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?
To some people, riding dozens of miles in a day isn't a challenge. One of my friends is a triathlete who regularly rides 50 miles (80km) every Saturday morning - often before his wife's even out of bed. Most others though have never reached that level of fitness, or it's something now in their past.… Continue reading The Gentle Option
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!
The blog's been quiet for a while because I've been off cycling in France (always worth checking out the alternatives but my heart's still in Portugal). Anyway, for an account of the pleasure of cycling in the hills of the Algarve, I'm going to hand over to fellow rider Ian Mitchell. Earlier this year, Ian… Continue reading Intoxicating Algarve Hills!
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 the great joys of cycling is that there are always new roads to explore. Even in an area or country you think you know well, an unfamiliar turn can lead to a previously undiscovered ride. I've explored a lot of Portugal: on my solo bike and our tandem, on foot and in cars.… Continue reading Unknown Roads
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