I thought some of you may be interested in my recent roadtrip in the 1M. We spent two weeks touring Spain and Portugal and covered nearly 3000 miles. From Nottingham we drove down to Portsmouth on the south coast of England and took the ferry to Santander in northern Spain, a 24 hour journey across the Bay of Biscay.
From Santander we drove south into Portugal and headed for the beautiful capital, Lisbon where we spent a few days. From there we headed south again and spent a few more days in the Algarve at the beach at Europe's most southwesterly point. Next up, back to Spain and Cadiz, Europe's oldest city. From there we went to Gibraltar, a British colony which is little more than a rock jutting out into the Mediterranean 20 miles from Africa. We then moved up the east coast to Marbella, Granada, Valencia and Barcelona before returning to Santander via Bilbao.
It was an awesome trip and the 1M was faultless. The air con was powerful even when the outside temperature was in the high 30s. It was a fun drive when the roads were entertaining and relaxing when cruise was set to 95 mph on the empty motorways. The nav was usually good with some exceptions. Trying to find our hotel in the centre of Granada it took us through a pedestrian arcade to the amusement of onlookers. The google search function was great for finding hotel addresses. In old town Cadiz our hotel was right in the centre which involved driving down extremely narrow cobbled streets to access the underground car park. I managed to curb two wheels on the high curbs despite my best efforts not to, I was gutted and these will have to be repaired.
Our route
The bridge into Lisbon was remarkably like the San Francisco bay bridge
Poor roads to the beach
Great (empty) roads most other places
The most southwesterly tip of Europe
Exiting a car elevator from the Cadiz hotel
The main road into Gibraltar crosses the runway!
The Gibraltar rock is full of wild monkeys. I thought the 1M had escaped their clutches as they love to climb on cars but I noticed this little hand print on the windscreen the next day!
Some Valencia oranges!
Stunning modern architecture in Valencia
On a street in Barcelona
The new Range Rover Sport was being launched near Barcelona and there were dozens of the things driving around
Lots of bugs!
Something about the aerodynamics of the 1M door mirrors means that bugs get splattered on the side windows too!
Some stats from the journey
