September 29, 1997
To Urgeirica
The descent from Guarda was lovely, dropping seemingly forever down a sharply winding road into the lush headlands of the Mondego River valley. After about 20 km of delightful cycling we arrived at the first of a series of major obstacles we would encounter on the day's ride: every town or small village we passed through for the remainder of the day was cobblestoned throughout, beginning at or before the urban limits. These villages all had an attractive appearance but it was difficult to appreciate them as we endured a bone-crushing ride over these awful roads.
In spite of this there were several pleasantly memorable aspects to the day. If the road itself had not been so forbidding this would have been a delightful route. The Mondego valley became increasingly lush and colorful as we lost elevation. Especially attractive were huge-blossomed indigo morning glories climbing up trees and the sides of houses. The architecture here was unlike anywhere else that we visited in Portugal - the predominant style was brown, granitic stone mortared with bright white plaster. The fields were peopled with manual laborers, to a greater degree than we've seen in any other European country we've visited so far.
We ended the day at a fairly upscale hotel in a remote rural area about 20 km south of Mangualde. We were advised of this spot by a sociable gardener/bicyclist in Celorico, where we had broken for lunch. As we snacked in the central plaza on yogurt, granola, cheese and hazelnuts, he stopped by to inquire about our journey. He was a local racer and had excellent skills in English. After telling us of the difficulties of most roads in the region and of the importance of traveling with wine to use as an anaesthetic, he passed on his knowledge of the few hotels in the miles ahead of us.
We arrived at Hotel Urgeceira after a thoroughly ghastly and harrowing ride on a narrow, shoulderless, heavily trafficed two lane highway. From the map this appeared apt to be a quiet secondary road, but in fact was a major connecting rout to Coimbra suporting intensive truck traffic. This was probably the most unnerving stretch of road that Rachael and I have ever biked on together, with the possible exception of our first few miles inside Hungary a few years ago. Our primary survival tool was to leave the pavement competely and plow off into the gravel, which we did literally dozens of times whenever trucks approached from behind us. I trailed Rachael and bellowed out to her from behind whenever it was time to escape the pavement. There was, unfortunately, no other route available unless we lengthened our itinerary drastically.
It was with huge relief that we arrived safely at the Urgeirica Hotel. We were surprised to find that it was a posh 3 star resort. We were hardly their typical clients - the hotel was overrun with a British tour group, which among other things made it seem far from a typical Portuguese experience, and flooded the restaurant. But, we were safe.
Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 1,163 miles (1,872 km)
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