September 22, 2013
Tui: On the boundary with Portugal
We started today with the very firm resolve to not leave the N550. As it as Sunday there were virtually no trucks on it which is certainly a bonus. Again all along the way there were small towns and houses with large plots of land where they grew small stands of corn and of course grapes. The grapes here are grown over pergolas which certainly looks very attractive but it must be incredibly difficult to deal with such things as spraying as you would have to spray both the top and bottom side. Seeing that the fruit are all decoratively hanging down under the pergola there must be hardly any exposure to sun at all.
Pontevedra is at sea level so it was up over the hill and down to Arcade which is on a big tidal inlet. This appears to be a holiday place as there were lots of hotels and cafes. I expected the same when we came to Redondela but it appeared much more of a working town but we got a really welcome coffee there.
There were lots of groups of young lycra clad Sunday training cyclists using Monte Cornedo out of Redondela to show their superior strength and speed – they sure can whip along, it makes me feel like a slow old draught horse. Porrino is the town before Tui and has a mass of industry, the main problem for us was that in all or maps it showed our road disappearing into the motorway – it couldn’t be right but it was. We found ourselves steaming along the motorway . It felt a bit uncomfortable but because of the wide hard shoulder not particularly dangerous. I however was very keen to get off it and try and find the walking route which was ‘somewhere over there’. We rode around coming to dead ends and into peoples’ backyards. Basically we were lost, then we lost each other but that wasn’t for very long thank goodness. Eventually we did find the walking route and pushed our way along the bumpy track under the lovely shade of the trees (it was getting very hot). Emerging we found some men sitting talking and one of them was able to give us some good instructions of a road route to Tui. This took us up into the hills with I am sure lovely settlements but I was too exhausted to enjoy them. When we came into Tui we went into the first hostal we saw. We had some peaches and a drink of water, Ken watched the Singapore Grande Prix and I slept. He has since walked into the old town and I will go later when it cools down a bit.
Tui is our last stop in Spain. It is on the Rio Minho which is the border and on the other side of this is Valenca which is Portugese.
I am uploading this in the bar of the hotel. It is packed with men watching a'futbol' match. The noise is amazing. CEL are playing VIL. I think we want the yellow ones to win that is CEL. It is still 0-0 and getting towards the end of the second half. The tension is almost too much for me.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,896 km (1,798 miles)
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