So happy to be back in Portugal - wonderful scenery, friendly people, great cakes, lots of fountains and flowers, car drivers who stop at pedestrian crossings... all good so far! We packed up our van on Friday - tandem, camping gear etc - and caught the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander. We'd been praying the… Continue reading Wonderful Start
Excitement is mounting here at Pedal Portugal HQ. And not just because Bournemouth Air Show is on at the moment and I've got fighter jets screaming through the skies above my house, flying upside down, doing loop the loops, and generally making a racket.No, the reason for the excitement is that in less than three… Continue reading Twenty Days And Counting
The first Pedal Portugal guidebook should be available this autumn - a print and ebook version of the Alentejo Circuit.The whole project is a bit of an experiment as I have no idea what kind of a market exists for guidebooks to cycling in Portugal. On the other hand, I'm having enormous fun writing them!My… Continue reading Guidebooks Coming
Cheap booze, sunshine, ancient civilisations, wildlife... or getting in touch with your roots... everyone's got different motivations for why they travel and what attracts them to different places. I've got my own reasons for loving Portugal but I was curious what the main draw was for other cyclists, particularly as some are - presumably -… Continue reading Why Portugal?
I've been checking over some of the touring routes on Pedal Portugal and decided something was missing from my Alentejo Circuit... the beach! The Alentejo has some of the prettiest and least developed bits of coast in southern Portugal so it seemed wrong to completely leave it off a route designed to give cyclists a… Continue reading Let’s Go To The Seaside!
For anyone who likes dramatic scenery, big climbs and fantastic cycling, how about the road shown below? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10KkpJnRiEQ Gregor Tome reckons this is the best road in the country and recorded the following video as he rode through the Serra da Estrela. Gregor sent me the clip following a string of emails asking for advice… Continue reading The Most Beautiful Road In Portugal?
So what do you fancy? Cycling through remote villages that look as if they haven't changed in centuries, blasting across the Alentejo plains to get to the Algarve or pottering up the coast of Portugal? After several months of work, I've at long last completed my overhaul of the Touring Routes pages - which include all… Continue reading Ready To Ride
One of my projects in the pipeline is to turn this website into a guidebook - both printed and e-book versions. (When that will actually happen, I'm not sure. Depends on how long the pipeline turns out to be!) In the meantime, though, I thought it might be useful to find out a bit more… Continue reading What’s The Attraction?
It's a landmark day here at Pedal Portugal - I've just gone all posh and bought my own domain name. That means the "wordpress" part of the site's address is no longer needed and - hurrah! - you can now just use pedalportugal.com (Which presumably you've already done if you're reading this!) Hopefully all the… Continue reading Change Of Address
I do love Portugal but one of the biggest frustrations about cycling there is the lack of decent maps. Or, more frequently, the complete absence of maps of any sort! Oh, plus a few other issues. Like inconsistent road numbering and highly erratic road signage. And that many maps are out of date. It also… Continue reading Finding Your Way In Portugal
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