Spanish trip.
By Steve & Chris Elliot.
It was a cold April morning when the phone rang, the call went like this. Hi Steve it’s Jeff from Benidorm.
I know you said you weren't coming back for this season but a jobs just came up at the Beach Rock Café.
They want a band for 4 months from June 15th and was wondering if you'd be interested in playing lead guitar.
Well, I had intended to spend my first summer in the UK in 2 years touring around Scotland on my newly aquired Goldwing 1500 so as you can imagine I had to deliberate for a while about where I'd spend my summer, that was the longest 10 seconds of my life ! So after a quick chat with the missus(Chris) the decision was made Spain here we come. So the race was on 6 weeks to find a suitable hi- top van for the bike (you didnt think I was going to leave it behind did you) fit some heavy duty anchors in the floor, and some ramps, then we had to find a home for the summer caravan. So after scouring the classifieds, a Talbot Express L.W.B. Hi Top 2.5 Diesel was found (tailor made for a Wing) and a Swift Challenger 5.2metre twin wheel caravan. I can’t understand why all of the gypsies were waving and flashing lights on the way down the country to our departure point at Plymouth???. I would have loved to ride the bike to Spain but for obvious reasons this was out of the question for this year.
So we left Gateshead at 8pm on 2nd June to be in good time for the 12noon sailing on the 3rd. After an uneventful trip all the way down to The Costa Blanca apart from the temperature gauge on the van telling lies, to our relief! We arrived in Benidorm in the early hours of the morning of the 5th June. Then it was straight into rehearsals with the band, with the Wing quickly becoming a general form of transport. Shortly after arriving we happened to bump into (no not literally silly) a representative of the Goldwing owners club of Spain while cruising around the town one day, inviting us to attend their 8th Convention of the Spanish Goldwing Club, on 26th 27th and 28th June, We assured him we would be there and after a chat about our bikes and a bit of friendly banter we shook hands and parted company.
My job at The Beach Rock started on the 15th and it turned out to be a great vantage point for watching for Wings going past as the Cafe is right in the middle of the seafront at Levante beach. One night while playing I spotted a couple on a white S.E parked looking at my bike. I thought no more of it until I finished work ,and as we were riding along the sea front home we spotted the same bike it turned out to be John & Wilma from Scotland who were having a whistle stop tour of Spain.They were invited to the convention which started the following day, and they hadn’t any idea about as they had just arrived.
The following day started early 8am the middle of the night for a musician we met up out side the Beach Rock and we started our journey down the coast to Calpe, which is about 20miles from Benidorm. The meeting point was The Hotel Galeta Mar and when we arrived we were confronted by over 150 Wings, quite a spectacle. After a short meeting to explain the days events we were on our way. First was a trip to Moraira along the coast where we stopped in the town for refreshments, bringing the whole place to a standstill as you can imagine. From there it was on to Jalon and a tour of its wine cellars were we bought a few litres of an excellent 10yr old red moscatell price about 2 pounds a litre. After one or two very small free samples it was on to a restaurant where we had a typical Spanish lunch, followed by not so typical helpings of Bells scotch whiskey, only for pillions I hasten to add. We returned to Calpe where we each received a commemorative badge & t shirt etc. I think its fair to say everyone had a great day and we can’t wait till next year and the next convention.
Well as you've possibly gathered the seasons over and were back home again after a frightening force 7 crossing over the Bay of Biscay, to the wonderful British weather. I’m just glad we decided to abandon country when we did, as I understand the weather over the summer wasn’t great.Time to dismantle the bike and get rid of all of that Spanish dust from the frame etc.and get prepared for next year
Before I sign off, I'll leave you with an interesting fact. After working out fuel costs for the trip it was approximately 100 pounds cheaper to take the van with Wing inside plus 1.2 ton caravan and P.A Equipment guitars etc for my job, than it would have been to ride the bike down. If anyone would like further info on cheap caravan sites around Benidorm etc please contact us.
Steve & Chris Elliott
Tyneside
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