September 24, 2013
Barcalos: The day was really too short
Ken writes
We had a good look at some great statues after the market had packed up. One in particular is a ploughing scene with a pair of bullocks . There was an enormous clean up of thousands of plastic bags etc., one vendor left a pile of shoes behind, some locals were picking through them.
Now that we are on Portuguese time it is light at 7.30 – but we couldn’t get our bikes till nearly eight. We set off with a lot of local traffic on the N203 and then the N204 which was a lot better, no shoulder however.
The road took us on a long climb to a rather beautiful valley with tiny farms, still no grape picking – it will be an enormous job once it gets under way – all up ladders with hand carrying to tractors or trucks.
Along the way we saw elderly ladies working in their gardens and the odd man on his tractor. We eventually climbed into forest before a fairly long descent into a valley with larger scale farming – mainly maize which is being chopped for silage pits. There must be cows somewhere.
Near the top of the second climb we came to a place where there were at least 100 oldish small motorbikes and scooters. There was a large workshop with two men in it in an Aladin’s Cave of motor bike bits. There were many Vespas but also brands I have never heard of - all 2 strokes. There were however many Zundaps. Zundap were a German motorcycle maker, I thought they closed many years ago. What is the explanation?
The last 6K were mainly down on a narrow busy road. We had a coffee in a tiny rural bar and on arrival in Barcelos where Tricia got us an excellent room in the centre. The day is too short, but to add on the next stage would have been too long so here we are.
The local symbol is the cock with lots of them around the town and a brisk market selling them in various forms – I want an apron with one on. Once again we see older cars on the road – models that have largely disappeared from French raod, Renault 4s and 5s, we saw an old Pugeot 404 pickup and an ID 19 Citron
Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 2,973 km (1,846 miles)
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