PORTUGESE PARADISE
Ferry yourself to Santander, then warm yourself up with a fast dash down the A67 and E80/A62, crossing the border to Vilar Formoso heading for Guarda, then Valhelhas where you arrive at the headline event – the Serra da Estrela mountains. Pick up the N-232, and don’t leave it until you reach Gouveia. You’ll be giggling like a Nitrous Oxide addict by this point, but it’s not over yet. Trundle south to Seia and pick up the N-339 – the ‘Portuguese Stelvio’. The higher the N-339 climbs, the more awesome it becomes, huge switchbacks and long, constant-radius corners past huge boulder fields and patches of low, scrubby scree and sand. The descent to Covilhã is no less thrilling. In fact, it might be even more dramatic. The views are wide-screen spectacular, but the straights are longer to start with, cutting down past the Madonna carved into a niche in the rocks, swinging round and down in clipped corners and a couple of dramatic hairpins to the town. If anyone wondered what motorbikes are for, the answer is found here in the Serra da Estrela mountains.