Our 75k ride to Casa da Pedralva was a challenging one. Strong headwinds and big climbs! Not to mention two rear-wheel flats for Peter. Luckily they were the only ones we had for the whole 566k tour.
Four peaks in one day!
We were still staying on the good side of the weather gods despite the wind - it always seemed like rain was imminent but then it cleared away.
We had a beautiful coffee stop at around 25k near Odeceixe - sunny skies and spectacular coastline. Peter and I spent extra time there just mesmerized by the waves.
Entering Odeceixe with the beach in the distant background.
The amazing surf at Odeceixe - at any given moment there were 6 bands of waveforms coming into shore. Totally hypnotic.
The countryside was changing as we progressed south.
We fell in love with these trees - their shape was so compelling and reminded us of some Thomas Hart Benton landscape paintings we love.
After fixing flats, eating lunch and battling headwinds, we arrived at Casa da Pedralva outside of Vila do Bispo. It has a fascinating backstory. In brief, the village had been all but abandoned over time and fell from over 100 residents to just 7 in recent years, living among the ruins. A private party decided to buy the entire village and restore it as accurately as possible to its authentic roots. It took him a total of 4 years to buy out all the families after intensive searches for heirs/absentee owners.
Pedralva Villsge is now a tourist hotel, and the "rooms" are actually restored cottages.
Cozy under the roof of the second level bedroom.
Regrettably we did not have a chance for more pictures - it started to lightly rain as we finished biking and by the time we were cleaned up and ready to explore the heavens opened! We spent time just hanging out in the reception common space with our travel mates and had another lovely meal together.
So, the next morning - and our final day of biking - arrived with slate-gray skies.
It was only a 44k ride, but the winds were in our face once again, and there were just enough raindrops to convince us to start out wearing our rain jackets.
Well, we ran out our string with the rain gods. By the time we arrived at Vila do Bispo at the 10k mark it was really raining. Some of our biking group had left earlier and did a "lollipop" loop that started and ended at Vila do Bispo. Peter and I, and Nadine, were stopped by Luis P. and the van and it was suggested we stop for coffee and warm/dry surroundings while the others completed the loop.
We ended up spending almost 2 hours at coffee watching it pour buckets while our poor buddies got completely soaked. Some opted from that point to just take the van the last 20k to Sagres, while some rode. I'd had enough coffee and enough sitting to make me think the rain would likely abate - not!
John gets hot coffee and hospitality - he was soaked.
Poor Luis C. was the lead chalker/biker. Some of our group road with him directly to the hotel.
But, we made it, and happily the rain stopped a bit before we arrived at the lighthouse so we could enjoy being there.
Ian Donaldson, June and Ian Thompson keep their smiles despite sogginess!
Reminded us of the Cliffs of Moor.
Peter and I rode the last 7k of the tour to our hotel, got clean and dry and explored town. We did visit the Sagres fortress site - sadly the Museum of Discoveries was closed for renovation but there were still some super vistas:
So after 566k (350+ miles) over about 10 days of biking we are now at our airport hotel. The adventure isn't quite over for us yet - we need to be at the KLM check-in at 2:30am (not a misprint!) to ensure our departure on a 5:05 am flight to Amsterdam - the security workers at the airport are striking at midnight and if we want to make it through on time we must be EARLY. So goodnight and farewell sweet readers, and hopefully we will be home in St. Paul Thursday afternoon...xoxoxo.
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