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| Bem-vindo a Portugal. |
No passports required (except when we check in to our hotels). We've crossed into our final country on this EFSP 2018 tour, Portugal.
Today took everyone (riders and SAG support, alike) by surprise. It wasn't that long a day but it was quite hilly. And the heat came on quickly in the morning. I felt drained by the 40th mile and just slowed down into survival mode to finish the day. The heat felt like someone had pulled my power cord from the wall socket. Just no energy, even after having had a decent breakfast, plenty of water along the route, and energy bars during the two SAG stops. It just was that draining a day.
The border crossing from England to France is, obviously, very pronounced. We crossed the English Channel/La Manche. The border crossing between France and Spain was less so. We crossed a medium-sized river and saw a number of signs in a new language, as well as a couple of border guards on the opposite side of the street.
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| I kid you not. This was about a official as it got for an acknowledgement of the border crossing. |
This morning, three miles out from our starting hotel, it was even more discrete. We crossed over the Rio Caya, at that point a tiny little creek of a river and, boom, there we were in Portugal! No major signs. No border guards. Just a whisper of a new country in the form of a faded, and tree-covered region sign.
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| About as discrete an introduction to a new country as you could imagine. |
Ever since leaving England and France, we've also lost whatever tree/shade cover we might have enjoyed against the sun. Spain was just so. Portugal is following suit.
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| Elvas was a major border fortress town in the Middle Ages. It was our first big climb of the day. And, yes, Jesse and Michelle saw a guy who looked just like Elvis on a bicycle! |
First impressions of Portugal: The folks who drive here do so FAST!. Whether they are driving along side of us or following ever so closely to one another (tailgating might be considered a national sport down here), they are doing it very quickly.
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| We kept hearing what sounded like gunshots during the morning. I was told it was to help keep the birds away from the olive trees as they near ripening and ready for harvest. |
The roads are as badly paved as in parts of rural Spain and England. As was the case in England, there are virtually no shoulders on the road (so far) so staying as far right to allow the speedy motorists their way was a challenge all day. Contributing to that challenge was the fact that there are bushes growing right next to the roadway that are not cut down. As a result, at the same time we are trying to stay as far right as we can, we are also dealing with the switches and the thorns from those same bushes and veering into the road whenever we're free from traffic.
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| I should have shot this as a (music) video instead of merely taking the picture of these goats in their pasture. The sounds of all their bells around their necks made for such a wonderful musical interlude along today's ride. |
We rode today through groves of almond and olive trees, pasture lands for cattle and goats, and pig farms (just read an alarming report last night about there being more pigs in Spain than people and the negative effects -- CO2, less crops being grown for human consumption, etc. -- that might be causing).
The heat in the summer supports why siestas are taken and why dinners don't start until late at night. It's too damned hot in the middle of the day!
Two more days and we'll reach the Atlantic Ocean!
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