OMG…two triple tons in two days!
Before yesterday…I had only ever done one once! That great ride through Albania last year…when Iain and I arrived at a village in the middle of nowhere and found a small empty but very memorable hotel. Dinner? Roast chicken, potatoes and salad? Yes please, we said, we’ll have two of those. An hour and a half later….we were presented with TWO whole roast chickens! Hilarious! It was a bit of a struggle!
So today was another one…..without the hilarity of the roast chickens! And coming on the back of our day yesterday we arrived absolutely knackered!
But what a great ride! Well…mostly!
It started with a very stiff climb out of Sabugueiro…taking us back up to around 1,400 metres. It was cold on the way up (around 8 degrees!)…but the required effort meant it was not too bad!
But then started the long long descent of around 1,000 metres!
…which would have been lovely…but for the temperature. It was truly freezing at 30-40kmh!
Lovely scenery…
……but sore fingers and toes….and just a full chill through inadequate clothing…sort of took the gloss off!
And what is really wrong with sandals…and socks!? Made sense to John….and me, if only I had a pair!!
Always a good sign to see when you are on a bike!
Breakfast at the bottom….then a series of long climbs forced us to make a long re-charging stop! (Most of Portugals rivers run east-west…meaning our northerly direction had us going up and down across every valley there is!!)
Great landscapes all day though……
Here is John riding over one of the many bridges en route. He does not like heights. At all! So if he can…he will cycle as far away from the edge as possible! He never stops on bridges to admire the view!!
….. and the countryside became simply magnificent as we approached the Douro Valley.
This is the river which emerges at Oporto…and extends far into Spain. Indeed when Liz and I were last around here….we sought out the exact antipodes of our house! Which turned out to be on the hillside above the Douro River…in Spain…about 150kms to the East of here! A cairn marks the spot!!
Oporto is of course famed as the home of Port! But…not true of course…for this is indeed its real home! Where the grapes are grown, and harvested and where the wine is made!
Spectacular landscape…
…as we emerged at around 900 metres up…to look down over the mighty river.
So pretty…
…..and our second long descent of the day!! (This time without freezing our balls off!).
And there is our destination…the small town of Pinhao.
A few kms along the river itself….
…took us to the town of Pinhao…home of many port wineries….
…and a classic tiled railway station….
Great views from our house…
….and from the bar just down the road! Where John just managed to avoid going 5-2 down in the Euchre competition! Now a relatively respectable 4-3!!
We had dinner on the riverside itself…
We were both absolutely exhausted….and after finishing off half a bottle of Port – gifted by our host – we were both fast asleep by 9.30!
Another big day tomorrow too…yikes!
