A Great Ride to an Agroturismo past Vidigueira

October 17, 2022

Serpa to Past Vidigueira

What an absolutely amazing ride we have had today, and we are finishing it off by the pool in the incredible peace and quiet of the countryside.

We stayed at the Hotel Serpa in Serpa. It was brand new and lovely, but a bit too North American for us. Aren’t we getting fussy! Tonight is the absolute opposite of that, but I am getting ahead of myself here. The Hotel Serpa did a great breakfast though (actually, everything was great), and we spread our maps and electronics out while enjoying our cappuccinos to figure out the next few days. The plan was to bike to Beja, however the CN saw another route which bypassed Beja, which was too bad, but it really looked interesting. That is what we did. Now obviously you can never know what you didn’t see, but today has been absolutely fantastic, so we call it a win.

Leaving the hotel. It really was gorgeous. It is totally off season here. We only saw one other couple in the breakfast room.

The ride was amazing right from the beginning. Very low traffic, fantastic scenery, smooth road, rolling terrain and at this point, olive trees in every direction. Throw in some cork oaks too. We kept exclaiming to each other how beautiful it was. Also varied, which made it so interesting.

Everything about today was what we love about bike touring. The sights, the sounds, the smells. Look at those olive trees stretching to the horizon.

We became aware that it is harvest season for the olives. We had a few trucks full of future olive oil go by and then the incredible good fortune of watching the harvest in progress. The harvesters waved at us as we watched, and we waved at them. We think we were both curious about each other.

This was interesting to watch. Tarps under the trees and some sort of whirly gig thing to shake the olives out of the trees.

We are pretty sure this is how they get all those olives into the trucks.

Then the landscape changed and we were riding through huge vineyards. We were now on the Alentejo Wine Route. One vineyard had olive trees lining the road to the working buildings. How atmospheric is that?

Over the Guadiana River which is very low.

Further on we discovered the river has a dam.

We stopped in the little town of Pedrógão for a cold drink. Now that was an interesting cultural experience! The first café we went by was closed, so we stopped at the next one without a second thought. It was open! I went in to order our drinks, and oh my, talk about local colour. The locals, all men who looked like they had had much harder lives than mine, were drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes. Lots of vodka. The smell in there was a mix of vodka and cigarette smoke. The patrons looked at me with some surprise. I probably returned the look. Talk about feeling like a fish out of water. It was interesting to me though. While they looked like a rough lot, I had the sense that if I were in some spot of trouble they would have sprung into action. Drunken action of course, but action just the same. The bartender and I were able to understand each other, Coca Cola and Fanta are the same in Portuguese and English. The CN wanted an ice cream though.

This works a charm. Take a picture from the advertisement in front of the bar.

If there is a rock in the way of your casa, why blast? Just save a little money and incorporate it into the design.

This was the only fellow who was very odd in our bar experience. He sat by our bikes and stared.

Once we finished our drinks, outside on the patio, which was pretty smoky too, we carried on around the corner, and there was another café where everyone was enjoying espressos and conversation. Pretty funny really that we chose the bar, but a great experience. Still, the rest of the ride, when I saw a car approaching from behind, I hoped it wasn’t one of the men in the bar. Their vodka consumption was over the top.

About five kilometres after this cultural experience we met Bim and Ingrid from Holland, going the other way. It was a long and enjoyable conversation roadside. These encounters are so much fun. This section, between two huge vineyards, had hectare after hectare where nothing was planted yet, but the irrigation system had been installed. I would love to know what is going to be growing there.

Hectares of land set up with drip irrigation. Nothing planted yet.

Then we rolled into Vidigueira and stopped for a late lunch. We bought our lunch today, deciding to save our picnic lunch for picnic dinner as there clearly wasn’t going to be a restaurant close to our accommodation. We had pizza, two cold drinks and an enormous dessert for 7 Euro 50. So inexpensive and delicious too.

Then it was a quick 7 kilometre ride to our accommodation. We love it. We are in the country, the only guests and the peace and quiet is lovely. The couple that run the place don’t speak English but the four of us are managing just fine. The contrast between last night and tonight couldn’t be greater and I have decided I like both. This spot is like heaven on earth. Two pools at our disposal, and a sweet room. The quiet is amazing. It is rustic in a way, but feels so perfect. No service and no wifi though, so you will read all this tomorrow.

Our room. We certainly weren’t worried about the bikes.

The other pool in case we wanted to swim separately.

https://www.relive.cc/view/veqzX3nxVBO

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,641 km (1,019 miles)

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