Thursday September 11, 2014

We were up early and ate our small pilgrim’s breakfast of toast, biscuits and coffee.  I forgot to mention the Pilgrim’s Albergue’s are very cheap, usually between E6 to E8 or on a donation basis – this Albergue was on a donation basis.  We paid E15.00 for both of us and breakfast.  Of course we did share a dorm with 10 other people, but it was cheap and clean.  We were on the road by 7:45, it was still dark.  Part of this route follows the Camino into Portugal.

What a great ride today.  We found our way out of the City quite easily and headed towards the busy E82/N122, we hoped we would be allowed on it.  Fortunately, at the point we joined it going west, we were allowed on it – going east we would not have been allowed.

It was quite a busy road with a lot of transport trucks, including gravel trucks, they didn’t give us a lot of room.  Almost as bad as New Zealand logging trucks, although the road is wider in Spain.

We came up to a gas station that had a restaurant, Ralf suggested we have a second breakfast, it was only 9:30.  We had no idea if we would be able to find something to eat later as we were going on to a smaller road at the 23 km mark.  We had a huge toasted bacon and cheese sandwich, it was lovely and kept us going for the rest of the day.

We made our left turn on to the N218 to Muelas del Pan and the scenery changed dramatically.  It went from rural farmland on the plateau to granite and glacial lakes, almost at the blink of an eye.

The rocky outcroppings were very ancient and if it wasn’t for the paved tarmac road, it felt eerily prehistoric.

The scenery was absolutely stunning going through the small villages that made up this part of Castille y Lyon.

The road dipped down into the gorges where the River Doura was and where huge hydro dams were in place.

We zoomed down and pedaled up the side of three gorges like this.  The last one dropped us down and then a switch back road into Portugal.

I thought we were going to be two more days before crossing into Portugal, but here we are.

We crossed into Portugal without any border formalities.

This is the first country where we do not know a single word of the language.  France and Spain we had at least a smattering of the languages – Portugal nothing, not one word.  We stopped in the Tourist Information office to ask about the campsite, which was shown on the road signs.  No, it was closed.  I asked about cheap hotels, and we were directed to this cheap hotel.  Once again we are staying in a cheap hotel E30 per night.

Surprisingly even with all the hotel/hostel stays in Spain we came in under budget.  Hopefully, we can carry on saving money and recoup our budget breaking time spent in New Zealand.

I now know how to say hello, goodbye, thank-you and please in Portugese.  Ola, Adios, Obrigado and por favor.  Some words are similar to Spanish, but the emphasis and accent is different.

We had plenty of time to have a wander around the old part of Miranda du Douro.

Miranda has preserved its old walled city and has some interesting history, unfortunately all of the plaques were only in Portugese.

I have been bitten by some nasty bugs, not sure quite what they were or when I was bitten, but I have a multitude of big itchy blotches on my legs and arms.  Ralf wanted to leave the windows open during the night for some fresh air, but I said no.  He hadn’t realized how badly bitten I was.

This sculpture was on the hill as we came into Miranda du Douro.