May 3, 2022 - Peniche to Praia Azul (Silveira) - Return to Cycle-OPOLIS (Tour 22) - 2022 🇵🇹

May 3, 2022

May 3, 2022 - Peniche to Praia Azul (Silveira)

Hugging the Atlantic; hugging the hills

Hotel - Hotel Apartamento Praia Azul, Rua Da Varandinha, Silveira

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Today's route was a home run. Or at least they hit it out of the park. Or got a hole-in-one. Or a hat trick. I wasn't snookered. The yellow jersey was won? I don't know, but the route wiggled and waggled along the coast and was absolutely amazing. Cove after beach after view after cliff... after screaming descent followed by a murderous climb. Again, no shame for the walkers here. I walked up many a climb. I estimated one of them to be in the range of 20%. Walking was difficult.

Today was worth its weight in gold. Helping things out was the breeze that started this morning from the north then became a stiff breeze froms the north then became a really strong 50+ km/h wind. As I type this now, it might be even stronger as the waves crash and roar just outside the patio doors of my room.

I had just left town when my route took my past yet another beautiful beach view. -- Peniche, Portugal

Sticking to EV1 today had me well away from roads for the most part. Instead, I followed many dirt roads through the fields, here row upon row of patotoes. -- south of Peniche, Portugal

As the crow flies, the route was only 25 km or so but with all of the winding along the coast, it almost doubled to 48 km. Not exactly sure of this bit of math, I had taken my breakfast at 8:30 am. There was an amazing assortment of goodies including the bready-style croissant with nutella inside. I might have enjoyed that. Once I was all fed-up I carted down the bike from the storage room (a former rentable room but no longer since local laws require a window as an emergency exit which it does not have).

I thanked the owners and headed back out across the bridge and then south along a nice quiet bike path. This is when I saw that Peniche was, indeed, still a fishing town. There were many large and small fishing vessels just south of town along with what must have been a packing plant, or at least a plant to lay out fish so people cycling by could smell them!

Soon I was into small villages along the coast which were beautiful, and really, much nicer than Peniche itself. Peniche was nice but not 'amazing'.

And this is what the road-ish parts looked like, with the blue Atlantic over to my left and winds up to 50+ km/h at my back. -- south of Peniche, Portugal

A few EV1 diversions to the coast were really tough but the views were spectacular. -- south of Peniche, Portugal

The route would have me zipping along southward then suddenly it would veer straight west toward the coast, then would quickly drop like a rock down to a small village in a cove on a beach. Each one must have its share of surfers in warmer weather because there was always some type of sign or poster or indication that surfers were welcome.

It always amazes me to see flowers that we plant on purpose and with care, here grow wild alongside the road. Today I saw many poppies, nasturtiums (sp?) and lillies growing with wild abandon. -- north of Praia Azul, Portugal

There was one particular cove that was really, really, nice, with a descent that I got up to 55 km/h but started braking in case some little thing happened, and brought the speed back down to about 36 km/h which is still fast when going down - that means there is a lot of 'up' that you are losing and will have to make up. In that particular town I really paid with a 20% climb and decided then that it was time to set the GPS to go toward the hotel and stop winding along the coast. My legs were starting to wear out and so was I.

On this route the old-style windmills have been converted to homes which is a nice use rather than letting them fall apart. -- near Praia Azul, Portugal

I still had about 17 km to go and the road was still winding to and fro, so I did not arrive at my hotel til around 1 pm which made for a lot of cycling today with all of the climbs. The booking site said that check-in time was not until 4 pm and nobody was in the lobby, so I went around to the ocean side... and WOW. What a view of the beach below with its huge crashing waves. The restaurant was on the water side so I took a table inside against one of the windows so I could both watch the waves and keep an eye on my bike, though not many people were around.

I gobbled up the olives, salad, and my cod meal then I got a message from the hotel saying that my room was ready and I could check in whenever I was ready. Yay!

'Just' another beach. All day. I'm not sure how I got anywhere on the bike, I stopped so often to take pics or take in the views. -- near Praia Azul, Portugal

There have not been many vineyards, and I assume because the cold salty winds might be too much for these poor little vine-lets! -- near Praia Azul, Portugal

When the lady at the desk said I could put my bike in their garage I asked if the room would be ok since the bike is clean. As long as I didn't mind carrying it upstairs, though, because there were no other ocean-view rooms on the first floor. The staircase was wide and shallow so it was easy. This is actually an apartment since there were no hotels around as far as I could see on the booking site. I have my bedroom, a living/kitchen area and a WC with a bath tub! Both my bedroom and the living room have patio doors that face the ocean and its roaring waves, so I think it will be an open door policy tonight to listen to the water.

I am just about to head outside and down to the beach to take a walk and as I look out I see why this is called the Silver Coast - once again, the colour of the sun shining on the ocean spray is very definitely silvery.

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 435 km (270 miles)

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