Day 18: Sintra to Lisbon

March 19, 2023

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We had hatched the plan of taking the train into Lisbon, but based on the Classen's blog "we" formed the impression that there was a bike path more or less all the way in. Very soon, when I started to grouse about what happened to the bike path, and why was I on a shoulderless four lane highway, Dodie pointed put that I really do not know how to read, and that no bike path was ever promised. It is the "wishful thinking" part of my brain that scans blogs, and it can not be relied on. I just got out the "legal eagle" part of my brain, and we studied the blog in detail. It's all true, we conclude, there are no contractual promises in there! However, we must say that for the lengthy Cascais to Lisbon part of the ride, there is no mention of the choice between fighting it out with cars on a no shoulder four lane highway or fighting it out with mobs of people on pathways along the beach, or both! Our final conclusion does align with the Classens, however, it was a glorious, beautiful run, and super interesting. We would have missed out on the train.

As we started out from Sintra, the route did not take us even remotely by any of the famous landmarks, so once again, we are relying on the other bloggers to have described those. All we saw were fairly plain standard houses, like those below.

Very soon we found ourselves enmeshed in limited access highways, scouting about some to find a way through, and/or using the Classens' track for guidance. But even at this early stage of the ride, there was no escaping the need to ride with the cars on the four lane. This reignited an age old debate between myself and Dodie. Dodie favours taking the lane in these situations, forcing the drivers to the other lane and giving what she feels is escape room to our right in case of being cut off. I argue that we are sitting ducks for the inattentive driver, as we pedal out there in the middle of the road. I say, that when that driver happens to look up from their smart phone and swerves left, our position more to the right gives that driver more precious micro-seconds to avoid us. We hope that neither of us is one day shown to be "dead right" in these opinions.

Mercifully we got onto smaller roads, and these took us down to the coast, at Cascais. At this point the whole complexion of the ride changed. In fact the complexion of the country changed, at least for the rest of the day. While things had seemed a bit plain, now we were among some beautiful (i.e. older) buildings, there were more abundant restaurants and retail, and to start things off, a nice little market.

Cascais for us was focused on a square, which included a museum and the city hall, not to mention a Paul bakery. Nearby was the water, with attractive houses standing around. I also took a shot of some beefcake guys playing beach volleyball, in hopes of boosting the blog's ratings with the ladies!

Waterside promenade and houses at Cascais

An attractive museum building on the square.

The Palacio Seixas at Cascais. This was privately built in the 20th century on the remains of a 17th century fort.

We set off along the coast, on a straight run to Lisbon. The straight run, though is 35 km long, so a lot can happen in that distance. At first we followed a bike path by the beach. This was really nice, requiring only to dodge wandering pedestrians . But the pedestrians became too thick and/or the path disappeared, putting us on the road. Being on the road was exhilarating in is way, with cars whizzing around us. Also, being a Sunday, there were a lot of road bikers out. They fearlessly took on the cars, and bolstered our own confidence. The only thing, the closer we got to Lisbon the thicker the cars became. When you are taking one lane but the other one is free, the drivers have to swerve around you, but they have somewhere to swerve to. If it happens that cars are filling up both lanes, than a bike truly is a roadblock. When it got to this point we took to the (cobbled!) sidewalk and/or the beach. It made for very slow going.

The path for us looked pretty good at first.

There were some fun things to look at, like this, which I call a Dr. Seuss plant.

These no doubt related "century plants" looked dramatic against the ocean.

We tried to judge which waves would be good for surfing.

The surfers seemed a skeptical bunch. Mostly they just floated out there.

There were many beaches along the way, filled with sunbathers and surfers.

When we had to take to the road, at first it was reasonable.

But you have to be nuts, or a road biker, to go out among these drivers.

We enjoyed many other sights along the way - like shore birds, colourful sailboats, and older houses facing the tracks.

You actually can see his beak. Identification could be possible.

The railroad tracks are sealing off the beach at this point. We wondered how old these track facing houses were and who built and lived in them.

We got off the road and onto a nice broad and safe swath of concrete, which was being used by lots of other cyclists, runners, baby buggies, etc. At one point a bit of the path had collapsed, creating a large hole, but this was well fenced off. We wondered about that, though, when we arrived at a maddening, perverse, total barricade of the way. Usually there is a way to sneak around such things, but no, whoever dropped the concrete barriers had been very careful to leave no leaks. At first we thought we would need t totally unload, but no, there were lots of people about and soon the bikes were being lifted intact over the barrier. I can report that four people can do this quite easily! As to what was the big idea of the barrier, our best guess is that the city authorities wanted to protect people from the upcoming hole, to which end they were causing untold numbers of hernias!

At last we did come to the "promised" cycle path. And to be sure, this guided us at least 5 km to and through the denser parts of the Lisbon waterfront.

The first of the "official" Lisbon things to see that we came to was the Belem Tower. It is the gateway to Lisbon, on the Tagus river, that enters the ocean at Lisbon. The tower was commissioned by King John II as part of a defence system of the mouth of the river. The tower today served as an introduction for us to how very crowded with tourists Lisbon is. There was a big cluster of people in front of the tower, and it turned out they were queuing to get in, having bought tickets for about 6 euros.

The Belem Tower. Belem is also a nearby district of the city. We missed turning to have a look at it.

Next up was the Padrao dos Descobrimentos, or Discoveries Monument, dedicated to the explorers who established the Portuguese empire in the 14th century.

And now we have the 2 km long "humming bridge" also known as the 25th of April bridge. The 25th of April (1974) is when the government that constructed the bridge in 1966 was overthrown. But the claim to fame is how noisy it is. Perhaps it is the cars on it, or perhaps the wind in the rigging, but you can hear the bridge for a long way.

After the bridge we began to get a feel for what Lisbon is all about. Crowds would be a large part of that - both along the waterfront and into the downtown. And restaurants - again waterfront and downtown. And beautiful buildings - but only downtown. Along the waterfront were some weirdly abandoned ones.

A beautiful part of Lisbon, viewed front the waterfront.

On the waterfront, not that easy to make progress, on road or sidewalk.

At last we came to the huge square that signaled for us the beginning of downtown Lisbon. A street exiting the square seemed to be the major walking street of town. Two other squares along the street made it easy to keep track of where you are. As of this writing, this is the only street we know, so this account may be totally wonky.

The statue in the square. We have no idea who these Portuguese heros were.

After violently opposing non-traditional bagels, I am intrigued by these new and weird pastel de nata versions. Tomorrow I hope to buy a mixed six-pack!

The Santa Justa lift is a gothic iron tower wedged into a narrow street.

Look right and up and you see houses like these, and a fort.

Dodie liked this building. You can see on it's clock that it is already 4 o'clock. It took us two hours to crawl here through the crowds from the Belem Tower.

We realized that our hotel was quite far from the main walking street, so instead of pushing the bikes through the people on the sidewalk, we took to the road. It was in fact quite open and we could make good progress. we had a lane marked for buses and bikes.

Although we were in a lane marked for busses and bikes, a taxi came behind us and started to honk. Then he went around and cut us off, before charging on. I responded by stepping on those pedals, and chased him down at the next light. I pulled beside his open driver's window and shouted "Are you a bus?" "Are you a bike?". "No! This is a bike! What the hell are you doing??" His response was in Portuguese, but somehow I could tell he was not accepting my arguments!

Look Keith and Kathleen, we are standing in front of your hotel!

It was tempting to go into the same hotel that the Classens had used in the Fall. But we found one down the street a little cheaper. It had the further advantage of being called the Hotel Canada . When Dodie showed her passport for identification, the desk clerk said "Welcome Home".

Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 562 km (349 miles)

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Kathleen ClassenYou had quite the day. Somehow we managed to miss the four lane highways. Not sure how…you will have to ask the Chief Navigator! Love the Hotel Canada 🇨🇦.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kathleen ClassenReally curious, since we were following the track sent to us by Keith. Maybe we got off track briefly and were then too focused on not being run off the road to really check the routing details?
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1 year ago

Keith ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesFor the most part it looks like you followed the route we took from Sintra to Cascais except for a bit where we bailed away from the highway. Anyway glad you made it safely into Lisbon. We were a bit frustrated on our first day on our way from Lisbon to Setubal. The EV route goes around the peninsula but have no idea what that would be like. We tried a more direct route which was a bit frustrating at times. Good luck with that section.
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1 year ago

Kathleen ClassenExactly. Keith says I am sadly mistaken and he would know. I have absolutely no memory of four lane highways though. A neat trick, memory. I just remember a glorious ride. I do remember getting soaked though!
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1 year ago

Kathleen ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesI wish I would proof before hitting send. I mean you are exactly right to be curious as the CN says we were on the same roads. It was a Sunday…I wonder if that made a difference traffic wise and is why I don’t remember?
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith ClassenWe may never know what the EV route around the peninsula is like since Steve made a shortcut track more directly to Setubal. It will be interesting to see if it is similar to what you rode. Tomorrow will tell all.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kathleen ClassenGood idea, but no. Today is (was) also Sunday. No real explanation other than maybe selective memory?
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1 year ago

Kathleen ClassenMore like faulty memory!
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1 year ago

david alstonWe were hoping you would get to pedal into Lisbon. When you talked about taking the train I, too, looked back at the Classen's blog having a vague memory of the ride not being totally idyllic. However it happened we are happy that you pedaled from Sintra. Nothing like entering a major city on your bike.

David and Maun
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1 year ago

Brent IrvineThe next section of EV1 southward along the coast has a really bad soft sand section at one point. I mentioned it in my 2019 journal.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo david alstonAlthough the ride along the road was nerve wracking we are also glad we got to ride in.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Brent IrvineThanks for the heads up. We are reading your blog, and the Classens each evening to help us prepare for the next day.
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1 year ago