Alter do Chao - Iberia 2013 - CycleBlaze

October 20, 2013

Alter do Chao

Last night's hotel was a great bargain - 38 euros (50 dollars) for a very spacious room with a lovely view over the city square, and a decent breakfast. It is affiliated with Gadanha restaurant, where we enjoyed the finest meal of the trip so far.

We have a fairly short day today with no advertised highlights (although I'm sure we will find some anyway), so we took our time and started the day with another walking tour of the town after breakfast. It was beautiful seeing it again in a different light.

Well, for a day with nothing specific to look forward to, this was possibly the most enjoyable day's ride of the trip. It had a uniformly lovely pastoral quality, and we spent the day passing through a continuous stream of attractive rural scenes - vineyards, flocks of sheep, cork woods, bridges arched over small streams, horses, flocks of birds taking wing - that continued for 40 miles, broken by a few villages and small towns that surprised us by their colorfulness and interest.

I can't quite capture what gave it such a special quality, but it was really wonderful and relaxing. It helped greatly of course that the roads were very quiet, almost car free; the terrain was an interesting and pleasant steady stream of gentle rises and descents; we often were pushed along by a light tailwind; and the weather was cycling-perfect: in the low 60's, with a broken sky that intermittently cooled us in the shade and then warmed us again when we broke into the sun. Pretty much ideal.

Two specifics stood out from the day. In the morning as we were circling the center in Estromoz trying to figure out the way out of town we met up with a friendly group of cyclists on an outing from the coast. A few of them spoke decent English, and we enjoyed chatting a bit before lining up for a group portrait. Later, in Cabeso de Vide, we came upon the most striking small train station that I ever recall seeing. The base of its facade is adorned by a series of elegant paintings of agricultural scenes, painted in 1833 (the artist signed and dated the panels). It is adjacent to what appears to have been a hot spring resort at some point, so maybe it was decorated as an attraction for elegant clientele.

This morning's weather forecast predicted decent weather for today, and rain for tomorrow. Tonight, it looks the same - decent weather tomorrow, followed by rain and thunderstorms the next. The threat of rain keeps getting kicked down the road. Tomorrow night is our final one in Portugal, so it's looking like we are going to get out of the country dry.

Elevation log: 2300' today, 16,300' total.

The Frandina Gate.
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Garage.
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In the lower town.
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Worn wall.
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In the upper town.
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Industrial door.
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Microgargoyle.
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On castle hill.
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The Torres Vedras cycle club, plus interlopers.
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Rose and morning glories.
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Just another sidewalk in Estremoz.
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Vinyard and palm trees.
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In Montforte.
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In Montforte.
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Some sheep.
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Almost like being in Tuscany.
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In Santo Aleixo.
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The Cabeco de Vide train station.
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Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 398 miles (641 km)

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