[Spring 2018] Portugal.
Planning the trip.
In Fall, 2017, a climbing buddy, Dima, invited me to cycle the
Portugese border with him. Who could resist?!
Dima planned this trip just-right - we had no interest in a stranger guiding us along
the countryside. Yet we also had no idea where to ride, what to look for, and
most-importantly, what roads to avoid. Dima hired a local Portugese cyclist
to do the ride only a few months prior. This fella gave us information on where to stay,
what sights to see, and most-importantly, the exact route to ride.
Day 1 - Lisbon to Santiago Do Cachem
This was my first day attempting to ride my bike through
Portugal.
However, my bike never made it to Portugal, on my flight from from Colorado. I learned
this the night before.
Dmitry and Vlad; the fellas I was planning this ride with - both took off from our hotel
in Cintra, first thing in the morning. Me, without a bike, booked a train into town in
order to find a bike.
Hitchin' trolleys across Lisbon.
Since I'd started ~7 hours after my compatriots. I pretty-quickly gave up on following
their scenic route along the coast - weather was moving in and it was only a couple
hours before nightfall.
I decided to take a more-inland and direct approach, in hopes of catching up with them,
however, about 20 miles into my ride, I got hit with a bad hailstorm, and then constant
rain for the next 20 miles.
Solo riding through cold Portugal weather. A hailstorm is imminent.
By the time I neared Santiago do Cachem, I was so cold that I would have slept anywhere
warm. I ended up finding a hotel that would let me keep my bike in a locked storage area
in the back, drew a hot bath and slowly dipped my frozen body in. If the next 5 days
were going to be this bad, I was in for a surprise.
Day 2 - Santiago Do Cachem to Alte
All the gear I have, by myself in Portugal.
On this second day of riding, I was determined to catch up to Vlad and Dima, as I was
done
paying for an additional hotel for myself every night. I again-chose to stick
more-inland, in an effort to cut out unnecessary distance, but also thereby missing many
beautiful coastal attractions.
Sun breaks through the clouds in the never-ending Portugese countryside.
About 45 miles in, I stopped on the south side of Sao Teotonio to eat and wait out some weather at Retaurante BECHA - the food was just okay. The rest of this ride was generally uneventful - I was ready to be done 20 miles before then end, but I ended up getting to our hotel a couple hours before the other fellas.
Day 3 - Alte to Evora
Beginning the third day early.
Rainy start to the day, but a very pretty ride altogether. Climbing out of Alte, within the first 20 miles, we encountered a buddhist shrine (Stupa Budista) at the top of a mountain which was clearly very popular with cyclists, as there were encouraging words written into the road all along the climb.
Stupa Budista; Buddhist Temple in Portugal.
We rode on, refueling at gas stations - one thing I noticed was many of these small-town
gas stations would have working-class fellas just sitting there playing cards and
drinking beer at like 11am on a Tuesday, while the female attendant kind of acknowledges
them with an exasperated look.. that was particularly kind of sad.
Stopping for a snack in a small Portugese town.
Around mile 95 or so, we stopped in the last small town (Viana do Alentejo) for some chocolate milk. Nobody wanted to proceed to Evora, but Vlad led us all the way in without complaint. We got to Evora in the dark, and checked into the church we were staying in.
Finally in Evora, looking for the church we're staying in..
We got some dinner in the church, which was excellent, and tried to go out for a drink, however the bars were filled with young people, and we were haggard - we didn't stay long.
Day 4 - Evora to Marvao
Packed up in front of the Evora church we slept in on day 3.
Upgraded our sleeping quarters from a church to a castle. This was my favorite day for a
number of reasons; namely the weather, the roads, and the fact we ended up at our
destination in the daylight, and that destination was an epic castle!
The ride itself was very chill, we stopped in Alter de Chao for lunch - none of the
staff spoke english, nor any of us Portugese. So, they had some customer at the bar that
convinced the staff he "spoke english" to take our order - only problem was he didn't
really speak english and just wanted some free beer. We ended up eating... some sort of
food.. and got back on the road.
Castle of Marvão, as seen from a dry fountain in Portagem.
Once we got to the castle, it felt as though we were the only people there. Dinner was
fantastic, cheap, and came with a liter of wine! This was the first stop where I didn't
want to leave, come the next morning. The liter of wine certainly did not help..
88 miles to Marvão Castle.
Day 5 - Marvao to Tomar
Leaving Castle de Marvao in the morning.
This was the hardest day, by far, for me. I was starting to feel some pain in my knee - honestly around mile 35, I was looking at train options to get me to Tomar. Fortunately, the other fellas talked me out of it.
Getting towed by Vlad.
The weather held out for this ride, at breakfast, we'd decided to take a shortcut through some dirt roads - Vlad ended up toppling and hurt his leg a bit. Regardless, we persevered - there were not many places for us to stop for lunch, so we subsisted off house-ran bakeries along the way.
Some short cuts didn't save us much time.
We got into Tomar, and ate dinner - those fellas passed out pretty quickly, but I went exploring the town. Ended up at a 600 year old family-run bar, and got to sit and chat with locals for hours - one of the best experiences of the trip. The next day, I had to return my bike and didn't have time to cycle it to Lisbon, so we took the train back, and I only saw those fellas once more for dinner before I left back to the states.
Wrapping up the last day on the bike.