We took a bunch of pictures then made our way to Sabugal. The minute you crest the hill into Sabugal, the notable landmark is another giant castle. This one is just a tower, doesn't have a town inside. It's been nicely restored into an outdoor concert area. The walls are probably 50 feet high, with the main tower probably being 120 feet. I'm guessing here, but it's really tall. I didn't step out onto the balconies cause the tiny little railings didn't do it for me. I think photos are at www.cm-sabugal.pt.
After that we drove south to Malcata which is by a nature reserve (kind of like a future Bragg Creek cause "reserve" doesn't mean they keep forestry from chopping down trees, so lots of it is row planted pines. We bought some groceries at the mini mercado, which is always fun. The lady had big cheese wheels, but said she didn't want to slice it into smaller portions because it would be crumbly and not make nice slices. So she handed me a knife and let me take a chunk out of the block. Cheese is good when bought 50m from the local artisan cheese producer house. Our other sandwich ingredients were a fresh tomato, some sardines in a spicy oil, and a round loaf of dense bread with a thick crust. Tori did wine duty. Across the street from her store was a flowing potable water fountain with a big pool, so we filled up our bottles with fresh cold water.
We were in the park for about 3 hours, two of which was riding, and the rest was a little bike pushing, photo stops and rest stops. I forgot my bike shoes at the place we stayed at last night, so I had the pleasure of riding in Adidas. It was fine until the very end when the cumulative effect of lack of support kicked in. We rode forestry roads mostly, it was nice rolling hills. Weather and scenery were great, from the good vantage points you could see a half a dozen towns in the area. Only half the wind turbines were even moving today, not much of a breeze at all.
We drove back to Sortelha to get my shoes, the lady knew right away, I didn't even have to try to motion that my zapatas de bicycletta were lost. She had washed them, and my socks, and had them in a little plastic bag. To say I was impressed is a complete understatement.
We drove to Belmonte to check it out, but didn't want to pony up for the pousada, and the other place we could find was a rather gaudy looking hotel (we haven't been in a place yet with a flourescent light sign out front, and wouldn't mind keeping it that way). We decided to drive to Manteigas, a mountain town that was 25km away on an exquisitly twisty mountain road. Tori honed in on an 18th century building of some sort now doing hotel duty called Casa das Obras.
Ok, be forewarned that this is a driving story, and it's basically the funnest one yet. I love driving, as long as it's fun (ie challenging/active, not just "dumb" commuting).
Supposedly, you follow the signs at each corner and it's easy to find the hotel. After the interstate type road ended, we were down to town cobbles. Followed the road along the base of the town hill, then turned an abrupt right once we spotted the sign up a steep hill. Half way up, it was clear the grade wasn't going to allow second gear to happen, our eyes were big with how steep the road was. Another right had us traversing the hill again, until we saw a left arrow up what looked like a driveway... it was even steeper than the prior hill, and instead of 20 feet wide it was 12. I hook left and start climbing, then we do another 30 degrees left so we're going straight up the hill. At this point, Tori is white knuckling the door handles, and I'm just hoping for the best. We see a yield sign, which means this is a two way street. It's maybe 14 feet wide, but has 3 story buildings on either side which diminish the feeling of width. More importantly, it's got a row of cars parked on the right hand side. It's SO STEEP that in first gear the engine is grumbling badly - I've got two choices - either pin it to keep a good RPM and not stall, or feather the clutch and navigate the squeeze more slowly. On that kind of an incline, #2 wasn't my split second choice, stalling here would be misery. Getting moving again, even with some cheating by using the hand brake to prevent rollback, would be super hard. There was a pedestrian 30 feet up the road, but when they hear cars they jump into building doorways or between cars. Did I mention it's dark with no streetlights, only light coming out of building windows? There's a Toyota truck with a flatbed on the right, with it's square metal bed at exactly the height of my mirror. On the left is a wall of a building, that's covered in paint and knicks from cars. Half way along the wall is an eaves trough drain that robs another 3". I was holding about 15km/h, and the space on both sides to play with totalled 6". Frankly I can't believe we made it. I catch my breath for a second, turn the temperature control on my side down to "frio", then make a left to traverse across the hill. The traverse pleasingly ends in a wide open cobble area, and as I look up the hill there's an arched stone bridge. To the right of the arch, there's a sign that says 2m clearance, and the road goes straight up behind it. The hole is tall, so I realize it's 2m wide. There's paint scrapes on both sides. And the hill behind is the steepest yet. There's only one way out, and I figure the little Peugeot isn't the widest car in town, and as per a friend of mine checking, it's 173cm wide. Let's just round and say I've got 15cm per side to work with... I'm sure that's fine for a dark, off camber, steep as can be street. I cheat with the hand brake to start, and rip through the gap with what feels like no space to spare on either side. As we climb the grade, I can feel the tires skipping/spinning on the cobbles. I look ahead and see a sharp right, covered in paint. The right juts out into the lane, making it nearly impossible to swing wide, all I can think of is wrapping the passenger side rear door on the wall. Clearly, others have swung too wide, as the left wall is full of dents and paint right where my bumper is headed. I concentrate on keeping my bumper safe and hoping that the rest of the car will follow. The second we make it around that corner the road starts narrowing again, and the houses on the left have steps jutting onto the cobbles. It keeps narrowing, Tori is panicing, then it suddenly meets a wide, paved street. I can't even believe that road exists for traffic, it's a must do!
Funny thing is, we can't pick up any more hotel signs, so we've lost it. We find our way back down a similar road, but there's a turn that physically can't be made in a car, unless you a) decide to back down instead of drive forward, or b) have a car that steers like a forklift with the rear wheels. We make it down the bobsleigh run, complete with hairpin turns, and start at the very bottom again with sign #1. As it turns out, the part with the cars parked on the right is where the hotel was. It was on the left and is easily identified by a 15cm square plaque on the wall in the dark. This time, now that I'm all practiced up, life turned it up a notch and a van was coming down. Backing down the slope in the dark, then part way around a corner, and sliding over such that he could pass is probably one of the harder driving feats I've had. I was constantly looking over to see what the panel of figure skating judges was going to award for technical difficulty and style.
Funny thing was, the place was full. We decided to work the phone and call around to find a vacancy before engaging in another driving exam. I make my way back up the road of no return, then down the bobsleigh track, and hit the main road. 5 unexciting minutes later and we're checked in and ready for a shower.
We're having a great time exploring castles, taking photos, biking, shopping for food, and driving/navigating. I dwell on the driving a bit, but it's because it's almost a sport in this context, it's not just hours of boredem behind the wheel, like my Colorado trip this summer. The biking we're doing is a few hours per day, and it's the first time in years, maybe 3 or 4, that I've ridden this amny days in a row without pushing to exhaustion of either speed or endurance. It's decent exercise, but it's not racing. It's nice for this time of year.
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