November 27, 2003
Thursday Nov 27: Guimaraes to Amarante: Happy Birthday Shelley!
Another short cycling day after a 'toss of a coin'.
Last night I decided that if the weather turned out nice in the morning I would head to Amarante and if it was not so nice, towards Porto. Why? I have the time and would rather see neat places rather than sit in just one town. I will also miss cycling as I do on shorter days or non-cycling days - I suppose like runner's high. Well, here I am in Amarante, and gladly so. The old Church hanging over the river, the old bridge over said river, and my Residencial also hanging over the river so that when I look out I see the river rushing past, and the old bridge and church over to my left. Quite picturesque, to say the least.
The route out of Guimaraes was punctuated with tonnes of construction - a new highway making some of the scenery and hillsides scarred and ugly, and lots of new buildings. Again, the cities here are growing like crazy.
Once away from the city, though, things settled back into farmers in their blue work coats, with a hoe on their shoulder and rubber boots on their feet making their way down the roads. Roosters were calling them back, and smoke was drifting out of their chimneys then mixing with the clouds slipping through the mountain passes.
For about the last 7 or 8 km the road into the town was a downhill dream. Then I find that my route tomorrow has to backtrack about 6 km on my way to Porto. Which means.... ta-da... a whole bunch of uphill. At least I should have all the time in the world. I asked the owner of my hotel to call the one in Porto for me to reserve a room for tomorrow night. I don't want to wander around lost in a port city, thanks. Some know how I feel about such cities (like Marseilles, Tangier, and the likes).
To fuel up after this little ride, I went just down the street a bit for some vinho verde (new wine) and a ham sandwich (not regular ham but cured ham like jamon serrano in Spain). Like the stuff I tried in IF a year or so ago, vinho verde is not my favourite - kind of like comparing green bananas to ripe ones: yuck-o vs yummy. Then when it was 'really' time to have lunch I had some salmon and veggies with... vinho tinto, but regular stuff this time, not the new stuff. This area is known for the verde, so I guess I'd best keep my opinions to myself or I'll be hanging from a grapevine.
So again, as with so many travel discoveries, it is often the unexpected that provides the most pleasure. Here I am in this awesome little place, on the river looking across to the old church and bridge, and I was not planning to come here until this morning.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 4,491 km (2,789 miles)
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