Two4Charge

Thinking forward to October (when the leaves turn), we are thinking maybe going up to the Washington, D.C. area via the Amtrak AutoTrain (we can carry the bikes on it) and then taking the Southeastern BDR back down to Pensacola. This part is supposed to take like 10 days. May have to get some light off-road bikes for this. Thinking maybe a CRF-300L for myself and a Yamaha XT-250 for Sabrina.

We made it to Ronda! It’s our final stop in Spain before we have to drop the bikes off in Málaga, and man, this place is just as epic as I remembered. Honestly, it has to be one of the coolest towns in the entire country.

It’s definitely a bit full of tourists, but that doesn’t take away from how incredible it is. Between the deep history, the great architecture, and that one-of-a-kind location perched right on the cliffs, it’s absolutely stunning.

If you’re ever planning a trip to Spain, you 100% need to put Ronda on your list. 🇪🇸✨

Wandering through southern western Spain, Jerez we arrive!

Riding without a plan led us through miles and miles of grapevines until we stumbled upon a tiny mountain town called La Parra. We picked it because we found a convent on Booking that had been converted into a hotel for a great price, we figured it would be a fun place to check out.

To our surprise, the history here is incredible. La Parra was originally an entirely Spanish-Jewish town, dating all the way back to Roman times according to local folklore. People settled here either with the Romans or shortly after to plant some of the very first vineyards in the region. In fact, "Parra" is actually a medieval word for grapevine.

The Jewish community here thrived for nearly a thousand years under both Roman and Moorish rule, and even took "Parra" as their own surname. Sadly, that changed in 1492 when the Spanish Inquisition ordered either conversion or expulsion. While many converted, many others left for places all over the world. Today, Parra is a common last name found globally, all with unique Jewish heritage tied back to this tiny village of maybe 200 houses.

It’s been such a wonderful, unplanned discovery. I’m pretty sure we’re the only two tourists in town, and it feels like they don’t get visitors very often. So glad we found this gem.

On top of that, our convent stay is rather impressive. It’s a fully original convent, and we’re literally staying in one of the nuns' rooms.

They’ve modernized it without changing it too much, so everything remains as original as possible. You can tell when you’re inside the convent that it is of a Moorish design originally; I’m not sure what it was before that, but it seems to be really well kept and it’s a great stay.

Today's home stay in an over 600-year-old estate was truly amazing. They had all kinds of animals, all kinds of bizarre sculptures and eclectic items, and an amazing dinner. We really enjoyed ourselves. Plus some amazing artwork throughout the house.