands tall and impossibly slender, dominating the valley that it overlooks, whilst the remains of the castle stretch to the very edges of vertical cliffs on three sides. The views from here are extraordinary and we spent an enchanted 45 minutes exploring and photographing this exceptional scene before proceeding to the church, which is also unique. Built in the 1500’s it was abandoned over 100 years ago and now stands empty and partly ruined.

Much of the original plasterwork remains intact despite parts of the roof falling in and one can still imagine what the original place looked like. In any other place, this building would be boarded up and fenced off, but here we are free to roam with care. From Santa Perpetua De Gaia we travelled a further 15 minutes to the medieval walled town of Santa Colomba De Queralt. The focal point of the old town is a traditional square where people and their children meet to talk, socialise and play. It is a perfect place to quietly sit, enjoy a coffee and watch the simple life carrying on as it no doubt has for centuries. After our coffee we walked onwards to explore the other two squares of the town and its ancient cobbled streets where we were delighted to find a shop that has been preserved by the local WI as a living museum. Here they display many examples of the original stock from biscuits to insecticide, medicine to toys.

It was clearly a shop for all reasons and is a time capsule well worth visiting. After our exploration we returned to the square to eat, and after a light meal of cheese, ham and bread we returned home on a slightly larger, open, fast sweeping road, making this a route of two halves, starting twisty and mountainous, ending open and fast.

Day Four
Day Four saw us riding the 165km to Montblanc – Siurana & Mont Ral. Leaving the house we travelled to Valls on a major road, before heading up the sweeping bends of the mountain road through Lila. At the top of this mountain pass we see our ultimate destination of the Prades mountains, but first we dropped back into the lower area of Montblanc Park on street and walked into the town via the main entrance to Placa Major.

Montblanc is a beautiful medieval walled town. Much of the original defensive wall survives and can be walked. Every entrance to the town is through historic gates that lead into cobbled streets. These are packed with beautiful small shops, cafes and bars. We particularly recommend the chocolate shop, which looks like a scene from the French film Chocolat! From here, it is well worth the very short walk to the main church which is on the small cobbled street leading from Placa Major. Entrance to the church is 1 Euro, and for a further 2 Euros you can access the roof via a spiral stair in the tower. The views from here are stunning and give a great insight to the defensive walls and town layout.

From Montblanc we headed out of town for a 45-minute ride to Siurana along a road that left us all laughing out loud when we stopped! There is no straight road for 30km or more and no cars either! We rode happily on the super smooth curves through breathtakingly beautiful scenery enjoying our ride to the fullest. The final 5 km of the road is much like an alpine pass as the road climbs through deep gorges using hairpin bends and extremely steep sections to ride the final 1000 feet to the mountain top village of Siurana. This village is hailed as the most beautiful in Catalonia, which is surely correct. It sits perched on an impossibly remote plateau with 700 foot drops on three sides.

The views are astonishing and the village itself is another perfect time capsule of medieval life. We ate great bacon bocadillos at bar Acacia, so called because an Acacia tree grows straight through a hole in the bar roof! From here we rode on similar mountain roads before climbing the Prades mountains on tiny roads that once again afforded fabulous views of distant Tarragona and the Mediterranean. We rode for 40 minutes before taking a left turn into the remote village of Mont-Ral.

Here we stopped at an industrious village bakery, which must be one of the most remote anywhere! Despite its remote location they served us with the perfect fuel of pastries and coffee, plus some local “interesting” bread baked to include boiled eggs!

This is only a selection of the fantastic riding to be had in this area. The great thing about this place is the fact you can choose how much riding you do. There’s no fixed routes or times, it’s a holiday tailored to suit your needs. The beauty of this trip is that the bikes are always there to be ridden but if you fancy a day walking through the trees, chilling out by the pool or getting a massage that’s fine too! Having the base there allows you to relax and go with the flow.