Bernie and Linda's Blog: Back to Spain

After a hot and busy summer we are off, once again, on a travel adventure. We have returned to Spain and with a side trip to Portugal, at the beginning of this 2 month trip.

When we left Spain last November we left the motorcycle with IMT Bike Tours in Barcelona and we returned to Barcelona on Tuesday, Sept 12. We spent 2 days in Barcelona, acclimatizing to the time change (9 hours from Pacific time), preparing the bike for travel and taking a nice long walking tour of the city.

We booked a multi-leg international flight with Air Canada from Calgary to Barcelona with a stopover in Toronto to visit Linda's family. We are finding that the multi-leg booking works well for us. You can stopover for almost any length of time at intermediate points for a much cheaper fare than booking individual flights. Our Multi-leg flight goes from Calgary to Toronto to Barcelona then returns from Valencia to Calgary with a layover in Frankfurt. In this case the stopover in Toronto added about $130 each to the total cost of the flight. Also on international flights, checked baggage (first bag) is free of charge. This also applies to the Calgary-Toronto leg, so that saves a few extra bucks.

As I sit down to finish this blog entry, we are in our rented house in Olvera, Spain, almost 3 weeks into our trip.

Barcelona

Barcelona is a busy city but it is easy to find your way around. Last time we were here we took the metro but this time we decided to walk. We stayed in a hotel near the bike storage in Sants, a district of Barcelona. From our hotel to the Plaza Barcelona and old town Barcelona (the touristy area) was a 30 to 35 minute. Then we walked to the beach / marina through the old town and returned up the La Rambla and picked another route back to the hotel though Plaza Catalunya. In all, we walked for about 3 hours though a mix of narrow streets and tree lined boulevards. It was nice to get some exercise after the long flight.

Except for the main tourist areas the city was not crowed, the sidewalks are generally quite wide. There are plenty of nice outdoors bars and cafes in all areas of Barcelona. We stopped in a couple of them for a drink and a bite to eat. The weather was perfect.


Wide boulevard street

Typical sidewalk cafe

Relaxing along La Rambla

Dedicated bicycle paths all over town

We left Barcelona around 10 am on Sept 14th. For me, it is a challenge to drive or ride in the cities. Not only are the roads very busy but the rules of the road and the driving customs are different then those to which we are accustomed. For example: When you reach and intersection with a green traffic light and a stop sign, what do you do? Stop or go? We still don't have the answer to this question. Since the crossing traffic was stopped, we proceeded with caution though the intersection.

Our plan is to ride from Barcelona for Porto, Portugal. Stay in Porto for a couple of days and then explore the coast of Portugal before returning into Spain and heading to the town of Olvera, where we have rented a house for a month. We decided to put in a couple for longer day and stick to the main highways for the first couple of days. In the first 2 days we covered over 800K. The last 3 days of the trip to Porto were much shorter travel days. I booked hotel rooms in advance along this route using booking.com. Advanced bookings seems to work well for us on these parts of the trip. The hotels are sometimes difficult to locate and it is not easy find parking and walk around looking for a place with all the motorcycle gear on.

Zaragoza

Our first stop on was in the city of Zaragoza, the capital of the province of Aragon. Another advantage of having the hotel booked in advance is that you can use the GPS to lead you to it. We did not have much information about Zaragoza but we were pleasantly surprised. We found a great little tapas restaurant in the historic part of town and had a very good meal. We would have liked to have stayed longer.

Downtown Zaragoza, looking toward the palace

Our next stop was on the outskirts of Valladolid. A very plain hotel in the middle of an industrial area. Linda was not impressed but I made up for it by lucking into much nicer accommodation the next 2 nights.

Zamora

From Valadolid we rode only 130K to the town of Zamora, located on the Douro river. The Douro river originates in north-central Spain and winds its way to the Atlantic Ocean. In Zamora we stayed in small hotel on the edge of the old town, close to the river. In the photo below, the hotel, Hosteria Real de Zamora, is located on the far right of the photo. There is a car parked in front of the entrance. It is a very nice place to stay.

interesting statue in a town plaza

One of the older narrow bridges. Now a pedestrian and bicycle bridge.

The Douro River forms part of the boundary between Spain and Portugal before turning west again though the port wine district and the city of Porto. We followed and crossed the Douro many time on our route from Valladolid to Porto. Our crossing into Portugal was over a single lane hydro dam. Like all of Europe, there is no check point. The only way that we knew we had entered Portugal was the welcoming sign and the one hour time change on the GPS.

Entering Port Wine winery area.

Porto Wine County

The terrain is quite hilly and the roads are quite narrow. After a few kilometres we found our way into a nice two lane highway, IC5, that led us over the hils and back into the Douro River valley and through the town of Pinhao. Our destination that day was Casa Cimeira, located 5K from Pinhao along N222 then about 5K on a steep winding road up the side of the river valley.

Casa Cimeira is a small "hotel" (6 or 7 rooms) located on a winery overlooking the river and many other wineries. We knew nothing about Casa Cimeira before booking it because it looked nice and was half way between Zamora and Porto (in travel time). Some time you luck in. This was one of those occasions!

We arrived at Casa Cimeira mid afternoon. Miguel, the owner greeted us and made space for us to park beside his moto. He showed us around the common area, pool, bar etc. and then poured each a large glass of his port and instructed us to relax while he prepared the room. A nice start to our stay... but it got better.

Our "room" was a suite with bedroom, siting room and a huge bathroom. Very comfortable. After a refreshing shower we found some chairs in the shade by the pool and chatted with other guests. As I mentioned Casa Cimeira is located on a small winery but it is not isolated from other residences. The wineries are small, some only a few acres in size and there are house also built along the road. Never the less, it would be difficult to go out for dinner. No problem, Miguel and his family prepare a meal for the guests every night.

We were instructed to show up in the bar for cocktails and nibblies at 5:30. Here we could socialize until dinner was ready. Miguel served white port along with the appetizers. Linda and I started chatting with a young lady, Stephanie, who was French but lived in Italy and worked in Switzerland. She and her husband are owners a Moto Guzzi and had recently returned from a trip though Norway, so we had a common interest.

When dinner was ready we all (14 of us) moved into the dining room. We sat at a long wide table filled with a variety of plates, foods and bottles of wine. We were served a fabulous 3 course meal before returning to the bar for after dinner brandy.

The meal was a huge highlight of the trip so far. The guests were from Italy, Sweden, France, Australia, England and Canada. The conversation around the table fluctuated between English, French and Italian with a smattering of Portuguese. I was amazed, with my old French and more recent Spanish studies, that I could understand parts of the conversation in both French and Italian.

Breakfast was also provide in the morning. Both meals were prepared by Miguel and his family with loving attention to detail. Before leaving we traded contact info with Stephanie and are hoping to see her again in Canada or Italy.

We didn't ask how much dinner and breakfast would cost. There really wasn't a comfortable choice. The room rate was 70 Euros. Dinner, including all the drinks, appetizers and wine was 20 Euros each. Excellent value!

I wish that I had taken some photos of Casa Cimeira and the dinner. There are lots of photos on Trip Advisorif you are interested.

Porto

Our ride into Porto was interesting. We opted to avoid the toll roads in favour of the secondary highways. Several roads follow the Douro river to Porto but there are two secondary highway, one on the north side of the river and the other on the south side. To call either of these roads a "highway" would be a rather large exaggeration.

I had planned to take N222, the southern route, but after speaking to some other MC riders I decided on N108 on the north side. I was told the N222 was very curvy and terribly slow. They told me that the N108 was a better choice. The distance from Casa Cimeira to Porto is about 135K. Even on the "better" road it took us almost 4 hours to reach our destination. Albeit, some of this time was spent following Mr. Garmin around in circles, trying to find the access road to our accommodation. After the third false GPS location, a phone call to the owner got us down the correct road, hardly wide enough for a car.

Luis was waiting for us, helped with a parking spot and showed us into our suite. We had rented an airbnb suite for the 2 nights we stayed in Porto. The suite was in a new building, built on the ruins of an older building, on the edge of the old port area. Called Oscar's Place after Oscar the lamp.

Meet Oscar...

Other than the difficulty finding it, Oscar's Place is great. Luis and Christina are wonderful hosts. The location is within easy walking distance of the main tourist attractions in Porto. The buildings contain 3 suites with ample common area. Also there is small yard with a beautiful garden overlooking the river. Highly recommended.

Linda standing in the main access road to Oscar's Place

Oscar's entrance is the red door on the last building on the left.

This was my parking spot on the sidewalk.

For Harry Potter fans, this is the book store in which J.K. Rowling had worked. It is said to have inspired her with it's design and interior space. Also the student at the university, located a few metres to left of this photo wear black gowns and these too were an influential inspiration. Or so the story goes... believe it or not.

There is generally a line up to get into the shop. The price of entry is 4 euro.

Livraria Lello - Porto

As I mentioned our suite was a little bit of the beaten path and as luck would have it the other suite in our accommodation was occupied by a gal (another Linda) from Calgary, traveling solo. She arrived a few hours after us. Linda and I had had enough time wander around and get our bearings before Linda 2 arrived. It was just getting dark when we were just heading out for dinner so we invited Linda 2 to join us. We found a nice little cafe close by and enjoyed nice meal.

The next day we wandered around the city centre. We didn't go in the book store. In fact we didn't go to any of the main tourist attractions. The city was super busy. There were tour groups all over the place almost tripping over each other, with line ups for the main attractions. Porto is nice place though. The people are friendly, especially the waiters that we met. They all spoke English but put up with my halting attempts at Portuguese and helped with my pronunciation.

When we were at Casa Cimeira in the wine district, one of our fellow guests told us about a restaurant that was recommend to him. A slightly out of the way tapas bar down a side street behind the railway station. He told us that it was filled with mostly locals and that a reservation was needed. While I was working on some modifications to the bike, Linda searched out the "Tapabento - Bar Restaurant" and made a reservation. She made the reservation for 3 and we asked Linda 2 to join us. I have to admit that was very good!

Our selection of tapas. I can't remember what they were called. One is a cheese plate the other a tuna and bacon plate, a salad and one other item. I aslo had a bowl of soup and we shared a bottle of wine.

From Porto we followed the Atlantic coast south. We had booked an apartment for 3 nights on the south coast of Portugal, in the Algarve district, in the the village of Burgau. This gave us 6 days to travel 650K from Porto to Burgau. Our average distance per day worked out be 130K or about 2 1/2 hours riding time. Each day we would plan our next days route and destination, then look on line at the accommodation options. For one or two nights stops we used booking.com to make reservations. For longer stays we used Airbnb or Homeaway (VRBO).

Aveiro

Our first stop was in the city of Aveiro only 80K south of Porto. Aveiro is situate on the coast in a low lying area not much above sea level. Canals running though the town are filled with colourful tour boats. It was much more tranquil location than central Porto.

We found a cute little guest house here called Casa do Cais. It is a house that operates like a mini hotel. The guests each have their own room with en-suite and share the common space. The owner / operator lives off site and you call him when you arrive. He comes over to show you around help get you settled.

Aveiro is know as the "Venice of Portugal"

Casa do Cais is the green tile fronted building.


The inside of the main floor of Casa do Cais. This photo was taken from the door to our room looking forward through the kitchen area and the living area to the entrance.

Obligatory Selfie

Here are a couple of examples of Portuguese architecture. The tile fronts on these building are very common and quite attractive.

NAZARE

Nazare is popular beach town know for it's enormous waves. The world record for largest surfed waves was set in Nazare, 28.3 metres crest to trough. While we were there there weren't any waves like this. It does have a huge beach which at this time of year, was almost deserted. The temperatures, along the Atlantic coast, are cooler than the inland temperature. Still, the midday temps were in the low 20s.

There are a variety of beach towns along the coast between Porto and Lisbon. One could spend quite a bit of time exploring these beach towns. We decide to stop in an inland town the following night. Many people with whom we had chatted spoke highly of Sintra so we decided to check it out.

Sunset from a beach strip cafe

The next morning clouds had moved in as went for our morning stroll.

Sintra

Sintra is a region of Portugal. It is located west-north-west of Lisbon. The city of Sintra is one of three cities in the region. It is considered to be part of the Portuguese Riviera. It is hilly terrain and it is dotted with palaces ans castles, old and new. Word has it that Madonna recently bought a house in Sintra.

We stayed in beautiful old house in the centre of Sintra's historic area. Casa daVila 1C (as it is listed in Booking.com) When we arrived there was a note beside the door to call Dulce. She arrived in seconds and gave us a tour of the property and our room. We had decide to stay in Sintra for two nights. We were a day ahead of schedule for our Algarve booking but also Sintra is a good walking town. Mostly all up and down, but nice paths and trails.

On our second day in Sintra we hiked, just over an hour, up paths and trails to the old Moor fortress. It was a good idea to get an early start. Even walking up we beat the tour bus and were the first into the castle. It was very nice to be ahead of the crowds, especially o the narrow castle walk ways and towers.

If you are coming to Portugal, put Sintra on your list. The only problem with Sintra is the volume of tourists. I'm aware of the irony of this comment, but it is crazy busy in all the main tourist areas that we have visited. Dulce, the owner of the house we rented a room from, told us that this year, tourism has been overwhelming. She and others we talked to blamed instability in other tourist areas that had driven more tourists to Portugal. I don't know if this is true or not but one thing is very evident to us... Most of the travellers are mobile baby-boomers who have the money, time and health to travel... and that number is increasing.

Fortunately there are still some under-publicized locations that are not so busy. I guess it depends what you are looking for as a traveller. If you want to see the popular sites, it is hard to avoid the crowds.

The narrow road to the bike parking

Casa da Vila

Looking down on old town Sintra from the castle

Inside the castle walls looking east.

Inside the castle walls looking west.


Pena National Palace on the top rung.

Vila Nova de Milfonte

After our visit to Sintra we decided to look for a more "out of the way" place. Milfonte was our choice. A small beach town part way between Sintra and Burgau. We picked out a cheap guest house on Booking.com and wandered down the back roads to Milfonte.

Our instructions were to register at a sister hotel near the beach, pick up the key, then go back a kilometre to their guest house. When we reached the hotel, it looked like a better location, so we asked if they had a room. The young gal at the desk was very helpful. She explained that there was one small room but we could have it for the same price as the guest house. (E38) We took her up on the offer.

It didn't take long for us to figure out that Vila Nova de Milfonte was a charming little town that match our style of travel. Located on the wide mouth of the Rio Mira, it has a good selection of beaches and surf break. A good selection of restaurants and stores. Inexpensive accommodation and a variety of outdoor activities. The hotel had bikes, surfboards, kayaks and paddle boards for rent.

We could see ourselves spending more time in Vila Nova de Milfonte. A mix of younger and older travellers is important to us. This mix gives the town a much different feel than themore popular tourist areas we had just visited.

Looking back from the point. This beach in the river lagoon. The ocean waves break outside the mouth of the river.

This sculpture is pretty cool. It sets the tone of town.

It says....

"This is not Sintra!"

Another shot of the lagoon beach with the town in the background.

How long did it take to build all these balance rock structures? all above the high water mark

The Algarve and the Village of Burgau

The Algarve district is the popular beach area that runs the length of the southern coast of Portugal. We chose the small town of Burgau, located almost at the far western end of the Algarve. From the town to the south-western point of Portugal is all park land. The coast is mainly cliffs with small beaches dispersed along the coast. There are trails along the cliffs that can be used on foot, horse or bicycle, that links the towns and beaches.

Also the weather along the southern coast is generally a few degrees warmer than the western Atlantic coast so the beach season is a little longer. Below are a couple of shots of Burgau from the cliff on both sides of town. As you can see, it is not very big but there is a good selections of stores and restaurants. We rented a 2 bedroom condo from Homeaway and stay here for 3 nights.

Each morning we walked the trails along the cliffs to the next town or beach. Going east the trails were a bit more level. Really only one good hill to go over. In the other direction it was almost continuously up and down.

Each day we managed to make it to this beach bar for Sangria and chips.

We enjoyed our time at this little town as well. Laid back, not crowded and friendly.

A closer look at the beach.


Security and safety are paramount.

Cool way to decorate the garage wall.

On to Olvera with a stop in San Juan del Puerto

Burgau was our last stop in Portugal. Now we are heading off on a 2 day ride to Olvera, Cadiz. In Olvera we have rented a house for a month and we are looking forward to our stay.

On the toll roads this would be a 4 hour drive but we have been avoiding the toll roads. On this trip we want to stay on the roads that take us though the communities, so a 4 hour drive takes twice the time. We booked a hotel in San Juan del Puerto, a small town in the suburbs of Huelva a few kilometres past the halfway point.

It is always different when you stay in a town that is not used to seeing tourists. We are easily recognized as someone that is not local but if you say hello or good afternoon in the native language you generally receive a smile and a return good day. The other thing that you notice is the price difference. Everything is cheaper.

We stopped for lunch in the town of Tavira, Portugal. This is a coastal tourist town, not far from the Spanish border. From our short break, it looked like a nice place. A good part about travelling by motorcycle is the ability to park just about anywhere the bike will fit. In this case we pulled up on the side walk between some barricades and parked behind the BMW. We left the helmets and jackets with the bike and went to the cafe for lunch. At first we didn't lock the helmets and jackets but locals approached us and suggested that we lock them or take them with us. We brought a couple of light weight cable locks for these occasions.

The final days ride to Olvera was only 2 1/2 hours in total. We stayed in San Juan for the morning and hit the road around noon. Most of this leg was ridden on 4 and 2 lane highways. We passed through the outskirts of Seville, so the roads were very busy.

Our plan was to stop for lunch / dinner before every thing closes at 2 pm. As luck would have it no restaurants appeared on our route. Then I remembered that we had eaten at the abandoned railway station in Puerto Serrano last year when we bicycled on the Via Verde rail trail. The restaurant there is open all day for passing cyclist. This town was on our route so we detoured into town and found the station. We were finishing up a nice meal when a friend from Olvera, who has a bicycle tour company, showed up with some clients. We had already been in contact with Geoff to rent some bikes. I was nice chance encounter.

Arriving in Olvera, we found our way up to the top of the hill where our rental house is located. Our rental, Casa Resolana, is located in the area of town that would, at one time, have been within the walled area of the castle. Some parts of the walls can still be seen. The streets are too narrow for cars but we were able to get the bike to the house.

It was nice to unpack and get settled, then wander downtown and pickup a few groceries. We will spend a few days getting organized.

Location of Olvera is indicated by the red pointer.

We have rented Casa Resolana for one month. We chose Olvera as our base location for few reasons. Olvera is located almost dead centre of Andalucia with easy access to variety of interesting locations and activities.

Front our rooftop patio we are looking into the mountains of Sierra de Grazalema national park.
The Mediterranean coast and Jerez are only an 1hour and a half by car. Cordoba not much further and Sevilla just over and hour away.

The weather here is perfect at this time of year. The forecast for the next two weeks is sunny, with high temperature between 22 and 26.

Sunset

Olvera is located on a the Via Verde de las Sierras. This is an abandoned rail line turned into walking / bicycling trail.

Olvera is not too touristy. There is a small expat community here and we have met a few of them, Canadian, Belgians, Swedes,Scots & Brits last year and enjoyed their company.

We plan to use the motorcycle for day trips and an overnight trip or two. Thursday we are going to explore parts of the nation park and overnight in Ronda before returning to Olvera on another route.

Sunrise

These photos on the right were taken from the patio the night we arrived and the next morning. Right now we are in Central European Central Time, one hour later than GMT. Sunset is about 8:00 and sunrise is 8:15.

Morning temperatures between 14 and 17.