Portsmouth to Portugal 9: 22 September
We hadn't booked for the next few nights, wanting to see where the mood took us as we headed back towards Spain and the ferry home. We'd have liked another night in our cabin in the vineyard (there was a pool, and our hosts had promised us wine), but it was booked, so I reserved an AirBnB in Tomar called the Casa do Aviador ('a tribute to Sacadura Cabral, the famous Portuguese aviator'), for obvious reasons.
Howard told me the coffee stop was a surprise, which our host then spoiled by asking us if we knew there was a biker café just down the road. We had excellent coffee and pastries surrounded by bikes, bikers and bike merch, and I got a sticker to put on my top box.
Moving on, we discovered why route N8 had a biker café: it was a road of smooth tarmac and smooth curves, which carried us very pleasantly to Obidos and lunch. The guidebook had sold me Obidos as a 'town of bookshops', but it turned out more a town of tourists, with an economy focused on selling cherry liqueur and terrible tat. However, we found a shady courtyard with craft beer and tapas, so we didn’t do too badly.
I took the lead after lunch, my sat-nav set to Adventurous Routing, which at its best means delightful winding single track roads running through villages with cobbled streets and white-painted churches. To my great excitement, we saw cork trees bare at the base where the bark had been harvested, and marked with the year so the farmers would know when to harvest again.
By 5pm we were in Tomar, which turned out to be a pretty town with a river running through it, narrow, winding streets (I chickened out of the one the AirBnB was on and parked nearby instead), charming squares and lots of restaurants. We picked one after I'd inspected them all, and sat down to a plate of cheese, cold meat and olives.
Miles: 101.3 wiggly ones
Howard told me the coffee stop was a surprise, which our host then spoiled by asking us if we knew there was a biker café just down the road. We had excellent coffee and pastries surrounded by bikes, bikers and bike merch, and I got a sticker to put on my top box.
Moving on, we discovered why route N8 had a biker café: it was a road of smooth tarmac and smooth curves, which carried us very pleasantly to Obidos and lunch. The guidebook had sold me Obidos as a 'town of bookshops', but it turned out more a town of tourists, with an economy focused on selling cherry liqueur and terrible tat. However, we found a shady courtyard with craft beer and tapas, so we didn’t do too badly.
I took the lead after lunch, my sat-nav set to Adventurous Routing, which at its best means delightful winding single track roads running through villages with cobbled streets and white-painted churches. To my great excitement, we saw cork trees bare at the base where the bark had been harvested, and marked with the year so the farmers would know when to harvest again.
By 5pm we were in Tomar, which turned out to be a pretty town with a river running through it, narrow, winding streets (I chickened out of the one the AirBnB was on and parked nearby instead), charming squares and lots of restaurants. We picked one after I'd inspected them all, and sat down to a plate of cheese, cold meat and olives.
Miles: 101.3 wiggly ones
