Portugal April 1998
Mary showing delight at arriving at the Portuguese border and Rob contemplating "should we borrow an orange" off the nearby orchid. Large apartment blocks going up all along the Algarve coastal towns. Beautiful beach at Fuzeta.
Mary explaining that it is impossible to explain the myriad of goodies in this small shop, in a small town like this which is the main highway as well, so many cork trees line the road, all are numbered and are well used but can only be stripped of their bark every nine years. Portuguese duck for supper? Just our friends pets really.
Mary talking to Penny after lunch & wine. Looking out the door from the dining room to their land. A few donkeys to remind us of the old days, oh and more sunshine so off with the cycling gear.
On we go, enough of this sitting around so more noise and traffic but very bad shoulder to ride on so in amongst the trucks we muscle in. Only 125k's to go then we will discover Lisbon for ourselves. In the meantime this poor old woman who must be only 4ft tall endeavors to cross this motorway to get to Grandola on the other side to sell her flowers at the market day. Oh No! more horrific roads as another truck comes up my a__.
Lisbon, crossing on the ferry (Bikes not allowed on the bridge) at last. Incredible statues in the square, lady feeding pigeons then with an hour or so we find a Residencia with more of the same over the road.
A final shot of a tram as they wind their way up steep hills and its off around the west coast from Lisbon, much easier and quicker to go straight north but they don't let bikes on good roads so the likes of us are left playing Russian Roulette on the secondary roads dodging pot holes, trucks & idiots who have fun trying to squeeze us off , hence arriving at Terres Vedros we discover the best place yet, with all the tiles lining the halls and a luxury room only 6000 escuodos($32US) a night. We had to stay there to get the bikes repaired as the wheels were buckled and Marys had a lumpy rim. The brakes had lost the plot too.
Next it was off inland further to find a way up north that had a road we were allowed to use. The problem was we became bottle- necked. In the pouring rain and the traffic thicker than on the motorways we had to walk the last 5km into a town we liked the sound of. 10 days of pouring rain left us in Tomar, pretty much drenched and with the morning task of drying out the tent somehow, never mind, at least we didn't have to have one of those horrible comfortable motor homes or a caravan that everyone else has. Tomar is where we dried out and enjoyed what is a surreal town oozing with history.
Bridge over the river leads to the old town and the castle on the hill (Rob loves castles & Mary loves convents) so we had one each on the top of this hill. Mary thinks she is allowed a free orange straight off the tree. Just one more shot of a castle, Yeah!
Finally a beautiful day so we were off, heading for Coimbra, another classic city. Leaning the bikes against the bridge we panned around to look at everything. After some breakfast we headed off to the last big city, Porto. Scary stuff going across those bridges but a world heritage old township made it all worthwhile.
And as for Portugal, we've loved it. (Apart from the roads & traffic)