I couldn’t believe it. I slept in a hostel and nobody snored. It was pretty empty though.
Today’s ride was simple and easy – follow the river / inlet to the coast, then turn left and follow the coast. I hadn’t decided where to stop, but I’m used to only doing 50-60 km days with all of the wet and cold weather around, so I’d probably stop about then.
I looked at my watch and thought I’d slept in and was having a very slow start to the day, but I later realised that Portugal is an hour behind the rest of Europe.
I grabbed some breakfast at the hostel and set off. I have to say that the first part of the ride was pretty boring on the bike path beside the river. It was easy though. Spain was on the other side of the river and looked more developed than the Portuguese side.
As I neared the sea, I could see the foam and white water from the waves – from about a kilometre away. It was a rough day.
I had a decent headwind along the river and thought I’d escape it as I turned and headed south. No such luck. It was a stronger headwind along the coast. I looked for some shelter where I could have my lunch, but it was simply all open and windswept. So I sat on a rock, rugged up and faced away from the wind while I ate.
The rest of the ride was a grind into the wind and the day just seemed to drag on. As I got closer to Viana do Castelo I decided I didn’t want to go any further today, so I sheltered behind an old building and booked a place before completing the last few kms.
I also bumped into a Swiss guy on a loaded touring bike. He was on the road for 7 months and working along the way. He was also sleeping out and in shelters. Clearly, he doesn’t feel the cold. We rode together for a while, but he wanted to ride on the beach if possible, so we went separate ways.
The hotel is nice, but only has two occupants tonight. The town is nice but empty on a Monday night. It’s drizzling to, so all in all, John’s not really getting great vibes from this place.
Tomorrow’s weather should be worse, but I have to learn to take the good with the bad on this trip.
