Portugal wins the competition for worst car drivers.  Not that they were specifically bad against cyclists, they have no regard for any other road user.  They double park sometimes on both sides of the street.  When we were in Porto, Ralf counted 10 cars and 9 of them had dents or scratches on some part of the vehicle.

There is no infrastructure for cyclists, possibly because there are few cyclists.  Not that we need special bike lanes as we are used to cycling in traffic, but in Portugal, you need protection from the car drivers. The only time we saw other cyclists were on the week-ends and then we saw a lot of them, often in big groups because there is safety in numbers.

One of the things that surprised us with regard to Portugal was the lack of accommodation for people in wheelchairs.  There are no sloped areas at pedestrian crossing areas, just a big curb.  On trains, there are two big steps to negotiate, which is hard enough for two active people with touring bikes, but anyone with a disability or even older people struggle to get on the trains.

We noticed a huge divide between the rich and the poor in Portugal, in many cases living right next to each other.  A large house next to a tumbled down house.  We conclude that the houses were just left to disintegrate.  A new house would be built next to the tumbled down house, instead of demolishing the old house it was just left to fall down.  Leaving a mix of prosperous looking houses and ruins in most of the villages and towns.

There didn’t appear to be a lot of pride in their villages or towns, garbage was strewn all over the place even in mountain villages.

Portuguese people tend to be on the chubby side, a lot of unhealthy people.  Their diet is based on salt cod, pork and potatoes and vegetables and of course coffee and pastries.  At any time during the day we could see people sitting at cafés drinking little cups of coffee, eating pastries.  The food in cafés was cheap, but the food in general was expensive.

Portugal is said to be a nation of pessimists, and we definitely noticed their dour nature.  Of course, at the moment they have a lot to worry about. Banks closing, we are not sure what happens to people’s savings when that happens. Factories closing and lots of people unemployed.  The unemployment rate in Portugal is higher than in Spain.  The weather hasn’t helped either, there was flooding in Lisbon and Porto on Monday night due to the heavy rain and thunderstorms.  September 2014 has been the wettest September on record in Portugal since 1968!

The surprising thing was the little help we received in Portugal.  We would often be looking at the map and no one offered help, whether we were in a small village or a major town.

However, the scenery in Portugal is stunning, in the mountains we cycled through we often wondered how people survived.  Their houses seemed to hang on the side of the mountain.

Ralf said he wouldn’t be coming back to Portugal, I tend to agree with him. I left my Portuguese/English Phrasebook at the Tourist Information Office in Alacantra!