cycling – Spain & Portugal 2024

Day 12

Day 5/5 riding – Thursday, October 3 – Vila Vicosa, Portugal

Today offers two choices – the main ride of 40k and 400’ climb or riding 62k. We start with a long downhill run. It was supposed to be cloudy however the sun is shining. It’s great to be in Portugal – with friends, old and new – riding a really fine bicycle. Life is good.

Lots of photos were taken at today’s destination. We are at or near the end. A few, including yours truly, ride back in the van. I am hoping to get some of those photos I missed while riding however it is just too hard while the van is moving.

Only four out of our group of seven opt. for lunch and I stop at an ATM for cash. We decide to take the optional “Marble Tour” which was interesting but we would not recommend it in the future.

We begin our last evening in the hotel lobby with a video montage set to music of our five days together. We then bus to a nearby town for an evening extravaganza at an incredible residence/winery built in the mid 1700’s by the then King of Portugal for his 17 year old wife (there were previously many many mistresses). He died a few years later (maybe from exhaustion?) and the new King sold the property to the current family. The fate of the young bride is unknown.

We started in the chapel. It was small but exquisite. The hand painted tiles with intricate scenes form a tall wainscoting. The current Catholic family built the chapel. Next, in the old kitchen, was white wine with an appetizer spread while several in our group participated in cooking what will be this evening’s dessert. The guides ask for each of us to state our favorite memory of the trip. We remembered each other, the fabulous work that our three guides did throughout the week, the great bicycles, the hotel, the great food and wine and just the overall happiness of five days together in Portugal.

This was followed by a tour of the winery which Karen and I opted out of. I am sorry we didn’t go. Scott told us that they still crush all the grapes by feet – walking for up to two days on huge marble tanks filled with grapes. The harvest was late this year so they were still bring grapes in.

The dinner, in a large dining room was all by candlelight. The buffet style dinner, including salads, a delicious eggplant with a pomegranate dressing and duck in rice were all delicious. The desserts, including the one baked by our riding friends, topped off a wonderful evening. I stopped at one of two bathrooms that were as large as most bedrooms and again very beautiful.

It has been a long day. Karen and I have a car tomorrow at 7:00 AM to the Lisbon airport. We will fly on American to Philadelphia then on to Charleston to meet up with the LeBaron’s. We will arrive back in Lincoln on Monday. We love the travel but always look forward to getting home.

Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read my blog. A special thanks to Tessa for matching the photos with the text. Together we are making memories.

Robert

Day 11

Day 4/5 Riding – Same village – October 2

WOW! What a great day! The best ride of the trip!

1) I changed bikes – from the regular road bike to a road bike with electric assistance. And it’s all automatic. I change gears the same as a regular road bike only now when I reach a certain cadence I can feel help kicking in. I really, really liked it. And I did the entire ride including a tough uphill at the end.

2) It was cooler and cloudy today – perfect riding conditions. We even had some mist but no rain.

3) The roads were even better with very little traffic.

4) We took two breaks and because I was keeping up that gave me time to enjoy the stop. We even had a coffee at one break.

We finished the ride about noon at a place where we could see the largest man-made lake in Europe. On the other side was Spain. We walked up a final steep stairs to the village on top of the hill. We found a great small shop selling soap, Gin, and olive oil. Great fun! I photographed two young girls, the first named Madeline, a two year old from Italy.

Karen arrived by taxi and was already seated at the restaurant. We enjoyed another delicious meal with multiple courses served family style, along with sangria to wash it down. We probably spent more than two hours relaxing and enjoying the meal and the conversation.

Dinner was arranged at the hotel. Our group met at the bar so I could teach the bartender how to make DuncanTini’s for the three guys. They tasted so very fine! We even managed to get Karen to tell some of her off color stories.

What a wonderful day!!!

Day 10

Day 3/5 Riding – Vila Vicosa – Tuesday, October 1

Here we go again. This promises to be the longest ride yet and the vertical is again almost 2000 feet. We will see. Once again the weather is perfect – just a few degrees cooler. I will start with a windbreaker. There will be two stops today at approximately 20k then again at 40k.

Again, I am bringing up the rear. Chris and Scott are great to hang back with me. A big disadvantage of being last is that our stops are much shorter than the others.

Today’s ride can best be described as “rolling hills”. The climbs are not steep but they are frequent. The reward are the downhills. I spot a beautiful solo tree perched by itself on a hill. I am trying a different technique today – frequent, short stops, to drink water and take a short break

Finally on the third leg at about 46.30k with only 11.40k to go, I run out of gas. I ask Chris and Scott to go ahead and send the van back to pick me up. Maybe I will try the lightweight bike with electric assist tomorrow.

By the way – the distances above are provided by our on-board Garmin computer which displays our route. Many times it has helped identify turns that otherwise would have been missed. This brings up another point – electricity. Each night on the electric bikes the guides have to charge the main battery, the Garmin, and the electric gear shifting. We also have small front and rear lights that need occasional charging. Bike riding today is electric charging reliant.

We all meet in an open parking area to end today’s journey. A small upright tent has been set up for those who need to change. The only place to relieve one’s self is behind a van. By the way, although I have consumed almost three bottles of water I have only had one brief bathroom stop. I should also mention that at each stop, the guides set up two portable bike racks.

This town is Évor, Capital on this region of Portugal. With 50,000 population and many historical highlights, this promises to be an interesting walking tour – but first lunch. Our “Ride with GPS” app that was pre-programmed by Trek Travel provides dining recommendations. We choose the “Bakery Lounge” for sandwiches and drinks on the upper shaded terrace – excellent.

We meet our guide by a large fountain. Again, the App guides us there. This is a very hilly town with nothing but cobblestone streets and walkways. It is a very good thing that the guides recommended that Karen NOT come today. Let me repeat the opening remarks about Évor from Trek Travel (Tessa see photo). There are over 50 churches and we start with the largest – amazing. The 2000+ year old Roman Temple remains stand tall and strong. I note the beautiful design of the columns. We end with a tour of the bones temple. My photographs speak for themselves.

We bus to the nearby town Estremoz for a group dinner at Casa do Gadanha. Our group filled the entire very contemporary space. The staff were excellent. Rose, white, red, and finally port washed down one of our best meals of this journey. Most agreed that the second course of eggplant was the highlight. A perfect ending to another wonderful day.

Day 8

Lisbon to Vila Vicosa – Sunday, September 29

The day started off on a sour note. We had decided to meet in the lobby at 9:00 to take Ubers to the bakery where we would join the others for our bus ride to our home for the next week. Scott left first only to return. The streets in front of the hotel were closed. A protest? or a marathon? We heard both. The only solution was to walk a long block, with the luggage and the wheelchair, in a different direction then call an Uber. Thank goodness a young man from the hotel helped with the luggage. Leslie and Scott had already secured an Uber. I called one. Then Pat and Chris arrived and called a third. Theirs came quickly. Ours was lost in the closed streets. We loaded most of our bags in Finnoff’s Uber. Our hotel man called our Uber driver. He was hopelessly lost in the closed streets. We eventually walked back to the hotel, crossed the Main Street and finally connected with our Uber. The long and short of it all – we embarked on a 10 minute trip at 9:00 and barely made it to catch the bus at 10:00, the scheduled departure time .

One of our guides, Jessie greeted all 22 of us. Jessie is a former professional bike rider from the North of the UK. All guests are from the US except one couple from Australia. The two hour ride east to Vila Vicosa was uneventful. We saw several castles on top of hills, cattle in green fields, huge transmission towers, cork trees and many vineyards.

At the hotel we were greeted by our two other guides, Sara and Mikey, both from Ireland. If you added up the age of all three guides combined the number would be less than my age. The Women ride with us – one in front, one behind and Mickey drives the van. A quick lunch, the bike fittings, instructions for the use of the Garmin computers on our bikes and off we went.

Most of the ride was small smooth roads with probably 10% cobblestones. The hills were not bad til the end when I was getting tired. We had only one rest stop. It was a tougher day than I expected. I was actually jealous of the half that were on electric bikes.

We passed many marble pits, grape vines, cork trees and one very strange field with planted rows of cactus. What was the end product of that cactus?

Back at the hotel I took a really fine nap.

We walked a few blocks for group appetizers and dinner. Served family style – all was very good. The woman in charge was very helpful and very pleased that we all enjoyed her meal.

Photographs, while I am riding, are not possible. The guides are taking photos which will be available at the end of the week. A few were taken in the evening.

Tomorrow will be more challenging. I am including ride maps for each day.