Pedro

Mine

Honda and BMW, I´ll probably get to 3 or 4, but am not expecting more to be honest.

I've been to Norway by car, and it's indeed amazing. I've considered doing it on a bike lately but the sheer distance to get there puts me off, if I take scenic roads to get there it would be a 2 month trip, if taking the motorways it will be 3 or 4 days of shit each way, plus the weather you can find if you're not lucky ... Anyway, it's an amazing place for sure, and that's a pretty picture of it.

Is that real?

What an ugly thing, but I guess it goes along with the post apocalyptic, blade runner type of thing, it's probably meant to be. The wheels, though:

Are outlaws your son’s wife’s family?

Nothing special about tomato and fried eggs, but these “Ox Heart” tomatoes are amazing, and market’s homegrown chicken eggs make it amazing Codfish, oven cooked and then flaked plus small potatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, Portuguese comfort food! Liver slices with baked potatoes, we call them Iscas, cooked with onion and garlic, done right it’s very tasty, also very oldschool “tavern” food:

Historically, this is a big farming region, known for its pears and apples, but vegetables all around too, farming and fishing! Over the last years, though, wine making has been very encouraged and grapes are taking over many of the hills and farms, it is still a minor wine region for quality and history compared to the Douro, but the industry has indeed exploded. I don’t care much for this, though, seems that wherever you go in Portugal most of the worked fields are now grapes or olives using intensive farming practices.

Thanks! My bike wouldn’t squeeze through the fence opening, and also I wouldn’t stand around waiting for a train

Spending a few days in Ericeira, and the weather has been so great it almost feels too good to be true. Getting to know the roads around here, I needed a goal to make me see some new stuff, and indeed this was the perfect plan, to follow the forts of the Lines of Torres forces me to see new things and actually learn stuff. Also took plenty of pictures, most are of hills and grass so not really an Indiana Jones film. After lunch, setting off from Ericeira on a perfect winter afternoon: https://www.rhlt.pt/interactive-map/ Today's ride was along these forts, if you look on the above link you'll see the whole of the lines on a map of the region. A few kms on, about 20 minutes and I reach the first fort, now bare in mind these are not castles with massive walls, just fortifications, you do need to use some imagination to make the best of visiting them. Forte do Passo, very small with a windmill inside, at the time used as a magazine: To one side you see as far as the ocean: To the other as far as the next fort, which is what these positions were all about: Back on the road for another 10 or 15km: And through a farm track and up a vineyard: The Forte do Grilo (Grilo = Cricket) Stopped right by the surrounding pit Surrounding fields were gorgeous green: As I said, with a little imagination, standing on top of one of these you can really picture what went on, with the basic structures providing cover from what came from below, the openings on the walls with a cannon sticking out, and a good viewing point into the distance: Back out through the farm again, and onto some smooth gravel road for another few kms, little distance but entertaining: Could have taken a normal road, but couldn't resist the uphill gravel road with twisties and chose the slightly longer way: Again through a farm road, if this had been wet I wouldn't have wished to go through here: Not on the oficial map, but showing up on Google maps is Forte do Pelicano (Pelican), took a little dirt detour and found it on the way to Torres Vedras, the biggest and most important town in the area: Not maintained at all, you would walk past it without a second glance, and it really takes a little effort to see the flat surface on top of the hill, being covered in thorny bushes I didn't feel like walking around it either: Didn't spend a lot of time there and carried on towards Torres Vedras You probably don't bother to read these, but it helps me structure things, so here's another poster, of the Fort S. Vicente, in Torres Vedras, this one more like a proper fortress and obviously a lot more important being right on top of a major town: Had a good walk around that, not anyone else visiting any of them today, being a Friday, good stuff! No more than 1 km away is the Forte dos Olheiros, basically a small one that served as a lookout for the bigger fort picture before. I almost couldn't resist riding in and around inside it but behaved: Next were two places on top of a hill, places I have visited before but still wanted to pass by today as they'd close the ride nicely, and I enjoy the dirt road leading to them. On the way stopped by a deactivated train station in Runa, just for Pete: The tracks still work, though, but the station no longer does. The badges were prizes for winning 3 first places, 1 second place and 1 third place in the Competition for the most Flowery Stations, such an old school Portugal thing to do. Rode on, and climbed a little, and made it to the Forte da Feiteira, just a couple of kms before the Archeira but a cool little place to ride by on a lovely dirt road: Quite a bit early for these flowers, I think: And on to the final stop of the day, the Fort da Archeira: Although I didn't take that many pictures, this is where I stopped the longest, just enjoying the view and the breeze Starting to go back home, a mere 40 minute ride so let's make it interesting: Just going back down the mountain via the shortest road, a little steep but perfectly fine as long as it's dry: And then on to Ericeira via country roads, with the sun in my face: Stopped by praia dos Coxos, to see if a surfer friend was there, arriving: I stopped way more often than normal, but the light was just so amazing I couldn't help it: Turns out she wasn't surfing as the waves were non existent, but still it made for a great location to end the report: In all, a great 3 hours riding around the place with way more stops than usual.

I thought twice about stopping, it always seems flat and smooth …

I´ll for sure be on the bike either today or tomorrow, maybe visit a couple more fortifications, who knows?

You brits and your tea…

I'm going to be helpful, @XTreme, see the little sun on top of this aircon remote above 28ºC? Means it's throwing warm air:

It's in the second part of his statement...

I can't tell if the person that wrote that was in such a red mist that his imagination failed him, or just dum.

My bike's engine is supposedly assembled in Berlin, I don't know if one should be proud of that

That’s probably because of the netflix tv show that came up a couple of months ago, the portuguese name being “Gloria”. It was pretty unknown history before that.

I have to say, I don’t usually spend a lot of time looking at History stuff, but these Line of Torres forts are obviously in scenic locations, with a little dirtroad to get there after some nice roads, so they are growing on me.

I still appreciate toilets, though!