2 MID-LIFE CYCLISTS IN A MOTORHOME: June 2016

Panoramic view of Porto

2nd June 2016. We have spent the last 2 days travelling across Spain via Burgos, Palencia and Zamora. The scenery was outstanding with beautiful snow capped mountains in the distance, a mixture of farm land and vineyards on either side and the carriageways lined with yellow flowering bushes as we headed towards the Portuguese border. We had spotted an unusually large number of walkers, some solo and some in groups, as well as many cyclists. A quick bit of googling and we learnt that this was part of the route of Santiago de Compostela, one of the pilgrimage routes to the shrine of the apostle St James the Great.

River Duoro

As we approached Portugal the road dropped down to the river Douro before snaking up the other side and after a couple of hairpin bends (not Glynn's favourite thing) we found ourselves at a lovely free parking area right on the edge of Miranda du Duoro, overlooking the dam that bordered Spain and Portugal. The views were outstanding as we looked down at the dam far below and across to Spain on the opposite side of the river. After a quick tea break we got the bikes out and set off to explore as the parking area was bordered by what appeared to be a very old wall and we were keen to see what it was hiding from our view.

The main square of Miranda du Douro

We found an arched entry point and soon discovered we were in the old town of Miranda du Douro which is also a municipality with its own language, Mirandese, which enjoys official status in Portugal. The old town was really charming with its cobbled streets lined with narrow houses, many still retaining their original and well worn oak doors whilst a few had succumbed to progress and had white UPVC doors that looked ill at ease on the quaint streets. After a leisurely stroll (cobbled streets aren't really conducive to cycling!) through the town square, past the church and the castle ruins we cycled across to the newer part of town which was almost like a separate town with its modern looking streets lined with well kept looking shops, bars and restaurants.

Miranda du Douro dam

After following the road round towards the edge of the village we stopped to admire the fantastic views down to the river before heading back to relax in the sun and read.

3rd June. Glynn decided we would head straight across Portugal towards Porto and then work our way down the coast gradually over the next few weeks. For our next stop we had picked out a lovely little campsite just outside Porto that would enable easy cycling in to explore the city so we set off after breakfast. Northern Portugal is very mountainous with breathtaking scenery and we enjoyed what I would describe as a roller coaster journey to the west coast. Glynn was somewhat frustrated by my exclamations of "oh wow, you want to see the view down this valley" rapidly followed by "you can't look, you're driving!!"

Much to our surprise the campsite was full when we arrived at Vila do Conde so we had to do a quick rethink.

Stunning beach at Vila Praia de Âncora

Based on a recommendation that we had been given we decided to head north to Vila Praia de Âncora where there was a campsite for €11 (ACSI rates) a night. It turned out to be a great decision because an hour later we were parked up on a great little campsite just a short ride to a beach that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Caribbean.

8th June. We have spent a really enjoyable 5 days at Âncora which was in the midst of a flower festival. The town looked so pretty with all the paper flowers decorating the main street and the outside of the church.

Vila Praia de Âncora

We cycled over 100 Kms heading north as far as Caminha on the border with Spain and then south to Viana do Castelo with a visit to several villages in between. The ride to Viana do Castello was on our wedding anniversary. It was a lovely hilly ride and was certainly one of our more energetic celebrations for our wedding anniversary. We then spent the evening sampling some traditional Portuguese food in a family run restaurant where "mama does the cooking" as her daughter informed us when she took our order. Mama came out of the kitchen and did her best to try and persuade

Glynn to try her famous fish dish, shoving two dead fish under his nose for his inspection but Glynn politely declined explaining that he doesn't like bones ( he was also slightly put off by the glassy eyed stare the fish gave him!) We had a lovely meal of pork loin in a creamy sauce, washed down with a nice bottle of their locally produced red wine. A lovely end to our wedding anniversary.

Avenida dos Aliados, Porto

This morning we decided it was time to move on and we drove to Porto. We parked up at a lovely motorhome stop facing the town centre but on the other side of the river and an easy cycle ride in to explore. As with much of northern Portugal Porto itself is very hilly and it seemed like we were either freewheeling down roads at great speed or doing a long slow slog upwards with little in the way of flat roads in between. Still it was certainly beneficial from a fitness point of view. Porto was beautiful with some amazing buildings and we enjoyed the morning exploring the centre and taking lots of photos. We returned to the motorhome and had lunch before deciding to move further south.

Chilling on the waterfront at Bico

After consulting our motorhome stopover apps we headed to Bico, near Oveiro which had a lovely free camping area for Motorhomes right on the waters edge and adjacent to a small beach and picnic area. It was so relaxing watching the sun set on the water and after a short stroll we spent the evening playing crib which Glynn won 2-0!! So far on this trip I am winning crib by 5-3 and he is winning brag by 7-3 so we'll see how this progresses over the time we are away. As regular readers will know we normally play Trivial Pursuit but we have retired the game for this year having recently learnt how to play Crib whilst in Goa so until the novelty wears off it is our current game of choice.

The Moliceiros at Aveiro

9th June. Today we drove to Aveiro which is known as the Venice of Portugal because of its situation on the edge of the large lagoon known as the Ria de Aveiro and the canals that criss cross the centre. It was a fascinating and colourful town, the banks of the canals lined with grand buildings and former fisherman's houses and the centre hiding some quaint and colourful streets with lovely little cafes spilling out on to the pavements. Even more colourful were the beautifully painted Moliceiros, the fishing boats that at first glance resemble the Gondolas in Venice. They were traditionally used to harvest seaweed but are now used mainly to transport tourists on a tour of the city.

Aveiro

We enjoyed a lovely morning exploring the city and then decided to move further south as the Aire, although in a fantastic location for exploring the area, was little more than a large car park with the motorway passing overhead so we guessed it would not be a quiet place to stay. We drove a short distance to Praia da Vagueira and found a great place to stay with nothing but a sand dune between the Aire and a stunning beach that again wouldn't look out of place in the Caribbean. There was a great wooden walkway/cycle path along the edge of the dune and before Herman's engine had cooled we were already on our bikes and cycling to Costa Nova.

Praia de Vagueira

Costa Nova is a picture postcard town with its pretty coloured houses painted with vertical or horizontal stripes. They were traditionally known as haystacks and were painted in red to welcome the sea with colour and energy. They were used by the fishermen to store their equipment but gradually many were developed inside so that they became liveable in order that families could spend the summer in them. Over time they have been painted other colours and what you see now is a beautiful town that cries out to be photographed. Costa Nova is sandwiched between the Atlantic ocean on one side and Aveiro lagoon on the other and we opted to cycle back along the canal path with its lovely new walking/cycle path.

Costa Nova

It appeared that some money had been spent quite recently making the area appealing to walkers and cyclists alike and I must say they had done a good job. It was nice to be able to ride separated from the traffic as unfortunately Portuguese drivers aren't always as courteous as they could be when it comes to keeping their distance! By the time we got back we had done a nice easy 24kms on flat cycle paths so for those of you that like to explore on your bikes without feeling like you've done a qualifying round for the Tour de France then this is definitely a place to visit.

10th June. We were just debating whether to stay another day or move on when we received an email from Nick and Karel, a lovely couple that we met in St Jean de Luz in June 2014. It transpired that they were currently on a campsite just 1 mile away!! What was the odds of that! We immediately delayed our plans to move on and set off on our bikes to meet them for coffee at a little café right on the beach at Praia de Vagueira. As is often the way when you meet up with old friends the time flies and coffee led to lunch in a fabulous fish restaurant. We then cycled back to their campsite for wine and more catching up before we all headed to the beach for a lovely long walk. We had a fantastic day with them and were so pleased that they had taken that moment to contact us as just one day later and we would already have been further south.

Coimbra

13th June. After a brief visit to Coimbra and a night at Praia da Lavos on our journey south both of which left us feeling uninspired we arrived at a lovely little campsite at Outeiro yesterday. It was a very well thought out site with as much of the layout as possible left natural with the minimum of environment cleared to make spaces for camping set amongst lots of trees, flowering bushes and bamboo. There were ducks, geese and baby chicks wandering the grounds and 2 beautiful white doves in a dovecote. We could hear the local church chiming its bells every half hour to what sounded like the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine which seemed quite novel at first but quickly lost its appeal after midnight (just kidding as it wasn't really loud enough to keep us awake). It had been a drizzly start to the day but soon cleared so after lunch we decided to cycle to the coast which was only 12kms away. We had travelled about 8kms and were cycling on a lovely wide cycle path when we had to take a sharp right hand turn to cross a roundabout. The next thing I knew I saw the ground coming up to meet me at alarming speed. I instinctively put my hands out to break my fall and can remember in that split second feeling surprised that I was going too fast for my hands to stop me and realised I was about to smash my face into concrete. I just managed to twist my face at the last second and caught my chin on the path before banging my head on the ground. I literally saw stars and lay on my back trying to get my breath back. Poor Glynn was terrified as he'd been ahead of me and heard me crash only to turn round and see me flat on the floor. My hands had taken the brunt of the fall and thank god I had been wearing cycling gloves as I probably would have shredded my palms with the force I hit the ground. Once my head cleared I was able to sit up and inspect the damage. Both my wrists felt like they were badly sprained and I had minor cuts and grazes to my chin and knees. I figured I'd got off quite lightly really. Poor Glynn was more shook up than me bless him as he was so concerned that I was hurt. As I stood up I almost fell again and we realised there was something on the cycle path making it dangerously slippery but we couldn't see it. Another couple cycled past and they stopped to say that they too had fell foul of the slippery patch, borne out by the man's grazes. We decided it was best to return to the campsite and it was a slow and painful ride back for me as my wrists were in agony trying to hold the handlebars. The owner of the campsite was great and called the police immediately to report the location of the accident so that the path could be cleaned.

Lisbon

14th June. As is often the way I woke up with far more bruises than I had accounted for the day before. The palms of my hands were purple and my chin and knees were scabbed but in addition I had bruised my upper arm and shoulder too and was struggling to lift my arm. Cycling was definitely off the agenda for the next few days so with a few rainy days forecast we decided to skip further south to Lisbon and miss out Nazaré and Paniche. We found an ideal site at Vila Franca de Xira which was just a 40 minute train ride to Lisbon centre at a cost of €4.80 return each. Bargain!

Praça do Comércio, Lisbon

After settling in at the campsite we walked into town and caught the train in to Lisbon and spent an enjoyable day sightseeing. It was a pleasant city but didn't quite have the wow factor that I found with Porto.

One place that had been very highly recommended to us was Bacalhôa Bhudda Eden, the largest oriental park in Europe. More than 6000 tons of marble and granite have been used to create this incredible park which, as well as the giant Bhuddas and over 700 hand painted terracotta soldiers contains an African Sculpture Art Garden dedicated to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. When we got back from our day out we were planning our route for tomorrow only to discover we had almost passed it on our route to Lisbon. How annoying!! I had searched Bacalhoa on Google not realising there was another Bacalhoa near Setubal, just south of Lisbon. Oh well it was only an hour north!!

Sculpture in the African garden

15th June. We left at 8.30am for Bombarral and just an hour later we were at Bacalhôa Bhudda Eden, although the journey wasn't without its hiccups when we had to avoid a road closure which resulted in our sat nav trying to get us to take a tight left hand turn through a small village that a car would have struggled with let alone an 8 metre motorhome!! We spent a brilliant morning at the park which only cost €3 each to enter. All the sculptures were incredible but my favourite area by far was the African Sculpture Art Garden. It was definitely worth backtracking to the park and if you are ever near Bombarral I would highly recommend a visit. The final bonus was when we walked through their wine shop. I purchased a bottle of white and a bottle of red for a total of €4.85 and very nice they were too!!

After we left the park we headed back towards Vila Franca and then carried on to the dam at Pego do Altar. It was a beautiful peaceful spot and we parked up facing the water with a lovely view of the mountains on the other side.

Golden Bhudda

There was a little restaurant back on the main road but it was closed when we walked up to it so we guessed it only opened in the evenings. That evening I made a lovely fish curry accompanied by a nice red wine and then we sat and played cards, enjoying the peaceful setting.

18th June. We have spent the last 2 days at Porto Covo, a lovely whitewashed village with blue trim on the houses. From the Aire there was a little avenue of restaurants and tourist shops leading down to a low cliff with a lovely sandy beach accessible via a stairway. I was still struggling to ride with the pain in my wrists but we did manage a 20km ride along the coast which was a gorgeous stretch of beautiful sandy beaches, many of which were completely devoid of visitors. We even passed a field with loads of ostriches which took me by surprise.

A field full of Ostriches!

With the cupboards running low we set of for the supermarket to stock up on supplies before heading to Sagres Fort. We were finally going to be hitting the Algarve and I was really quite excited. The Aire at Sagres Fort was part of a large car park in a cliff top location offering panoramic views of the sea and the stunning coastline. The fort itself is uninspiring so we decided against paying the entrance fee and opted instead to take some photos of the beautiful views. It was an extremely windy day, to the point that it was too dangerous to get near the edge of the cliff for fear that a gust of wind would blow me over.

The view from Sagres Fort

Glynn was very relieved when he persuaded me to walk a safer distance from the cliff top. As the wind was so high we decided against spending the night on the exposed car park and after a quick consultation of our map we decided to carry on the short distance to Praia de Figeuiras.

20th June. We spent yesterday morning on the beach which was just a short walk from the Aire. I am running out of superlatives to describe just how beautiful the beaches in Portugal are and this one was no exception. In complete contrast to the day before there was no wind so we barely managed a couple of hours on the beach before we had to head back in search of shade.

Praia de Figueiras

Today we decided to try another ride as all my bruises had disappeared and I was hoping for a relatively pain free ride. By the time we were ready to set off it was already late morning and in hindsight this alone should have stopped us going out as it was extremely hot without any wind. It was a very hilly area and it was a tough ride, pulling on my sore wrists when I was climbing the steep hills. I started to develop a bad headache so we decided to cut the ride short and head back rather than risk getting heatstroke. We were only 300 metres from the Aire when a convoy of jeeps came towards us on the road. The first jeep was driving too fast for the narrow road and forced Glynn on to the gravel verge which sent him flying. I heard him crash and looked back to see him lying in the middle of the road. He was really dazed and had bashed his head hard on the road. Thank god he was wearing a helmet because a large piece of gravel had caused a dent in the polystyrene padding so that would have been really nasty if it had been in direct contact with his head. He had a nasty cut on his elbow, lesser cuts to his knees and where he had gone over the handlebars he had scraped both his thighs. He had done the same as me and landed full force on the palms of his hands causing severe bruising. In both our cases we would have suffered much greater damage to our hands were it not for the fact that we always wear fingerless padded cycling gloves. The ones we had on were only the cheap £3 pairs from Aldi but they had done the trick in protecting us from cuts and the gloves weren't even damaged from the impact with the road. The convoy had stopped although mainly because Glynn was laying in the road. The offending jeep had the decency to reverse up to check he was ok and hopefully the incident will make the driver think about how vulnerable cyclists are when vehicles race past too close. Glynn was unable to ride as he was in too much pain so we took a slow walk back so that I could clean and dress his wounds. I couldn't believe that both of us had crashed just a week apart, we are normally counting how many punctures we get on a tour, let's hope we won't be counting anymore bruises on this trip!!

Portimão

22nd June. After a relaxing couple of days while Glynn recovered from his accident we decided to move on today. We had initially planned to stop at Lagos but there was a circus parked next to the Aire so being concerned about noise we carried on to Portimão. We found a great Aire just 5 minutes from the beach and at €3 a night it was a bargain. We parked next to an English couple, Kath and John, not realising we had met them before. When they came to say hello we recognised each other as we are all members of Motorhome Fun and we had met at Peterborough motorhome show 3 years ago. What a small world!

Coffe break at Alvor

24th June. Referendum day!! We have spent the last 2 days exploring the area on bike and on foot. We are both still struggling with wrist pain so we only managed a 16km ride but it was nice to get out as we have both had our confidence knocked and I have noticed that I am taking corners and roundabouts with a great deal more care than usual! The area is lovely with its limestone cliffs and more gorgeous beaches. The temperature is much higher on the south coast but most of the time there is a lovely breeze coming in off the sea making it pleasant. Today we decided to ride to Alvor with John. He has recently taking up cycling so we invited him to join us as he had visited Alvor several times. It was a lovely ride and although it was hilly it wasn't too tough and we managed a respectable 29kms stopping at the marina in Alvor for a coffee break. It was a welcome escape from all the Brexit news and watching the value of the euro plummet!!

Jug of wine anyone??

There is a lovely little bar and restaurant on site and in the evening we joined John and Kath and 2 of their friends for a drink and a game of Phase 10. I had never heard of the game but it was easy to pick up and great fun. I will definitely be buying it when we get back to England so we can take it to Goa with us. The glasses of red wine that the bar served were absolutely enormous, there must have been half a bottle in each glass. Needless to say I was more than a bit squiffy by the time we left the bar and Glynn had to help me back to make sure I didn't fall over as I was apparently rather unsteady. I tried to explain it was the gravel surface making me unsteady but he was having none of it, especially when I tried to enter the wrong motorhome!!

View from the lighthouse at Ferragudo

29th June. The last 5 days have flown by too quickly. We had a couple of lazy days, especially after the card night and the excess of red wine that I consumed!! We have cycled to Ferragudo and along to the lighthouse where we could look over to Portimao and yesterday we cycled to Silves, a lovely hilly ride with stunning scenery. Although it was very hot the breeze made it bearable and we cycled 37kms. Today we decided to ride back to Silves again (gluttons for punishment) and invited John to join us. After a great ride we spent the afternoon relaxing. John and Kath then joined us for dinner as it was our last night at Portimao.

Stalks nesting at Silves

I cooked a ginger chicken curry and Kath did the rice and we had a great evening together but with rather less wine consumed than the last night we had spent together!!

30th June. The last day of the month found us on the move again. After a fantastic stay at Portimao we headed to Vale de Parra and a great little Aire which also boasted a swimming pool and very smart games/tv room all for only €8 a night including electricity. What could be better than cycling, swimming and then watching the Tour de France every day. It was in a perfect location for cycling to Albufeira and that was our plan for tomorrow.

Galé near Vale de Parra

In the meantime today we settled for a short ride to the coast which was only 2 Kms away to check out the local beaches. It was a beautiful coastline with long stretches of golden beach and rocky outcrops forming secluded little bays. By the time we had explored along the immediate coastline we had cycled 14kms. Time for a nice glass of wine!! Oh damn, today is a no alcohol day, why on earth did I instigate a 3 days a week no alcohol rule!! Oh well, mine's a green tea then.

We have had a fantastic month exploring Portugal, travelling across the beautiful and mountainous northern region and then working our way down the west coast before finally reaching the Algarve. We have seen some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen outside of the Caribbean and visited many beautiful towns and villages. My highlight was without doubt the visit to Bacalhoa Bhudda Eden. The only downside was the 2 cycling accidents we had and we are both still struggling with wrist pain which is limiting how far we can ride. We have only cycled 385 Kms this month with the travelling and the accidents so our total so far this trip is a rather disappointing 450 Kms. Wrists permitting we will step it up a bit in July. We will probably spend another 10 days or so working our way towards Spain and then..... who knows??