Hi John:

I'm going to be riding a similar route around the same time as you - my plans are to depart Zurich about May 24, ride to Bilbao, then head over to Santiago and south from there into Portugal. But - I've got 3 weeks to do the outbound portion of the trip, and 2 more weeks to do the return.

I've been through that area before (about 10 years ago) - there are lots of really interesting secondary roads, but you will have to compromise between how much time you want to spend on the Bilbao - Santiago sector vs. how many interesting little secondary roads you want to explore.

If you head inland (south) about 20 km from the coast, you are into the Cantabrian Mountains, which includes the Picos de Europa, which is fabulous riding. But, if you only have two days to get from Bilbao to Faro, I don't think you have much choice but to stay on the motorways all the way. The shortest route between Bilbao and Faro is the E-80 and E-803 to Seville, then head west - that's 1,100 km, which is pretty hard riding for 2 days.

I don't think it is realistic to plan to get from Bilbao to Faro in 2 days if you go via Santiago. The distance for that route looks to me like it would be around 1,500 km, which could be done in 2 days, provided you stayed on main roads (motorways) all the way, and didn't stop for anything except to buy fuel and pee.

Michael