Douro and Trás os Montes, Northern Portugal scenic tour

[XTreme]

Great shots Pedro! And more cobblestones? What is their obsession with them?

[Pedro]

Breakfast in Morais was had in a local cafe. Simple bread and butter and toast was a revelation to Sofia and showed what flavors simple things like good not fancy bread rolls can have compared to the shit you eat in big cities. Going into the café at 08:30 I take this picture of a Trás os Montes street scene, gentleman has just finished his coffee and heads to work on a Renault Express, old lady chats to a friend while inside her transit van, she has to reach up to look over the steering wheel, and casually behind that someone walks a burro, typical breed from Trás os Montes.

 

Tasty bread:

 

We ride off to meet up with the Rio Sabor, one of the affluents to the Douro. The plan is to ride along this river heading south, cross the Douro and continue south until the Alentejo, tiny Portugal culture shock between the harsh demanding North with its impressive viewpoint rock faces, and the wide open terrain of the inner South!

 

But first, the Rio Sabor getting to Alfandega da Fé:

Alfandega da Fé had a regional fair going on, it was going to be a party later on, we walked a little along the charming center garden and bought a couple of regional products, Almonds and a blood sausage to cook at home. Cherry season but sadly those don't handle motorcycle traveling well.

 

The biker's club here has a really cool clubhouse. I'd have gone in for a coffee, but at 10:15 it was obviously closed.

 

 

Quick stop for fuel and we meet a French couple on a cool sidecar.  Very unfriendly gas station, with a café full of rowdy guys drinking in the morning didn't cause the best impression, but I'm confident they'll be better received in other places.

 

Adeganha, near the point where the Rio Sabor joins the Rio Douro, great views, and look at the road heading down the hill:

A little south of Torre de Moncorvo we stopped for lunch in the only roadside cafe / restaurant in the little village of Açoreira. We asked for a light portion, but being the proper North, the traditional "Posta". This is it, the restaurant owner was quite happy with himself for not over serving :

 

We rolled out of the restaurant and back on the bikes, and back to some familiar roads, crossing the Douro one more time heading south, again near Barca de Alva coming from Ligares:

 

Didn't take many pictures for a while, we covered a little ground and headed south pointing our bikes to Rosmaninhal. It's near the Tejo International Park, the place is gorgeous and it felt cool to join both of Portugal's most important rivers.

Although it was proper hot, it looked like we were about to ride into dark rain clouds. We had been lucky to avoid them all day long but not anymore. A stop for putting rain overalls on, and Sofia (like always) is approached by animals

 

I instantly regret my decision, after about 20 or 30 minutes we stop to fuel up the Triumph and I take off all the plastic rain stuff. 32º and rain gear had me roasting, I took my chances with the rain and managed to stay mostly dry since it only started to come down about 5km before we arrived at our location for the night, another recovered old home but this time near the deep South. 

Bikes looked like they had the measles after the dusty rain came down.

 

 

First order of business, get my trunks and jump into the cool swimming pool. Reinvigorate with a nice soaking before a little walk. 

 

A little tour around Couto dos Correias, a village of about 6 or 8 inhabitants, 2 or 3 of them permanent:

 

Dinner was a bit disappointing that day, and our host a little annoying to say the least. I was looking forward to the next day though, as this is where one of my favourite short bits of road starts.

 

[Pedro]

28 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Great shots Pedro! And more cobblestones? What is their obsession with them?

It's just traditional in an area with a big rock abundance and a harsh climate that makes life hard on tarmac. If there's no need for fast traffic to go through a place, I wouldn't go put tarmac through an ancient village either.

[Pedro]

The next day we wake up, put up with an annoying hostess yet a little more and have a pretty mediocre breakfast. The simple but tasty bread rolls from the north replaced with a pretentious person serving tasteless crap.

I gave the bikes a wipe to get rid of the most apparent muddy rain drops from the previous afternoon's rain, and we set off, stopping in Rosmaninhal to sort out a navigational miscommunication, and again Sofia finds herself making another friend

 

The tiny municipal road from Rosmaninhal through Tegueiro to Segura is only 25km but it's amazing, and I love it. It's quite narrow so that an average light truck doesn't leave much space for anything else, but it's nice tarmac, often broken in places, with patches of dirt and broken road thrown in. If there was to be a road for trail bikes or supermotos this would be it. I could spend an afternoon riding back and forward there 

The views couldn't be more different to the previous days' locations up in Trás os Montes and High Douro:

 

Extreme heat and overloaded trucks will do this to tarmac. 

 

We got to Segura safe and sound, and went to take a look at the Rio Erges, that's Spain on the other side of the water

 

We started by heading back on the same lovely road we came in before, and I tried to stop for a picture in similar style to the one I took the first time I was there, except the first time I was by myself and at 40º, today with Sofia it was about 18 or 20º and about to rain. I like these worn out by time road marks.

 

Stopped at Nisa for a lunch snack, and Sofia was delighted and envious that the local vet has a parking place reserved for his clients'

 

This Roman bridge has been abandoned from use, but clearly strong enough to handle any load, it's just that the modern two lane road built 50 meters to the side doesn't suit it anymore. It's a shame.

 

The plan was to go home to Ericeira from there, but plans change and instead we made way to Estremoz and then Alter do Chão to sleep in a lovely little hotel built in an old monastery. I ´ve put pictures of all these places before, and sadly took none this time. Dinner in a tiny cafe in Alentejo made up for the previous night's disgrace with a wonderful typical treat, no pictures of that either as the phone was left in the room.

Bikes slept soundly inside an old warehouse belonging to the monastery, and after a later than ideal breakfast we were off to go home to the coast. No motorways were meant to be taken, and we did just that.

 

Rode through lovely Alentejo plains and oaks

 

It was starting to warm up when we stopped in Avis for a coffee and a look around:

 

Tiny roads turned to 5 or 6km of dirt road, I had been through there before but I never remember what the surface is like unless it's properly dreadful. Sofia didn't back off and the Speed Triple sailed through smoothly, stopping halfway to look at a stream

 

As we approached Lisbon, we started seeing a lot of bikes, and a lot of foreign ones too. On a short stop we met with some Welsh bikers returning home from watching the Superbikes at the Estoril (Lisbon area). They were riding back to Santander via inner roads, and seemed to be enjoying it immensely, in their late 60s or mid 70s. Someone got really happy from talking to UK people

 

After that, we rode home almost non stop, it was the end of a nice few days mostly filled with wonderful northern Portuguese scenery.

 

[Skippy]

19 hours ago, Pedro said:

Quick note to @Skippy:

Ray, there's a lot of places called Murça in Portugal, look to Mós and then the Murça next to it. Hit me up if you're in doubt.

Thanks mate

[XTreme]

5 hours ago, Pedro said:

The next day we wake up, put up with an annoying hostess yet a little more and have a pretty mediocre breakfast. The simple but tasty bread rolls from the north replaced with a pretentious person serving tasteless crap.

I gave the bikes a wipe to get rid of the most apparent muddy rain drops from the previous afternoon's rain, and we set off, stopping in Rosmaninhal to sort out a navigational miscommunication, and again Sofia finds herself making another friend

 

The tiny municipal road from Rosmaninhal through Tegueiro to Segura is only 25km but it's amazing, and I love it. It's quite narrow so that an average light truck doesn't leave much space for anything else, but it's nice tarmac, often broken in places, with patches of dirt and broken road thrown in. If there was to be a road for trail bikes or supermotos this would be it. I could spend an afternoon riding back and forward there 

The views couldn't be more different to the previous days' locations up in Trás os Montes and High Douro:

 

Extreme heat and overloaded trucks will do this to tarmac. 

 

We got to Segura safe and sound, and went to take a look at the Rio Erges, that's Spain on the other side of the water

 

We started by heading back on the same lovely road we came in before, and I tried to stop for a picture in similar style to the one I took the first time I was there, except the first time I was by myself and at 40º, today with Sofia it was about 18 or 20º and about to rain. I like these worn out by time road marks.

 

Stopped at Nisa for a lunch snack, and Sofia was delighted and envious that the local vet has a parking place reserved for his clients'

 

This Roman bridge has been abandoned from use, but clearly strong enough to handle any load, it's just that the modern two lane road built 50 meters to the side doesn't suit it anymore. It's a shame.

 

The plan was to go home to Ericeira from there, but plans change and instead we made way to Estremoz and then Alter do Chão to sleep in a lovely little hotel built in an old monastery. I ´ve put pictures of all these places before, and sadly took none this time. Dinner in a tiny cafe in Alentejo made up for the previous night's disgrace with a wonderful typical treat, no pictures of that either as the phone was left in the room.

Bikes slept soundly inside an old warehouse belonging to the monastery, and after a later than ideal breakfast we were off to go home to the coast. No motorways were meant to be taken, and we did just that.

 

Rode through lovely Alentejo plains and oaks

 

It was starting to warm up when we stopped in Avis for a coffee and a look around:

 

Tiny roads turned to 5 or 6km of dirt road, I had been through there before but I never remember what the surface is like unless it's properly dreadful. Sofia didn't back off and the Speed Triple sailed through smoothly, stopping halfway to look at a stream

 

As we approached Lisbon, we started seeing a lot of bikes, and a lot of foreign ones too. On a short stop we met with some Welsh bikers returning home from watching the Superbikes at the Estoril (Lisbon area). They were riding back to Santander via inner roads, and seemed to be enjoying it immensely, in their late 60s or mid 70s. Someone got really happy from talking to UK people

 

After that, we rode home almost non stop, it was the end of a nice few days mostly filled with wonderful northern Portuguese scenery.

 

Nobody got rammed up the ass this time then Pedro? 

[Pedro]

32 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Nobody got rammed up the ass this time then Pedro? 

Well …

[Sofia]

A few more pictures to entice you to visit us one of these days!! 

[XTreme]

7 hours ago, Sofia said:

A few more pictures to entice you to visit us one of these days!! 

Great shots Sofia.....looks fantastic there!

[yen_powell]

What have the Romans ever done for us? Love this picture.

[Pedro]

1 hour ago, yen_powell said:

What have the Romans ever done for us? Love this picture.

Love their bridges and pizzas!

[Six30]

The parking space the vet has reserved for his clients ......it  will always be empty .

[Pedro]

2 hours ago, Six30 said:

The parking space the vet has reserved for his clients ......it  will always be empty .

Why?