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.
