Sunday 15th April

I felt very relaxed and chilled this morning. I’d chanced upon the most fabulous hostel, I’d had a great night’s sleep, I felt the journey was on track, I had got myself up to date with my blog and the weather forecast meant there was no point going anywhere until midday. I indulged myself with the hostel’s extensive and whopping great complimentary breakfast. At my table were a retired Swiss couple (who says hostelling has to be just for the young – as long as you are young at heart they are a terrific way of travelling and meeting people) They were planning their first long distance cycle ride in a couple of month’s time and were keen to pick my brains – little did they know how much I DON’T know about this lark – anyway I spent an hour or so teaching them the basics of Strava, got them signed up to an account, showed them how to plan routes and then follow them on their phones etc. I now have another couple of people following my progress around Europe! So, what do you get in a tourist honeypot hostel for £16 a night

A nice lounge

A swimming pool and a garden

And extensive kitchen facilities, along with a delightful Finnish hostess. All you need to make this an extremely comfortable stay is a good pair of earplugs for the 10-person dormitory – somebody ALWAYS snores!

I’d had in mind for a while that I wanted to try and get through Lisbon on a Sunday, thus avoiding the workday traffic and was fortunate that my plan had indeed fallen that way. My route essentially took me around the Western side of Lisbon’s port, hugging the coastline most of the way. With salt spray on my face and the almost indescribable, but unmistakable smell of the ocean in my nostrils; (is it salt, or iodine from the seaweed, or brine, or what? I can’t pin it down, but I’m sure you all know what it is I’m trying to describe) I wizzed along the largely flat roads.

I’d been to Lisbon some 30 years ago and felt no great desire to go sightseeing in the city, but I did stop to take photos as I passed some of the sights;

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I particularly liked the unusual view I had of Lisbon’s iconic Cristo Rei and 25th April Bridge;

My goal for the day was the municipal campsite at Vila Franca de Xira. I reached the town relatively early and debated whether to continue a little further in the hope of finding somewhere else for the night. In the event I decided to end the day as planned and this turned out to be a good decision (tomorrow would reveal a 20 mile cycle before I found a cafe, let alone anywhere to stay for the night)

I made camp, ate a light meal and retired for the night.

Saturday 14th April

The 40 kms ride to get to my first major objective of this trip took me up into the Sintra-Cascais National Park. It was very pretty and, in places very, very steep. With it being a weekend – and a dry, sunny one at that – there were lots of road cyclists out and about. As usual the vast majority were extremely friendly and offered me encouragement as I toiled and they flew. Extremely unusually, I came across this chap;

Peter, from Germany, was the first touring cyclist I had come across since starting my ride almost 3 weeks ago. He, likewise, had not met another like me. We were going in opposite directions, but unspoken, both stopped and waved. I pushed across to his side of the road and we chatted for a few minutes before a friendly local offered to take our photos. We shook hands, wished each other well and continued on our own separate ways, but in better spirits than before.

My first sight of my destination came on a steep descent – I knew I’d have to come back up this way later, but ignored that depressing thought for the time being;

And very shortly afterwards I was amongst the coach loads of tourists that, like me, had flocked to this beautiful, but otherwise unremarkable place, for the sole purpose of saying that they had visited the most Westerly point of the European mainland. It had taken me 18 days and 1266.1kms / 787 miles to get here. I had covered 1/10 of the total planned distance, had now reached 1/4 of my major objectives and had burned up 1/11 of my time available to achieve it. I celebrated with one of my chocolate beers

and then once my lunch was finished, got down to some serious photography

I attracted a lot attention from Chinese, Indian, Dutch and English tourists. Lots wanted photos taken with me, many wanted to know what some of my electronic gizmos were for. My drone attracted even more attention; from tourists for sure, but more spectacularly from bees! I could see a small cloud forming under it when it was flying over the land, but it was only when I brought it in to land did I recognise what was going on. I landed the thing a good safe distance away from me and waited for the bees to disperse. When I finally collected my little buzzing machine it was covered with spattered insects; obviously chopped up in the rotor blades. The video footage is interesting! Were the bees attacking, communicating or trying to mate with my giant hovering insect? I’m sorry to say they came off worst whatever they were up to.

After a couple of hours, I packed up and headed off. The ride down to Cascais where I was to spend the night was a delightful downhill, effortless wizz….or maybe that was just how I was feeling!

Just 64.1 kms / 40 miles today, but it felt a much bigger achievement than mere miles.

 

 

 

Friday 13th April

Setting off from Nazare, the road initially turned inland and the scenery changed slightly

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It also looked so much better in dry and bright light right from the gitgo.

Coming down a hill, I was confronted with this view;

I noted that the town was called Obidos and thought I might Google it later, there was certainly no way I was going to cycle up there just for a look around and to take a couple of happy snaps……………………………but I might cycle up there having seen this sign around the next corner:

An International chocolate festival – and it starts today. Well I’m sorry, but there are no better reasons for altering the day’s plans! I cycled up the hill, stopped at the tourist office for some information and then entered the medieval village. It was such a pretty place;

The chocolate festival was being held at the far end of the village, so I meandered my was up through the narrow, characterful, streets. Entry to the festival itself was €6.50, which I thought was a little steep, but surely for chocolate……nah, it just felt a bit of a rip off to be honest. Perhaps because it had literally only just opened and most of the activities were planned for afternoons and evenings, it came across as a pretentious town fair and not much more. I tasted a bit of the extract of cacao seed – and very nice it was too – and drank a little of the chocolate beer (so good that I elected to add a kilo or so of weight to my bike by buying 2 bottles) I also admired what it is possible for very talented, very imaginative and very patient people to produce with 125kgs of chocolate and a little food colouring.

With my planning for the day now slightly altered, I decided to grab my main meal in Obidos and then press on hard for the rest of the day

Before leaving Obidos I had to try a speciality of the town and indeed the entire local area. Ginja is a liqueur made from sour cherries. Normally it would be served in a glass, as an aperitif, at a slightly chilled temperature. This being the chocolate festival, I had a slug of the stuff served in a chocolate mug, which I then subsequently ate! And so, after this photo of my very acceptable lunch location, I wobbled off back down the hill, on my merry way and there are no more photos until I reached my desired day’s destination.

Ericeira is widely regarded as the surf mecca of Europe.

It regularly hosts a round of the World Tour Surf Championship and in 2011 was chosen to be Europe’s first, and so far only, World Surfing Reserve. It is a very ‘hip’ place. I booked into a very ‘hip’ site

Unfortunately, along with ‘hip’, comes a lot of youth who don’t know when to be quiet and go to sleep on a Friday night. In fact, I don’t think they know whether to go to sleep at all!

I did not get the best of nights in my cramped, uninsulated, very basic, garden Wendy House – no matter how ‘hip’ it looked from the outside.

The day’s route – all 100.1kms / 62 miles of it – looked like this.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to be at my first Cardinal Point – Cabo da Roca is the European mainland’s most westerly point and lies just a 40km ride SW of Ericeira.

 

Thursday 12th April

I kicked around in the hostel all morning, hoping against hope that the weather would improve. I blogged, I communicated, I ate a long breakfast, I made lunch, I took some photos of this very cool, very surf oriented hostel;

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I particularly liked this message in the bathroom;

Eventually, however, I could tarry no longer; I donned all my waterproof gear, took a deep breath and stepped out into the deluge. The first 25 kms were horrendous. I rode along the busy EN109 being lashed by rain and hosed by spray from the passing lorries. At the turn off for the Estrada Atlantica an improvement in life was noted in the absence of heavy goods vehicles, however the rain continued for a while…….and then started to abate. Stretches of this road ran arrow straight for kilometers at a time; there was very little traffic and very little sign of life – human or otherwise. It really felt quite desolate;

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

After 45 kms I reached the coastal town of Pedrogao. The rain had stopped and the sky was beginning to break, but I was soaked through and cold. I stopped at the first restaurant I came to, which had the most fabulous beach view and, more importantly, a hot stove with a spare table next to it. I bagged the seat, draped wet gear over the stove and ordered a meal.

Really not a bad place to recuperate for a short while. Leaving the small community I set off along another very straight and apparently very long stretch of road. In retrospective measurement it was 15 kms of dead straight nothingness. I stopped to fly the drone in an attempt to capture the sense of it;

But eventually the road returned to the sea and, I have to say, along this entire stretch of coastline, the beaches are simply stunning:

My destination for the day was the town of Nazare. I’d wanted to visit this place because of a YouTube video I had come across. Check this out for the most nuts surfing you’ve ever seen. Evidently in the right conditions, a deep underwater canyon just offshore helps create these waves –  the largest ever recorded as having been surfed

On the day of my visit things were a lot calmer, so it didn’t seem worth my while getting in the water!!!!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I was going to stay in the town of Nazare itself, but having capped a tough day with the incredibly steep pull back up from the lighthouse to the top of the premontary, I decided to forgo the descent into town until the morning.

I booked a homestay in the tiny community capping the headland where I was hosted by two elderly locals whose only English was “Leicester City, Leicester City”

Another 90 kms / 56 miles chalked off and I slept like a log!

Wednesday 11th April

Some domestics to clear up from yesterday; as Tuesdays mark the end of a full week for me, it is useful to tally up the week’s distance covered and this second week I have cycled 443.7 kms making it 897.2 kms in total. I should also show what I intend doing for the next few weeks, so here’s how I intend routing through my furthest West point to reach my furthest South point;

Moving on;

I have been absolutely buzzing today and I’ve had a lot of energy to burn. I woke to blue skies, wet streets and an imminent fog. I set off in good time and joined the Porto rush hour traffic. In this part of the Iberian Peninsula, a lot of the town and city centres have many streets paved with cobbles. I hate cobbles on a bicycle at the best of times; they are bloody uncomfortable and incredibly draining to ride across. Wet cobbles are all that and dangerous to boot; when you are bouncing along them and have to cross tram tracks as well, it is an utterly lethal combination. As careful as I was, I couldn’t avoid the inevitable and at a 90 degree right turn across cobbles and tram tracks, the bike went from under me. Luckily it did so in a way which enabled me to just hop off and skip down the road whilst remaining on my feet. The heavily laden bike just fell onto its panniers and suffered no damage. My most critical item – my phone – remained firmly attached to its mount on the handlebars. A lucky escape all round and one which could have ended so differently if I had gone with the option of riding in clipped in shoes. I had agonised over this decision for weeks prior to setting off on this trip; was the increased cycling efficiency generated by clipped in shoes worth the increased risk of injury in such an incident? In my decision to wear my battered, old, flat bottomed sandals I think I’ve now made the right choice. Porto was an eerie sight as I left it, heading west along the river towards the atlantic Ocean.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I reached the Atlantic on a smooth, flat, dedicated bike path; it was time to get the drone out;

Having taken this still image, I put the drone into a follow-me video mode and set off south. As I rode along, I could see the drone video imagery on my handlebar-mounted control unit. It was looking good, but I wanted a more expansive view and so I sent the drone higher and further behind me…..yes that was beginning to look about what I wanted…….but, just a minute, what’s that message just flashed up on the control screen? Oh bugger, I’ve lost control contact with the drone and it’s decided to return to where it started. Looking at the video feed, I could see that the drone had turned around and was heading in completely the other direction to me on the bike. In my haste to try and regain control of the rapidly retreating drone, I stabbed at buttons in some completely random and irrational sequence and thus ended up with some message advertising ice-cream!! there was only one thing for it – I turned the bike around, pedalled as hard as I could, dinged my bell frantically at walkers, joggers and bike riders in my way and chased my errant drone north-wards. After a couple of desperate minutes I reached the point you see in the photo above and there, hovering 2 feet above the road, was my little tinker of a drone. The technology is astounding; my mastery of it is laughable!!

With my high-tech, military-derived, little masterpiece of silicone and plastic firmly packed away in my old fashioned, waxed cotton panniers and breathing a little easier now, I continued south.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I passed a number of areas where white storks were actively breeding and was astonished at where and in what numbers, they would elect to build their nests. There are not many further photos from my ride today –  I was in such a good cycling mood that my 138 kms and almost 7 hours of pedalling just seemed to fly by.

Eventually though I did begin to run out of energy. I stopped at a road-side fruit and veg seller, bought some supplies, sat down, ate a banana, caught some rays and googled a place to stay for the night.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

In Figueiria da Foz, the Paintshop Hostel was staffed by Kirk from Wolverhampton – honestly – we chatted about football, travel, Portugal and life in general. I was the only guest for the night. Kirk pointed me in the direction of his best recommended local restaurant and off I toddled. Bread, olives, massive glass of red wine, an excellent 3-course meal and coffee all for €7.50! As a bonus I watched the outrageously entertaining Real Madrid vs Juventus Champions League Quarter final second-leg. As I did so, I began chatting to a Portuguese chap at an adjacent table. We had a footie interest in common and, as it transpired, a shared joy of cycling. He came over to my table as I started dessert and began regaling me with stories and showing me some of his cycling photos. As it happened, I was in the midst of a WhatsApp conversation at the time and therefore wasn’t fully tuned in to his conversation, or the nature of some of his ‘cycling’ photos……therefore, it was only at the point where he offered to buy me another glass of wine and asked if I had anywhere to stay for the night that I worked out what was going on….first time I’ve ever been hit upon by a bloke!!

I must have been sending the correct (from my point of view) messages, because after I declined the drink and explained where I was staying, he rapidly upped and left. I gave him plenty of time to get away, then I also paid, left and walked warily back to the hostel.

What an end to what a day.

In plain, map based description, it looked like this;

As good as today has been, I can’t seem to get similar consecutive days; tomorrow’s forecast again looks appaling.

Tuesday 10th April

The day dawned as forecast; wet & cold. I resigned myself to a day in Porto, lazed around in bed for a while, caught up on correspondence in all it’s modern forms then headed out and bought an umbrella. I shan’t bother you with all the trivial details of where I went and what I saw, but will throw out some photos and make one or two observations

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

What doesn’t come across very well in these photos – because of the dull light of the day I encountered – is the wonderful colours in the city. Whether it is facades of the buildings, the murals, the adorning wall tiles, ironwork, or roof tiles; they all combine to create a wonderful palette of a cityscape.

I ate lunch at a recommended restaurant and ordered the speciality of Porto – a Francesinha. This is a Portuguese adaption of the French Croque Monsieur sandwich. Two slices of bread encase an outrageous combination of steak, 2 types of sausage, 3 types of dry cured ham and cheese. It is topped with a fried egg, smothered in a rich, beer based tomato sauce and served with chips. In my case I also ordered the restaurant’s specialty brewed beer.

What a calorie bomb! I walked some of it off by continuing my exploration of the city, but unfortunately towards the end of the day I ended up down at the old Port Cellars that line the quay on the River Douro. Well……when in Porto……

Tomorrow is forecast to be a better day – I shall have to cycle long and hard to burn off today’s excesses!

 

Monday 9th April

I needed to make up for yesterday’s lost progress so set off fairly early into a cold day that didn’t yet seem to know what it was going to do. Scattered clouds hung about above the treetops, dark clouds seemed to be gathering far out at sea and yet small patches of blue hinted at brighter possibilities. The roads were still wet and the storm drains were running fast. There was NO wind!

At about the 10 mile point I realised that I hadn’t encountered any significant hill…..this was good! After an hour I noticed my average speed was over 12 mph…..this was very good. At the point where I stopped for coffee, that average speed was now over 13 mph and I had already covered over 20 miles. Dry roads, no hills and a calm wind that had now become a tailwind were all having a hugely beneficial impact on my progress and my mood.

The scenery was pretty good too. By late morning I started tracking down the Atlantic coast and took the opportunity to dismount from the bike, push it through an area of sand dunes and spend a while being held in awe by watching this massive body of water come crashing into the European shore after a journey of thousands of miles. It was a very ‘Zen’ moment!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s strange in a way – the more exercise you do and the harder you push, the greater the desire to eat healthily……..can’t believe I’ve just written that, given all my ‘previous’!…….however, what I really desired for lunch today was fruit. I stopped at a fruit market and bought 4 bananas, 2 oranges and a pear – total cost €0.93 – I couldn’t believe it!

I then made a small detour so that I could sit and eat it all in front of this view

Just north of Porto I found I was cycling under the departure lane for traffic leaving the airport. An Airbus A330 flew directly overhead and I stopped, stared at it a while, considered, examined myself…….and came to the conclusion that I wasn’t the same person that used to take command of one of those things and the 300, or so, people on board. No regrets, no sadness, no wishing for it again. It was actually quite comforting coming to that conclusion. Would I have reached the same conclusion at the end of a crappy, wet, cold, headwind-blasted, exhausting day? Who knows?

I rolled into Porto, found a cafe, searched online for some accommodation, found something suitable, booked it, Google-mapped my way to it and began my relaxation for the evening.

Here’s what 118 kms of delightful cycling looked like.

The forecast for tomorrow is dire. I shall hole up in Porto and sight see.

Sunday 8th April

Today’s plan is not much of a plan at all. I’m going to get on my bike early, cycle until I’ve had enough and then try to find a place to stay. I’ll eat when I get hungry and drink when I’m thirsty; what can go wrong?

HA! Well the first thing to note is that I wrote that before going out last night, so getting on the bike early has gone to a ball of chalk already! However, I did still manage to leave at a halfway decent time and, with it being a Sunday, I had had the wet, narrow streets of Pontevedra to myself as I left the town. Very soon thereafter, the weather cleared, the sun came out and the roads dried. I managed to stop for some photos and even got the drone out again;

But that was as good as it got. As I neared the Portuguese border, the rain set in once again and I was forced to put on full waterproofs and take shelter when even they were not enough to resist mother nature

Entering Portugal at the town of Vila Nova de Cerveira on the banks of the Rio Mino, I just had to stop. I found a sports club bar, sat with a coffee, caught the first half of the Real Madrid game and tried to work out my options. It was 30 kms to my desired destination for the day, but I had already done over 70 and was feeling pretty tired. I had enough time to make it, but the rain had, if anything, intensified. My mobile Booking.com App is proving incredibly useful, addictive and tempting in such circumstances – I found that there was a hostel available only 500 metres away from where I sat and it was dirt cheap. I gave in to temptation and booked it. The place was clean, dry, warm, comfortable and almost unoccupied – I had a 4-bed, male only dorm, with bathroom, to myself. There would be no fun night out on the town with a bunch of entertaining ladies for me tonight…….which, in the circumstances, was just as well. I got out of my sopping wet stuff, hung it around the room’s single radiator and (for the wetter items) in the bathroom, then showered, changed and crashed for an hour or so.

In chatting with the hostel receptionist I discovered that the weather had been incredibly dry for the entire last summer, autumn and winter. The rivers and reservoirs were at dangerously low levels and everybody was thankful and delighted at the huge amount of what was, otherwise, distinctly unusual rainfall for this time of year………well that’s just great, I thought. On this day last year it had been 71 degrees and dry and that’s sort of what I’d been expecting and planning for……not 54 degrees and downpours of Biblical proportions.

I consoled myself with pizza, beer and strawberries….oh, and just a little chocolate

 

Saturday 7th April

It was STILL raining when I awoke and looked out of the window. However, I had my ‘GO’ head on, so packed up, got into my cycling kit and grabbed breakfast. I was subsequently rewarded with an almost forgotten dryness in the air when I finally wheeled my bike out of the hotel shortly after 9am.

Because the forecast for today was still not good, however, I’d planned a slightly shorter day and booked myself into a hostel in the town of Pontevedra. I cycled for just under 2 hours, donning and doffing rain gear as the heavens dictated, and then started searching out a cafe. I umm’d and ahhh’d over one in a small town square, but was put off by a little yappy dog so cycled on. Literally 50 metres further on I came to the most fabulous place – if I had stopped for a coffee 50 metres earlier, I would still have had to stop here for another one! The patisserie selection was amazing, the coffee was great and there was an amazing ‘Cars’ (the Pixar movie) mural on the wall. To cap my good fortune further, the biggest and heaviest downpour of the day occurred whilst I was enjoying my ‘elevensies’

Once that big shower had gone through and I’d finished my monster pain au chocolat the weather and my tummy were good enough to get going again. The views along the route were good and bad and there were still lots of pilgrims on the road to Santiago – even though now they were coming from an entirely different direction

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I took the opportunity to get the drone airborne whilst the weather was playing ball – there haven’t been too many chances of late.

I arrived at my hostel mid afternoon, having navigated the narrow and very interesting-looking streets of Pontevedra

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Now I am not a very seasoned ‘hosteler’ – in fact this was probably only the 3rd or 4th time I’d ever stayed in one. I’d certainly never stayed in a mixed sex dormitory before and therefore, to then discover I was to be the only male amongst 5 females sleeping in this room, I have to admit, took me aback somewhat. Still, the ladies were all lovely, which helped enormously. Catriona (introduced as Cat from Glasgow) said she was heading into town for a mug of thick strong chocolate – that sounded so good, I asked if she would mind if I accompanied her? “Sure, no problem”

That was such a good decision! We chatted awhile, agreed that we’d try to meet up for dinner and then went our separate ways to sight see.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It was such an interesting town – made all the more so by being full of, what we later discovered were, students from a University in Portugal. It seemed that the graduating 3rd year students (those in the Harry Potter style robes) were celebrating their graduations, whilst at the same time inducting the newbie first years (those in red tops) into the ‘ways’ of University life. There was a lot of singing, shouting, dancing & marching being conducted – all in a jovial and non-threatening way. This would continue through the ‘drinking’ hours and well into the night, but I didn’t witness one single act of aggressive or abusive behaviour. “Never foookin ‘appen in Glasgee” was Cat’s remark!

At 8pm I took myself off to dinner at the restaurant that had been recommended by the hostel owner. Just as I got my beer and was about to order, Lizzie & Jenny from the hostel pitched up & invited me to join them. Despite the meal being basically a tentacle-fest of squid and octopus we had a very enjoyable time.

However, for the life of us we couldn’t work out why the wine was served in bowls!!

Jenny was a chocoholic and, after the meal, insisted I took her to the cafe I’d visited earlier with Cat. Thankfully my navigation skills were up to the task and, as we arrived at the front door of the cafe, so did Cat. There ensued my 3rd massive chocolate infusion of the day and we were all there chatting until well gone midnight.

Back at the hostel, a very British ritual of “anyone fancy a cuppa?” led to more chat and an eventual creep into our beds in the very early hours.

I’d felt slightly uncomfortable being the only bloke in the dorm  – interestingly the other ladies had not even registered it – and so earlier in the evening had asked Cat what the protocols might be in such a situation. In her broad Scottish accent she replied,

“Well as long as you don’t get your tackle out and jump into somebody else’s pit, you should be alright” – Oh, OK then, I thought – I should be able to work within those boundaries!!

Friday 6th April

Dammit, but the weather forecasters got it spot on today! It has been cold and it has absolutely poured with rain for the entirety of the daylight hours. It has not been the day to be out on a bicycle if you had any choice. I had a choice; the bike remained static!

I planned the next 4 weeks in a little more detail, I fielded numerous calls and messages and I caught up on the blog. I borrowed an umbrella and wandered the wet streets until I was forced to take sanctuary in some of the historic buildings;

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

In the Cathedral I had a little photographic play. With an ability to stand very still for a considerable length of time and despite there being dozens and dozens of tourists milling around inside the impressive medieval building, I was able to produce this image:

Some of the statuary I came across during my wanderings, seemed to reflect the mood of the day

Although how this soft-tissued-statue managed to bear the conditions, I’ll never comprehend

At a recommended Tapas bar, I had a beer and a couple of the selections on offer for lunch; total cost €4.50 – not bad for a tourist honey trap, I thought.

The forecast for tomorrow is for rain – less rain, but still rain, nevertheless. I think I’m just going to have to get out there and grin and bear it; it’s been a nice town to be stuck in for 24 hours, but I’m bored now and need to get going again.