Day 47: Vila de Rei to Pedrogao Pequeno

April 17, 2023

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A quick morning look at our street, outside the Fifty Fifty, showed it to be fairly quaint, for instance with the tile faced building opposite. And kitty corner, a micro park, already housing one old man, soon to be joined by the grandfather of the family that operates the restaurant.

Tile facing is not so common in this region.

The one old man is sitting out quite early.

A few blocks on and we have the more modern part of town, but still nothing spectacular.

At the edge of town we found this large billboard, celebrating the N2 and the position of the town in the middle. The geographic centre pylon puts in an appearance, and you will recognize it from the shots that follow.

Yes, there on the hill, the geographic centre of Portugal monument. There is no way we are climbing a hill just for that!

Although we did not climb to the monument it seems we could still look out across a chunk of Portugal, showing that we were already quite high.

The road now began a descent at 7%, causing me to be grousing from the back that the deeper "in the hole" we went, the more we could expect to have to claw our way back out later. Dodie had a try at adjusting this attitude, with what we call an "attitude adjustment". "Think how Interesting this landscape is", she offered. And "When it goes up it will not be a chore but a Challenge." This was all before our e-assists burned out (temporarily!) on the predicted ascent, but to be fair, Dodie stayed positive throughout.

On the way down we took a pullout, that had a water fountain. I had read one cyclist's Portugal account, extolling these roadside water sources, although cautioning to check the water's drinkability. This fountain had no comment on that one way or the other, but it did have painted tiles showing some royalty, who we have not yet researched.

We thought we had descended quite enough, but no, there was more in store. For the first time on this trip we were getting advice about preparing for the drop. This would not be the last of these sign for the day either. Of course the advice is for cars and trucks, since while we might check our brakes, the gears are irrelevant. Better for bikes would have been to sweep the slippy gravel off the shoulder.

That's our road down there. The landscape sure is Interesting.

Of course a river is usually the culprit when there is a big descent and ascent. This one is called the Isna.

It was 10 km from Vila de Rei to the low point at the river. I thought I would record this for the benefit of any cyclists who would come from the north, and might be thinking to end their day at Vial de Rei. There was in fact more notable up and downing between here and Pedrogao Pequeno.

The photo may not quite show it, but from the leaves we could now be quite sure that this is wild roadside heather.

After entering Serta, I had my eye open for some photo that could characterize the town. I couldn't quite see it, and Dodie advised to just record what I see. So the shot below is what we were seeing. There was a bit of a river through the centre of town, but that was about it. Later, going through a tourist brochure for the town, Dodie still did not find anything of note.

The most notable thing for us in or around Serta was a lot of Wisteria, with many large bees interested in it. These bees were really jumbo. Presumably they are not honey bees, but they look nothing like the "bumblebees" we have at home.

After Serta we got some pleasant riding in which the road was reasonably flat and the traffic very light. These 15 km qualified as the most pleasant of the day.

Oh, flat and pleasant. Easy to have a good attitude here!

Unlike Serta, Pedrogao turned out to be a very together looking little town. Our guest house was built in 1885 but was newly renovated and pristine. It is so clean and bright that it lifts our spirits, which making us embarrassed in comparison to our place back home.

The owners were eager to show some of the paintings preserved in the renovation.

Clean and white. Dodie points out it's easier to be clean and white when there is no furniture or much of anything else.

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 2,074 km (1,288 miles)

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Laurie MarczakI am amused to report that no less than TWO envelopes of post cards showed up yesterday, mailed from Mexico in **January** - along with a third set from Portugal.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Laurie MarczakWe are amazed to hear that some Mexican mail arrived! We had decided that they had been eaten in some back office and were never going to even leave Mexico. Only three months transit time is not bad, eh?
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1 year ago