Day 1: Departure from Manchester and arrival in Lisbon
Tuesday 30th November 2021
So what to do over Christmas and New Year if you are a touring cyclist? The Southern Hemisphere would be an obvious choice, but we decided that Southern Europe would be more practical. The plan evolved during late summer, with the aim of spending our Christmas in Granada and then cycling to Cordoba for the New Year. Depending on the weather we will see if we are able to finish the tour with a ride to Madrid, flying back on 18th January. I will set out the detailed route itinery so you can follow the trip, or the planned trip anyway and see how we get on in real life.
Our day started by being picked up by our taxi at 4.00AM. We went through the stresses of checking in two big bike boxes and our panniers, and after passing through security (where Debbie learnt that a metal Camelback cup full of hot ginger and lemon tea isn’t going to get past security no matter how much she smiles!) we are now enjoying breakfast waiting for our flight to Lisbon – suddenly the trip feels real and despite the challenges of travelling with an evolving pandemic we are on our way! Exciting!
Our arrival in Lisbon was well ahead of our expected landing time. We went through passport control without much of a wait, although I didn’t feel good walking past the EU passports sign (no queues) to join the “Other passports” (big queues!). My feeling was well summed up by a man in the next line next to me who I overheard saying “this is all the fault of those Brexit Nobbs”! As we came out of security our bikes and bags were waiting for us – what could go wrong now? Debbie even suggested having a short rest then going cycling down the river….
Ten minutes later we realised that we had a problem. Or two problems as the nut to secure a front wheel and the bracket to restrain the handlebar on the Pinnacle bike were both missing, rendering the bike useless as a mode of transport. After a despairing half hour we managed to book a taxi – and relaxed in the back listening to the driver Bruno explaining to us about living in Lisbon and how he had learnt his English from watching the cartoon channel on TV – his accent was interesting.
So we get out of the taxi and unload our bikes – and Debbie suddenly remembers where she put the bracket for safe keeping – in her water bottle of course! It is a good job we have a very developed sense of humour😅
We met Laura, our AirB&B hostess, bang on 1.00pm – it is a super apartment and far larger on the inside than would appear likely from the outside.
After unpacking (which for us means spreading all our gear in as many piles as we can around whatever space we have available, as fast as we can), we spent the afternoon in a very friendly bike shop, who were super helpful in fixing up the bikes. Afterwards, we enjoyed tapas in a what might be a traditional tapas bar although I am not sure yet about Portugal. To our surprise it had a table of smokers inside – we asked the waiter if smoking was allowed and he said “no it wasn’t”, but did nothing to stop them, so we left.
Day 2: Day trip to Sitra
Wednesday 1 December
So Portuguese weather is misreported in the UK! Although it was bright enough at breakfast for me to go out today in shorts and a tee shirt, by lunchtime it was raining and cold and rather worse than even Manchester on a typical December day. We took a trip to the town of Sitra, an hour’s train journey out of Lisbon, to explore the world heritage site, although the day was not as good as it could have been due to the weather. The views from the The Palácio Nacional da Pena were totally lost to the fog coming in from the Atlantic. The building was quite stunning being one of Europe’s finest palaces, with a vividly painted exterior, and an interior restored to how it appeared in 1910 when the Portuguese nobility fled the country after Portugal became a republic.
We walked through the gardens down the steep hill to the old town which, whilst lovely, was very much a tourist trap – with piped Christmas music coming through speakers on every lamp post all day – it felt strange in something that is so culturally important.
We finished our visit by going to the The Palácio Nacional de Sintra, the original medieval palace of Sintra, which was a favourite with the early Portuguese rulers. It has been well renovated.
Day 3: A day walking through Lisbon
Thursday 2nd December
Today dawned bright and sunny, again. But unlike yesterday it stayed bright and sunny for the whole day. We spent the day walking through Lisbon enjoying the fine architecture, the houses with tiles in the walls and the mosaic pavements. We visited the Jeronimos Monestry, a really fine building with some quite stunning building work in it – see pictures below – as well as the tomb of Vasco da Gama (Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. Interestingly he died in 1524 in India but only got buried in the monestry in 1880 so something must have not gone well along the way).
After the Monestry we visited the Belem tower, constructed in the 16th century to protect the mouth of the Tagus estuary from marauding attackers, and then walked back along the river past the docks and had lunch in an Italian restaurant on the riverside (almost under the bridge where you could hear the noise of the vehicles and trains vibrating as they passed over it).
Back to the Bridge – I really would like to hear from a civil engineer how you construct a bridge like this – it is absolutely huge; in fact it was (and maybe is still) the longest suspension bridge in Europe. How do you get the massive supports standing up straight in the middle of the river – you can’t use cranes. And the stanches at the ends holding up the bridge are set up in the middle of residential and business areas. How?
We walked all along the river until we reached Lisbon Castle, overlooking the town. We spent a good couple of hours wandering around, and although substantially rebuilt in the last century, was still evocative enough to capture the feeling of the place as a defensive post, overlooking the whole surrounding areas. We had some stunning views of Lisbon from the top,
Day 4: Lisbon to Setabul
Friday 3rd December
Today dawned bright and sunny again and we managed to vacate the apartment by shortly after 9.00 (no mean feat as I had got up before 6.00 and spent a depressing two hours trying to get my Hammerhead Karoo2 to upload my recent routes from Komoot – I couldn’t get it uploaded so spent the day with my Wahoo Bolt (my old and faithful bike computer) in my pocket as I had dismantled the handlebar mount. Hopefully the Hammerhead behaves itself tomorrow or otherwise it may go back in the draw of useless DB purchases!
We took the ferry from Lisbon to Seixal, across the Taigus river from Lisbon, and then managed to take over five and a half hours cycling a four and a half hour ride even for ‘couch potatoes’ (as shown by Komoot, the cycling travel route planning app we use that used to have this as the rating for the least fit cyclists – they have since renamed it simply ‘untrained’ as this may be less offensive to some presumably, although we used to like to think of ourselves as “quite fit couch potatoes”. The day was relatively easy but I forget every time at the start of a long tour how bad it feels to do a long ride on the first day – it is four months since finishing the Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride we did in June/July and since then, although trying to keep fit with running and walking, I have done little cycling and the body forgets quickly the physical hardness you need to be able to cycle long distances comfortably.
The ride was quite stunning – initially though the suburbs of Lisbon and then into the Lagoa de Albefeira National Park. We cycled through woods of oak cork trees and also eucalyptus where the smell was wonderful, and finally through roads lined with olive trees. Along the way we had gardens with orange trees still carrying fruit. All day it was sunny, which made cycling wear challenging – I was either too hot when in the sun, or just right when in the shade. My new lined cycling leggings are probably going to be excellent in the colder mountains but too warm for this weather, but it is probably too cold for shorts – I need more clothes!
We had one unfortunate disaster. We had a choice at a junction to go along the high road which we thought would involve more climbing, or a lower road along the coast, which seemed a more attractive option. We happily cycled down the road – a super fast descent for something over a mile and maybe two, before we hit this sign in the road.
The consequence was a very unhappy pair of cyclists pushing their bikes up the long pleasant descent which quickly became a thoroughly unpleasant ascent. Once we made the top we then had to complete the original ride and there were a lot of hills to ascend. We were very glad to ride into Setabul at the end of our “easy” first day or riding.
In Setabul our hotel (Hotel Bocage) was excellent and we had a really good dinner in a local restaurant.
Day 5: Setabul to Sines
Saturday 4th December
We made an early start with breakfast at 7.30 and were on the ferry out of Setubal across the estuary by 9.30am to our start point for the day at Troia on the right side of the long thin thing called Costa de Gale by 10.00. Today wasn’t the most interesting of days cycling – most of the 43 miles was along quite straight roads with lots of trees lining them, which effectively meant no views and not a lot to look at. The good point was that apart from the occasional car and lorry there was very little traffic.
Day 5 of our cycle ride, from Sabutal to Sines
Even when it is quite boring there are always things to look at and learn about, and I am now learning about cork trees; we saw some that have had the barked harvested recently. It is interesting that the cork tree has a use for some 200 years – its cultivation is extremely slow, with the first harvest only being taken after the tree is 25 years old (and this harvest isn’t of much value) and it is subsequently harvested every 9 years – after the second harvest the cork can be used for products such as wine corks.
This article explains in more detail about the cork and it is interesting to see how important the tree is to not just Portugal but also to the wider global sustainability agenda.
https://amorimcorkcomposites.com/en-us/why-cork/facts-and-curiosities/about-oak-forest/
We arrived in Sines by mid afternoon and checked into a ‘salubrious’ AirB&B – so ‘salubrious’ Debbie wondered how they had passed the accredition of the Portuguese AirB&B requirements! But then what can you expect for €29.
Sines to me seems a bit of a dump – it is the third largest port in Portugal (after Lisbon and Porto) and the harbour is full of oil tankers (it is a major oil refinery too).
More significantly to me in my quest to learn about Vasco de Gama is that this is the town where he was born. This article gives a comprehensive account of Vasco’s involvement with the town.
https://www.sines.pt/pages/712
And here is a picture of the statue of the great man outside the castle
In the evening we went for a walk to find a bar/ restaurant, got mixed up in a Father Christmas parade in the castle and after getting a little wet from a shower found ourselves back at the AirB&B. Dinner will have to wait a while until the restaurants open later in the evening.
In fact we couldn’t find a restaurant and ended up having a miserable evening managing to get a sandwich in a cafe run by a young lady working on her own. Not a good evening at all.
The postscript to our stay in Sines was when we left the apartment the following morning the Grab & Go shop next door had a smashed window with an awful lot of blood on the floor. Something dramatic must have happened in the night but we were soundly asleep in our bed.
Day 6: Sinas to Zambujeiro do Mar
Sunday 5th December
It is 4.30pm and we are sitting in a little square in a little town called Zambujeiro do Mar – population 911, but clearly designed for an influx of many more in the tourist season. Our day has been very pleasant with a little over 40 miles of pretty gentle cycling, at least when we were on the roads. Our plans of following the Euro Velo 1 route in Portugal have now been more or less abandoned as we have realised it really just goes along coastal tracks that are often little more than very long sandpits, and are extremely difficult to ride on, but also probably not doing much good for our bikes.
One of the many learnings I have from the cycle tours we have now completed is to recognise that the first few days are always the most challenging as the body has to get used to cycling for long distance (and time in the saddle). This year we have done some long distances – starting with an extended King Alfred’s Way taking in Glastonbury; an extended Peddar’s Way in Norfolk, from Cambridge and going round the Norfolk coast; and an extended End to End (Land’s End to John O’Groats) via West Wales and North Yorkshire and Northumberland (total distance 1,025 miles). Since the completion of the last tour in July, I have done little on the bike, so this trip so far has been getting the muscles’ memories working, and hardening up the posterior and hands – I don’t like to wear padded shorts with my Brooks 17 saddle, nor gloves unless the weather necessitates (I end up with toughened leathery palms). I am now starting to ride feeling good and fit again so hopefully getting into shape. This goes alongside the burning off of any stored internal reserves (fat) and then needing to eat and keep fuelled up on a regular basis or else we just get irritable and lack energy. It is a good feeling to be very hungry and really enjoying eating our meals!
Day 7: Zambujeiro do Mar to Vila do Bospo
Monday 6th December
Good day today – early up and early to leave, on ride by 9.20am. Breakfast in our apartment of two day old croissants and a week old goats cheese but tasted good. The ride was a good one, lots of roads with little traffic and lots of quite steep climbs followed by long easy down hills.
Lunch was at Aljezur after I had walked up to the castle at the top of the town. Aljezur is a medieval town, attractive although like many of the medieval towns in Portugal, largely rebuilt after the damage caused by the devastating earthquake of 1755.
Afternoon was a fast ride along roads to our hotel in Vila do Bospo. I had a zoom meeting and Debs went to the pool. After we had drinks with a couple of cyclists from Switzerland and then went to a local fish restaurant. Grilled doradoes and chips! Simple but very tasty.
Day 8: Vila do Bospo to Lagos
Tuesday 7th December
A day marred by our first bad crash at the end of the day, and filled with some interesting snippets of history and a long tedious ride on a major road in light but annoying rain.
We had breakfast in our hotel and left mid morning for a ride down the EV1 to Cabo de Sao Vincent – the most SW point of Europe. It was cloudy when we started and by the time we hit the coast we were caught in a mist coming in off the sea; however, it did clear for a while and we were able to get some good sea and cliff views, although a little like Land’s End, it is an area targeted at the tourist, and not to disappoint we had a coachload of tourists arrive just ahead of us.
After having a coffee here we cycled back along the road towards Sagres and stopped at the fort where we had lunch before cycling around the promontory, high on the cliffs.
Interestingly this was filled with fisherman with their rods over the cliff edge – with the water some 75 metres below it made me wonder how they could ever know whether their hooks/floats were actually in the water as I don’t think they would have been safely able to lean over to look.
We had lunch looking out over a spectacular beach filled with surfers waiting for the “next big wave”. Apparently there are ten beaches around Sagres point which makes it the perfect surfing location as whichever direction the wind comes from, one beach at least will have good surf. The picture below probably needs blowing up to see all the surfers.
By mid afternoon we realised we were getting late for the rest of our ride – some 20+ miles into Lagos, so we headed off the peak, skirted by the town of Sagres, and made a direct line along one of the main roads towards Lagos. This road wasn’t especially busy, but it wasn’t scenic and it started to rain quite hard. We passed signs for many of the famous Algarve holiday locations, including Praia de Luz made infamous by the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007.
One of the bad happenings of this (or to be honest any of our previous trips) was an accident that we had when I rode into the back of Debbie, although with hindsight I am thankful it wasn’t a lot worse, because it easily could have been. We were cycling along a pavement avoiding the road traffic in the rain, and Debbie slowed to decide whether to cross a road or not and I moved to her right, but didn’t see a sign post in my way until the last moment. Moving to the left to avoid it, I found Debs had stopped to go across the crossing and I piled into her, ending up in an undignified pile on the pavement with the humiliation of having drivers on the road stopping to ask if we were OK as I hopped around feeling I had at least broken my leg! In the end, apart from hurt pride and a severe telling off from Debbie, no real harm was done; we were able to fix up Debbie’s bike (that came out of the skirmish most damaged), and my leg recovered well enough for us to be able to complete our ride into Lagos, by now quite late in the day.
Our room when we found it in Lagos was perfectly functional but when they described it in the details as a “budget room” they were absolutely right – it was a perfectly designed and built room but extremely compact – our toilet was in a space by the shower which was a couple of feet from the bed and with just a clear Perspex door that ‘almost’ covered the space; there was a moment when I was on the toilet and Debbie decided to go to the kitchen across the corridor and I suddenly found I was in full show for all the other rooms on the corridor – we soon lost all our inhibitions.
After a shower in our apartment we went into the old town town and had an excellent meal at Mullins Reastaurant – I had fish soup followed by a very good sirloin steak, and Debbie had tomato soup (made with fresh carrots per the menu) followed by potato and spinach curry.
In bed I tuned into the first Ashes test in Australia – I have always enjoyed the evocative experience of listening to commentary of live sports in distant lands at night, such as cricket or boxing. This, however, was not one of them as England were bowled out for 147 and I turned the radio off.
Day 9: A rest day in Lagos
Wednesday 8th December
This was a recovery day- and we needed it after the challenges of yesterday. We went walking and found the statue of Henry the Navigator – a major figure (probably “the father”) of the Age of Discovery in the 13th century and currently my second favourite Portuguese after Vasco de Gama.
We had a brilliant breakfast of fresh oranges, coffee and Eggs Benedict for me and a baked beans and lettuce wrap (😗) for Debbie. After we took a boat ride along the coast and saw some great costal features – the Portuguese ‘captain’ who took us out couldn’t speak any English, but he named many of the rocks for us (“The Wedding Cake”, “The Elephant”, “The Sewing Machine” etc). Apparently the boat trip for two people would normally cost €120 but they were so glad to get anyone to go we got it for €40 which seemed good value. December is definitely a good time to come if you don’t mind the lack of hot weather.
I spent the afternoon in a Zoom board meeting for the Inner Circle Educational Trust, a new charity of which I am a trustee, that has evolved from the sale of Regent’s University London last year, and we are now working out our plan on how best we can support disadvantaged young people to get the benefit of a university education. It is stimulating and exciting and I hope could make a difference to many young people in the future. Our focus is likely to be those children in care, including refugees.
In the evening I went to a bar and watched Chelsea underperform in the Champions League, and then we went for an excellent curry, before I listened to some more of the very depressing second day of the first Ashes test – this night I also turned it off after Rory Burns dropped Warner on 48 and the Australians started to build a very high score.
Cycle Touring Adventures! 