Category: 2024 Fall – Lisbon – Cordoba

Days 11, 12 & 13 – Sevilla, Palma del Rio, Almodovar del Rio & Cordoba(Oct 23, 24 & 25)

We retrieved our bikes from the piano studio in Hotel Amadeus, and unfolded and set them up on a tiny bit of space on the side of the walkway outside the front door of the hotel. There’s always something to fix or adjust, especially when the trikes have been folded, so it took some time, and elicited stares and comments from the international set of passersby.

John had a wish list of small fixes that required tools at a bike repair shop which we luckily happened to spy on the way out of town. (Sevilla is bike-friendly.) Observation: bike mechanics are cool, friendly, helpful gearheads no matter where in the world you are. I like them!

We rode the 88 very very very hot kilometres to Palma del Rio and were relieved and awestruck when we checked into the simply beautiful monastery where we were to spend the night. Stowed the bikes in a large secure shed in the garden, dumped our gear in our room and headed immediately to the huge, unheated pool. It was heaven. Our meals in a very special dining room were gourmet-quality (Duck Confit? Si!). By coincidence we were sharing the monastery with a group of cyclists with VBT, a cycling company that we’ve done tours with in the past, and found out that they were also to be in the hotel that we had booked for Cordoba when we were there. (Sidebar: VBT is an excellent company. Highly recommended if you don’t have a John Loach to do all of the planning and heavy lifting. I believe that this is the route that those cyclists are on. Looks fabulous. https://www.vbt.com/tours/spain-andalusia-guided-bike-tour)

The next morning, since we only had 33 km to ride to our next port of call, we had some wiggle room with available sightseeing time so decided to see if we could tour the privately owned and restored Palacio Portocarrero Alcázar – a palace and famous orange garden. At 9:15 a.m. we knocked on the door and … THE OWNER answered! She told us to come back at ten and she would give us a private tour in English (and promised us samples of marmalade and a “wow factor”). Well, that’s a no brainer: we grabbed an espresso around the corner to put in time and returned to the palace, locked up the bikes and the door opened. The palace has been used for numerous events and it was the set for the movie Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson.

How to describe Cristina Ybarra? An elegant, erudite beautiful Spanish woman of nobility. I couldn’t even begin to guess her age although she has adult children and young grandchildren whom she is proud of. (She shared a video of a four year old grandson singing a multi-verse pirate song complete with actions that she had taught him. Coolest abuela ever.) Along with her husband, twenty five years ago they started restoration of the decayed palace, lovingly rebuilding with authentic materials and design, including the Alcázar which is a living museum of orange trees of hundreds of varieties. Cristina knows all of their names because she procured them. Obviously we loved the whole Palacio, as well as Cristina’s art studio on the top floor. Think of Senora Ybarra as a “Spanish Jackie Kennedy” and you’ll get the picture.

I would say that Palma del Rio was a completely unexpected and beautiful surprise in the trip’s route; John had only put us there as a way point on our route to Cordoba, but it will remain as one of my favourite places ever specifically because of the monastery and the palace.

We cycled the 33 km to our next stop – Almodovar del Rio – staring at a huge hill in the distance the whole time. It turned out that the castle on top of that hill was our destination. Ack!!! We made our way up the impossibly steep hill only to discover – of course – that they were closing their doors at 2 and would reopen at 4:30. We coasted nicely back down that hill and then down another massive hill into town where we grabbed a beer (Coke for John, yay John) and calamari in the plaza outside our hotel and waited for it to open. After much head scratching, the owners helped us stow the bikes in their back garden, we checked into our room, and then walked 25 minutes BACK UP THOSE TWO HILLS to visit Castillo Almodovar which had been used extensively in the filming of Game of Thrones. Don’t mock us: we’ve never actually seen GoT although John insists he read some of the books. We poured ourselves back down those two hills, had a glass of wine (and a Coke for John, yay John!) and went to bed because…

The next morning we had an early-ish start. Our mostly flat route to Cordoba was only 26 km. But, we needed to get there, find the hotel (sometimes a challenge!) strip the bikes, check into the hotel and find our meeting point at 11:30 for a tour of the Jewish Quarter and the famous Mosque-Cathedral. The hotel – Hotel Casas de la Juderia – highly recommended – allowed us to stow the bikes in the maintenance garage, the mechanic there shared his extension cord with us so we didn’t have to carry the batteries and equipment up to the room (LUXURY) – and we made it to the tour on time. “Maria” from artencordoba.com gave us a rich, fact-filled, rapid-fire tour of the mire of streets in the Jewish Quarter and then we hit the Mosque-Cathedral.

Wowzer. Google it. Highly recommended. Our photos don’t do it justice.

We made our way back through the throngs of people outside the mosque and into an Uruguayan restaurant for oxtail tacos and empanadas, back to the hotel for a nap and to warm up (the temperature has dropped 10 degrees and it’s rainy!) and then… at 8:00 we saw a very impressive horse show with flamenco dancers at the Royal Stables of Cordoba. Spanish horses are, of course, very respected and we are in Andalusian horse country. It’s a rich tradition. I love dressage. It was a perfect end to a perfect week.

Our Ride With GPS Collection, so far. Open to see where we’ve been and the routes for each day.

And don’t forget that most of the movies are 360 views so you can swipe left and right on them to see more!!!

Days 8, 9 & 10 – El Rocio to Sevilla (Oct 21, 22 & 23)

Monday morning we left the spectacular (and highly recommended) La Malvasia hotel in El Rocio and made a point of stopping at the chapel on the way out of town. The Madonna statue there is an important destination for pilgrims to visit on horseback, and, as we witnessed, on their knees inside the chapel. (No video allowed in the chapel, but I described that experience in a video, below, after we exited.)

We passed mile after mile of covered gardens – olive trees in various stages of growth.

Found a perfect “Green Door”, although we are getting to be quite shameless. When you have to go… (See video.)

It was 74 very sunny and hot miles to Seville, we enjoyed a fantastic bike path approaching the city (see video) and miraculously found the Hotel Amadeus. Seville is a rabbit’s warren. They were gracious enough to accommodate our folded up bikes in a piano studio on the main floor. Refreshed with a swim in the rooftop terrace, we marvelled at the skyline and proximity of the massive cathedral, then hit the streets with only a loose agenda in mind.

We visited the Antiqua Fabrica de Tabacos – the former cigar factory that was featured in Bizet’s Carmen – which is now a university. 4,000 women worked there, it’s the second largest building in Spain. We stopped at Cafe Sierpes for a tripe dinner. Everywhere, stores are selling hand painted fans and flamenco dresses which are a key part of the social season in Seville in Spring. We found ourselves at Las Setas (the controversial mushroom shaped structures) at sunset. Then, tuckered out, we went to bed.

Next morning, churros and chocolate to dip them in, plus espresso for breakfast. We met up with our tour guide from Sevillewalkingtours.com. We had a fantastic tour of the old city and Santa Cruz. Factoid: there are 15,000 sour orange trees in the city, when they come into blossom in the Spring it’s intoxicating. Their oranges are harvested by a private company and converted into biofuel which is sold to the UK.

Hint: book tickets to the cathedral and the Real Alcázar weeks in advance. We hadn’t, so we had to line up IN THE BRUTAL SUNSHINE to see the Cathedral. (Real Alcázar was completely sold out so we missed out on that entirely.)

The cathedral is the third largest Gothic building in the world. There are 80 chapels within. And it made us thirsty so we stopped for a drink and an Iberian ham sandwich (when in Rome) just up the street from the bullring (bullfighting is still legal in most of Spain).

Next up was a pre booked Flamenco show at the Museo del Baile that left us astounded. Highly highly highly recommended. The show ended at 6 so we used the evening to fill out 20,000 steps by walking to the grand Plaza de Espana where we caught some flamenco buskers in the setting sun. It was built for the Iberian-American exhibition. See the video.

John bought some roasted chestnuts to nosh while we walked but, to be honest, they made me long for dental floss. Charred bits of shell in one’s teeth are annoying. We walked back through the Alcázar Gardens, had a quiet nightcap and dip on the rooftop and fell into bed.

Seville is hot, crowded, and worth every step. Highly recommended.

Remember, you can click on a photo to start the slideshow. Easier on the eyes.

Our Ride With GPS Collection, so far. Open to see where we’ve been and the routes for each day.

Days 6 & 7 – Mertola to El Rocio

To be honest, we had pangs of sadness leaving Portugal on our last day there.  It’s a beautiful country, scenery-wise, the food is absolutely delicious, and its peoples are family-oriented, caring, and genuine.  There’s a reason why it is enjoying a tourism boom now: they’re doing everything right. 

We had a half hour long conversation with some Portuguese and Dutch travellers at a Rio Guadiana vista on the side of the road a couple of hours into our trip. Also… there was a spectacular dam.  See the video, attached.  It was a very hilly ride, we used the back-up battery today.  (64 km., 834 m. elevation.) 

Travellers’ note: when you stray into less travelled bookings territory, things can be challenging.  Most of our booked stays have been through Expedia, or direct with the hotels.  Bookings.com was our travel platform for this evening.  There was an arrival schmozzle, anxiety over the possibility of not being able to get into our rented house that was mostly the result of language challenges.  Eventually we got in, the place was just fine, and it felt good to put money directly into the pockets of private individuals rather than hotels. Still… we had an hour fraught with confusion until the owner showed up.  We had tapas dinner in the resto down the street (after a brief junket down Main Street for snacks, see photos) and then called it a night.  Because….

Day 7’s planned route was over 90 km. We needed an early start (and also, we weren’t in a hotel we were in a house so we needed to find coffee!).  When we left at 8:15 a.m. the sun was just rising. It was a Sunday morning so, mercifully, roads were quiet.  John had found a fabulous route for us, late last night.  We rode for miles on an elevated boardwalk overlooking tidal flats – salinas.  When we arrived in Huelva – a huge bustling port with a nice downtown – one of the locals was very interested in the bikes, offered to take our picture in front of the impressive double-decker pier. We thanked him and pushed on to Mazagon where we stopped for a quick breakfast of hot-from-the-oven Spanish omelette and espresso.  Refueled, we powered through to El Rocio.  It was a hot, hard slog – ultimately 100 km what with wrong turns and food detours – but mostly flat. We’re sunburnt and tired, but minds are full of memories of mile after mile of erosion control pine trees on what is basically an extended sand dune.  

El Rocio. How to describe it? It’s like you’ve ridden into the set of a Spanish Western movie.  Lots of horses.  Families eating in restaurants.  Sand roads (John got stuck!). Hot, dry air with incredible sunshine.  A boardwalk with gorgeous views over the marsh.

Our hotel – La Malvasia – is Spanish elegance.  We unloaded, and hit the pool to cool down.  Our goal is to be able to stay awake until dinner (8:00), walk that boardwalk, and then sleep. Tomorrow, Seville for TWO NIGHTS.  LUXURY. (There’s going to be laundry.)

Day 4 & 5 – Santiago de Cacem to Aljustrel & Mertola

On Thursday we had a 2:30 appointment for a mining tour in Aljustrel (Parque Mineiro de Aljustrel) so told ourselves to get up early and hit the road. Ooops – slept in and got away an hour late. As it turned out, all was well. The first twenty minutes of the 65 km ride was a steady downhill, and the balance of the journey was mostly flat through beautiful farm country and pretty small towns. We averaged well over 20 km/h.

We were puzzled by the massive fields of neatly spaced rows of small well manicured trees. While making a movie of these fields John missed a turn. Oops.

It turns out that these are ‘Intensive Olive Farms’. Typical olive groves consist of large well-spaced trees, but the new intensive style offers many efficiencies. Much more density, easy to irrigate, and great opportunities for automation.

We had no idea what the mine tour would be like in Aljustrel, but we were absolutely amazed. Millions of years ago volcanic activity here brought vast amounts of the Earth’s core to the surface. Minerals have been mined in Aljustrel for thousands of years, beginning with copper about 3000 B.C. Copper was ideal because it smelted out of the raw material, pyrite, fairly easily in prehistoric kilns, and was used for tools and jewellery. The Romans improved the techniques and produced iron and sulphur as well as copper. After the Romans left, the Moors and Arabs did not mine, but mining resumed in the 15th Century.

Portugal became the source of blue dye, made by combining copper and sulphur into copper sulphate.

In modern times, the mines modernized, but were subject to fluctuations in the price of copper. The most recent failure was with the fall of the Soviet Union as copper flooded the world markets. Over 1,000 miners lost their jobs in Aljustrel.

Today the mines are busy, extracting the raw material for copper, sulphuric acid, fertilizers and steel.

Our tour guide took us on a 2-1/2 hour walk around the mine site and 30 metres deep into a long tunnel. He showed us the various vibrant colours formed on the walls as the pyrite reacts with air and water. Blue from copper sulphate, green from copper, red from iron, and yellow from sulphur. The tour facility required much removal of the toxic tailings of centuries of mining activity. This tour far exceeded our expectations, with its beautiful facilities (just opened in December 2023), excellent, details and information rich tour, and the proximity to downtown. At one point, most of the men in Aljustrel worked for that mine.
Interesting factoid: many mines feature a men’s chorus, e..g. Cape Breton’s Men of the Deeps, and various choirs in the colliery mines in the UK and Wales. The same goes for Aljustrel. “Luis”, our guide, maintained that this was the case because singing is a good way to purge lungs of the various dusts – silica – inhaled in the mine shafts. Something to think about.

Another factoid: Saint Barbara is the patron saint of miners, artillerymen, and she is the saint one prays to during thunderstorms. (Boom.)

Our hotel in Aljustrel served us fine typical-of-the-region cod and pork cheek meals. All in all, we had a wonderful day 4 of our adventure.

Cycling on Day 5 was relatively uneventful. 62 km from Aljustrel to Mertola. It was to be our last day and evening in Portugal, so a little tinged with sadness. I don’t know when we will be back this way again.

A couple of miscues put us on dirty trails where we were chased – alarmingly – by farm dogs just doing their job, but all was good. The terrain became very hilly, and we arrived in Mertola after miles and miles of cork, olive, lemon trees, and lots of sheep and cattle. Our hotel – Hotel Museu – was built on a series of ruins discovered during its construction. Beautiful, respectful incorporation of ruins into a modern building with a swimming pool that we appreciated after a long day of hills and sunshine.

We popped up (like, way way up) to check out the ruined Castelo Mertola and church and then hustled back to the hotel because it was threatening to rain and the bikes aren’t good at stopping on wet Portuguese cobblestones on steep hills. Back at the hotel we shared the huge terrace with groups of British (a bit loud and swagger-y, t.b.h.) and North American cyclists, caught up on blogs and emails, enjoyed incredibly delicious burgers there overlooking an incredible Guadiara River valley and the rising Hunter’s moon, and called it a night.

Day 4 Photos

Day 5 Photos

Day 3 – Setubal to Santiago do Cacem, Alentejo

After the excitement and drama of our soggy second day, it was wonderful to wake up to brilliant blue skies. We chatted with a couple from Kamloops in the garage while we set up for the day’s ride. (They noticed our Canadian flags.). They were riding very compact, foldable “Dahon” bikes.

Our first stop of the day was Setubal’s famous fishmarket, Mercado Livramento, a bucket list item for me. The problem with these sightseeing stops when you’re on the trikes is: you have to carry the panniers once you’ve locked up. They’re not huge but they’re heavy. Makes for short stops! The market didn’t disappoint, as you will see from the pictures. (Panniers don’t allow a lot of room for purchases, so there no souvenirs. It killed me not to buy some of that salt from the Algarve.)

Next up for us was a short ferry ride. We ran into the Kamloops couple on the docks there, and talked about various cycling trips with them. One interesting trip they had had was with Giant – a travel arm of the bike manufacturer – around the perimeter of Taiwan. Price of bike rental, bike guides and hotels for a week? $1,000. What a bargain. If only they offered trikes. My two-wheeled days are over, however, some of you may be interested!

When we left the ferry, the ride was beautiful. What a relief from yesterday! Quiet roads, hardly any cars, lots of sunshine. (Although, we were skirting massive puddles, leftover from yesterday’s storm.) We rode past mile after mile of rice fields – the area is famous for their variety of rices – and pine, cork and lemon trees. It was peaceful and uneventful; even the twenty minute detour at the end of the day due to bridge construction wasn’t a bother.

We treated ourselves to a grilled-chicken-and-fries lunch at a very popular cafe that John happened to see on the side of the road. We were spontaneous!!! Usually we don’t stop for lunch but this was irresistible. It was jam-packed with Portuguese diners aged 35 – 95 years old, each enjoying a carafe of red wine with their meal. No one spoke English. Delicious and authentic.

At the top of a hill (of course there was a hill, I mean, this is Portugal) Hotel Octant Caminho in Santiago do Cacem is popular with golfers. It features a massive open kitchen managed magnificently by a female chef who has been with the hotel for years. We had a spectacular dinner (dorado for John, pork cheeks for me, check out the photos) and then slept the sleep of the dead. It was a perfect day.

Day 2 – Lisbon to Setubal

Patti and I had great sleeps last night, helping to move our systems ahead five hours. Breakfast was fantastic. We packed up our panniers, left them at the front desk, and walked for twenty minutes to the Jeronimo Monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos). But FIRST, we stopped at Pasteis de Belem, THE source for the famed Portuguese Custard Tarts. The tart was still warm from the oven. Patti was in foodie heaven.

The Monastery is steeped in Portuguese, and indeed, world history. Vasco da Gama, the first European exporer to sail to India, is buried here. Essentially, he started globalization, trading European technology and sea-faring expertise for spices and other products which were in high demand in Europe. Portugal became the dominant power in global trade.

The monastery was built in a sheltered cove of the Tagus River near Lisbon to honour the Portuguese shipping trade in the early 1500s. The original Renaissance style has experienced much restoration and repair over the centuries, but the original impressive beauty remains. The double storied cloister where the monks lived and worked is fantastic.

Our tour guide “Rafael” (The Jeronimo Tour, Viator) was excellent, pointing out all of the symbolism detailed in the columns, walls, and ceilings. Homage is paid to the Order of Christ, the organization that rose in Portugal from the ashes of the Knights Templar when they were banned in Europe. Portugal was so far west they kind of flew under the radar. It was also interesting to see the “scribbling” on one of the walls that was used as a “whiteboard” by the masons during construction of the church.

The tour finished at noon. We walked back to the hotel to change clothes and get on the trikes. (See the interesting artwork of a raccoon on one of the buildings made entirely of car parts.)

We cycled 1/2 hour to ferry dock, only to discover that the ferry couldn’t accept our trikes. We were advised to cycle back downtown to the car ferry. Arghh. Another 1/2 hour ride back, followed by a 1-1/2 hour wait for the car ferry, putting us into the time forecast for EXTREME RAIN WARNINGS.

By the time we got to the other side of the Tagus River it was 4 pm, with 46 kms to go. We set off in a drizzle which turned into a raging downpour for almost all of the 3-1/4 hour ride. Much of the ride was difficult, in the curb lane of busy urban roads during rush-hour. Many of the rural roads were flooded, requiring slow careful traverses of one-foot deep puddles. We rode through those puddles with our bottoms IN the water. It’s a miracle the batteries didn’t short out.

We arrived at the Setubal hotel (Hotel Cristal) in darkness shortly after 7 pm, absolutely soaked, thanks to the directions of a motorist who stopped to give directions to us while we were standing in the pouring rain, looking for it. We were then told that the hotel had no water because of closeby water main break. Arghh. We changed into dry clothes, but only had energy for eating in the hotel restaurant. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our dinner plans with “Marta” and her husband, which Patti was disappointed about, but it would have been ridiculous for them to venture out in that weather. And we were too soggy and tired, t.b.h. Unfortunately it took 1-3/4 hours to get served. Unbelievable, but it must have been crazy in the kitchen with no water. The good news is, they have taken a whole bag of absolutely soaked clothing and will run it all night in their dryer, including the running shoes. AND…. they comped us our dinners (octopus for John, bacalhao for Patti) and three glasses of wine. So gracious and so appreciated.

Tomorrow will be better!!!!

On a good note, the view of Setubal coming in from the south seashore road was lovely. Lots of freighters, beautiful bay.

What a day.

Day 1 – Toronto to Lisbon

Our (John’s and my) first 24 hours involved an overnight flight from Toronto to Heathrow on Thanksgiving Sunday (3-4 hours of sleep – yahoo!) and a connecting flight to Lisbon at 8 a.m., putting us at 11:00 a.m. on Monday into an airport that is stretched well beyond its capacity. Picture a field of planes parked on a massive tarmac, serviced by jetways and passenger buses, huge lineups for immigration and the exit line out of baggage. Yet, staff are patient, friendly and kind, weary passengers know that this will be the drill, and the whole experience is stress free.

Until.

Until the only piece of luggage you checked – and you only checked because it was oversized (replacement visibility flags for the trikes) – has disappeared. It’s not in the Oversized Baggage collection area. It’s not in Lost and Found. Happily, after an hour delay and thanks also to John’s gentle persistence, the tube containing the flags was found.

Exit stage right, jump into another line for cabs, endure a hairy, rapid drive to the Kuboo storage facility, and we are reunited with our ICE Trikes. It takes us a while to remember how to set them up, add air to tires, check battery levels, install new flags and discard what we no longer need. Then we start the super easy, mostly downhill ride into the Belem neighbourhood in Lisbon. Ride with GPS – our route planning App – only leads us to a dead end once.

We find our ridiculously gorgeous hotel (built in the former home of the governor of Belem on 1st to 2nd Century Roman ruins, overlooking the iconic Torre de Belem), stow the bikes in their secure, underground garage – a luxury, because we don’t have to take them apart – shower and have a #timednap. And now, while John tweaks a brake cable that gave him some anxiety on the mostly downhill 8 km ride here through Lisbon – ! – I am drinking Portuguese white wine, and looking at trains and palm trees and the Tagas River.

The forecast for tomorrow is rain. A lot of it. But we’ll start the day with a tour of the Jeronimo Monasterio, and end it with a dinner with “Marta” who lives in Setubal, our next destination.

Hotel: Palacio do Governador. Excellent restaurant. Beautiful spa (sadly we are not spa-ish). Great Belem location, walking distance to Torre de Belem, Jeronimo Monastery, Pasteis de Belem (famous Portuguese Custard Tarts since 1837) and the Tagus riverfront.