Category: 2024 Spring – Porto – Lisbon

Lisbon

Our last day of riding – Friday May 31 – was from Torres Vedras to a storage company in the outskirts of Lisbon where we were going to leave our bikes.

It was a short (56 km., 865m ascent) but slightly hairy ride. Lisbon is a huge city and its outskirts go on for miles and miles. There is a TON of traffic, and, sadly, although we had been spoiled with dedicated bike lanes on previous rides into various cities and towns, they were not an option on this ride, probably because we were going to an industrial park area and not a scenic and touristic downtown.

Finally we spied the yellow KUBOO logo and made a beeline for the building. I forgot to mention, it was awfully warm – 25dgC – so we were hot, a little frazzled and very thirsty but completely elated that we made it!

The staff were really efficient and got us sorted with our rental space, we stripped the bikes, folded them, photographed what we were leaving in the unit, changed into dry clothes and caught an Uber into downtown Lisbon.

1757 kilometres from Bordeaux to Lisbon.

20,790 accumulated metres of ascent.

29 rides between from May 2nd to May 31st.

Thanks for keeping us company along the way. (Hi, Eunice!) We’re not sure where we’ll go in the Fall – Morocco? Algeria? Tunisia? Sicily? Valencia? Santander? Malaga? – but it’ll be fun dreaming about it. We welcome your suggestions!

p.s. In addition to the final photos of the trikes there are shots of our days in Lisbon in the gallery, below. Writer Kevin Sessums described Lisbon by saying “imagine if Havana f**ked San Francisco” and I can’t help but feel that that’s a perfect description.


If you want to view the trip on the App that John used to plan the route, and we used to TRACK our rides, click here.

Enjoy!

Torres Vedras

John: Our last two days of riding originally were going to take us more inland into a national park area for an evening at a place called Artvilla. Very funky looking, not too expensive, kind of in the middle of nowhere.

As we got further south in Portugal I began to be concerned about longer distances and higher climbs with increasing heat and sun exposure. So, at about 2am one night about a week and a half ago I cancelled the Artvilla reservation and routed us through Torres Vedras for the last evening before Lisbon. This reduced the last two days from over 80kms and almost 1000m ascent each to a more doable 60kms and 800m ascent each day. We’re sturdy, but still …

Torres Vedras is a mid-sized city about 30 kms from the sea and 60kms north of Lisbon, it’s fairly industrial. It features an old castle up on a high hill. Our downtown hotel was very basic – sort of a ‘Days Inn’ kind of place – but with a very warm and welcoming staff. They happily walked with us to make sure our trikes were secure in their parking garage and helped us upstairs with our gear and batteries. We had the dregs of a bottle of red wine spill into a pannier during the previous day’s ride so we needed to wash some laundry. Luckily, the room’s balcony was in full searing sunshine. No wonder nobody here owns driers. Dry in no time.

We had a warm bottle of white wine that needed a bit of chilling. The front desk wasn’t too intuitive with ice, but the little I got went into the bidet with the bottle. Not very effective.

There was no restaurant at our ‘Days Inn’, so we ventured out. The intended joint was closed, but a continued stroll to the central plaza led us to a small restaurant which was half full of families. No tourists here, and no English spoken. We kind of guessed at – with Google translate – our order, and got a fabulous dinner of plates of octopus, veggies, roasted cheese and dates, thinly sliced beef, french fries, and the best butter-soaked bread imaginable. Reasonably priced, and accompanied with the soundtrack of multi-generational families, with several mostly happy babies and toddlers. Sublime.

Patti here: the jacaranda trees continue to impress the closer we get to Lisbon. Imports from Brazil, they bloom in Portugal when the weather here most closely approximates that of their growing season in Brazil. They are spectacular in the sunlight.

Below, the first photo in the galley is of Portuguese Custard Tarts, a.k.a. Pastes Belem (Google that, you’ll be drooling) at the divine Storyteller’s Palace on the beach in the morning before we set out. They were fresh baked but the real deal is in Lisbon where we will visit the source. Crunchy flaky pastry? Custard filling? What’s not to love.

Oh, and my dinner at the end of this day was octopus. How much octopus is too much octopus?

P.S. None of this fun and frivolity could happen without support on the home fronts. Claire continues to be a constant support for John’s 93 year old mom, Marny. And our incredible neighbour, Johan, is doing his utmost to make our home look inhabited while we’re away, moving front porch furniture around, checking for flyers, even SWEEPING! We are so, so lucky.

Tomar to Batalha

Tuesday May 28th, we left Tomar early (we had only 54 km to ride with 950m ascent but the forecast was for sun). Not very far into the ride we rounded a corner at the top of the hill and saw a gorgeous aqueduct. It was the Aqueduct of Pegoes, built to supply Tomar’s Convent of Christ with water. It took 21 years to build the six kilometre long aqueduct: when you see how high it is, that seems about right. 1593-1614.

We rode on and found ourselves on one of the Portuguese caminos -“Fatima” – for a while. It was hot and dusty, not half as well-supported as the caminos we saw in Spain (but faith is faith…)

Another unusual feature we’ve been noticing is the Portuguese windmills, these ones had sails that were furled up, but could be opened to increase power. The windmills – “moinhos” – were used to grind corn and wheat. There would be one in every village at one time.

A little further on we noticed a sign for a treat we hadn’t counted on: the “Grutas da Moeda”. A GROTTO?!?!?! I LOVE A GROTTO!!! When we realized it was only three kilometres out of our way, it was obvious that we needed to visit it. (Also, luckily, it was a short ride day. We could afford the extra time and energy.) A really helpful young man helped us find a secure place to stow the bikes AND PANNIERS – who wants to carry all of that gear and walk up and down pathways in the dark? – and we had a fabulous tour of a beautiful cave system that was only discovered by accident in 1971 by two older men who were actually out foxhunting. It was beautifully excavated, signage was really good, lighting tasteful (we’ve seen some pretty garish caves over the years); our visit was relaxed (we were the only ones in the grotto for most of our visit), and it was a great way to cool off. (18 dg. C. Above around it was about 24.) The visitable distance is 350 metres with some really large rooms. Impressive. We may have missed the huge Fatima shrine just up the road but for a couple of heathens like us, this grotto was a pretty religious experience.

Mid-tour, out of desperation to avoid a busload of German tourists, we stopped in at a souvenir that specialized in everything cork. It was there that we realized that the trees with stripped-bark in the forests that we had been riding past were cork trees. They even had a dress made of the shockingly pliable cork fabric that the owner of the store had worn for her wedding. John bought a snazzy turquoise cork belt.

It was pretty quiet in the town, so John googled and found a fantastic restaurant – ENIGMA – where we enjoyed fabulous hamburgers. Like, seriously fabulous burgers. We asked our Portuguese hipster (read “tattooed”) waitperson why the only cyclists we were seeing were men. NO women. His answer? “The women are going to the gym. To work on their ass.” OMG. Hilarious. (Also, I’ll bet you they’re working on their arms and abs. But whatever. It explained why we weren’t seeing women on the road.)

And then, bed.

Photos are out of order, but I’m sure you’ll figure it all out!

P.S. You know what else we’ve figured out by this point – week four – of the trip? What to do when you have to, well, you know, stop on the road. It happens, but it’s not like there’s a conveniently placed EnRoute you can visit. Guides on some of our guided cycling trips refer to these stops in the forest or in secluded areas as “Green Doors” and so we do too. We tend to be more discreet about where and when at the beginning of each trip, but by this point, we’re not so modest. If a car happens to come along while you’re, er, peeing, you just continue on, don’t stop, it’s all part of the human condition. Take your time. Some of these “loo with a view” opportunities have been spectacular. (Like, for example, that aqueduct I mentioned, above.) A.K.A. “Pee with a see”. Not advisable while cycling in cities. Obviously. We’ve never had to address what to do if a more ‘intense’ stop was required. That’s what Imodium is for. I hope it never happens. But we’re prepared for that too.

The ride to Batalha was a really great day full of surprises. I loved it.

Batalha to São Martinho Do Porto (and Nazare)

This ride took us through a major cork growing area. Portugal is the world’s largest producer of cork. We were puzzled when looking at trees with all of their bark removed up to about the 2 metre level. Often a small bucket was mounted in this bare area collecting sap. Turns out the bark gets processed into cork, and is shipped worldwide.

On the way we stopped in Nazare, made famous by the recent documentary about the highest surfing waves in the world. There were lots of people there enjoying the incredible views from the upper town and from the lighthouse which was a VERY windy walk down the hill.

Don’t forget to pull left and right on the GoPro video, below.

Just before arriving in Nazare I noticed that my rear wheel was loose – one axle nut loose and the other gone. Hmmm – not good. I tightened up the one nut and carried on, turning carefully and wondering where to buy a replacement. The first place was a bust, but with a hopeful referral to the second place – a hardware store – which was also a bust. That hardware guy and a couple of Brits who were also at the counter recommended a bike shop 10km down the road, sort of on our way. (Thankfully.)

I Googled directions while standing in the store, and they made sure that we chose the less hilly route. Range was also becoming a worry. We finally got there and it was locked up tighter than a drum.

Nobody in sight, and there we were, down one nut, range compromised, somewhat, in the middle of nowhere.

I looked around in the dirt just in case a nut may have been discarded. (That was a ridiculous hope, says pithy cranky Patti.) Nope.

Noticed a messy curtain covering an outdoor wall. Looked behind. Ahaa! It was the shop’s garbage area, with several old wheels. One had an axle nut that was the right size! Took it off, installed it, good to go. LUCKY. Patti left a handful of coins – Euros that wouldn’t blow away in the wind – on a table outside the front door, and we pedalled down the road (miraculously, we were on the same road that our hotel would be on) to our next stop, the StoryTeller’s Palace, a hotel that needs to be experienced to be believed.

São Martinho Do Porto is a very sheltered large bay with an incredible beach. Our cool windy day there had only large groups of high-school aged kids playing ball, but in the summer the beach is jammed with 60,000 people, most escaping the intense heat of Lisbon, 100km to the south, and France and Spain. The light wood frames in the photos below cover the beach in the summer, with canvas sheets draped for sun and wind shelter.

We stowed the bikes in a very fancy private underground parking garage. Reserved spots for ourselves with chef for dinner and for breakfast, and then went for a walk on the beach, then a walk up and through town. (It’s hilly. So what else is new.)

Oh, and the china for dinner was from Vista Alegre, the porcelain factory we had visited earlier in the trip. Everything about the Storyteller’s Palace was exquisite.

Again, photos are out of sequence. Sorry about that. Sorting them is more arduous than it needs to be in this format. You’ll figure it out.

You’ll notice that the palette has changed, now that we’re at the coast, and on sand dunes. White sand. Different coloured fields of wildflowers. I think the Portuguese are doing a commendable job of environmental control on dunes. Great preservation.

Tomar

Tomar is famous as an important centre of the Knights Templar. Its Convent of Christ is a Unesco World Heritage site and it is a true jewel of Portugal. I cannot overstate this: IF YOU ARE GOING TO PORTUGAL, DO NOT MISS TOMAR’s Convent of Christ.

The ride to Tomar from Pombal was a short one (50 km) but there were some climbs (923m). Enough exertion in dry sunshine to lend a certain level of fatigue to the post-arrival routines (esp. in light of my, er, collywobbles the previous evening) (not to be dramatic but…).

Tomar is, as John mentioned above, Knights Templar central. (They “arguably qualify as the world’s first multi-national corporation”). Evidence of the organization and their successors, the “Order of Christ” and then the “Supreme Order of Christ”, is everywhere: in the trim on buildings, in the symbols on the tiles you walk on, and in the castle and spectacular convent at the top of the hill.

We stowed the bikes after we arrived (on a really nifty green roof parking lot), and then walked up the hill to the castle.

N.B. My hips and knees are becoming resentful of these pedestrian ascents, especially after a few hours of cycling. Just thought I’d lob that out there. It’s hard work, and I’m glad I am doing this while I can. (I hear my mother’s voice: “travel while you can”. Accessibility isn’t always an option. So, we walk.) We got to the top, and John was keen to traverse the perimeter of the high castle walls which were hot and VERY WINDY. Oy. Sore knees, sore hips, and vertigo. Someone was IN A VERY BAD MOOD. (See photo.)

Tomar is where Gualdim Pais is buried in a pantheon in town, there is a huge statue of him in town. (See John in the photo checking his walking tour App, in front of a small church with a circular window.) Pais fought against the Moors, was a Knight Templar, founded the castle at Tomar, went to Palestine, was ordained as the fourth grandmaster, 1157, and founded Pombal. Google him and google the Knights themselves. They’re a real phenom if you haven’t encountered them before. (Or if you haven’t read any Dan Brown…)

The convent itself? Well it will take your breath away. I was not expecting to see that.

The best-preserved medieval synagogue in Portugal is also in Tomar (closed in 1492 because, well, that’ll also involve a Google on your part that will leave you shaking your head) but unfortunately it was closed on Monday.

The ride to Tomar is through fertile farmland – olive groves. Pine trees. Fig trees.

The last photo, below, is what your Ride with GPS App looks like when you forget to finish your journey. LOL.

Coimbra to Pombal

A little side-note (from John). As we rode our trikes first through a bit of England, around Wales, across south Ireland, Brittany in France, Bordeaux, northern Spain, and across Portugal, I am amazed at how ‘easy’ this type of travelling is now. We still have to power ourselves across many kilometres, and appreciate a little e-assist up the long steep hills, but several things have made cycling trips much more enjoyable than they would have been not too long ago. I’ll list a few here.

• GPS navigation
• E-assist
• Credit and debit cards
• Intercity highways (they remove cars and trucks from our minor roads)
• Cycle-dedicated routing apps
• Bike lanes
• Educated and considerate drivers
• Hotel apps like Expedia and Booking
• Water quality standards
• Excellent cycling machines
• No border clearances between European countries

We left Coimbra bright and early on Sunday morning (May 26), in order to beat the heat and intense sun. (b.t.w. Uriage Bariesun SPF30 really works). It was a fairly quiet ride – pastoral (see cows) – until we arrived in some small village, in the middle of a motorcycle rally! There must’ve been 60 bikes of different makes, sizes, some with two riders. They were all respectful, but holy cow, there was a lot of fuel in the air after they’d gone!

We would’ve arrived in Pombal earlier but we were distracted by a bird market. (See photos.) And also by a washed out road. (Easily re-routed, thankfully. See photo.)

We checked into the hotel, and walked up the hill to the Castle of Pombal. Pombal is Knights Templar country. (Google them. Impressive.) The castle is in ruins but galleys, stairways, informative displays have been tastefully added without taking away from the integrity of the original structure.

When we arrived back in the town we were surprised and delighted to discover that a local festival was underway and the streets were full of reenactors, music, and local food vendors. This was a festival for the citizens of the town and surrounding area, not a touristic festival, and it was treat.

We toured an art gallery, watched folk dancing, and then hit the “Chuck Bar” where Lisbon footie fans were watching the Lisbon-Porto game on the bigscreen tv.

Takeout pizza and salad for dinner in our room because I – Patti – had the collywobbles. It happens once on every trip and Sunday night was my night. (And there we were with no Imodium. How did that happen? I ALWAYS have Imodium…)

At any rate, Pombal was a great day, and a great surprise considering that it was actually only on our route as a stop to break up a very long stretch of kilometres.

Praia Mira to Coimbra

May 25th, already. Less than a week until we store the bikes in Lisbon next Friday (May 31st). Ack!

Coimbra is a university town, and we were there the day the students were graduating. If we had stayed on until later on Sunday we would have seen what is supposed to be an epic parade through the streets. (Or maybe it’s best that we would be moving on, early.) The university itself is at the top of the town, up high, reached via winding, steep, narrow streets lined with cafes, bars, and people socializing (and smoking). It was a hot and very dry day the day we visited, and you can bet that we took that climb at a leisurely pace after our 60km., 455m ascent day of riding.

As they are all over the world, university students (and sympathizers) were camped out on the steps, protesting the Israel Palestinian conflict. Elsewhere on the sprawling campus at the top of the town, students who would be graduating were easily identified.

There are Roman ruins under the university buildings, we visited some of them in the cryptoportico under the museum, and then chose to reward our vigours with a leisurely beer in the stunning rooftop terrace where we had fantastic views of the city right down to the river (and enjoyed listening to the party of mostly men celebrating something – see photo. They were having a grand old visit.) Because it was graduation day in the city, most of the university’s attractions were closed, so we decided to head back down the hill after we visited the Monastery of the Holy Cross of Santa Cruz. Very ornate Manueline architecture. A spectacular organ. Back at the Hotel Oslo (for real) we cracked open the cold bottle of white wine we had picked up on our ride. The bar at the hotel provided us with decent glasses and a huge bowl of olives, we set up on our balcony with a view of the city, caught up on trip blogs, and relaxed. (I did mention that it had been a hot day…). An okay dinner out and then it was bedtime. Pombal beckoned, another short-ish day but a series of climbs.

P.S. The student quarters are a rabbit’s warren of streets. Charming were the crocheted sunscreens hanging above some streets.

See photos.). And I forgot to mention the continuous efforts of all of the Portuguese staff who are working in the hotels and restaurants, and parking garages (!!!) where we sometimes store our bikes. They are all concerned that the bikes are safe, secure, and that our batteries will be charged for the morning. I’m really impressed.

Aveiro to Praia De Mira

A lovely short (32km) and flat ride from Aveiro to the beach, with a stop at the ceramics factory museum, Vista Allegre.

While we were gearing up the bikes in the morning, there was a person hanging around outside the hotel. Spidey senses were tingling, perhaps a misfire, but two of the hotel staffers were hyper-aware, also, and they stayed with us and the bikes until we finally pulled away. It always takes about 10 minutes to get all batteries and back-ups installed, panniers mounted, routes confirmed on our phones, walkie-talkies booted, so we appreciated their attentive vigilance.

In Aveira, we appreciated all of the statuary along the canals, and the art nouveau architecture of the city, brought to the city by affluent Portuguese emigrants returning to the city from Brazil in 1904 until the 1920s/ It’s a very pretty city, made even more beautiful with the jacaronda which are in bloom right now. A mantle of purple, ALSO brought to Portugal – mostly the Lisbon area – by Portuguese returning from Brazil.

As John said, it was a very flat route – only 125 m ascent. We rode along miles of salt flats, watched lots of storks and their offspring in the nests atop church roofs. We had a great chat in the sunshine with a trio of three Irish women who were also cycling Portugal.

Our only planned stop for the day was Vista Alegre, a porcelain factory built in 1841. It still functions as a factory, but it is a beautiful museum, showcasing the exquisite products created by artisans over the years. The factory ended up being a small and highly functioning social community.

After a couple of relaxing hours at the factory, we pushed on to our hotel on the beach, did some laundry as usual (see the photo of cycling shorts on our railing where they dry in no time in the arid sunny wind), had a beer and a leisurely stroll on the spectacular white sand beach, decided NOT to brave the very cold, very wavy ocean, and treated ourselves to a grilled fish meal at a restaurant down the street. (See the fish photo. It was cooked perfectly.)

Then, bedtime. All of that fresh air….

Porto to Aveiro

John here. We got away early from Porto, with the sun just rising behind the beautiful Porto bridge. We wanted to beat the heat and the sun for the long ride ahead of us, but EARLY breakfast is tricky in Porto (yesterday – Starbucks – I know …), so late at night I googlemapped a tiny cafe about 5km south. Turned out to be the ‘official’ club/cafe of the Porto Futbol team. Hmmm. But, the nice woman serving about four tables of Portuguese octagenarians intent on watching the news on tv made us great coffee and the most amazing toasted bun slathered in butter. Wow! It was the ONLY thing on the breakfast menu. That is, you either have coffee and a bun, or you have nothing. It was probably one of our most favorite breakfasts of the whole trip so far. No English spoken here, and the few locals arriving were served up the same breakfast without ordering. No need. As we rode away the lovely woman blew us kisses. Awww.

Porto as viewed from across the Douro River is beautiful, as you can see from the photos. We rode past lots of Port manufacturers. It was really exciting to finally see the Atlantic Ocean – we were following the coast for a good part of the ride. Flat. Sunny (lots of sunscreen reapplications). Cherries are in season so we stopped on the side of the road to buy a half kilo from a farmer selling them out of his truck.

We pulled into Aveiro around 3:00. 82 km. 366 ascent (nothing.) It was a hot, dry ride, we were happy to pull the bikes through the hotel lobby and cafeteria into a building they had in the backyard of the hotel where they would be safe.

Aveiro is loosely known as “the Venice of Portugal”. There are lots of canals, colourful gondolas full of eager tourists. Because we are too cool for school, we choose to sit in a bar on the sidelines, put our feet up and watch the boats go by. We walked up a street that was dripping with fabulous food stores – sardines, exotic pastries. John treated himself to some sort of breaded cod ball filled with delicious gooey cheese, which was consumed with white port at a patio in the sunshine across the street from the store. We toured the famous and inspiring Chapel of Joana (google her, she was taking no shit), and the cathedral (weird new organ).

And finally, in keeping with eating in restaurants with “cod” in the name, we had a seriously delicious dinner at Bacalhau & Afins. (See photo. Two young chefs.)

The videos in this post cover two days of riding – Porto to Aveira, and Aveira onward to the beach. We’ll talk more about the beach in the next post.