SPAIN!!!!!! - Writing

Where did we leave off? Lagos I believe? Lagos is a fantastic city! Probably our favorite so far. It is a walled city with beautiful streets to finagle our way through. And having English to read was a nice change as well! We even found a bookshop for a trade in! I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which is great by the way, I read it 2 1-2 times. Thank you Summer!) and exchanged for The Tenderness of Wolves (which I have now finished as I write this and am on my way through for the 2nd time, pretty good too). When we aren´t riding our bikes, we spend our days just strolling through the cities/towns, literally strolling. We walk for miles and just enjoy people watching, eating, checking out the gorgeous scenery, dangling our feet in the water, truly admiring the surroundings and embracing this amazing opportunity we now call life. Wow.....this is our life. Not just a vacation for a few weeks, but our life. Happiness cannot possible describe the feeling.

After Lagos, we of course headed east, making our way to Albufiera. We try our best to follow this ¨bikepath¨ but it is not labeled well, adding quite a bit of time and miles onto our pedaling. Oh well, a common phrase we now use, ¨what else do we have to do?¨ After riding through the streets of Albufiera, we landed our feet in a great campsite, the one further from the water, but a much better environment. The people were so nice, always saying hello and giving a little cheers with their cocktail to greet us. A pool, decent spot for our tent, a mile walk into town, some shade and tables to cook at, which is one of the things I truly miss, a real seat and table! Who knew???? Life is good. We decided to stay here for 2 nights. We woke in the morning and spent some time by the pool before heading into town for lunch and a walk by the water. The heat was quite intense that day, so walking with our feet in the ocean was a great way to cool off. Wanting some shade, we saw these umbrellas with beanbag chairs on the beach attached to a restaurant. To our luck, you could order a cocktail or food and enjoy these beautiful thatched palapas and comfy beanbag chairs. We did just that! After a few strawberry daiquiri´s and cervezas later, we had avoided the afternoon sun and decided dinner and our campground were in sue. What a fantastic way to spend our day!

From Albufiera, we got up and on the road as early as we could (which unfortunately for us is not very early.....if we are pedaling by 10:30, I am stocked!) to try and avoid the intense beating of the sun and headed to Olhao, just a quick stop for a nights sleep. We couldn´t find the bikepath, forcing us to use the highway. Big shoulders and fast riding! Great! The bikepaths are nice because they are beautiful and backroads, but they definitely slow us down. Making great time and covering a lot of land is a nice change.

On our way to our last town in Portugal, Monte Gordo! Along the way, we stopped in Tavira, a beautiful little town with an ancient castle that goes back almost 3000 years to the Neolithic. Wow!!!! Such history amongst us. We ended up stopping at this ¨restaurant¨ on the way out of town that was packed with locals. BEST lunch ever! Whole potatoes, salad, olives, bread, 3 whole grilled fish (heads and all) and grilled bread with pimento olive oil, beer and water. Man oh man was it delicious! Just what we needed to restore some energy to make it to Olhao. And get this, 16€! Are you kidding me????? Any other place would have been at least 30€. But that is their menu, no other choices. What a great last Portuguese meal! Fresh fish....perfect! With extremely full bellies, we decided to go for an easy ride in hopes of not crashing after such a huge meal. We found the bikepath! Now this was perfect. No helmets, few cars and breathtaking land. We rode and rode and rode, just taking our time and actually covering some distance. We hit our first bikepath obstacle, a broken bridge! With a little teamwork, we were on our way for some medium mountain bike riding before we again hit some pavement. These bikepaths take you along these rolling hills of every color flower you could imagine, bright pink, purple, yellow, orange, blue. Curving in and out of these paths lined with trees. A picture just can´t do justice.

Monte Gordo was by far the most touristy town we have seen. Not really our cup of tea. There was a race of some sort about to be happending, so runners and bike riders ALL over! We only slept there and then woke early to head to Spain! Vila Real de Santo Antonio, our last town in Portugal! I can´t believe we have already been here for a month! Crazy!!!! I wasn´t expecting much from Vila Real de Santo Antonio besides more tourists, but I was definitely wrong. The center square reminded us a bit of Lisboa, black and white sidewalks with a beautiful monument, live music and cafe´s. Just our style! We enjoyed some espresso and rode throughout the streets before heading on the ferry to Spain!

The sun is intense, hitting Spain just after 12. A quick stop at the oficina de turismo and we are on our way....to where? We aren´t quite sure. I guess however long our legs will last! We start our ride on Spain´s bikepath. Wow, way worse than Portugal. Sandy, rocky, pitfilled path. 18 kilometers took us 2 1/2 hours. Ouch! No bueno! Basically having to push our bikes through a sandy swamp, that was it. I had had it! And of course, Ryan took out the camera for a picture. Ugh! But, now you get to see what we had to force our way through. I was not a happy camper to say the least! Finally finding our way to a paved road and a gas station. Yes! Time for a hose and a snack. All is well again! The road we were heading on had a big shoulder and the land was great to look at. We covered 41 kilometers in 3 hours. What a difference taking the main roads compared to the bikepath. Heading into Huelva, no where to sleep and no map of campsites. Luckily the oficina de turismo was still open and extremely helpful. Finding a residencial, a shower and then off for some tapas! On the way to finding a restaurant, we came across a church surrounded by tons of people and a band, them playing as they carry a throne of Mary into the church. Church bells ringing, trumpets and drums playing, truly a site to be seen. But hungry stomachs prevail and we are off to find a restaurant. Not being able to read the menu is quite difficult, again, thank goodness for nice people! The guy who owned the restaurant last night barely spoke English, so we just told him to bring us whatever he wanted. Perfect! 7 tapas later, a few cervezas, full bellies, tired legs, a short walk, and we are ready for bed.

We slept like logs, sleeping on a bed for the first time in 10 nights! Ahhhh, the little things in life! Staying to enjoy Huelva until tomorrow, we will make our way toward Sevilla. Fingers crossed we can make it 55 miles. Ha! Normally that is not a big deal for us, but carrying an extra 60lbs sure adds to the exhaustion! Thanks for reading my babbling and hopefully we will be able to write more often as cafe´s seem more numerous here. Adios for now!