Boa Lisboa
Trip Start
Mar 04, 2008
1
31
36
Trip End
Oct 06, 2008
Lisbon,
Estremadura,
Portugal
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
So first off, let me catch up on a bit from Salamanca, my last major destination.
It was a long, hot day riding into Salmanca. I was ready for some comforts. Instead I got terrible directions and heavy city centre traffic. I was not pleased. So when a antiquated sedan cut me off attempting to make a right turn, but instead got stopped dead by heavy pedestrian traffic, I lost my cool and gave his trunk a solid WHACK! He was not pleased. Behind me I heard screeching tires. Buddy pulls up alongside me, gets out and starts into a maniacal rant. Wife gets out of the back seat, following hombre's lead. Only then did I notice the car was packed full with kids. This was the Real Muchachos reprise. I was in no mood to take this caballero's crap. He was in the wrong, so I fired back at him
English Charity Hooligans
. Wild gestures on both my part and his entire family's. I honestly thought the wife was going to take a run at me. The little girl in the back seat, no BS, was smacking a tire iron against her palm! She couldn't have been more than nine or ten years old! Anyway, light turned green and they took off. At the next light I got some support from a passing motorist, commenting that Salamanca drivers can be 'loco'. No shite.At the campground in Salmanca I stayed with a massive crew of Englishmen. They were doing a charity car rally to Portugal. The catch was that the car your team drove couldn't be worth more than 250 Pounds! Jolly good fun, I tell 'ye. Campground full of riotous Britons playing bumper cars with their beaters. Many were intrigued to hear of my trip. 'What would possess you to do such a thing!?!' Coincidentally, I would meet up with 4 of these lads later in Lisboa, their terminous. Turns out we checked into the same hostel.
The road to Lisboa through Portugal was nothing short of spectacular. I was back in vegetation country! North central spain is so arid and desolate. Hardly a tree or bush to be seen. Once into Portugal this changed. All of a sudden their were rocky river valleys, green vegetation and trees! Trees man! I can wild camp again! I had great luck finding stealth spots on the way to the big city. Interior Portugal is fabulous cycling country. Unfortunately, Portugal has that nasty habit, as did Sicily, of perching their towns on the tops of hills
Lisboa View 1
. Not fun at the end of a very long day (179 km from Salamanca to Guarda, Portugal), well after nightfall when one is looking for a campground. I followed the camping signs up and up to the city centre, only to be dropped down the other side. No dice, I thought. I'm not going down there. So I set my tent on a bushy ridge by the road. That was my re-initiation to stealth camping after a poor and pricey showing in Spain.Portugal has incredible morning fog. Thick as any I've ever seen. It usually burns off soon after the sun comes up, but one morning it stuck around until nearly noon. It's a blessing, I tell you, as the only place hotter than Spain is Portugal!
Tonnes of support honks and waves here, starting in western Spain making my way to the border. Truckers are especially friendly. I've had ballads of honks from convoys of trucks, and full bodied waves (torsos out the window!) from other passing motorists!
Tough to tear myself away from Lisboa. The only consolation is that my next stop is Sevilla, Spain! The pulsing heart of the Spanish south. Onward and (unfortunately) upward!
R
