Tag: portugal

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.

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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 9

Day 2/5 Riding – Vila Vicosa – Monday, September 30

I slept well, took a great shower, had a fine breakfast, finished yesterday’s blog and am ready to ride.

This promises to be a tough day – 50k (kilometers) with an almost 2000 foot climb. The weather is perfect. The roads are much more active with vehicle traffic – often passing or meeting us at what seems like an excessive speed. Once again I drop to the back of the pack. Only Chris and Scott stay back to check on me. And of course our guides are always making sure we are ok.

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We pass by the marble quarries with their huge piles of scrap – “marble mountains”. We are scheduled for a marble tour later this week. Then we ride back into the country – wine yards, oak trees, the occasional small gathering of livestock (we have seen very few cattle, sheep or goats in Portugal). Off to our right I see several tall very colorful sculptures near the entrance to a wine estate. Are they giant styrofoam blocks? No! They are marble! I loved them and ask our guide if we could stop on our return – no we return a different way. I am certainly going to learn more about this unusual sighting.

We stop for a break, drink lots of water and visit a very clean bathroom. The guides tell us that one van will be waiting half way up the 4k climb ahead. So far so good. I feel strong and ready to tackle the “mountain”.

One k down – three to go. Almost half way and I have slowed until I dismount and walk. Around the next bend is the van. Discretion is the better part of valor – I decide to ride in the van to our picnic and the end of the riding day. Instead of 50k my ride was probably 44.

Our guides had arranged a taxi for Karen to meet us at the picnic. Lunch was a delicious and quite varied buffet with all kinds of drinks including both white and red wine. And of course, the sweets were plentiful.

We were met with four jeep-like vehicles that carried us way off road for a tour and lecture about cork trees. Portugal is the largest source of cork in the World and 80% of cork is used to make wine corks. It is a beautiful product – soft for floors, fireproof and on and on. This video will tell you much more.

How 40 Million Cork Wine Stoppers Are Harvested A Day

The numbers on the trees are the last number of the year of harvest, and, when the next is due. For example the tree with a “0” was last harvested in 2020 and will be due again in 2030.

We found a wonderful outdoor cafe for dinner with just our group. The Grey Goose and the meal were excellent. Another near perfect day!

Day 5

Sevilla to Porto – Thursday September 26

We were up and going this morning. A quick breakfast at perhaps the most elaborate buffet we have ever experienced. I haven’t talked about our fabulous Hotel Alfonso XIII. One has to experience an environment like this to both feel and see the grand luxury of a bygone era.

And just across the street, bringing me back to today, I filled my thermos at Starbucks. Our transportation today is a Mercedes Benz minivan with two bench seats facing one another – so sensible for conversation. Our mature driver was born and raised in the UK of Spanish parents before moving back to the Continent. We have a seven hour journey ahead – then he has to return – a fourteen hour day for him. 

Our first stop was by the side of the road because “he couldn’t wait any longer” to relieve himself. The Spanish countryside started with rolling hills of large, almost barren fields, punctuated with a few trees. Then came the groves of olive trees, followed by grape vines. The landscape began to green. The entrance into Portugal was just a sign along the road – much like we see at home when we pass from state to state – the European Common Market makes so much sense.

We picked a roadside restaurant because the lot was full of automobiles. The soup and a rice pudding washed down with a local wine hit the spot.

The hills turned into small mountains covered with green trees – quite beautiful. We had heard of a recent fire between Porto and Lisbon and sure enough we drove right through the path of the fires – burned trees on both sides of the highway. Terrible. The roads were excellent for the entire journey. Because our driver chose the shortest route we went from city streets to freeways to two lane highways to country roads then back to a beautiful toll road.

We all decided, despite enjoying each other and experiencing the changing landscape, a seven hour automobile ride was too much. In the future we will limit such rides to 3 or 4 hours, taking the airlines instead.

Although “Siri” says Porto is smaller than Lincoln the traffic says otherwise. We expect the “metropolitan area” is much larger. Follow-up – the population of the old city is less than 300,000 – the metro area is 1.9 million!

Our hotel Le Monument Palace is another “grand hotel”. In fact our room is the very best of the journey. And of course the staff is excellent. They made a fine DuncanTini at the American Bar followed by the most extraordinary dinner of this adventure.

We began our evening experience at the restaurant in the hotel my the same name with a “special” visit/ introduction to the chef in his kitchen. It was sparkling clean and obviously well organized. Our own appetizer- delicious. Into the sumptuous dining room we quickly discovered we were in for another pix fix dining extravaganza! Three of us took the “small” six course offering and Chris the ten course. Mostly seafood based everything was beautiful and mostly tasted great.  I was the only one who ate the uncooked pigeon. This was certainly the finest meal of the journey. We finally finished just before midnight. We were all exhausted.