Days 5 & 6 in Portugal 🇵🇹

The ride on Thursday was much easier as there was less climbing involved but we still faced busy traffic as we made our way to Barcelos, with the aim of visiting the open air market which takes place every week.

The journey there was pretty uneventful and we arrived unscathed in Barcelos which was extremely busy due to the popularity of the market. I spoke to a local policeman who recommended we store our bikes outside the police station, which proved a very effective solution. We agreed to cut everyone loose to venture around the market, find some lunch and meet back at the bikes at 2.00pm.

The market was amazing and almost had anything /everything you could possibly want, except cold drinks!! (it seemed). Furniture, clothing, food, plants, household goods, ceramics, souvenirs, shoes, slippers, even a mariachi band, street artists, etc..

Eventually, after much walking, you started to wonder if you had wandered through this part of the market before and slowly a feeling of deja vu appeared. With that, I started venturing further around the town to see if I could track down a shop to buy some cold drinks. It seemed that the only place where you could buy chilled drinks was either a cafe or a bar as convenience stores do not appear to be a thing in Portugal. This town centre also did not have any supermarkets either!

One of the national emblems is the cockerel

I bought two bottles of chilled water at a bar so I could top up my bike bottle for the return journey and then consumed the rest - much needed!!

Finally on this blog, we come to Friday and I led 4 other braves riders up a mountainous climb (8 miles long) to reach a lake on the edge of a national park. Whilst it was a tough ride, the reward was some of the most beautiful scenery we had seen in our short time in Portugal, as well as some gorgeous downhill rides. I will let the photos tell the story!

This was our view as we shared a much needed lunch together!!

The journey home was not quite so demanding until the last few miles and the climb back to Domus House.

And relaxxxxzzzzzzzzzzz!