To the Westernmost point of Europe

After a small break of almost one day in Santiago, we start in the late afternoon on September 5. Our wish is to arrive as soon as possible in Lisbon in order to get some real, long rest without riding. After the Basque coast, we were not expecting this part of our journey to be flat. And indeed, we were right...

Parcours cycliste 1819153 - powered by Bikemap 

The first day is short and easy: after riding 1 hour and a half with a strong and constant wind, we arrive to Caldas de Reis. Luckily, the Camino Portugués is marked in both directions and we are able to find the way easily. However, the albergue is full (it is the first time such a thing happens) and we are redirected to the next one in Briallos.

The atmosphere on the next day is totally different. After Pontevedra, the wind changes its direction and we end up riding against it, on a national road full of trucks. The classic annoyance of roads suddenly switching to highways (forbidden to bicycles) adds up.

Get us out of here !

Our irritation reaches its peak when we have our lunch in Redondela, a small town at the bottom of a valley, cut in half by an endless line of trucks and with a big water treatment plant that perfumes the whole area. Fortunately, after a couple of hours and detours, we enter Portugal and things get easier. We finish our day in Ponte de Lima, where the annual village festival is starting. Unfortunately, we just have the time to eat outside before the albergue closes its door at 10pm.

Ponte de Lima

After a very noisy night with loud party music until 3am, we are back on the road for a day of riding. Our destination is Porto, where Eduardo, the son of my former nanny Candida (she is like a third Granma to me), will host us. The national road is full of trucks but we hang on tight, hoping for the 80 km to Porto to pass as fast as possible. Around 6pm (which turns out to be 5pm, since we forgot to change the time zone when we crossed the border), we arrive in Maia/Porto and meet Eduardo. Together with his wife Elsa, we spend a relaxing evening, chatting around a nice churrasco (barbecue). A big thanks to both of you for your warm welcome and your help. By the way, even if Sébastien and I did believe you during a couple of days, there are no cows in Porto wine barrels!

Elsa and Eduardo, together with (from left to right): Milou, Bob and Fox

On the next day, we start at noon for the last big chunk of our route in Europe: Porto-Lisbon. Well, to be honest, it started with a tasting of Porto ;-). Thanks to Eduardo's instructions, we are exiting Porto smoothly through the coast. After Espinho, we ride towards Aguéda and sleep there in a cosy "Albergue do Artista e do Peregrino" .

The swampy area to Aguéda and its surreal atmosphere at sunset

On Sunday 9, we decide to get closer again to the coast by following national roads (with less trucks on weekends) through Coimbra. However, there are a lot of parts forbidden to bicycles and it is a real mindbreaker to find alternate routes to come back on the main road.

The nightmare sign for cows and cyclists...

Fisherman, bicycles and trees admiring Coimbra

With the ups and downs of our detours and the hard sun, we are exhausted by the end of the afternoon. We then decide to have a short break in a café. As soon as we arrive, a Portuguese couple who was working in France invites us for a drink. The man has a dubious sense of humour ("You should go see the girls in Lisbon, they're gorgeous!") which is compensated by the kindness of his wife ("Please excuse him"). After this encounter of the third kind, we ride a little bit more to reduce the distance between our current position and Lisbon before sleeping in a small motel by the national road.

Monday 10, the final day. We are at about 180 km from Lisbon with a strong will to ride to get a long break. Waking up at 6am, we are on the road at 7:30am when the sun start to rise. We actually wanted to start even earlier, but the fog in the area and the quantity of trucks passing at 6am just brought us back to a more reasonable choice.

Not the best conditions to see and be seen...

Until Leiria, there is not much we can do to avoid the traffic: lights turned on, bright jersey, we keep on riding... until the famous nightmare sign. We then wait for 10 mins on the emergency stop lane to spot a "hole" in the endless line of trucks and turn to an alternate route. From there, we head for the coast, with much less traffic. At noon, we passed Nazaré and still have 120km to ride. This is going to be tough...
After Caldas da Reina, the real coast starts: strong gusts blowing against us, roads going up and down at a slope of more than 10%. Each kilometer is gained slowly and with much effort. Fortunately, the breathtaking scenery all along the coast is a precious reward for both of us!

Séb still has some good mood and energy to fight the wind

After 9h30min and 180km of riding, we finally arrive in Sintra, at the Dindo's family house who are good friends with Sébastien's family. No bicycle for the next couple of days! Thanks to their tremendous hospitality, we feel at home right away and recover from the last epic stage. A huge thanks to them!

Take 1: the Dindo family (Ennio, Fernanda, Felice, Chloé and Tarak)

Take 2: the Dindo family (Felice, Vera, Chloé and Fernanda)

Tarak, the German shepherd, is guarding our bikes!

Praia das Maças (Apple's beach)

Hanging out with Sébastien's friends who are doing a surf camp in Sintra

On September 15, after 4 days of rest, we ride in the direction of Vialonga (suburb of Lisbon), to Candida's (my former nanny) place. After 1 km, my right lap starts aching stronger and stronger... to the point I can't even walk! Looks like my pace during the 13 days of riding was too high. Sébastien leaves his bike on the side of the road and rides to Sintra's railway station with my bike. On my side, I hop in a bus to meet him there. Séb then returns by bus to his bike to ride a 5 km climb for the second time. Thanks a lot man!

Arriving by train in Lisbon, we go straight to the bike shop to leave our bikes for packing. When we were in Sintra, Felice called them to check that they had enough boxes for us. Unfortunately, one of the box is at an other shop in Benfica (suburb of Lisbon) and we have to bring it back to Lisbon by metro... Finally, we take a cab and arrive in Vialonga. We are warmly welcomed by Candida Vieira and her sister Lucia Ferreira.
Candida's good old sopa portuguesa (the one I was fed with during my whole childhood!) helps us to put this tiring day behind us.

Candida and Lucia

On the next day, both laps are aching and Georges, Lucia's son, drive me to the hospital to get it checked. Both quadriceps have micro tears and I am forced to rest :-( .

Resting in Lisbon :-)

Praça do comércio in Lisbon (a cocaïne seller is somewhere in this picture)

On September 18, José, Lucia's son-in-law, drives us (with the bicycles on the roof) to the airport. Thanks to the Vieira and Ferreira families for their huge help during the last couple of days!

Our bikes on Zé's (shorter name for José) Jeep

Good bye Europe, Porto Alegre here we are!!!