Friday, October 19, 2018

18th October (sunny and warm)

The hallway of the apartment building

Woke this morning to someone sweeping the street outside with a broom. Hope it wasn’t the dirty spitting bastards, because they need to realise that you have to wash that away, not sweep it. So, we had decided to walk to the far side of Porto, taking shots of whatever was presented, on our way to pick up our hire car…the same hire car that we had brought from Vigo….the same one they said we could only take to Porto….work that out..??
The sights we saw on the way to collecting the car, about 5km west of the centre of town.






Got the Fabia back and crammed with our stuff again.
After getting all our gear together so that it was just a matter of placing it in the car when we brought it back, I had a shower and we took off. Walking along the front we were able to get some nice photos, before heading inland to Europcars. Decided that as we were a little bit early that we’d call into the café we were in the other day, when we dropped the car off. We’d gotten on well with two of the ladies who work there and today they were quite chatty to us, practising their English and having a laugh.  They also taught us two Portuguese words, “Bom Dia” for good morning and “Obrigado” meaning thank-you.
After our coffee and croissant we waited in line for our car and then we drove it back into the chaos that are the streets of Porto. This time however, it was a seamless operation and soon we found ourselves outside our apartment having grabbed a prime spot. Within minutes, the bikes and gear were loaded into the car and we were off, this time driving over another of the many bridges that are a vital part of Porto. All different and all a fantastic piece of engineering in their own right. 

Stopped just over the other side to take some photos from up high.
Then we were on our way, heading to Lisbon, well, that direction. We don’t think we will go into the Capital as we just want to hit the quiet roads on our bikes for a while. Onto the A roads, which are the autobahns of Portugal. Because they are, they also charge for the ability to travel great distances, at speed. Every ten kilometres or so you are electronically monitored and charged a tax. Did this for about sixty kilometres before taking the smaller main road south.

Leaving Porto - man, what a place!

Here, we discovered the remnants of cyclone Lesley, which went through here at the weekend. For the next sixty kilometres we saw damage beyond anything we thought possible over such a large area. Rooves damaged, trees, from small, to giant pine and eucalyptus trees. Power lines down all over, roadside crash barriers ripped out and mangled along with road signs, bent in half and strewn across the roads. Windows smashed, bus shelters destroyed, the damage just kept on coming, it was unbelievable.
Look carefully - that's two power poles fallen over with lines on the ground - I would hope they weren't live
Snapped trees everywhere - for about sixty kms.  Another good reason we weren't cycling here.  Not all roads are open yet and these roads had debris lining the side so even when you had a hard shoulder, it would have been awkward cycling.

The driving on these roads was a lot slower, but, we weren’t in a hurry. We’d stopped for a wander earlier in the quaint little town of Aveiro. Spent an hour wandering the small streets and alleyways before grabbing some coffee and cake in a café, away from the tourist sector, which proved to be a cheap option compared with the main tourist cafes.
The lovely little town of Aveiro







The drive and the damage continued until we decided to jump back on the motorway and gain some distance. Now late in the afternoon, we spotted as we sped along, a castle over to our right. Figured it was worthy of some shots and oh, how very worthy it was. Firstly we took some of a church which was a little out of the ordinary, before driving along the road to capture the castle in the village of Obidos. We could have stayed on the motorway and missed the castle and church, but thank heavens we didn’t. Here in Obidos we found an absolute gem of history and photographic opportunity. Spent about an hour wandering the cobbled streets and stone walls revelling in the age and colour of this perfect find. If we had been cycling, we would probably have stuck closer to the coast, hence missing this jewel.
Church at Obidos

The castle at Obidos which caught our eye
Inside the castle walls was a beautiful village.




A walk along the walls would have given OSH heart palpitations
But gave us stunning views

We were not far now from our hotel for the night in Penische. Over the next two weeks, the men’s world surfing tour are here, ripping up the waves. Unfortunately, we can only very briefly catch some action, and only if it’s here and not somewhere else on the coast. Our home for the night was on the far side of Penische and what a great find Julia had come up with. Pinhalmar hotel was awesome, right on the coast overlooking some pretty big swells. The room was amazing and after settling in, we drove the few kilometres back into town to grab some food. Ended up having a couple of carbonaras, which were delicious, before wandering back to the car and driving round the coast to our hotel. There we sat and googled some info, watched some footy on tele and wrote the blog and uploaded our photos, before hitting the sack.
A lovely room for the night for 44 euros, including breakfast!


2 comments:

  1. Stunning pics. Loved the pics of the castle. Inside the castle walls looks amazing. When do you start cycling again. I've been in Whangarei for nearly 2 weeks waiting for our grandaughter to arrive. Now 5 days overdue. Dennis arrives here tomorrow.

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  2. All the best for your next grandaughter's arrival - exciting times! We are back on the bikes today and looking forward to a slower pace.

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