Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

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Overview of my Iberian Coast to Coast Cycle ride

For my regular readers, all the previous posts are updated with Flickr links
Its been a reasonable 1,000-mile bike ride at an average of 56 miles  (90km) a biking day (it’s the first question everyone asks me).

Things I’ve maybe learnt:

a) It’s hopelessly impractical to do long distance train journeys in Europe with a touring bike may be just about on your own but for two well I wish you both best of luck 🙁 Even two Brompton’s would be a challenge. Stick to planes or the various ferries maybe even coaches.

b) Southern Spain Andalucia is excellent for winter biking and with Mallorca getting overcrowded with bikes it’s certainly worth a go, Quiet, excellent roads, good weather and relatively inexpensive. Portugal isn’t really suitable for road biking, off-roading it’s probably OK.

c) Audaxing in Spain in winter is certainly a lot more pleasant than the UK and straightforward.

Here is my fun spreadsheet of the trip with links to all my blog posts etc: Note: This sheet will get updated automatically

A day exploring Coimbra

Tuesday, February 27th, 2018

You can look but do not touch!

Following a previous comment on this blog from my friend and former wealth creator Pete. I decided to visit Coimbra the site of Portugals oldest university founded in 1290,  Not Europes which is Bologna in Italy founded in 1088, btw Cambridge is 1209.

I decided, thankfully, to leave the bike in the hotel and take the train and walk around Coimbra. My Old man’s fare was €22 return. The train was an InterCity and interestingly had space to hang two conventional bikes at the end of each carriage we smoothly went along at 200kph so the trip only took just over 2 hours.

The university sits atop the hill so a fair climb up cobbled streets initially I wandered about the geological part of the museum looking at what I guess is their first geological map some 90 years younger than Smiths UK one.

I eventually found a formal tour around the science bits of the museum. It’s like a museum of a museum, everything is as it was labelled probably 100 odd years ago! Interesting in itself but no life in the exhibits at all. I just hope when the New New Cavendish gets built we will get a decent Physics Museum in Cambridge. Wouldn’t it be incredible to convert the original Cavendish back as it was with working replicas of the original stuff, pity they demolished the original DNA lab to make hideous bike racks.

The science then moved into Zoology with there collection of stuffed animals seemingly a focus on animals with two heads!

Later I did a little tour of the ornate Baroque Library I wonder when the last time a book left its shelves.

The town itself is a retail museum with shops out of the 1950’s full of counters with drawers and boxes with I thought way to much formal garb but incredible fruitcake in the cafe.

An interesting day out especially meeting Vasco on the train home who let me share his taxi from the station in the rainstorm back to the hotel.

Loads of photos here:

A DNF ride to end Portugal cycling.

Monday 26th February 2018

I liked  Lost Lisbon Hotel & Casa de Pasto restaurant in Portugal so much, even with the walk to the toilet, that I decided to stay here all week and return home on  Friday for Sally’s Cambridge Half Marathon this upcoming weekend.

Monday had rain forecast in the afternoon so I planned a little route along the riverfront then up to  Sintra and back before the rain started at midday.

Perfect for this very questionable attempt at a cycle path!

What a nightmare! the river cycling route is a total mish-mash of paths with right-angled bends & cobbled surfaces which if you miss the bend you are in the drink  or cycling on the humungous wide road with the railway in the centre, all a total nightmare, it started raining early and at Cruz Quebrada I just gave up, Portuguese road biking is not pleasant and so I made my way back more or less the way I came. Not a great ending to the bike trip but made me pleased that I didn’t hang about in Spain too long as the wind & rain would have been deeply unpleasant when touring.

The Strava:

and Flickr

Final day of Iberian ride Beja to Lisbon Ferry

Saturday, February 24, 2018

The impending storm with its heavy rain fast approaching and the bike fixed I thought I would make this one long final riding day in the sun. One factor in my favour was a fair bit of the distance was downhill.

Hotel Santa Barbara provided an early breakfast at 7 am so I was on my way before half-past seven with the bike working perfectly and empty roads I made good time.

road, planing
Notice the road planer scour marks & crazy paving

As the day became busier it became even clearer why Portugal is a nightmare country for road biking. Although most of the day there was a parallel motorway no one uses it! as its a toll road. So drivers & trucks still hurdle down the old road trying to prove to themselves its just as fast as the motorway this coupled with the dire state of the ‘hard shoulder’ made even worse by the guy with the road planer making seemingly random furrows down the sides of the road make it a very hazardous experience.

All boxed in!

I was pleased to get off and go down into the pleasant riverside town of Alcacer do Sol to recover and get some lunch!  After passing through Aguas de Moura the last part of the ride I had decided to try a part of the official Ecovia 11 (Lisboa – Badajoz) cycleway 🙁 why o why did I do that? when will I learn that official cycleways are for young fit guys on mountain bikes with plenty of time! Total nightmare the track soon deteriorated into the very fine sand of varying depths would I ever make it to the ferry! to make matters worse the Open Street Map was only partially complete (unsurprisingly) and Google Maps was even worse than usual. Eventually, after doing a loop I found tarmac and picked up speed again. Finally making the ferry at Cais do Seixalinho just as the sun was setting 🙂

I had chosen the Lost Lisbon, Cais House due to its proximity to the ferry terminal truly an impressive residence although carrying the bike up 3 floors was hard after biking 111 miles and pedalling through sand! My room is massive the only downside is that the rooms are not en-suite but everything else is truly impressive.

So that’s the end of the jaunt across the Iberian Penisula!

Here is the Strava:

The Flickr pics are here: