From Santiago it was just a two day ride to the Portuguese border and back to a language that I always struggled with. After three weeks in Spain, I was back speaking Spanish comfortably but switching to Portuguese has been a struggle and the best that I muster is a rudimentary ‘Portunol’. Claire is more fluent and the locals, unused to tourists speaking their language, are very complimentary. In general we find the Portuguese unpretentious, friendly and very helpful. When we ask for directions we get lengthy, animated descriptions (a classic case of TMI) that are often more confusing than helpful. I wish we could say the same for road signage and conditions. Many roads through towns are rough cobblestone which are a real pain to ride and have succeeded in convincing us to change our bikes for the next trip (already in the planning stage), eg., something with a nice cushy seat! Most highways and secondary roads are numbered on our maps and in Google but rarely so on the ground which makes route finding complicated. Recently our good directional sense has failed completely and not until we arrive in some unexpected town do we realize we’ve gone the wrong way. We are either getting tired or too lackadaisical so we’ve committed to checking our GPS more frequently.
Other than one rather unsatisfactory detour inland we’ve been working our way down the coast of Portugal to Lisbon. Somewhere, north of Porto, we passed through the town where we honeymooned 30 years ago. Regrettably neither of us can remember the name of the town – we must have been preoccupied with other things. We had a rest day (two nights) in Porto that we thoroughly enjoyed, an interesting stay in Coimbra host to one of the oldest universities in the world, another night in a lovely town famous for it’s therapeutic thermal springs (Luso),etc. Typical of our last minute planning, we virtually stumbled upon Sintra, home to some of the most significant architectural gems of Portugal. We’ve also hung out in some of the major surf spots along the coast (Ericeira, Peniche, Matosinhos). We were in Guincho at the same time as the World Surfing Championships and the sea was calm! The Portuguese coast, much to our surprise, seems to be one endless beach and is well known among surfers. At one of the towns we passed through, Nazare, just a couple of hundred meters offshore from the town’s lighthouse is a wave where the world record for highest wave ever surfed was set (+/- 100′).
We’ve enjoyed Portugal – it’s people, the towns, food, culture and most of the riding but after all we’ve seen and experienced during our trip we are getting a little blase about the sights. A little bit of the ‘been there, done that’ attitude. I guess it is time to come home.
(Left) A fancy hotel, we did NOT stay at! One of the many architectural gems of elegant Sintra. (Right) Street art. We found Portuguese towns very pedestrian friendly.
In the past 5.5 months I figure we have stayed at over 75 different campgrounds and given we are undertaking an extensive unpaid consultancy for brother John’s proposed Mamquam River Access Society’s Campground we have had lots of opportunity to compare and contrast the pros and cons of campground and particularly, ablution block, design. ‘Camping’ in southern Europe is a very different affair than what we are used to in North America.
Campgrounds are more often that not, trailer parks where ‘campers’ develop a permanent presence, the European version of cottage-country. Sites allocated for tenters are an afterthought, usually sloping or uneven ground and never with a picnic table. Some of the campgrounds look like upscale refugee camps and the one in Ericiera we referred to as our ‘prison camp’, and that was a 3-star affair. In some camps they provide simple accommodation in pre-fab shelters which they call, ironically, teepees and igloos (both North American constructs), depending on their shape. They are a bit grim – I mistook the ‘igloo’ for a recycling bin – but nevertheless, we’ve stayed in them.
As our trip nears completion we are definitely slowing down our pace. Our rides are getting shorter and we are reluctant to take on any big climbs. We’ve actually spent some time hanging out at beaches. We also have time to reflect on the nature of our trip. What would we have done differently (not much it turns out)? What equipment/gear choices would we change, add or delete (bigger tent, light weight chairs, more gearing)? Will we do another big bike trip (a four month tour of south-east Asia seems to be the plan, for now)? Bike touring as a way of travel is undeniably a special experience. One needs time, flexible attitude, a willingness to put up with a few hardships, decent physical condition (but if not, it will come) and most of all, a love of biking. (Note: An awesome riding partner is a big asset!) As I had anticipated, and for me at least, the most important element of our trip was the quality of the riding. Scenic riding with decent road conditions and with minimal traffic and we were happy campers. As we’ve said many times, we’ve been exceptionally lucky for so much of our trip, so I guess one has to throw in luck as an essential component of bike touring.
As I write, we are now in Lisbon, I just got the bikes into bike boxes, we caught some ‘fado’ (Portuguese Blues) last night and we board our plane tomorrow. See you soon.
OVER THE HILL AND BEYOND 