Center of Portugal and Tras os Montes, with Sofia

[Pedro]

After my previous solo ride to Tras os Montes, Sofia had a few days to get away from being a vet and felt like going and checking the place out too, so that's what we did. Tras os Montes is sadly ignored by most tourists and even most portuguese tourists don't know the place. On one side this is bad, on the other it's very cool because it's a land of harsh climates, harsh landscape (that I've been told sometimes looks like Scotland), and authentic people and places, a lot of this is usually lost with bigger volume tourism.

The aim was to go north, spend a couple of days at my parent's to keep my dog company, and then head north and inland in search of amazing old landscapes and good rustic meals. Tras os Montes reminds me of a time of kings, with it's abundant sweet chestnut trees, old castles, and stone walls that endure time. First, starting from the south / center of Portugal:

I set of from my home near Lisbon on a monday morning, the sun was out and the day was to be sunny and plenty warm. I was early getting out, had already cleaned my place the day before so after taking out the trash the blinds were shut and the place left until my next stay. When I see that house closed I better leave quick or my emotional side takes over and I end up staying a few days more.

I take only small roads, after a while I stop by a dam for breakfast at a cafe and a few work calls to get a few issues done for the day:

 

Quickly made a friend, that abandoned her owner and came to check out my last bit of toast:

 

Arrived at Constancia, quaint small town by the Tejo river with the claim of fame that very important historic poet Luis de Camões once lived here for a while. I stopped, had an espresso, and proceeded to wait for @Sofia, at the time setting off from Ericeira via motorways to catch up, she made it in illegally quick fashion but still gave me an hour to sit around watching country town life unfold.

 

Posto de Turismo is where you get information about museums, tour guides, etc, and it's set up in the old jail house. Cool stuff, I did go up there to see the inside but it was closed.

 

The sky was amazingly blue, and the warmth was arriving, it was supposed to be 30º that day. A contrast to the following days.

 

At almost midday, Sofia arrived after her motorway blast, ready to take off a layer or two of warm clothing, and head into smaller slower roads heading up through the center of Portugal.

 

We managed to eat a cheese and ham toast for lunch, which was a pleasant surprise, and continued north through dense forrests, here starting to look back from the first noticeable hills 

 

Not many pictures were taken, here's another friend that popped up while stopped for refreshments:

 

Pampilhosa da Serra, roads around here are just underrated, this is hill and forrest country and the roads just seem to be well maintained, and fun enough to enjoy in all sorts of bikes. We stopped at a lookout over the town for a breath, and for me to think of the following roads. We had already settled on a historic hotel for the night so the general destination was set, just not the specific road to get there.

 

I struck a pose:

 

 

Brief stop at Gois, where I frequently get lost and exit on the wrong direction. Gois hosts Portugal's second biggest bike rally, after Faro. This is more of a portuguese thing, deep in the center of the country and away from touristy Algarve beaches.

 

 

As we approach our hotel, which is deep in a forrest nature park, I stop for a bucolic pee and to enjoy the coolness the dense forest provides after a warm day on the bike. 

 

We park the bikes for the night, and quickly have a shower in time for a stroll around the property. Hour hotel is Palacio do Bussaco, a proper palace built for a real king. Rooms are run down and severely overvalued, but the building itself is amazingly characterful and the gardens and special forest around it are breathtaking. I never heard so many bees around, flowers are in bloom but we were later on having a glass of wine outside and you could hear the millions of bees in the background, like if a distant natural white noise. Sofia knows all about the story of the place, I am a little bit more of a simpleton and just enjoy the trees and birds and some (overpriced) wine.

 

After a lovely dinner, we enjoy a walk around the gardens (like you do), before turning in. Tomorrow I have mountains and twisty roads planned!

 

Before checking out, we walk a little around the forrest / garden surrounding the hotel, I learn that we have a special kind of cedar that only exists in this place. Cool stuff!

 

 

ced

 

Adequate parking location for the GS, although to be fair if I had my choice I would have left it under cover. I think the artisans that sculpted those pillars wouldn't have minded.

 

From Bussaco and Luso, we set of to Serra do Caramulo for a coffee, some amazingly twisty roads up the hill have Sofia in a good mood after a little more than an hour to get there.

 

Again, we set off, down the other side of Serra do Caramulo, and up Serra da Arada, we ride up a road I used to be very familiar with back when I used to race up here on the Transalp almost every weekend. The road twists up the hill with gravel and dirt thrown in on some bends, luckily for the Speed Triple it was better kept now but still a little out of spec for the sports bike like chassis of that bike. I forgot how harsh that road was, but it does make up for it with amazing views once you make it up there.

 

BOTM:

 

We ride through a few Serras, heading north, and I really put the Speed Triple and Sofia through some harsh roads, temperatures also reach 29º which doesn't bother me much but we were going slowly and it taxes you. A brief stop with a view

 

After a longish day we reach the Douro river, which is just 40 minutes away from my parents' place. We take a breath of fresh riverside air.

 

My dad was called in for a surprise visit to the doctor in Lisbon, so we made a two day stop in Espinho to hang out with Costa while they went away. It was a cool time, Costa went on nice walks, plus visited the local Honda and Ducati dealerships.

 

I fired up the coals and made dinner. Roasted chorizo for starters, and beef chop. Time to get Sofia used to northern cooking.

 

Next, we head north to Tras os Montes, in search of epic landscapes. Will continue later today.

[XTreme]

Brilliant Pedro! 

I bet you've got a great BOTM shot lined up for this month!

[yen_powell]

Definite on the BOTM, one each.

On the other hand, this photo is gorgeous, any chance you could have wheeled a bike into shot?

[Sir Fallsalot]

Excellent Pedro and finally some food i will eat 

[Catteeclan]

that's the one so far.

[XTreme]

8 minutes ago, Catteeclan said:

that's the one so far.

As long as @Sofia puts the entry in......or @Buckster will be doing some more disqualifying!

[boboneleg]

Fantastic report so far @Pedro. The weather definitely helps but there are some beautiful vista’s there

[Pedro]

We almost took no pictures at all on this day. We had a not so early start as intent on not breaking my puppy's heart, we took him for a proper walk in the woods before setting off. We rode about one hour on the motorway through Porto's traffic and north to Braga, and from there got on a smaller road that would take us to our destination for the day except with a couple of detours for scenic reasons.

The weather forecast had changed over the last couple of days, the warmth and sunshine of previous days to be delayed for a few days, there was a rain front coming from the Atlantic and heading East, and it was supposed to pass by this afternoon and evening. Turns out we saw the sky turn grey as we left and as we passed Braga it got darker and darker. 

As we left Braga a breakfast stop was made. As we bought a couple of sandwiches for take away for a lunch picnic and enjoyed breakfast, rain started to come down. 

Sofia has got a serious sweet tooth:

 

As we left breakfast after 11:00, rain was slowly starting to fall, it increased in density and got colder as well. It then continued through the rest of the day, we rode through twisty roads, hills, proper nice scenery all day long without being able to see any of it. Mid afternoon it got proper cold and rain got heavy, made for a not pleasant motorcycling day, but we made it through it.

We settled into the old farm house I stayed in a few days ago, and went on a walk to have dinner:

 

On the menu was the typical beef cut of the region, which we call "Posta". It´s a leg cut so leaner and less soft than a rib or something like that, but very flavourful and full of texture, cooked over coal of course.

 

Some wine was had, coupled with a fireplace heated restaurant and good food made for a cozy end to a pretty uncomfortable day. 

We decided to use the next day to ride around that area and stay at the same place again, weather being less shit would give us a chance to see some of the views we lost with the rain and fog, plus the chance to explore the Parque de Montesinho, which was new to Sofia.

Morning didn't completely take rain clouds away, but made for a different mood. We set off to enjoy the area:

 

Small typical villages are gorgeous places to see, and some of the unrestored crumbling houses convey the harshness of the environment:

Rain did make an appearance though:

 

We stopped for a coffee at Bragança's small airfield. Here starts an air bus service that crosses Portugal with three stops from this northern spot all the way down to Portimão in the Algarve. The small propeller driven aircraft probably makes for an interesting experience, I might go for a trip one of these days just for fun.

 

We made it back to the hotel early in the afternoon, with plenty of time for a shower and then a nice walk around the fields before another rest before the walk up to the restaurant for dinner.

I love the old wooden floors on some parts of the house:

 

Bikes parked safe from the weather, too:

 

I was feeling tired, a very light and disappointing lunch plus maybe some hay allergies. We made it to the restaurant early with plenty of daylight to spare, had a little red wine outside and snacked on a little bit of cheese. All energies returned as the sun started to go down.

 

Food was superb. I have no proper pictures of it though, as I was too delighted that my special request made on the previous night was tended to. The nice lady running the restaurant made me very happy with a special vegetable rice to go along with the local grilled meat, the whole dinner was a show of great northern hospitality, and left me with a great desire to return and happy to end the day like that.

Sofia, the sweet tooth:

 

The next day will see us crossing amazing northern landscapes as we start to head back south, the best views of the trip. Will try and post that tomorrow.

 

[XTreme]

Looks like some abandoned stuff around there Pedro?

[boboneleg]

Great photos again Pedro, it looks very green at the moment , almost like UK.

I reckon this road belongs to your dog ...............

 

[Pedro]

3 hours ago, XTreme said:

Looks like some abandoned stuff around there Pedro?

Lots of abandoned houses, some of them half in use for storage of farming stuff though. All the villages still have a few people living there, mostly quite old, and it would be quite disrespectful to just start poking into houses, not to mention there's quite the risk of getting a shotgun in your face or a guard dog that turns from a sleepy friend catching sun on the street into a beast at sign of menace.

 

1 hour ago, boboneleg said:

Great photos again Pedro, it looks very green at the moment , almost like UK.

I reckon this road belongs to your dog ...............

 

It does look very green, but that's about to change with the arrival of warmth over the coming weeks. By june it'll look dry, but then again this area up north always has green stuff on mountains. It's more in the south you get the proper yellow fields. 

The next part of the report will look a little like Scotland or Ireland, I expect.

 

 

[Pedro]

We woke up feeling good about getting on the bikes and heading south, I knew it would be quite a scenic day plus the weather was supposed to improve and I was expecting moody skies that are good for dramatic pictures, but no rain. Plus the roads were supposed to be nice ones, good surface and flowy so that the Speed Triple doesn't suffer.

First stop was a castle in ruins, we left the Triumph down by the church at the village of Outeiro and Sofia rode pillion on the GS up the steep gravel road leading to the castle. I'm quite impressed with the Mitas, at 12000km they're still competent enough at finding traction on steep gravel, had to keep a steady hand as the rear was always about to spin but the bike was fully loaded, can't ask for much more than that.

Quite the views from up there, Sofia's bike is by the church down there:

 

The fortress was built around 1200, and is mostly ruins. There's no signs explaining anything or providing any information except a sign down my the road pointing up a gravel path. I tried to climb some wire steps to get to the top of the structure but the second one came off in my hand, clearly modern concrete not being able to cope with the weather half as well as old stones.

 

I'm not really religious, but do like looking at a cool church in pretty skies. Chanting was going on inside, we hanged around for a little and left.

 

About 45 minutes further south and Sofia gets a phone call, we park the bikes next to a bridge and I walk around a little while she's on the phone. Pretty road:

 

Next stop was Castelo do Algoso, this was my favourite stop for the day. There's a perfect tarmac road right up to it, and we spent a while just hanging around looking at the views. The previous visitors were leaving as we arrived so there was nobody around except us. This place was formerly an ancient Castro, maybe not of military use but still occupied for ages, it was turned into a fortress or a castle at the end of the reign of Portugal's first king, D. Afonso Henriques, around 1150. ( I look this stuff up before posting, I'm clueless with history)

It was perfectly preserved and maintained with just the right amount of wilderness going on inside, and a real treat to spend time alone there.

 

You can see a roman bridge if you zoom into the tiny river in the picture below. 

 

The views from up there were just great, and you got a real feeling of history spending time just looking around. The smell of heather wafting in the breeze filled our helmets as we moved on. We stopped in Mogadouro for fuel and to buy some sandwiches to take along with us and further on, near Mazouco, a small village by the Douro river where you'll find an ancient carving of a horse by the river, we stopped by a nice picnic area and had our lunch. It was now getting warmer for the first time since leaving my parent's house, and temperatures by the water got to 23 or 24ºC. 

 

It was a perfect picnic, and we moved on to Freixo de Espada à Cinta via a small detour from the main road, right by the water. Another stop was made just 6 or 7 kms ahead, by a stone bridge and what looked like a manicured olive tree garden. Farming around here produces high quality grapes and olives, mostly from old plants that are rarely watered. This was a little bit of a contrast but then again right by the town too.

 

We stopped at Freixo de Espada à Cinta to visit a pharmacy, but being a sunday it was closed. Closest one being about 50km onwards on our path. A friendly man was out on his mule and waved us goodbye and consented that I took as many pictures as I wanted, clearly not understanding the interest in his means of transport.

 

A brief stop by Penedo Durão, plentifully documented on my previous ride reports, wasn't enjoyed as much as it could have been from Sofia's teeth aching.

 

 

We made our way south via some amazing roads, this 20 or 30km or the N221 and the little road leading down to it are perfect. Sofia leading the way as I stop for a picture:

 

Getting to the N221 right by the river, I decide to enjoy a little of the twisties and take off ahead for a while. Two conclusions come to mind: OEM replacement Brembo pads aren't a match to stock BMW pads, they break ok but overheat easily and stink, I´ll go back to stock when these wear out. The Mitas are amazing for the offroad confidence they provide, but not a match to the TKC70 for nice twisties, I think I'll get them again though.

Sofia after enjoying some perfect Speed Triple twisties:

 

 

A stop by Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo and while Sofia goes for a coffee and gets chatted up by sunday bikers, I wait 30 minutes at the pharmacy for her pain medicine, because I'm an awesome guy!

 

 

They sell Ducatis at this pharmacy 

 

We sit on a garden bench and decide where to go next, dark menacing clouds mark the direction we were heading, to the base of the Serra da Estrela. That area is very cool to ride through but can have severe weather as the mountain traps storms near it. It's also a cold region with continental weather on the eastern side of the mountain, we give that a wide berth and book a great hotel in Viseu. I've been to Viseu for work a lot of times but never as a tourist, so quite looking forward to it.

We continue on the N221 south and the road turns more to my liking than Sofia's, the twisties continue but now with harsher and bumpier surface, I can't help it and take off for a little, while Sofia chases and entertains herself at a spaniard on a Kawasaki cruiser scratching his bike on every corner.

 

A few kms later, one of the weirdest events ever happened. We show up at a village and the GNR is closing the streets for traffic, a bicycle race is taking place. We have to wait for a few minutes, while the last cyclist finishes the course. I strike a conversation with the guard blocking the traffic, and tell him where we're headed. A lone cyclist on what looks like a painful effort pedals by, followed by the brush car (the final car that follows behind a cycling race picking up lost or abandoned stuff) and the closing police car escort (towing a police Yamaha Fazer). The friendly guard waves us through and we then proceed to follow them at cycling pace, this continues for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, at cycling pace. Bear in mind this isn't an Alpine descent on the Tour de France, this is the last guy trying to finish his race and there's some uphills, it's painful work for the Speed Triple to go that slow. What made this amazing was that we were the only two vehicles following this slow spectacle, all other intersections were full of cars and motorcyclists stuck behind a barrier being denied access to the road, plus everyone that was cheering the pedaling guy on and encouraging his efforts with shouts of enthusiasm got a big royal wave from me so proceeded to cheer us too. It was a fun surreal experience, but a helpful one as I would hate to be stuck behind the traffic once all those streets opened at the same time.

We made it to Viseu before sunset, to our amazing hotel located in an old historic hospital built in 1842 and later abandoned, converted into a hotel in 2009. It was right on the center and allowed us easy walking access to the historic center of town.

We had a nice dinner, of high quality but less food than in Tras os Montes. Those last dinners were frankly too much eating, and I had enough beef to last for the month. Viseu has a University and quite the lively academic life, walking back to the hotel we are faced with hundreds of students getting ready to one of the yearly traditions of academic life in Portugal, the serenade when students music groups put on shows traditionally to serenade girls. Here they are concentrating on a big square with their traditional black capes.

You can also see the traditional portuguese taxi decoration, black car with a green top.

 

Quite the eventful day, we settle into one of the sofas on the center of the hospital and I have a negroni while Sofia has something else.

 

 

The next day we'll head to Ericeira, via some forrests and mountains, and I have a surprise stop by a motorcycle shop for Sofia, she lives out of the way of proper motorcycle shops so unlike me loves to just visit them.

[XTreme]

Fantastic photos Pedro!

[Pedro]

We wake up sort of earlyish, and by 8 we´re putting the luggage on the bikes, ready to go back for breakfast and then leave in a stylish fashion, without fuss, like you do.

 

After a proper breakfast, I stop to take a picture of a safe. This is an old safe, it's made out of wood and highly decorated, I will have to investigate what it actually is and if they actually build it around a treasure to keep it safe.

 

After following the N2 south of Viseu for a while, we stop for lunch in Castanheira de Pera. Not much picture taking going on that morning, great roads and nice scenery but we didn't stop much except this once:

 

Bikes looking good parked next to the cafe as we eat some traditional soup, a bit of a let down of a lunch compared to what I had planned, but it was hearty soup that made for a good motorcycling lunch.

 

Fortunately, going out of Castanheira de Pera the road I had planned on taking was closed, we took a detour via a smaller road straight over the hills, turns out I had been up there before but completely forgot about the place. Good result, almost deserted roads with surprise views. 

We pass a couple of older gents cruising up the hill on 50cc two strokes on full speed, and a little later stop to take a scenic picture, the second one adopts a salt lake top speed record pose as the little 50cc screams past

 

Right on top of the hill and before we start our descent towards the east and closer to the coastline, Sofia gets a call that is supposed to take a few minutes, so I go explore a dirt road leading 2km into a small chapel with a view. It was here that I realize I've been to this place before

 

At Ansião we stop for a coffee, after the nice road going down the hill I take my helmet off and a bug comes out. This bug got into my helmet and tried to get into my ear a while back, I thought I had taken it off but turns out he was hiding in the linings, little guy just migrated 50km into the other side of a mountain. 

 

 

From Ansião we get on a fast IC roads and cruise to Jomotos, in Pombal, for a quick stop by a motorcycle shop, a treat for Sofia. I disregard the new stuff and take three fotos of interesting or quirky bikes. Jomotos is a dealership for BMW, Honda, Suzuki and KTM/Husqvarna/GasGas, they're properly big for Portuguese standards and the chief mechanic is a cool guy that has looked after my bike a couple of times for routine maintenance.

 

They say KTM and Husqvarna and Gas Gas are the same bike in different colors, they're right:

 

After they look at the Speed Triple chain and give it a spray, he head home on motorway mode, after a quick race we settle at a steady 80 / 85mph and make the last 150kmh a haste, in time for plenty of fun arriving home to puppies that missed her terribly. 

It was a nice trip, lots of bad weather made us appreciate the following days, I'll certainly be going back to Tras os Montes.

[Catteeclan]

Beautiful place, must visit again some day. Thanks for posting Pedro, brilliant report as always.

[boboneleg]

Absolutely loving the castles and the donkey was a proper bonus 

[yen_powell]

Can't quite judge the scale, are they stepping stone for you to cross the water, or just boat calming to make them turn around and go back?

They've put some work into that floor.

Might just be a camera angle thing, but to me it looks like the floor slopes and they have built the football table on the wonk to allow for it.

 

[Pedro]

9 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

Can't quite judge the scale, are they stepping stone for you to cross the water, or just boat calming to make them turn around and go back?

Might be to not allow debris from flowing past, I'm not sure. Regardless of the primary reason for building it, it clearly is being used as stepping stones and I had to try it for myself. The picture after that was taken from almost halfway into the river. They're a little too far between each other to walk casually across but ok to take one big step at a time.

11 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

They've put some work into that floor.

The Portuguese love stone floors like that, but in this case they used uncarved stones just put into concrete to hold them. Also cool that the bikes sleep on that overnight.

 

14 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

Might just be a camera angle thing, but to me it looks like the floor slopes and they have built the football table on the wonk to allow for it

I don't remember it being tilted, the chairs felt normal so it probably is an effect of the sun being very low. That was 15, maybe 30 minutes before sunset.

[Catteeclan]

The misses said no way but I'd have been over them.

[Specs]

8 hours ago, Pedro said:

Lots of abandoned houses, some of them half in use for storage of farming stuff though. All the villages still have a few people living there, mostly quite old, and it would be quite disrespectful to just start poking into houses, not to mention there's quite the risk of getting a shotgun in your face or a guard dog that turns from a sleepy friend catching sun on the street into a beast at sign of menace.

 

It does look very green, but that's about to change with the arrival of warmth over the coming weeks. By june it'll look dry, but then again this area up north always has green stuff on mountains. It's more in the south you get the proper yellow fields. 

The next part of the report will look a little like Scotland or Ireland, I expect.

 

 

 

[Specs]

I’m somewhere in Portugal now, not far from where you went I think Pedro. In a place called Pinhel. Staying in a little village just up the road. Fantastic scenery and roads. 
Was going to Morocco and then Dakar, but realised that I begin to spontaneously combust when it approaches 30°C, so bailed out. 

[Pedro]

3 hours ago, Specs said:

I’m somewhere in Portugal now, not far from where you went I think Pedro. In a place called Pinhel. Staying in a little village just up the road. Fantastic scenery and roads. 
Was going to Morocco and then Dakar, but realised that I begin to spontaneously combust when it approaches 30°C, so bailed out. 

Penedo Durão in Freixo de Espada à Cinta, go there via the N221 heading north. Can’t go wrong. Call me if you need anything, I’ll PM you.

[Pedro]

3 hours ago, Catteeclan said:

The misses said no way but I'd have been over them.

Wait, there’s a video of me going there for the picture:

There was a huge guard dog sleeping on the other bank, with some children playing around. As soon as I started crossing the river he gave me a look and stood up paying attention. I was happy to go back 

 

[Catteeclan]

8 hours ago, Pedro said:

Wait, there’s a video of me going there for the picture:

There was a huge guard dog sleeping on the other bank, with some children playing around. As soon as I started crossing the river he gave me a look and stood up paying attention. I was happy to go back 

 

Confident as well taking your helmet with you.

[boboneleg]

I’ll translate for Sofia ‘ there’s a big f*ck off dog on the other side ‘