July 19, 2015Gordon: Our reliable friend Pocket Earth found an excellent route for us today. It has a feature that allows a route to be developed with minimal change in elevation, which is a real boon for cyclists. The route suggested for today's ride into...
July 17, 2015The ride from Ansião to Coimbra included a stop at the Roman site of Conimbriga. They have a very impressive collection of mosaics from the remains of a number of villas. From there we parted company with the Camino trail in search of a paved road...
July 15, 2015We spent an extra day in Tomar, partly to recover from our exertions during Disco Inferno, but mostly to visit the Templar Castle and the Convento de Cristo. This is a fabulous sight. We even violated our rule of not spending more than two hours gawking...
July 13th, 2015Fatima to Tomar 35kmThe day began with a lovely ride through the hills and an encounter with a medieval castle, and ended with Gordon and I shaking our booties in a disco flash mob on our street in Tomar. We delayed our arrival in Tomar to miss a...
July 12, 2015Alcobaça -Batalha - Fatima 44kmThe most important pilgrimage in Portugal is not to the tomb of Saint James in Santiago but to Fatima. Here pilgrims wearing yellow reflective vests walk through the street led by a singing Priest with a megaphone....
July 11, 2015Ruth: Not all kilometres are equalTwo days riding with completely different effort spent. Day 2 Vila Franca de Xira to Santarem 61kmThis was an easy ride along pretty farmer's lanes following the yellow arrows the whole way with only one climb up to...
July 9, 2015Although we loved Lisbon it is delightful to be in a small town. We are staying at the DP Hostel, which makes Gordon very happy because we are only paying 25€ for a tiny double room with ensuite. While we are talking about costs, our multi course lunch,...
July 8, 2015Ruth: Gordon found his voice today! He has been speaking Portuguese almost as a local, well at least to my ears. I am pleased that I have enough vocabulary to understand simple exchanges, and to complement people on their excellent pastries.Gord:...
July 6, 2015The best way to get over jet lag is to have a wonderful place to explore. Yesterday we arrived at our hotel at around noon and then hit the streets of Lisbon to get our bearings. What a fabulous place. After a great meal in the market we walked all over...
It's 3 PM on Friday and we are only one sleep away from our departure. Is it possible to be excited, anxious, and calm all at the same time? Excited, because I am looking forward to a wonderful trip with my best mate in a new land to explore with our bikes....
We fly to Portugal on July 4th and arrive in Lisbon on our 25 anniversary! Gord has informed me that the 25th anniversary is the pvc plastic anniversary, so I am expecting some rather nice plastic bling!Today is the last day of school and now I have a week to obsess...