Hello from Milfontes (4/14)! Sorry for the lack of writing, but internet cafe´s are more difficult to come by in these small little towns. We decided to wait to get our hands on an ipad, and of course they were released April 3, 2 days after we left. Chances are we won´t have our own computer until July. So, until we get to Spain I´m guessing, our blogs will be rare. This is a bit confusing too as it was written so sparatically, but hopefully it gives you an idea of our travels thus far!
We left Lisbon on Tuesday (4/6), walked our bikes through the city as it is not fun to ride amongst traffic (this unfortunately we experienced too much in our first few days of riding). There is this fantastic bakery on the way out of Lisbon toward the water, so we stopped to pick something for the ferry ride. It was pretty much awesome. Fresh bread stuffed with salami, ham, chicken and bacon. Wow! There is no doubt we will go out of our way to have another one of those if we ever find ourselves in Lisbon again.
We took the ferry across to Cascais, an extremely hilly town where we rode up and down those damn streets because we couldn´t find our way out. Guess we might as well have started our first ride with some burning thighs! We made our way to Jesus (look at our pictures) and knew we had to go east, following Jesus´ left arm pointing west toward the Atlantic and our destination... Costa do Caparica. Some hours later, some bike issues and some wrong turns we managad to make it to the sea. After checking out some places to camp, we settled in at a Campground just north of town. Got some food in town and retired to the tent listening to some Brazillian teens talking way late into the night.
Got up late (4/7) due to the noisy kids keeping us up. Packed up the bikes and headed south to through the busy suburb streets of Lisbon and down to the wonderful sea side town of Sesimbra. A long, hot ride ending with a steep downhill past the castle of Sesimbra and down to the fishing village and campground at Fortelo do Cavallo. Set up camp late in the afternoon at a great spot overlooking the bay and walked into town for our fish traditional Portuguese grilled fish dinner witha bottle of local white wine. Delicious!
4/8-4/11
Stayed awhile in Sesimbra. Went to the beach daily, warmed the Colorado winter out of our
bones, and drank cheap bottles of wine with dinners we cooked at our campsite. Walked up to the Castle on the mountain and explored, watched a sailboat regatta, ate pastries daily and Ryan got sunburned... again. Ran into the first American while at the mercado. She was happy to talk to us!
4/11
Our first mountain ride out of Sesimbra heading toward Setubal. There were 18% grades getting out of town. Ouch! After getting lost again, we found a old dirt road heading in the general direction of the Serra do Arribida, the range we had to cross to get to our destination that night. Thank goodness for the low gears on our bikes! After finally making over the crest, we had a gorgeous ride a few hundred feet above the blue ocean with paragliders above. Tight roads and crazy drivers. Some give you plenty of rooom and others, well not so much. Made it into the old city of Setubal (supposedly founded by the grandson of Moses) in the afternoon and sat in the central park and ate roast chicken (frango assado) from the local market. Felt pretty tired and happened to find a Residencial (cross between a hotel and a hostel) right behind us. 25 Euros later we had a great room with a private bath. Nice!
4/12
Caught the moring ferry across the bay to the peninsula of Troia. Finally left all the cars and busy streets behind us. Except for the constant wind in our faces, the ride was a beautiful, flat one all the way down to the campsite on the Costa do Gale´. Lots of nesting storks, and spring time flowers along the way. Although we regretted the hamburger lunch which sat in our bellies like lead! This camp site was amazing... Situated on top of a sandy cliff overlooking miles and miles of empty beach. Had some cold vinho verde (local white wine) watching the sunset and then dinner.
4/13
Crack of noon departure yet again for us. Lots of wind in the face again. Long ride for the afternoon down to Porto Covo. Road for about 40 miles and hit our first rainstorm. Not super pleasent when you are tired at the end of the day. Found the last room in town at a quiet resindencia and dodged about 10 hours of down pour. Made some stew in the room on the camping stove.
4/14
Made the short ride down the coast through the intermittent rain and ever present howling wind to the town of Milfontes. Grabbed some food from the mercado and got our tent set up in the campground minutes before the next storm came raining through. Phew!
4/15-4/16
Hung out in Milfontes due to all the storms rolling off the ocean. In between, we walked the old port town, bought food, ate even more pastries and read our books. Not much to do but but relax and do our first load of laundry. Took two days to dry everything on the clothesline as it just would keep raining
4/17
Road today (hooray) south again with the wind in our faces (again and agian with the wind!) all the way down to just outside the town of Aljezir. Longest ride of the trip so far but the raods were great. Lots of country roads, cows and sheep among the almond and cork trees. Made it to our campsite after an hour break in a road side bus stop shelter to dodge a huge storm. Camped in a swamp.
4/18
Got out of town quickly and pedaled our way out of the Alentejo region and into the southern Algarve. First stop, Sagres. The south western most point in Europe and famous for being the launching point of all the great Portuguese explores back in the 1400´s. Cabral, Magellan and Vasco de Gama. Trying to dodge the rain yet again we found another inexpensive residencia... Cas do Julio. Our place had two rooms and our own kitchen. Of course, all the grocery stores were closed so we ate pizza and drank beer out that night. Fell asleep watching Portuguese soap operas and their version of `So you think you can dance.`
4/19
One more day in Sagres. Road out to Cabo du San Vincente and explored the ruins of the old castle. Got some fish from the local market and made a great dinner that night in the kitchen. More soap operas in Portuguese.
4/20
Great ride today! Even though the wind switched 90 degrees to the east so it could be in our faces again. Found a bike route that begins in Sagres and stretches east all the way to Barcelona Spain on the southern coast. Tried following it today even though it takes you through some interesting places in its mission to avoid major roads. Thank goodness for low gears , strong brakes and some what knobby tires. The most beautiful counrtry roads yet though. Awesome! Pretty tired when we rolled into Praia do Luz late in the afternoon. Stocked up at the mercado, met a friendly Belgian who complemented our `Boulder Muscles`and camped at the crappiest campsite of them all right beneath a sodium light. Found out Megan had her baby today. Congrats on the little girl Maggie!
4/21
Hello from Lagos! Most of the writing above was done from here as it has been difficult in the countryside of Portugal to find such things as internet cafes. Although the sardines are plentiful and quite tasty! We will try and post some pictures soon as this machine is not as pictures friendly as hoped. Cheers!
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