No pain no gain
In Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy Slartibartfast wins awards for designing the Norwegian coastline. He obviously did the Portugal one too, presumably after Norway as it’s even more spectacular than his original work. We spend most of the days either moaning about some silly incline or wowing some fabulous view, which actually makes the hill pushing worthwhile. We headed further southwards through the lovely island village of Baleal which you can only access via the causeway and on to Peniche, another lovely walled town built on a promentory with an Indian restaurant ! Always...
Read MoreIt’s a new dawn, a new day and I’m feel’n good…
Porto Beach Chapel Huge waves.. Never ending cycle path… Romans must have been here! Tilly soaking up some rays.. ???? Aveiro..Portugal’s Venice. Striped houses in Casa Nova Our flight from Italy was obviously not Captained by a Italian driver, all went smoothly and we landed safely in Porto, reassembled Tilly with a slight scare when putting the chain tensioner back on the derailleur hanger and the thread was too worn for it to tighten. Fortunately I was able to remove a couple of spacers to get more purchase and it should be fine till we get home now – I hope!...
Read MorePilgrims progress
Leaving Porto Lots of these along the coast Mixed use walking/cycling path for lots of the route … And too many places to just sit and enjoy it Lovely towns for evening stops.. The path runs close to the sea most of the way And that’s farewell to Portugal as we’re nipped across to Spain… The hills begin… Some pretty seaside villages Hard going on the wet, sodden paths in the Spanish hills. Leaving Porto, our first 1km of cycling was virtually all down hill and a very steep hill at that, both brakes on full, until we joined the steady trail of Pilgrims en route...
Read MorePorto
Porto has always been a city Linda has wanted to visit so we planned 4 nights there to have a good wander around. And wander we did, to the tune of 32km. We were a tad pooped before we started to cycle, especially as it’s all up and down here, which is never a good plan! But it is a fabulous city, with old trams, a cable car, a funicular railway and of course the Port Cellars….I wonder why Linda wanted to come here…! Anyway, we had a fab tour and of course tasting in the Taylor’s cellars and did the excellent self guided tour with Linda almost drooling as we walked...
Read MoreAnd we’re off
Our wordly goods.. Colour coded so one of us knows where thing are!! Where’s my seat gone… Always a relief when everything’s reunited… First of many… Our Porto home for a few days Tilly enjoying the rest in the glorious courtyard. Flying Tilly is always an interesting and sometimes stressful experience. Airlines have such varying policies for her, but EasyJet are easily one of the best with a 32kg max weight and they don’t care how big the package is , or in fact if its a box or plastic bag. That’s different to some airlines who give you a maximum...
Read MoreWellingtons footsteps…
Lisbon to Badajoz (Spain). 6 days, 256km, 1848m climb. Total 1569km 8200m climb We are always surprised at how a line on a map that separates two countries can make so much difference to lifestyles. Crossing from Portugal, where the restaurants closed around 9pm in Alves to Spain where they hardly opened before 9pm less than 15km away just seems so odd. And of course it’s much harder to get used to if you’re not used to the whole siesta and stay up late thing. We’d got used to eating at (for us) a normal time and getting to bed early so we could start cycling...
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