The Honda Deauville is a big old beast of a bike that makes light work of windswept A-roads on the Kent coast and has a good reputation as a foreign tourer. It's been a dream to tour since taking the bike test and after a couple of dry runs to France I did the first big tour in summer 2025 - a 2,500 mile road trip from Deal to Alicante via Bilbao on the Deauville to attend the wedding of my nephew Joseph and his partner (now husband) Antonio.
Deal to Bilbao
We set off at Sunday lunchtime in early June. Deal to Portsmouth Harbour is 133 miles along the south coast. You can do it in 2.5 hours on the motorway. As newbies with two up and too much luggage we stuck to A-roads and did it in a more cautious 5 hours (including rest stop).
Boarding the Galicia ferry at Portsmouth was a breeze, then we had a 2 day cruise to Bilbao. 2 days sitting around looking at the sea and grazing at the buffet. The shot above is the view at dawn somewhere in the Bay of Biscay a few hours from land after 2 nights on the Galicia.
Accommodation for this leg was fine - a cosy cabin on the Galicia with a window and ensuite bathroom. Food was 'all-you-can-eat' breakfast, lunch & dinner in the CClub lounge (Homer Simpson stylee). Best sights were the dolphins, sunrise and sunset. Entertainment was mixed, the onboard cinema was showing Dylan biopic 'A complete Unknown' with a cabaret singer belting out karaoke favourites a few yards away.
Next stop Segovia.