Saturday September 13, 2014

I had a great nights sleep, didn’t hear any young people partying, neither did Ralf.  Although the Town’s dogs woke us up early with their barking.  I was awake without the alarm at 6:15am.

A lovely start to the day, we had a good breakfast and was on the road by 9:00, a little later than usual, but that is what happens when you have to pack up a tent.

The campsite was at the bottom of a hill so our morning started with a 100 metre pushing of the bikes up a 14% incline.  I am not sure which I prefer finishing the ride on a hill, then you can start the ride going downhill, or finishing the ride going down a hill, but then you have to start the ride going uphill when the legs haven’t had a chance to warm up.

We had a little climb out of the town to reach the N612 another road that parallels a motorway. They are building a new bridge not far from this old bridge, we crossed this and zig-zagged back up the hill the other side.

Then we started dropping out of the hills and dropping and dropping, we ended up at 262 metres. We had dropped over 500 metres from Mogadoura.  As most cyclists know what goes down must go up and it did we climbed back up to 700 metres, then down again and our final elevation was at just under 600 metres.  A very hilly day but with the awesome scenery it was a great ride.

The scenery in Portugal continues to amaze us, it really is beautiful.

There are lots of roadside shrines, usually on a concrete plinth with a religious statue inside.  We have seen a couple of crosses, but not too many today.

We passed this little white church in the middle of nowhere, it is the Santuario de Sao Goncao.

There are a lot of olive groves in this area. I didn\’t know Portugal produced so much olive oil.

We arrived in Macedo de Cavaleiros at about 1:30 and visited the Tourist Information Office.  The closest campsite was 10 km out of town in the opposite direction to which we were travelling in.  I asked about hostels or inexpensive hotels.  A nice hotel just down the street for E40.  We decided to stay in the hotel.  It was lovely, very clean and a nice big bed.  I also asked what there was to see in Macedo de Cavaleiros.  I was told that it was a new town and nothing worthy of note to be seen.  After a ride through the town I tended to agree with her.

Ralf went to get supper at an Intermarch, the supermarkets we had been used to in France.  His shopping expedition was not very successful.  When it came to putting the gastronomic feast together, I discovered a frozen quiche – Ralf thought it would have defrosted by the time we came to eat it!  Four lovely brown buns and a package of chicken or turkey, couldn’t decide which it was even after eating it. The cherry tomatoes were lovely.  He had bought a bottle of wine to go with this feast and yogurts for tomorrows breakfast.  Even though breakfast is included we didn’t think it would include yogurt.

I relaxed and updated the blog and after dinner, I was able to get on to the wi-fi and skype Joy.  Less than a week to her operation.  She is very scared, but sounded really strong.  My niece Lindsey and her family had popped down to see her for the day.  I think that really boosted her spirits.

Ralf popped downstairs to get us a night cap and came back with a massive glass of wine for me.  Imagine a typical red wine glass almost filled to the brim.  Apparently, they had wine in a bag and wasn’t sure how much was left so emptied it into a wine glass for me.  Nice wine, from the region.