T R A V E L F E A T U R E - P ortugal
RICK LAVERS
ONE OF
OUR NUMBER
I
first met Brian Watson on a rainy
day in Paris in September of 2013.
Earlier that year, I had been
searching for a tour that would take
me through the Dordogne because
an old French friend had told me , “If
you want to see the real France, you
need to go to the Dordogne.”
Unfortunately, by September the
moto touring season was pretty much
over. By happenstance I contacted
Brian through McTours, and he said,
“I’ll put together a trip for you.” He
was now arriving, sopping wet, after
having ridden all the way from Gene-
va in the rain. That was the closest
place he could locate reliable rental
bikes at that time of year. Over the
years, I would learn this was typical
of Brian. He will literally go the extra
mile to take care of you and to make
sure you enjoy your trip.
Fast forward to 2018. After a
second venture with Brian; a trip
through the Pyrenees he’d designed
to my “specifications”, starting and
TRAVERSE 73
ending in Barcelona, meandering
across the French border. I asked
him could we do the Douro, maybe
heading up from Porto into the Span-
ish provinces of Galicia and Asturias.
He had another client who was also
asking about the Douro. Of course,
he would put together another trip for
me!
Brian spends a lot of time recon-
noitring areas and planning before he
offers a tour. He had previously rid-
den through this area but had not yet
planned to organise a tour. Based on
our inquiries, he set to work review-
ing his notes to see what he could
offer. He suggested that Galicia and
Asturias might be a bridge too far for
the time we had available, and that
Madrid would be a logistically more
convenient and less expensive start-
ing point. I deferred to his expertise,
and he presented his clients with a
plan to tour western Spain and north-
ern Portugal.
Being a somewhat experimental