Pedro

Had a nice ride today, but didn't stop for pictures at all. The roads were the same old ones and the ones I hadn't posted before weren't very interesting. Anyway, getting home I stopped by an abandoned place with a scenic view to take pictures for you guys. Being an abandoned building I could ride into I figured it would appeal to the resident guy in search of old stuff. It's right on the edge of town where my place is, a few meters away from the road on a lovely dirt road that then leads into a forest. This is "Quinta da Marquesa", meaning the "Marchioness' Farm". It was built in the late 1500s or early 1600s and passed on by really very wealthy families, the Portugal's elite used to visit for hunting. As a lot of old and historic buildings and industry in Portugal, it ended up being wasted after the revolution on 25th April 1974, communists took over and tried to subvert it's workers to only ended up with translates in the testimonies as a "strong ass whooping" Legend says there are hidden passages and treasure hidden around the place... This picture is worthless, but over the door to the chapel there is a statement you can't read here, it translates from old Portuguese to something like: "D. Isabel de Castro, daughter of Fernão Teles, entails this estate of the Mascarenhas in the year of 1618 with the obligation of paying 30000 kings: 25000kings to a daily mass in Alcácer do Sal, 3000 for factory, and 2000kings for the goodwill of Alcácer, to be administered by the chapel: 18th June, 1621" Don't really know how to explain most of it but Castro, Teles, Mascarenhas, these are names of some of the richest and most powerful families of the old times, and the names of later owners continue to be impressive. Into the remains of the chapel: And outside Graffiti and a sad looking sofa in the only "Deliverance" room, for @XTreme´s delection This is all quite sad, a country should take care of it's historic buildings a lot better than this, real history went down here for centuries, now left to crumble apart. The "Mascarenhas", I think the first family that owned it, for example, used to rule Portuguese India. I took these pictures at around 8PM, and the light was getting pretty, so the GS posed a little on the surrounding trails before going home. First with the farm land in the background: And then just looking for a pretty picture: Heading home, I stopped by a place with a vantage point over the farm so you can see where it stands amongst the surrounding area. You can spot it in the left third of the picture, above the green dumpster for reference:

Well, call them whatever you want but that’s like calling a screw a nut! They’re berliners!

Riding to the beach, I wear beach shorts, tshirt, trainers and an open helmet. The risks are there but wtf! When I stop at the supermarket and buy groceries when arriving home, I then ride home with no gloves, easier when holding the grocery bag too…! And also sometimes when riding around town to dry the bike after washing it, I’m wearing no jacket so it feels like gloves make no sense? Touring or on a ride, always gloves

The Honda V Twin trails were sweet bikes!

I was a fan before, though. To be honest when I rode the yellow one I didn’t really appreciate anything other than the comfy seat, didn’t really know what I was doing. The 1150 is very planted and handles nicer than some of the newer ones, it’s got a balance to it that just inspires confidence. Having said that, they are a moody bike and a nice one is a keeper and sweet, while the wrong one will also handle nice but give you a clonky gearbox and diff worries.

Easier on the teeth

Waiting for the boat to come take them out on a flotation towed device The dough might be similar, except these are fried, no hole in the middle, and completely open with filling inside On really the most severe of storms, they are getting quite close to where the waves get, but I don’t think they have much to worry about for a few more years. They are not top of the line insulation, so with high winds and ocean spray I would guess they’re not confortable at all in winter.

That’s all that was left, I don’t eat the shells

Yep, there's no point in setting a deadline when it can always move a month or two either way, it only has the potential to frustrate you if that happens to be longer.

I kind of lost the plot and ended up putting a lot more pictures than I thought ... Some of you, being bikers, may have heard of Faro before, the FaroMC organizes one of Europes' biggest rallies usually during June I think, already in its 27th edition, 2020 and 2021 were the first years it didn't happen since the early 80s. It is a huge club and has a big impact on the town itself, and the way bikes are used and treated there. Faro is not very much a tourist city like others in the Algarve are, you have no big touristy hotels, no resorts, and the beach is not located within easy reach of the town center but instead on a strip of land 10km drive away. It is very unique, and old school portuguese. Being stuck with no bike I had no ease of parking so ended up walking a lot more than usual, which I actually appreciated. Having nothing really to do I took long walks with stops for swims. The pin on the left with "Ilha de Faro" is the only access land access to the beach, and what I'll be showing you, that and the beach until "Praia da Barrinha" The bridge to the "island" only has one alternated lane, which means it's a bitch to get on if you're driving a cage. No such problems for bikes as shown below: The nature reserve itself, between the beach and the main town is a beautiful place to visit Harleys are popular here, more so than anywhere else in Portugal, being used in daily life more than pampered, but even most other bikes are more often characterful and used, some with quite the patina from the sun and salty winds. Some poor souls wasting their filtering powers: Even spotted Pete's bike, complete with sidestand over lean, and all the boxes needed for the family's beach essentials ... Proper private parking place for this guy next to his restaurant, no scorching bike! Onto our tour around that strip on land called Ilha de Faro, you access through the bridge, here with no traffic as it's older and I was on the bike: it used to be mainly fishermen's houses, now there are plenty of nicer fixed up weekend homes, a few restaurants and bars, and a couple of hostels, but it retained most of it's charm. The main street already away from the fuss and into mostly small homes: In a few places you have houses that are 20 meters away from the water inland, and 100 meters away from the beach on the other side And the narrow accesses between houses when there are two or three rows of homes between the street and the beach Here I'm standing on the beach, you get three rows of houses, the street, one row of houses, and then water on the other side some are quite small and not exactly luxurious, in the winter they're not really comfortable but what a view and beach access: If you continue until the end of the street, you'll find my preferred parking place when on a motorcycle, already getting to the sand away from the crowd The creaky boardwalk into the beach is the only access to the fishermen homes out in the dunes, the sign says no motorcycles except for residents Their roadways for a few meters: Now, onto the beach life, obviously the closer you are to the access bridge and main parking areas, the more crowded it is. It is very much a family oriented beach, similar in beach life to the north of portugal, grandparents taking their small grandkids for the morning while parents are at work, that sort of thing. It perfectly mixes with tourists from all over. I feel like a perv taking pictures of people on the beach, so try to avoid it more so when there are hot chicks in them or topless women. Teenagers waiting for the adrenalin boat ride being towed on flotation devices, I would say there's a 25% change of rope burn, and it properly stings in the salty water too I am not a big fan of quads, but they do serve a purpose, and there are worse jobs to have than patrol the sand every hour or so On windy afternoons, kitesurfers, as soon as you see the kites in the distance, you already know there's going to be sand blowing everywhere. The busy parts of the beach have lifeguards. If you're going to drown, better do it very loudly or I think you won't get their attention away from tinder Early morning crowd, families about to start getting pestered with crowds of younger people who don't make it to the beach before 10AM There is a big child shelter in Faro, to harbor kids who are mainly taken away from dangerous and/or abusive situations. They have facilities here that I suppose are used as a holiday camp for the summertime, here they are packing up at the end of a beach afternoon Group of friends hanging out after sunset, eating pizza and drinking beer, there are worse things to do. Fishing boats, quite close to the sand this year Tourists at the end of day On some days, the sky color is amazing and a darker blue than I've seen anywhere. Beach scene, 6PM on quite a warm day. There's a pastry that for whatever reason is very popular in the beach, and in most parts of Portugal you get people walking the beach selling them. It's origins are German, it's the Berliner. In Germany it's usually filled with fruit jelly and only partly so as the flavors are quite strong, in Portugal it's more like a custard sandwich with plenty of filling, like so: It's very sugary on the outside and very sweet, but when you're all salty from the ocean it hits the spot for most people. I make an effort to avoid them very much ... Here you have the "Bolas de Berlim" guy being called over by a family, it's not an easy job walking the soft sand carrying those cases Faro sometimes is a little windy in the afternoon, and when that happens the wind usually dies down before sunset, you get the feeling it's getting warmer as the sun is setting, these nights in the Algarve with just a hint of a breeze and 25º outside are magical, I went on a walk at the end of the afternoon up until night time, sunset was at about 20:30. This is one of the reasons restaurants are open until very late and get clients arriving at 10 or 11pm. Faro in the distance, on the other side of the water with an ultra low tide Earlier that day I had a nice swim in the same spot but with a bigger tide Walking at night and getting away from the shore, better watch where you step Literally the end of the beach, you can walk with water waist or chest high to the other side for a couple of hours before the tide rises back up. There was a forest fire that blew a smoke cloud over the ocean and created this light when the sun started to drop behind it and then set behind the Atlantic, quite an end to the day.

Colours and paint, Pete, make wheels pretty again?

You are not wrong, though

It's way easier on her ear than a cello or a harp ...

Not to be left behind any other country, covid denials and anti vaccination groups have made a small manifestation in Portugal as well. A bunch of teenagers and silly people directly throwing insults at the man in charge of our vaccination program. We are no less than you all! I’m sure Admiral Gouveia e Melo was shaking in his boots at being called names

Pilots probably had a laugh about that?

I´ll do a walk report

No

Filming is even worse, you can't understand why everyone is having such a hard time getting through that bit of flat dirt road

I am embarrassed to say I don't understand the first one...

Tell you what, I’ll do a vid and try to lift my bike one handed, once I get it alone nd not be too embarassed to act like a twat in front of other people

If he can act like a twat pumping that ratchet he can do one push and lift that bike. Admitedly, not like he’s pretending to try, though

A gs is easier than most bikes because it won’t drop so low as something with no engine sticking out, but just turn the steering pointing up and lift on the lower end of the handlebar…

I am willing to lay my bike gently down and show how to pick it up to one of you guys who say it can’t be done. That’s a tall as fuck guy on the video, no way he can’t lift that bike if he didn’t to grab it like a bag of oranges.

Jesus wept!