On Day 7 Sally and I woke up a bit Dead a bit too much riding into the hills and wind for the last 4 days. We got up and rode the 8 miles to the town of Sao Martinho do Porto looking for Americanos and breakfast. We had plans to continue north after breakfast to the legendary surfing town of Nazare. The town of Sal Martinho do Porto wrapped around a beautiful beach along an inland bay. We found a great breakfast joint, all the time our tired old bodies dreading getting back on our bikes and heading back into the headwinds to Nazare. Enamored by our surroundings, we decided to quit riding for the day after only 8 miles. With a little searching on the internet we landed at the Atlantic Hotel a block off the beach for a lazy day with hopes of getting our legs back.
Above: Working hard at getting back my legs with “H”, our favorite bartender of the trip at the Story Tellars Hotel. If you are ever in Sao Martinho do Porto the Storyteller’s Hotel is a must see. A 5 star hotel laden with elaborate and impeccably restored wood work, a beautifully designed speak easy bar, and multiple beautifully detailed dining rooms.
What we’ve learned so far:
1) The odd tubs we slept in the first night we left Lisbon (see post from day 3: Lisbon to Malviera) were public wash tanks. The sloped sides on the tubs were for laying and scrubbing the clothes. Men were not allowed in the wash tanks so the women could speak freely amongst themselves, and of course, talk about the men.
2) When a sign says “Hotel This Way”, it doesn’t mean there is a Hotel that way!
3) Never ride from South to North along the coast of Portugal in May, unless you like to work twice as hard and travel at half speed. The winds from the north are terrible.
4) Make sure your bike has disk brakes, unless you want to die in Portugal on the descents.
5) Make sure you have a very low set of gears, unless you want to die in Portugal on the ascents.
6) Never take a new bike to Portugal without test riding it for at least a few hundred miles, unless you like finding bike shops and taking trains and Ubers in Portugal.
7) Don,t expect to make coffee in the morning or cook anything on your backpacking stove. We’ve yet to find any kind of camping store that sells the gas canisters (which you can’t bring on the plane). In Portugal, camping means staying in little cabins.
8) Avoid getting the idea of a waffle or pancake etched into your brain in Portugal.