Last night as I was hanging around the reception desk of the hotel, two couples blew in carrying many Ortlieb bags. I naturally asked if they were cyclists. We weren't communicating all that well until I found out that they were from Montreal. Bingo. We changed languages and the information started to flow. They turned out to be Armand and Claudette, and two of their friends, who would soon go to Porto, rent bikes, and take off down the EV 1. We didn't really find time to understand their whole plan and itinerary, or to uncover what seemed to be many years of cycling in Europe that they had done. However we did connect enough to get an invitation to their country house north of Montreal, so that's something!
Armand and Claudette. Claudette is 80, giving us a moving target for cycling in future years. Their current trip on the Portugal coast will be a respectable 5 weeks.
A big part of our decision to abandon our Pinhao booking at Casa Rocha and return to the Original Douro Hotel in Regua was the difference in vibes between the two places. At the Douro hotel we felt welcomed and had any requests attended to cheerfully. By contrast at Pinhao we barely got the lady on the phone once, and that was to assuage our doubts that the room (laid out just slightly more conveniently than a tent) would ever be ready.
The Douro achieved it's good rating with us though the leadership of Alice, pictured below. The Douro turned out to be a family business, with Alice a family member. But anyway she was a real sweetie pie and we enjoyed meeting her.
Alice, from the Original Douro Hotel. Typically when I asked if I could put her in the blog, she chose to stand under the hotel's sign in the gift shop.
When we first spotted the cycle trail labelled "CO" in Open Cycle Map (OCM) a few days ago we had no idea what "CO" might refer to. I also new from having tried lots in the past that the abbreviated names used in OCM can not be found in any sort of explanatory table. But soon it did dawn on me that CO referred to Corgo, and that the Corgo River is a tributary of the Douro, entering near Regua. The smartening up process continued as we found a bit of the story of the Linha do Corgo rail trail, from Regua through Vila Real and to Chaves on something called WikiLoc. This gave us a map and we were keen to find and try this trail, until Alice pointed out that it was mostly gravel. So we fell back on the N2, since as I wrote before, I hated the no shoulder, too high traffic 313.
On the way to the N2, past the train station, we were still wistfully looking out for the rail trail, but never did spot where it might begin. Presumably if the GPS would work well enough and with the track in hand we could have found it, but Alice's warning had a powerful dampening effect on any research instinct.
Just to belabour the routing point a little bit more, look below at a snip from the track map that opens this posting. Everything, including the rail trail, seems clear. But of course on the actual ground things are never that clear. We put the rail trail out of mind, but it came back later in a way we;ll explain at the end.
The stuff heading north from the Douro at Regua includes (from left to right) the N2 in red (the way we went), the A2 autoroute, the N313, the Corga River, and the Antigua Linha do Corgo rail trail.
The choice of the N2 did turn out to be the best one. Or at least, the route was amazing, spectacular, unbelievable, so anything vying to be better had a high bar to pass. Aside from the physical route today, the N2 had the immense benefit of little traffic. With a shoulderless, curvy road the difference in having a car on your tail every 5 seconds and having one every 5 minutes is really great. Multiplying it out, it's 70 times better. That sounds about right.
With the chance to look around without harassments, what we saw on this this bit of N2 was truly mind boggling. Of course it had the elements of what we have been looking at since arriving on the Douro - mainly the extensive and beautiful terracing - but it added extra altitude. We saw villages that were deep in bowls, where we descended and then climbed out, and looked back, oh wow. And we saw villages high on ridges. There is at least one photo below, from a ridge, where a village below looks exactly like it would from an airplane. The fact that we probably climbed from down there to up top is also scary.
The Douro is now further away and we are higher. Regua is still visible on the right. This will be our last glimpse of the Douro until we rejoin it at Porto in some days.
It can be hard to show what these deep and beautiful valleys are like, just with single photos, even a panorama. So have a look at this brief video. I think it shows it well.
It's not all about hills and terraces. There are beautiful flower plantings to look at as well.
We were sometimes pushing the bikes so slowly that we could notice (but still outrun!) ants. The ants it must be said, were more heavily loaded than us.
About 3/4 of the way to Vila Real I was really starting to flag. Time for coffee, and some cake from the handlebar bag. Only then did I realize that the coffee thermos was not there. The big gap is to the left on the steering tube. Where had it been left? Well, back at the hotel, of course. Not going back! Dodie has graciously donated her hot chocolate thermos for use with coffee. That's great, but no boost right now for finishing the day's ride!
Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonHey Scott, I took out the thoughtless reference!
btw, Do you remember when we lost the passports and many euros last year at Paray le Monial? In that case the people who found the pouch tracked us down by checking every hotel in town. Such painful memories! Reply to this comment 11 months ago
Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThat was fine - I wasn’t offended, but felt entitled to poke back. And yes, I do remember that story. It’s pretty remarkable how often we’re saved from ourselves by the kindness of strangers. Reply to this comment 11 months ago
OK Vila Real is in the near distance. There has been a change in the landscape in that orderly grape terraces and not seen as much, and the background mountains have gotten much higher!
There was a lot of climbing to get up into Vila Real. The buildings we were passing by were not very inspiring. I shot this just to illustrate what we were actually seeing.
Our hotel is called the Miracorgo - or Corgo view. Boy is it ever! At least here, the Corgo runs through a small rough gorge, and the hotel is built right on the edge. Below are views from our window. Apparently that Corgo trail runs right by here! If that wooden stairway is part of it, then it would not have worked for bikes! Also, if the Corgo is nearly as rough as this between here and Regua, then there was no chance of us using the trail on the way up. Still, our map for right here enticingly shows the trail. Maybe tomorrow we'll go look for it again.
The view from our window. That clearly is not the bike trail down there!
