October 1, 1997
To Leiria
This was a much longer day than expected. Somehow I had calculated it at 80 km in my planning, and we had intended to continue on to Nazare on the coast rather than stop for the night at Leiria. However, partly due to navigational errors and partly just as a result of bad math, it was 105 km just to Leiria - more than enough for a day's ride in the 90 degree heat.
The day began a bit later than we had hoped, but earlier than we feared - the Visa-consuming restaurant opened at 9:30, and fortunately our card was still there awaiting our return. The ride out of town continued downriver through more magnificent, exceptional countryside. The road surface was very rough, which made for slow going, but the sights more than compensated it. We regularly encountered such sights as oxcarts, burden-laden donkeys, field workers, and more basket-bearing women. Many of the people we passed, particularly the older women, wore traditional black dresses. One of the dominant crops, a tobacco-like long leafed plant, was being harvested by hand and manually woven into stacks. Of particular interest was a railroad crossing, staffed by a woman sitting in her tiny attendant's shelter. When a train approached, she exited the shelter and hand-cranked down the traffic barricade until the train passed by.
After leaving the river and turning southward, we spent the remainder of this hot, humid day on windy, hilly, rough-surfaced back roads - beautiful the entire way, but very hard work. Finally, after one dispiriting and seemingly endless climb we reached a summit and gradually descended on an easy final 20 km coast to Leiria.
Leiria, with a dramatic old ruined hilltop castle at its core, is beautiful from all directions. Although we arrived late in the day, there was still sufficient light left to wander its streets, enjoy its views, and admire the many fine tile-faced buildings. It seemed that every tile pattern we encountered was different, making many ordinary houses into works of art. We stayed at another fine pension on a quiet, pedestrian-only street. Here, as at most places we encountered in Portugal, lodging was quite inexpensive - in this instance, about 550 escudos ($30) for bed and breakfast.
We were less successful here with dinner. There were surprisingly few restaurants in the old town, and from those few we found we chose poorly - branding Leiria in our memories as the city wit hrunny sausage: yuck. Afterwards, still hungry, we stopped in at the snack bar of the movie theater to fill in the gaps with a few crackers.
Today's ride: 65 miles (105 km)
Total: 1,278 miles (2,057 km)
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