2018 Tour - Spain & Portugal

[Rynglieder]

Day 4 Barreiros > Viana do Castello (240 miles)

After checking out in Barreiros, we re-joined the A8 motorway knowing that we had a fairly long run in front of us. There were no specific intermediate stops planned for the days run until Santiago de Compostela which was over 113 miles down the road. Most of the morning's biking was therefore a motorway cruise, but not too bad for that. This section of the A8 (like that we had travelled the previous day) was toll free for about half of the distance and now had the added attraction of some curves and elevation changes as we crested Spain's northern mountains. It was therefore just a couple of coffee stops and a refuel that broke the journey.

We let the Zumo take us into the centre of Santiago de Composella.  This, like most other Spanish cities sees heavy use of scooters so we again found that there were plenty of opportunities to park up the bike. My guide book had suggested the cathedral to be worth a look so this is what we headed for and after taking the obligatory tourist snaps made our way into a KFC for a late lunch.

Another 90 miles of "direct" motorway riding brought us almost to the border with Portugal, but there was one final attraction in North Western Spain that I wanted to break away to see before we crossed. We left the motorway and followed the northern bank of the Minho River which forms the border toward the coast and ascended the curves and hairpins that reached the top of the headland. As we climbed we found ourselves weaving in and out of a coastal fog and I began to wonder if the views I had promised myself I would see were actually going to be visible.

It was worth the detour though; from the summit we saw ever shifting cloud banks in the valley below revealing and then hiding the Minho below, sometimes rolling over our hilltop and dropping the temperature before easing away and bringing us back into hot sunshine. Several photos were taken as the view was constantly changing and although we lingered for a while with a coffee I would have been content to stay longer if time had permitted. We knew the sea was also down there somewhere – the map said so and we could hear it – but we never saw it as the clouds were a permanent fixture below us on the coastal side.

As we wound our way back down the hill we noticed something that we had missed on the way up due to the cloak of hill fog, a series of tightly packed foundations of ancient round houses including a couple of reconstructed houses (see photo in opening post). We executed a bit of a U-turn and spent a while longer on the hill.

We then returned to the A8 for the crossing into Portugal and it was only a little further then until we reached our overnight destination of Viana do Castello. Before going into town and finding our hotel we weaved our way up another hill which overlooked the town. The hilltop is the site of Santuário de Santa Luzia, an impressive chapel and again gave good view over the surrounding area.
Time had inexplicably run away from us and when we arrived in the town below we were further delayed by gridlock. The Portuguese and Spanish (much like the Italians) have a very competitive attitude to driving and seem happy to force their way into an already blocked junction just to ensure that no one can go if they can't. It must have took half an hour to do the last mile through the centre in ever increasing heat, perhaps making one car length's worth of progress each time the lights changed. Annoyingly having missed the hotel entrance and got caught in the one way system we had to do it all over again.

The hotel did at least have covered parking and we felt fairly content with the bike's home for the night. When checking in, the manager presented us with a city centre map. "I like people to stay longer and get to know our city" he said, "But as you are staying just one night, can I suggest that you look at the old town?" He circled an area between the hotel and river and then took his pen and circled another area to the north of the hotel "But don't go here, it is really dangerous" Then getting the reaction he wanted from Carole's face added, "Only joking....."

We got changed out of the riding gear and settled into a T-shirt and jeans for our evening walk. We took in the old town as the manager had suggested and then continued down the riverbank to yet another coastal fort, Castelo Santiago da Barra near the river mouth. "Forts everywhere," I commented to the wife, "These Portuguese and Spanish always seem to be up for fighting..." I got to find out why later in our travels.

A walk back through tight streets full of old houses with patterned ceramic tiled frontages bought us back to the town centre and a couple of beers were consumed outside a café. Going to bed, I reflected on what had seemed a long day – I couldn't quite get my head around it, it was the following morning that I realised what I had overlooked.....

4.0 Day 4
4.1 Santiago do Compostela
4.2 Santa Trega
4.3 Santa Trega
4.4 Santa Trega
4.6 Santa Luzia
4.8 Fort, Viana do Castelo

[PRD]

Great looking forward to next instalment.

[O.C.]

Excellent report and superb photos... thanks for sharing    

[pross]

Superb report once again and photos 👌👏👏

[Rynglieder]

Day 5 Viano do Castelo > Peniche (230 miles)

It was after I finished loading up the bike in the garage that I realised what had put my timings out the day before. I noticed the clock on the GTR which I had not bothered adjusting, had synchronised back to the time on my phone. So there it was, Portugal is on the same time zone as the UK, one hour behind Spain. I'm used to this sort of thing travelling west to east but I had never considered it crossing a border north to south.

First job of the day was to join the motorway at make sure I exited for the first service area, just south of Viana do Castelo. Portugal is rolling out a barrier-less motorway toll system to improve flow and entrants to the country are supposed to enter the "Foreigners" lane at the service area, log their registration and present a credit or debit card for the tolls to be charged against after 30 days. It needs a bit of work though......

I parked up in the normal service are car park and walked over to the registration lanes to do the deal. There were a couple of traffic officers sat between the two lanes seemingly dying for someone to talk to as there were no punters around and fortuanely their English was pretty good. They explained I would need to ridge the bike down the HGV lane and then do a U-turn and come up the car lane the wrong way so that the camera could photograph the registration plate on GerTRude's arse. It seemed an interesting, but not very well thought out system. I was handed back my credit card and a receipt that the machine had spat out – luckily, the Officer Of The Law spotted that one of the digits from my registration had not appeared on the receipt and then through an intercom managed to get things corrected at their control centre. I felt quite fortunate he was there and taking an interest, I have no idea how I would have sorted that out on my own.

Onwards then. On my original plan the first proper stop of the day was to have taken us inland a bit to Braga, however Carole had expressed an interest in calling in to Porto having seen Julia Bradbury or some such personality gesturing at it on the television. As we had been up two chapel capped hills the previous day I agreed to the Porto visit instead. It was already going to be a heavy day on mileage, this would save us a bit and she does not ask for much input into our trips.

We found our way into the centre of Porto easily enough, the odd mistakes mostly down to me not reacting quickly enough to the Zumo's directions when lanes split into underpasses and flyovers immediately after islands. We chanced to park up on the riverside at the base station of a cable car that would take people to the higher parts of the city. We felt we should give it a go for the few Euros they wanted and enjoyed some decent views down the Douro River.

From Porto there were more motorway miles (without stopping at toll booths) down to Figueira do Foz, where we parked up near the fort of St Catarina. I'd seen a year's worth of forts by now, so I was rather more taken with the tall art deco style clock tower on the sea front - I really want one of those in my back garden. It was an OK break from the motorway, but not a highlight of the trip.

The same could probably be said for the next stop, Nazaré. The Miradouro do Suberco had been plotted into the Nav and it was at that clifftop viewpoint that we found a space for the bike and to look down the beach and take in another drink. A bit disappointing though, not a fort in sight.

It was only about another 40 miles down to our hotel for the night in the town of Peniche, which is set on a small peninsular that pokes out into the sea a bit like the peg on a jigsaw puzzle piece. Inevitably we had to pass another fort on the final mile to the Hotel Pinhalmar. We were to be there two nights and I had managed to secure another room with a (substantial) sea view from its balcony.

It had been another hot day on the bike (35 degrees and more) and it was a relief to get into the jeans and tee shirt again. From our room we could see a lighthouse in the middle distance so took a walk out to it and watched a pretty decent sunset from the cliffs before purchasing a couple of bottles from the hotel bar to sit outside with before bed.

Another day that was a bit heavy on motorway, but not too bad.

5.1 Porto
5.2 Porto
5.3 Figueira do Foz
5.4 Figueira do Foz
5.5 Nazaré
5.6 Peniche sunset

[O.C.]

Excellent (again) and thanks for sharing... the last picture of a sunset is stunning    

[PRD]

Great write up as always. Thank you

[pross]

Brilliant thanks for sharing 👌

[Rynglieder]

Day 6 Around Piniche (65 miles)

In the great plan the day had been set aside for a bit of a relaxation with local riding so that we had the option of a lie-in or an early night. After a leisurely breakfast we set out on a much lighter bike to see some bits of Portugal that were not framed by motorway crash barriers.

Our ride lead us to Torres Verdas where first we found our way to a hilltop overlooking the town (oh, yes, it had a fort on the top) and after taking the obligatory photos we made our way down into the town and took a gentle walk up the hill to the castle and looked back across the valley to-ward the hill and fort that we had just left.

There was some enjoyable riding to be had on "proper" roads back toward the coast where we settled at Porto Novo, a beautiful small beach resort that due to being out of season was very qui-et. We took a short walk around in the sunshine, had a coffee at the café on the esplanade and enjoyed it and the surroundings so much that we stayed for another.

Another pleasant ride northwards along the coast brought us to Consolacao where unsurprisingly we found a fort that we could sit below and watch the waves crash against the rocks for a while.

It was not much more of a ride to complete the circle back round to Peniche where we parked up by the harbour before going to town and dining on a takeaway hamburger. Although the day was wearing on there was still time to have a walk around the town (including its fort) before we took the last brief ride up toward our hotel. This time we passed by the entrance and rode out toward the clifftops again in the hope of catching a sunset as good as the previous night. As soon as the sun dipped below the horizon we headed back for the hotel only to find now that we were not the only bike on the car park, we had competition from eight matching Polish BMW GSs. I don't know if they were expecting trouble, but I did notice that they seemed to have a support van for their trip. A beer was taken in the bar and then another one on our little balcony before the night's sleep.

A proper day's leisurely riding, I need to be incorporating more lazy days in future trips.

6.1 Torres Verdas – fort
6.2 Tores Verdas – castle
6.3 Porto Novo
6.4 Consolacao
6.5 Peniche - harbour
6.6 Peniche – fort
6.7 Peniche – last of the evening sun.

[pross]

Another brilliant write up and review.
Do you think all the forts were to keep the brits out in Drakes day and earlier we had a few run ins with the Spanish and portugese and the Dutch lol 😂👏👏

[Rynglieder]

Another brilliant write up and review.
Do you think all the forts were to keep the brits out in Drakes day and earlier we had a few run ins with the Spanish and portugese and the Dutch lol 😂👏👏

That was pretty much what I learned when I got to Cadiz - us and the Dutch! The old protestant Vs Catholic thing again.

(Its funny, but after years of going to Brixham and looking at the statue on the harbourside I can never imagine William of Orange without a seagull on his head )

[pross]

That was pretty much what I learned when I got to Cadiz - us and the Dutch! The old protestant Vs Catholic thing again.

(Its funny, but after years of going to Brixham and looking at the statue on the harbourside I can never imagine William of Orange without a seagull on his head )

Are you sure it wasn't a hackle 😂😂

[Rynglieder]

Day 7 Peniche > Albufeira (240 miles)

First job of the day after breakfast was to go into Peniche and buy Carole a new pair of gloves. During the run a couple of days before she had taken them off due to the heat and stuffed them into the gap between us. I was not aware of it and at one point during a long motorway stint lifted myself form the seat slightly to change my position a bit and of course you can guess the consequences; her gloves are on the inside lane of a Portugese motorway somewhere. Finding a pair of gloves for sale in 40 degree heat was challenging, you could get any amount of sunblock or shorts, but we cracked it in the end. I'm sure the shopkeeper was ecstatic, I bet he never thought he would shift those this week.

That done, we were back on the motorway heading south. It was back to traditional tolls now, the barrier free networks has not yet crept down there and we dropped into the usual routine of Carole feeding the machine so I was ready to make a quick exit.

The first real highlight of our run came just after we past Lisbon; The Vasco de Gamma Bridge. At 17km long it was worth the motorway toll and I thought it was a better ride than the Milau Viaduct which you have to be underneath to appreciate.

After this long and gentle cruise above the Tagus river we continued our motorway excursion and then dropped into Alcácer do Sal where we parked the bike at the side of its river and stretched our legs for a while and took the opportunity to grab another couple of cold drinks.

There were not too many more motorway miles before we broke away again for Santiago do Cacem where yet another hilltop castle had been plotted into the Zumo. It looked sensible enough on a flat map but the reality was narrow and very steep cobbled streets punctuated with blind crossroads; a bit challenging on the GTR. However, we managed to park up and take a walk around the gardens at its perimeter, taking advantage of a bit of shade from the trees.

At first there was some good cross-counrty running but the rest of our run down to the Algarve must have been seriously dull despite the hot sun and blue skies because I am struggling to remember anything much about it at all except for constantly feeding the toll machines until we came back into the areas covered by the cameras and charged to my card. Over the whole 17 day trip I had taken about 800 photos, but looking back at this day there are just 9 – I think that says it all.

The lack of stops on this leg of our tour did mean that we arrived at our hotel (about three miles east of Albufeira) at a reasonable time and after getting changed in our room with its balcony and (just) sea view took the receptionist's suggestion of taking the short ride into the Old Town.

I was beginning to realise I have become a bit of a travel snob. This busy resort full of British people, all-day breakfasts and Happy Hours did not appeal to me one bit. The thought "Blackpool with whitewash" presented its self for consideration and was duly accepted. We spent an hour or so walking round as dusk fell and then took the short ride back to the hotel. When the bike was secured on the hotel car park we proceeded to the bar next door which looked a bit more inviting than the one at the hotel. The customary beer (or was it two?) was downed before heading up for our last night's sleep in Portugal.

Back to Spain tomorrow – must remember to add the hour on......

7.1 Alcácer do Sal
7.2 Santiago do Cacém
7.3 Albufeira

[O.C.]

I'm enjoying reading your great reports and seeing the lovely pictures....  thanks again       

[PRD]

Freaky enjoying this. Thank you.