After a number of days battling Portugal’s mountains in combination with an unrelenting headwind, I basically hit the wall today.
With the temperature hovering around 4 or 5 degrees (I had all three of my long sleeve jumpers on, plus my thermal underwear, plus my long john cycling pants while cycling today), it was extremely hard to get out of bed to get started.
This was basically for two reasons, the temperature and the knowledge that I had a day of solid hill climbing ahead of me.
But after 11 hours sleep (I can’t remember when I have slept so well), I figured I was ready to get stuck into it.
And I was, the only trouble was that I was climbing from as soon as I got on the bike and it didn’t stop for the next 30klms (as you can see from the day’s average speed of just 11.88klm/h), with the road going even higher (about 1100 metres) than the wind turbines that dot every mountain around here.
So with Sabugal in sight I decided that it was time for some R&R so I booked into a hostel where I will spend two nights. At just 25 Euros per night it is great value and from what I can see so far Sabugal is a great city to explore and comes complete with its own historic castle.
As is the case in just about every town in Portugal of reasonable size the local library has free internet available, so I have been diligently working on my next tennis newsletter as well as attending to business, as it were.
After a big sleep in tomorrow I plan to explore the city and generally take it easy to get ready for what lays ahead of me over the next few days.
captions..... Pic 1: The road just keeps going up. Pic 2: Is this the`smallest church in Portugal? Pic 3: An interesting shot I thought Pic 4: I kept cycling up higher than those wind turbines.
great idea to be having some R&R, you do have to remember you are 55...........hahahaha
ReplyDeleteGet some rest and do some sightseeing....without your bike!!! Hope you haven't had to eat anymore pidgeon! Hehe. Love you xoxoxo
ReplyDeletegreat to see you on skype, pity about it being so cold and you having a cold as well. The rest day will do you a lot of good xx
ReplyDeleteHello Gary, You don't know me but I am Betty and Bob's friend,Jennifer. We live up the hill from their house. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I have printed out yr trip so far and they are really enjoying following you day by day. So I will do it as long as I can but next Wednesday, I leave for the UK. And I wont have access to a printer....so unless you have gotten to where you are going by then (don't think so!), I may have to break it off there and pick it up later on. Anyway, I loved reading about all your adventures. Hope it continues to go well.
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