Travel northern Spain one of the coolest ways imaginable: on a Vespa
Classic Italian motorbikes are easy to handle, and tour through Castilian countryside takes riders along empty back roads to historic towns, nightly feasts and atmospheric hotels
“What do Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando and John Wayne have in common?” asks Lee. “They all owned Vespas. Some people laugh at them for not being as macho as other motorbikes, but this is seriously one of the coolest ways to travel. They’re so much fun … you’ll see.”
It is the first evening of our long-weekend adventure, in a charming inn in the pretty town of Tamajón. Over a bottle of local ribera del duero wine, we are discussing our 200km trip through the hills and fortified medieval cities of Spain’s Castilian heartland in the Ayllón mountains – a crescent-shaped route around the north of Madrid, starting in Tamajón and finishing in picturesque Navafría.
Our hosts are The Flash Pack, a group-travel company that says it will remove the dirty work and inject some style – with the bonus of professionally taken photographs to download and take home afterwards.
Founded by the aforementioned Lee (Thompson, a photojournalist), and his partner Radha Vyas, the company aims to identify the best boutique hotels, wines and cuisine in a certain region, then weave them together into an innovative journey. I’ve signed up for their most popular trip: the four-day Vespa tour. Other trips range from crossing Iceland in Jeeps to sea-kayaking around the Turkish coast.
But first – as the vast majority of us are complete novices – we learn how to handle a Vespa. From Madrid airport, our 10-strong group are shuttled 90 minutes north to tiny Tamajón, where we meet our two Spanish guides for the weekend – Big Javier and Little Javier.