One reason we love living in Portugal is the number of public holidays here! This weekend is a long one so we’ve taken the opportunity to escape to Evora and do a bit more ride research.
And one reason we love riding in Portugal is the lack of traffic – the picture below is of the motorway between Evora and Spain this (Sunday) afternoon:
But as well as admiring the (lack of) motorway traffic, we’ve been off exploring some of the more minor roads. Today’s ride was a good one – about 54km (33m) through gently rolling countryside north of Evora.
The Alentejo can be baking in the summer but there’s some great cycling the rest of the year. Lots of picturesque villages, old castles and rolling plains dotted with cork oaks and olive trees.
We headed to Arraiolos, an old town famous for its carpets and then in a loop through some quiet rural backroads. For more details, click here.
There’s also a 60km ecopista being developed along an old railway between Evora and Mora. There’s a link on the Ciclovia website (see post below) to the first part but the current map only shows the first 18km.
Pedal Portugal 