Premier peninsula perambulations

Riding locally is all well and good, but Helen wanted some adventure and to get some miles under her wheels

- Helen Guest

I decided I wanted to ride my Street Twin abroad, instead of just riding locally in England and sitting pillion when abroad with my partner John. I've had this bike for three years now; previously I had a Ducati Scrambler. This is the perfect bike for me: a low and comfy seat, the tank isn't too wide, and with added heated grips I'm good to go. I'd always recommend a Triumph Street Twin to anyone, but especially to the shorter woman rider. Plenty of power and you can get away with most speeds in most gears.

As it was my trip, I spent months planning a route and we eventually set off at the end of August. We began by getting the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao. I was really worried about getting parked up on the ferry in Portsmouth but, thankfully, it was easy so that was a great start. After two nights on smooth seas, we arrived in Bilbao at 8am.

Day one in Spain we rode 250 miles to Salamanca.

We used the motorways for most of the way just to cover the mileage and to help me settle into riding on the other side of the road. Two-hundred-and-fifty miles was a long way for me after just small mileage in the UK. Just a one-night stopover at the Hotel Bardo Recoletos Coco. That worked out great. The hotel was located outside of the main town and the room was as you'd expect. Good value for money. Nothing exciting but exactly what we needed. Plus, we moved our bikes to their underground car park for extra security. In fact, we only booked hotels that had underground car parks for this reason.