Fabulous Faro and Ride

September 22, 2022

Faro to Tavira

Well, we are on quite the slow roll, aren’t we. Bike touring is by definition slow travel, and we are taking that to a new level. We simply cannot rush through this part of their world. Who knows when we may come this way again?

We started the day with an adequate breakfast at our hotel. One thing that has amused Keith and I in Portugal is that we are often the first to the breakfast room. We are there, noses pressed to the glass, when they open, which is usually 8:30. Gone are the 7 AM breakfast starts, not that we ever made those anyway. Of course dinner isn’t usually until 7:30 to 8 PM so it all makes sense.

We really liked our hotel, but did find the bathroom design intriguing. It is one thing to watch your spouse shower but! Fortunately there was a blind which could be lowered. We had a good laugh.

Checkout time in Portugal is also usually noon, so that gave us lots of time for a good walkabout in Faro before we left. We really liked Faro. It had a different feel from some of the other Algarve towns. Our explore of the pedestrian area this morning was a delight.

We love these pedestrian areas. Masses of school kids in the background, with lots of adult supervision in high viz vests.

Busker in the morning. He was still there when we went by on our bikes on our way out of town.

Our hotel. Quiet and comfortable in a great location.

Then we had one of those rides that you store in your memory banks. We cruised out along the waterfront and it was an easy exit from the city. We admired the crumbling old town walls from the other side and were soon on the EV1. We stopped right at the start to ask a passerby what we were looking at…honestly, it looked like rice paddies to us, without the rice. It was old salt works, no longer used. We were soon to come upon mountains of salt, where we could clearly see how the whole thing works. Fascinating.

We saw these salt mountains and rode through the salt pans for kilometres. It was fascinating.

Next up was the town Olhão. What an awesome spot. We stopped here for a break, and explored their pedestrian area and waterfront.

We stuck pretty closely to the EV1 today. Our map that we picked up at TI the other day described this section as mostly flat. It certainly was, but what they didn’t mention is that many sections were more suited to a full suspension mountain bike than fully loaded steel touring bikes. Still, the scenery was so terrific, and being off our friend N125 so nice that we stuck with the route. This was also the first section of EV1 in Portugal that was well signed. Good signage makes my heart sing.

The trouble with all those salt pans along the water was a lack of shade. I was starting to flag and this was the best spot we could find for a picnic. Of course, just a few kilometres later we passed a lovely park with benches and tables.

We rolled into another little community and I had to laugh. I spent the whole ride down the waterfront searching in vain for gelato. When I mentioned my failure to spot any to the CN we had to turn around and go through the whole exercise again. Where is gelato when you need it? We had to stoop to pre-made ice cream bars.

We had just bumped and bone rattled our way across a particularly rough section when we came to this.

Bliss. We were very excited. Too bad it only lasted about a kilometre, but Portugal is clearly trying.

The ride into Tavira was straightforward. Just follow the blue line they have helpfully painted on the road. Our hotel is gorgeous, but further from the center than we realized. So we spent the late afternoon around and in the pool, have had an amazing dinner and will roll into Tavira tomorrow to explore.

And randomly, does anyone know why they would be trimming the trees in this manner? This was a few days ago, on our hike in Luz, but we are still curious.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vdvm3j3n9N6

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 631 km (392 miles)

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