Thursday 9th June
We looked out from our 4* hotel room this morning and all we saw was thick mist! We were high up, maybe it was low cloud..we were sure it would be clear by time to leave. After breakfast the mist had not cleared, so off we went.. at least it wasn’t cold.
As we rode up the twisty mountain roads the mist was very thick in places, the road was very narrow with a BIG drop on our side.. and no barrier. Proceed with caution! The road snaked around the mountain, beautiful views when we could see and by the time we had descended the other side it was time for lunch. Very small town.. Crusty roll with cheese and Parma ham, but no butter. Very dry.. For some reason Bernard ‘s favourite!
After lunch the mist had cleared, next we had a great twisty road and a good blast, had to stop for coffee to catch our breath after so many corners ?
The next road was 60 kms of fantastic smooth Tarmac with open sweeping corners..no traffic and no speed cameras, just as well really ?
The last few miles to hotel were home to a large number of Storks.. for some reason they build the nest on top of telephone poles. Tonight we are in Sarria, Sat Nav took us to a dead end pedestrian only street..we were told to drive round the back where a lady would be waiting.. she directed as to their back garden to park our bikes. Nice little hotel, great shower..it’s always an adventure!
I have to mention dinner, we found this restaurant which seemed very popular, we soon found out why..3 course meal including bottle of wine..8.50 Euro per head. So it was 2 bottles of Red again.. But we did leave some of the 2nd one ?
Friday 10th June
Woken at 05:15 by a barking dog, then all the dogs in town joined in it seemed.
Just as we were about to leave it rained! thankfully just a quick shower.. Off we went, cloudy sky and 15 degs. We are heading for Portugal, 440 kms, so quiet a long day ahead. First 100kms were uninteresting, but went quickly. Soon we were at the border with Portugal.. we took a short cut through a nature reserve and paid 1.50 Euro toll. Soon we were down in a valley by a beautiful lake, blue sky and 20+ degs.
We were making for the N103..we did it a couple of years ago. 140 kms of the very best Tarmac and corners.. definitely in our top 3 of best roads ever.
We stopped halfway for a break at a small cafe decorated with wild boar heads..we were tired with the concentration required to ride fast and safely. This road is long, it has a wide variety of corners and passes through some beautiful countryside.. large areas of gorse, brilliant yellow in colour and smelling sweet bordered the road on each side.. true biking heaven, very little traffic and blue sky. This is what we came for ?
It dawned on us that Portugal is in the same time zone as UK, so suddenly it was an hour earlier than we thought, arriving at hotel in Mirandela at 16.30.
Finding somewhere for dinner proved a challenge..nowhere open and Apparently a public holiday. By luck we stumbled on a nice looking restaurant that had its door open.. through a mix of broken French and sign language we ascertained that they were open and in we went..no one else in there and that’s how it remained throughout the meal..strange. Early night as we have a big day tomorrow, we plan to do the N222, which according to “Ride” magazine is the “best road in the World”..If it can beat the N103 we’ll be impressed! Watch this space…550kms, long day.