A couple of days of stuff here as we left Spain and ventured into Portugal. The 69.5 km ride was fairly uneventful, just more of that dratted headwind. When we crossed from Spain into Portugal, the only fuss was a Spanish sign – no Portuguese one! (See photo.) Obviously, the land all looked the same. The border is at the top of a ridge.
Miranda Do Douro is known as the “Grand Canyon of Portugal”, and rightly so. The balcony on our hotel room opened onto a spectacular vista: a dam to the right, and steep rockfaces to the left. We unloaded, and plugged in batteries (but not, sufficiently, as it turned out, because one battery was only at 60%!!! Not a worry because the next day’s ride was a shorty but a good cautionary note for future rides). A nap was required to recover from the exertion of that headwind ride, which we followed up with a visit to the bar where we sipped on hot camomile tea, caught up on blog posts and photo deletions, and savoured the gorgeous view.
Below us, a lost lamb bleated for its mother (and then found her). (See video.)
The specialty of this Douro region is Mirandesa cattle so that’s what we shared for dinner, complete with “Douro Mashed Potatoes” (see photo). We loved the view of the cathedral in Miranda Do Douro, and figured out when bed time should be because unbeknownst to us, there was a time change at the border, and now …. it was going to be an extra hour until bedtime!
The next morning, i.e. Thursday May 16, marked the first day of our THIRD week of cycling. The days are becoming a blur of fabulous memories. It was cold and windy again, with a forecast of rain, so we dressed appropriately, and before we hit the trail we walked into the old town of MDD. We were surprised by how wonderful the town was. We enjoyed a very moving artshow of photographs of beautiful, aged people, and sculptures of working people – farmers. There was a very informative museum where we could see firsthand the costumes of the shepherds (13 kg for those capes to keep them warm) and dancing/ethnic costumes. The Portuguese are (rightly so) proud of their music and dance culture.
We followed up these visits with a trip into the cathedral where we made a point of seeing the Christ in a Top Hat (see video) and then toddled back to the hotel, loaded the bikes, totted up our riding gear and hit the road. The highlight of the REALLY SHORT RIDE (23 km) was a visit with some Burros de Miranda. They have a decreasing population due to obsolescence (they’re no longer needed as beasts of burden) but they are noble, social creatures, and we were very touched by their sweetness. They LOVED John. (See photos. Check them out on Wikipedia!)
When we arrived here in Sendim we checked in, negotiated a larger room (the room assigned to us had a small double bed. Oh lordy, that ship sailed long ago.) We ate lunch with what looked like all of Sendim’s municipal works’ workers which reassured us that where we were eating had the best food in town. Post nap, we walked into town where we bought a folding knife (for our cheese picnics) from an inspiring older woman, walked back here to the hotel and now we’re listening to the pouring rain (!!!) and waiting for a salad and some octopus to arrive at our table.
What a day!
The socks were knit Patti!
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