Goodbye Lisbon, Hello Arraiolos

After spending such a pleasant couple of days in Lisbon, I must admit that it would have been easy to stay a little longer. Unfortunately that wasn't an option - we had a schedule to keep. Our instructions had clearly told us to be ready and waiting outside the Millennium BCP Bank, in order to catch our bus to Arraiolos at 2 pm precisely.

That only gave me a few hours to spend my final morning in Lisbon. I first wondered along the now familiar main pedestrian street to the waterfront. It was still early in the morning for the familiar buskers to have set up shop, but obviously not too early for the gypsy beggars to be out and about hounding everyone in sight. I thought it somewhat amusing that they must have made a bulk purchase of crutches at some time. We saw about a dozen gypsy girls regularly working the streets . Each one of them was equipped with a single crutch, although even a blind man could see that there was nothing wrong with them. When they were out of sight of the masses, their limps immediately disappeared.

One place that I had passed many times over the past couple of days was a towering iron structure in the centre of the city, with a viewing platform at the top. In order to get to the top you pay 5 Euro for a ticket to the ancient elevator. Each previous time that I had passed by the queues had been so long that I lost interest. On this occasion, however, the queue was very short so I took my opportunity and bought a ticket. A few moments later I was standing atop the structure and looking down at Lisbon. It certainly offered a great view of the city.

After checking out of the hotel and having lunch,it was time to collect my luggage and wait for the bus. Fortunately it was only about 10 minutes late. We were also pleased that it was a very comfortable Mercedes Benz bus. Soon we were leaving Lisbon and passing over the huge suspension bridge that we had seen from the city.

We were on our way to the small rural town of Arraiolos, about 130 km from Lisbon. Most of the trip was undertaken on a huge freeway with almost no other traffic. We were also interested to pass extensive plantations of cork trees, where you could clearly see how the bark had been systematically harvested from the trunks.

About two hours later we arrived at our destination, although the bus driver had some difficulty navigating the narrow one way streets. Fortunately I had my Garmin GPS with me and was able to provide him with the necessary directions.

Our home for the evening is the Casa de Platana Hotel. It was certainly unlike any hotel we had stayed in thus far on this trip. Two things it had in abundance were character and candles.

Later in the afternoon we met our guide Jorge and collected our bicycles. The consensus of opinion was that the bikes were well prepared and very comfortable to ride.

Our evening meal was at the Restaurante Pelourinho. I think I can safely say it was easily the best meal we have enjoyed so far on this trip. The food was excellent and the wait staff were attentive and very helpful.

Tomorrow we start riding.Read more