After a quick service on the bike I set off from my Hotel - the Pensao David and the owner David was extremely helpful even warning me about the condition of the road on Today's descent !
I followed the river for 1 mile then passed the Town sign which I stoppped to photgraph - a good cycle path appeared which I followed and on the way out fo town I passed the waitress who had served me last night for Dinner ,,, "Bom Dias" were exchanged !
Next followd a climb up to 1900 ft through rugged, forested countryside and frequent nasty gradients well over 10%. I got my navigation wrong and was celbrating what seemed an easy climb before I realised i still had 500ft to do !
But in no time I was up the first climb of two big ones today and after 18 miles I had a fast descent down to the river Paivo which would be the start of the second (and big climb of the day)
Afetr the first 500 feet I was in the only Big town before the Doro at Castro Daire - I wanted to stop for lunch but there seemed to be a dearth of cafes. I had to find someweher before the climb and after perservering I spotted a cafe bar with a few table outside .. perfect.
I went in and it was rammed and chaotic - I eventually gained the one guy running the places attention and ordered a Bifana and coke to eat outside in my perfect Portuguese - I think anything else in here wouldnt have worked !
It actually arrived quickly and hit the spot - but I did go in for another coke to hydrate myself before the climb.
I had to climb to 3000ft and wondered if the legs would be good - they were more than , but to be fair the gradient was execllent at a constant 5-6% - Again when i reached 3000ft at a plateau I stopped to celebrat with a picture by the N2 marker stone ,,, again I was premature and the actual top would be 3207 ft - Iwas disappointed, this meant the very top 2ft of Scafell Pike were higher tham me, that said I was actually higher than the entirity of England other than that.
I took numerous pictures on the 18 mile descent, which I think is the furthest I have ever done (perhaps the Bernina in Switzerlad was longer) but the secnery was awesome. At Lamega I was naviagting some twisty cobbled streets when I emerged onto the High Street and a local stopped me asking where i was going - he had apssed me somewhere on the route and was interested - probelm is he asked so much detail an HE dropped into English meaning I was speking English for the first time in 2 days ... Dissappointing !
The descent continued passing spectacular terraces of vines and quaint villages before suddenly I was crossing the Douro on one of three bridges - I was on an Iron framed wooden decked pedestrian bridge and upstream were a conctrete arched road bridge and way up in the sky the motorway crossed on a huge concrete viaduct.
I took a few pictures of some tiles in town and of the sunset over the Douro with Mr Sandeman watching by.