Day 22 - Saturday 18 May, Portugal - Lisbon to Celorica da Beira

Despite not getting back to our hotel until about 1pm, I woke early on Saturday morning feeling that it was time to start heading home. Badger and I had discussed our plans the evening before and had decided to get the Tuesday ferry from Bilbao to Portsmouth. It definitely felt like we were on the final leg of the trip. I tried booking the tickets on-line, but the hotel WI-fi was not that good and I wasn't sure whether or not I had managed to book and pay for the tickets. I gave up, we went for breakfast and then phoned Brittany Ferries and managed to definitely book out tickets.

By the time we had sorted out the tickets and loaded up the bikes it was about 10.30 and Lisbon was starting to get busy. Getting out of Lisbon turned out to be quite a tricky and lengthy process and at one stage we got separated when I took a wrong turning, however I managed to find Badger again and by about 11.30 we got onto the Northbound A1/E1 motorway. The sun was shining but the strong Atlantic winds kept the temperature quite low and I was feeling pretty tired and sore. We hadn't got very far at all before I had to stop and ask Badger to rub some Ibuprofen gel on my sore neck and shoulder Video - not for the squeamish.

After our pit-stop we had a quick blast up the motorway to get us on our way then Badger took us off the motorway and we headed towards the Spanish border in a roughly North-East direction. We were traveling on single-carriageway roads and were able to make pretty good time. In the late morning we must have got onto one of the main routes for the Fatima pilgrimage, for about 50k we saw dozens of bands of pilgrims walking in the opposite direction to us. This part of Portugal felt much more developed and densely populated than the South.

The middle part of the journey was fairly uneventful and we stopped for lunch at a road-side restaurant in a town en-route. This turned out to be an excellent choice, but we were both stuffed by the time we set off again and I found the afternoon pretty hard going. We stopped for a coffee at a cafe on a round-about and shortly afterwards got up into some very hilly terrain. This proved to be much more interesting and challenging riding, but felt as though we weren't making much progress and at one stage I thought that we had got completely lost, but Badger's navigation turned out to be correct.

At about tea-time, we pulled into the cafe "Aresole", which on closer inspection turned out to be the "Cafe Are y Sol", but it amused Badger nonetheless and after a stop for coffee and biscuits he was keen to get a picture of me on the bike in front of the cafe but as I moved the bike on the somewhat rough car park I put my foot into a pot-hole, the bike leant over over too far for me to keep it up and over went the bike and me. It was all a bit comical; I short forward like a cork from a pop-gun, tripped over my own feet, failed to keep my balance and ended up with my chin on the deck and glad that I was wearing a full-face helmet and protective bike gear.

I hardly had the energy to stand up - I hadn't realised until then just how tired I was and I ended up being lifted to my feet by some very concerned locals. Luckily the only thing that was hurt was my dignity and a few more scratches on my visor. The same could not be said for the bike, it went down on the same side as in Ayamonte, the left hand mirror had popped off again, the indicator was cracked and the left hand side of the bike was looking a bit tatty. Badger and I were able to lift it back up and pop the mirror back on again and the damage seemed to be purely cosmetic. Badger refrained from videoing me whilst on the deck, but he did record a video of the place shortly before the incident.

Just About to Take a Tumble at the Cafe Are y Sol

We decided to press on but stop at the first decent-looking hotel and by about 6.30 we had arrived at the town of Celorica da Beira, which is pretty much just this side of the Spanish border. We spotted a decent looking hotel as we took the exit for the town from the round-about. This turned out to be a good choice, we booked in and after a quick shower I was ready just to put my feet up. We seemed to be about the only guests - a combination of the recession and lousy spring weather conspired to keep visitor numbers down. Badger went out for a wander round the town whilst I had a nap before dinner. We dined at the hotel and were the only guests in the dining room, which was a shame as supper was excellent. We also caught TV coverage of the previous evenings hill-climb in Lisbon City Centre, which felt slightly weird.

Day Summary

Day -	22
Miles Covered in Day	210 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3640 approx.

Day 21 - Friday 17 May, Ayamonte, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal

I woke up in a right state on Friday morning and struggled to remember where I was and how I got there. Gradually the events of the previous evening came back to me and I really regretted the last few drinks. I managed to get up and get showered but still felt pretty ropy - probably still a bit drunk. Badger and I went down to breakfast at the hotel cafe, the sun was shining but it was pretty breezy and quite chilly and we ate outside as I couldn't face staying indoors. Despite the large quantities of coffee and orange juice I managed to get down, I still didn't feel very good at all.

We had come back earlier than planned from Morocco and had a couple of days in hand so I had phoned an old mate - Hugo, who lives in Lisbon and arranged to meet up with him on Friday evening so we had no choice other than to press on to Lisbon. We loaded up the bikes, paid our bills and checked out of the hotel. I was very, very careful about getting the bike on to the road - Badger gave me a hand again as I was still a bit shaken from the previous day's incident - and pretty hung over. We headed into town to get some more cash before setting off properly. While we were sorting this out it started to rain so we got into our wet gear and then headed for Portugal.

The New Suspension Bridge Over the Guadiana River

This involved heading out of town and crossing the new suspension bridge over the Guadiana river that forms the border with Portugal. As you can see this is a very high and exposed, It was raining hard and very windy, I was severely hung-over, combined with my fear of heights and vertigo it is an understatement to say that I was dreading this crossing. I gritted my teeth and took it very gently and managed to make the crossing without throwing up - mind it was a close-run thing. However we had now crossed into Portugal and were now in the Algarve. We headed West for a few miles on the motorway before getting off to fill up with petrol and stop for a coffee. A mile or so off the motorway was a tiny place that wasn't much more than a garage and a cafe and we were definitely the only visitors present.

We filled up the bikes, then had a quick coffee at the cafe next to the petrol station, which provided us with the chance to learn our first few words of Portuguese. The rain was definitely easing off as we got back on the bikes and I was starting to feel almost human again as we headed North towards Lisbon. As usual Badger was navigating and had picked a non-motorway route starting with the the N122. This proved to be an excellent route, a single carriageway road with hardly any traffic on it. The first half hour or so was pretty hilly with plenty of interesting descents and ascents, long fast straights with tight bends and before we knew it we were going through the town of Azinhal, which is overlooked by a dramatic hill-top castle that must have dominated the entire area in medieval times. This must be a tourist destination as we had to get past a tourist "train" before exiting the town.

The next leg of the journey took us from Azinhal to Mertola and the landscape started to change, flattening out into a much gentler rolling terrain rather the steep ascents and descents around Azinhal. The weather changed too, it stopped raining, the sun came out and a very strong Westerly wind got up that remained constant for the rest of the day. We were able to keep up a pretty decent pace but the wind kept us on our toes with huge gusts on exposed sections. The odd short, sharp shower meant that it was advisable to keep our water-proofs on. We passed though quite a few villages, but hardly saw a soul, it was obvious that this part of Portugal is heavily under-populated. The villages all had radar-controlled lights in them, we had to slow down to about 50K as we approached a village otherwise the lights turned red for a few moments - even though there was never any traffic turning on or off the road. I don't think that we saw a single soul or even a shop outside the main towns.

A highlight of this part of the journey were the cranes. There was several sections of road where a line of telegraph poles ran parallel to the road about 20metres inside the adjacent fields and where every telegraph pole had a huge occupied crane's nest on top. Badger and I stopped to take some pictures and watch these beautiful birds in flight. These majestic white birds with bright blue wing tips and wing edges were real masters of the air and seemed to revel in the strong winds.

Nesting Cranes alongside the Road

By about 1.30 we had reached the town of Beja and decided to stop for lunch. We found a nice cafe, which had a studenty-sort of feel and had a simple lunch there. We timed it well, it chucked it down while we were in the cafe, but the skies cleared by the time we set off and stayed clear for the rest of the day It wasn't that warm so we kept our waterproofs on for the rest of the journey. After lunch we headed west out of Beja on a quiet local road for an hour or so before turning North on the major A road to Lisbon. This gradually got busier and the towns and villages less-sparsely populated the closer we got to Lisbon. After about 2 hours we had a final stop for coffee, ice-lollies and fuel at a service station and shortly afterwards joined the west-bound motorway for the final windy blast into Lisbon.

The Portuguese capital is situated on the North bank of the Tagus estuary and you have to cross this by ferry or bridge when approaching from the South. Badger chose to use the shorter of the two bridges, but this was still a mighty long bridge. Badger seemed to take it in his stride but I found the crossing terrifying. The bridge is several miles long, completely exposed to the elements and the wind was still gusting in from the Atlantic. To make matters worse the outer lane was an iron grid and you could see the water below. I stayed in the middle lane and went as slowly and carefully as the traffic would allow. Even so I had to hang on for grim death at times as the bike got blown about. After what seemed like forever, but was actually only a few minutes we finally got to the other side and I breathed a huge sigh of relief - god only knows what the "longer" crossing would have been like!.

Neither of us had a clue where we should go in Lisbon so we followed our noses in the Friday evening rush hour traffic and ended up in the centre of town at a busy junction right by Saldanha metro station. I stayed with the bikes whilst Badger went off to find a hotel - it turned out that there was an Ibis hotel only a few hundred yards away, which we decided to book into. There was a convenient bike park within 50 yards of the hotel, where we were able to leave the bikes. I called Hugo and we arranged to meet up later for dinner.

By about 8pm Badger and I had managed to navigate the Lisbon metro and got to Restauradores square where we had arranged to meet Hugo. The place was full of TV crews and cyclists - there was a televised city centre hill-climb event taking place up a steep street that had a funicular railway! There was an inflatable arch, stage, DJ and sound system - it was obviously quite a big deal.

City Centre Hill Climb

We had only been there a few minutes when Hugo turned up. It was great to see him again, it had been 4 years since we had worked together in Peebles and whilst we had kept in touch via email and facebook, this was the first time we had met up since then. We went off to meet up with Hugo's wife - Bianca. Bianca and Hugo took us to an amazing place for supper - it was a restaurant within an old Moorish palace. We had a good blether over supper, as well as catching up on the last 4 years Hugo and Bianca explained a bit of the local culture and a little big of the language, which I just couldn't get my head round. After supper we went for a bit of a wander round Lisbon, naturally this had to include the local train station for Badger. I had never been to Lisbon before and from the little bit that we saw it seems like a very beautiful and cosmopolitan city with great architecture; unfortunately it started to rain again so we cut the sight-seeing short and went to a jazz bar for cocktails. We had a couple of drinks and before we knew it, it was time to say our farewells to Hugo and Bianca and head back to our hotel for an early start on Saturday morning.