November 6, 2017
Lagos: Two days
The ride from Portimao to Lagos was uneventful. I used my Garmin to navigate through town, and then stuck to the 125. The road is in reasonable shape without any overwhelming hills. The only real issues were four sections of road construction.
On one section, in an uphill, and with the shoulder completely closed, I pulled over to let traffic pass. After most cars had gone, I saw a paceline of roadies in front of a very large truck. As the roadies passed me, I tried to jump on their tail. But of course they were very fit and trying to catch them from a standstill on my loaded bike wasn't realistic. I got going, but I think that the large truck wasn't pleased.
As I got into Lagos, I spotted a McDonald's of all things, and pulled in to use their Wi-Fi. I decided to go to a hostel, and picked out the Olive Hostel. I didn't book, but went to look at it and decided to stay. It's in an old building and is decidedly low key. I'm in an 8 bed dorm but with only one other person. The hostel is actually getting ready to close for the season.
Lagos is much more of a tourist town than the last few places I've stopped. There are boat and kayak trips, which I'm not doing, to get to some caves. The old town area has scattered musicians busking for money. They seem to be primarily young tourists with dogs. It has sort of a nice vibe, but I wouldn't want to stay here too long.
Which brings me to the question of what I'm doing. I'm heading to Sagres tomorrow, and hope to visit Cape Vincent the following day, which happens to be my birthday. Cape Vincent is the far south west corner of Portugal, and the idea of spending my Birthday at the edge of the world, or at least where it was once the edge of the world, appeals to me.
After that, we'll see. The tourist office here told me that I can take my bike by train to Lisbon, but this morning I visited the train station and was told it has to be disassembled to fit under my seat, and wrapped so it can't make anything dirty. There are also 2 changes to get to Lisbon, and with the bike packed and luggage, the change would be hard. So then I talked to someone at the bus station, and was told again that my bike needs to be taken apart. With the S&S couplers, I can make is small, but need to package it. Then I found a bike shop and asked about packing the bike. The old guy there didn't speak any English, but with help from Google translate I found out I could get some plastic for wrapping the bike at the coop. So I went to the coop and got 0.75 kg of plastic wrap and also some tape. I'm not sure if I'll use it, but it may give me an option if I want to bail out on the bike ride to Lisbon.
Today's ride: 21 km (13 miles)
Total: 698 km (433 miles)
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