Ride Day 19: Ribadouro to Espinho

I'm still doing a bit of catch up, so here's picking up where I left off.

Quinta de Morroccas to Ribadouro

With three days’ rest with and a short ride ahead of us, and after a good breakfast at the Quinrta, you’d think it would be a piece of cake day.  Not so much.  Right out of our start our legs protested the activity and the hills slowed us mightily.  We rode down the left side of the Douro in beautiful weather that promised heat in the afternoon.  The road followed the river and led us high into the hills.  The views are spectacular, through km after km of port vineyards.

A healthy and big breakfast

Into the hills and heading west, downstream

Large Quintas -- blurry, too

A near perfect day except for the complaints from the legs

Our destination is only 60 km away but it took a long time, with several stops to recover a bit.  In truth, both of us continue to suffer from the effect of the colds and coughs that we’ve had, especially me.  I keep hoping for improvement but it hasn’t happened yet.  Tomorrow will be better I keep telling myself. 

We are staying in a Tourism Rural in a small village about ½ of the way between Paso de Regua and Porto.  The host, Jose, emailed with me to let me know that the folks who had rented the “big house” had canceled and that we could have that house if we’d like, same price, and it is next to the pool.  Sounded good to me.  I am still working under the premise that I simply don’t feel like camping right now, and with the price being just a bit more, why not.

Jose met us at the top of the hill as we rode up the steep cobbled drive.  Generosity and graciousness run deep in the Portuguese and Jose was very much like Cesar.  He showed us “our home,” the pool, the property, and all of the goodies that he’d left for us (produce from his gardens, tomatoes, grapes, fresh oranges and lemons, and juices, cheeses, coffee, milk, and to top it off, wine that was made from his grapes).  No charge for any of this.

Waiting for our arrival

The path to our house

Good enough, right there

Overlooking the Douro

Lorie enjoying the pool...

While Doug catches up

Doug getting ready to go into the Douro

Around the grounds

The pool was good tonic and we lounged in the sun and swam and relaxed.  I used the opportunity to email with our daughter in PA school to ask about the wisdom of me getting on some antibiotics on board.  I’ll keep chasing that down.

As I write this the skies are just getting light here in Ribadouro.  Fresh bread has just been delivered to our home and hung on the door in Portuguese fashion.  Lorie is making fresh squeezed orange juice from Jose’s oranges and I’m having a coffee.  Not a bad way to start the day.

Bread on the door in the morning

Sunset on the river

Rather than ride all the way back down the Douro River to Porto we decided to divert from the river and head south and west to a spot on the coast, Espinho.  The old us -- the ones who originally planned the trip, figured that because there are lots of campgrounds in the area and it looks like it is a surfer hang out -- we'd camp.

The new us -- the ones who figure that 10 Euro extra for a bed and a shower isn't bad, opted for a surfer dude guest house near the beach.  Not as cool as past nights, but actually cheaper than a campground.



The ride today takes us back to down the Douro on the right side, then diverting to the south over a dam about 15 km east of Porto.  A nice ride in comfortable temperatures on roads that were mostly quiet.  Today we rode three times as far as what we rode yesterday and climbed about 1500 m and we both feel really well, especially compared with yesterday.  Maybe we are getting brighter.

We have to ride across that bridge

Vinhos Verdes way

Crossing a barrage (a dam)

Another dam

Incredible rocks -- stacked naturally into a cairn.  They are as big as VWs!

 Esphinho is a moderately sized town on the coast, south of Porto.  It is fairly developed with casinos and hotels, and sounds like a good surfing spot.  We plan to stay in some kind of guest house, so as soon as we finish our coffee we’ll get looking for something.

The guest house we found

The bike at the beach

OK, I think that we're up to date.  Or at least as up to date as I can go.  We're heading south tomorrow but we're still debating how far to go.  We know when we need to be in Lisbon but we've got some leeway between now and then, so we'll see what there is to see.

To the adventure!