A hard day to Santiago de Compostela

Summary of the past 2 days:

• The last day coming into Santiago was a big effort. Near the end of the day, I was seeing spots and just grinding it out... even if that grinding was only slightly faster than a walk... or actually having to walk some sections. At the hotel, it took a long cold shower to get my body temperature down, and I light-headed for the night.
• The climbs are getting longer as roads take a valley between two mountain (not tall) ranges. This part of Spain is lovely green with bays reaching into the coastal range from the cold Atlantic. The wind can be cool. When it´s not there, the sun is blistering strong with amazing humidity. Do you like to sweat?
• The roads are better/easier in Spain. Instead of having small climbs with +10% sections that you have to walk in places, the climbs are longer and smoother. That helps rest on the downhill also. Very steep descents aren't long enough to recover before starting up again, nor can you actually relax enough to get rest.
• As soon as you cross the border, there is a marked difference in the economy. More industry and long distance trucks carrying loads. More commerce in general and on a larger scale.
• I am an official pilgrim of de compostela... and have the certificate to prove it.

Facts:

July 26/27th - Rest days in Santiago. Rain, which is light so far.

This is a fabulously beautiful city. It is also full of pilgrims from Camino de Santiago at the end their adventure looking to party. Unfortunately, the food is bad and expensive.

The Cathedral of St. James is spectacular beyond descriptions. Regardless of your religious affiliation, it is moving.

Facts:

July 25th - Gps - Pontevedra TO Santiago de Compostela

Distance - 37.39 miles/ 60.17 km

Time - 5:09 (start 10:55am)

Weather - 89 with humidity. Super HOT.

Climbs - Three long climbs with hills in between.

Difficulty - 6 distance, heat, lots of climbs...lots.

Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands climb.

10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.

Hotel - Hotel Real - 45 euros with breakfast. Recommended. Spotlessly Clean, but it´s three hard-to-climb floors and without air conditioning. The city and guests can be noisy. Nice lady that runs the place works very hard to make sure your visit is good.

Comments:

A. Suffering.

B. The first climb of the day would have been enough. Steep and long. About 5 miles of up to start the day is not the optimum route. There were three long climbs with ups along the way.

C. Then, it got wildly hot and humid. The amount of sweat produced amazes. It felt like you had jump into a pool being soaked through.

• Without water discipline, you are going to be in real trouble. I am drinking 6-10 ltrs. a day, and you have to drink small amounts all day long. If you let yourself get thirsty, it is too late.

D. A lot of suffering near the end.

Facts:

July 24th - (Actual) Valenca, Portugal to Pontevedra, Spain

Distance - 34.21 miles/ 55.05 km

Time - 4:31 (start 11:06am)

Weather -80´s with a light wind.

Climbs - none.

Difficulty - 1

Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands climb.

10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.

Hotel - Hotel Raus - 37 euro´s without breakfast. Recommended.

Comments:

A. Great city. Not a dead historical city. In fact, you do not see the usual postcards because business is focused on serving locals.

B. Excellent place to sit in the plaza with a beer.

C. Impressive architecture and churches.

Portuguese - Spanish Border

Summary of the past 4 days:

• An extra rest day in Porto was required
• Two short days and one fairly long mostly following the coast.
• This part of Portugal is pretty. Green and hilly.
• I am 2km from the border with Spain. I am trying to time break days in Santiago with the coming rain. That is why there are a couple of short days here.
• This town has an impressive hill town/fort/christian holy place. The walls are intact and not rebuilt. That is unusual.

Facts:

July 23th - (Actual) Viana da Castelo to Valenca, Portugal

Distance - 33.15 mi/53.35 km
Time - 3:16
Weather - Cool in the morning alone the coast. Then, super hot in Valenca.
Climbs - a couple hills.
Difficulty - 0
Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the Marin headlands climb.
10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep

Comments:

A. Nice day. The mouth of the Rio Minho has some fantastic surf potential.
B. Pretty.
A. The GPS kept wanting to take me over the mountains. The road is new (nicely so) the system might not realize it´s open.

Facts:

July 22th - Povoa do Varzim to Vania da Castelo

Distance - 24.03 mi

Weather - 30c/12km wind (lucky to cool down after yesterday).

Climbs - A couple at the end.

Difficulty - 0

Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the Marin headlands climb.

10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.

Hotel -  . It resembles an ikea on the inside. Recommended.

Comments:

A. Nice. The first walkers seen. Too many cobble stones over some steep hills.
B. The town is well worth a return visit. This was the first I saw of what could be called desperate poverty.

Facts:

July 21th - Porto to Povoa do Varzim

Distance - 19.93 mile

Time -

Weather - Late head wind beat me back

Climbs - none.

Difficulty - 0 - wind and tired drove me off.

Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the Marin Headlands climb.

10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.

Hotel - ... I just turned saw it on the road and stopped. Fine.

Comments:

A.  Too tired to deal with the afternoon headwind. Flat.
B.  Sat through a packed mass. They come for the singing nuns.
C.  It a beach resort town with a pilgrimage history.

Facts:

July 20th -  Porto 2nd rest day

Distance - 0

Weather - Nice

Hotel - Grande Hotel do Porto - 94usd with breakfast. Not Recommended. Nice, but tourist hotel.

Comments:

A. Too tired to leave today. Mostly rode the train around porto.

Figueira to Porto - Moving out of the hills into the river/coastal flats.

Summary of the past 4 days:

• Two flat short days (20 mile) days. The second a fiery 102.2 degrees.
• One long (40 mile).
• This is the end of the hilly south. It is still rural, small town, agriculture dominated with some tourism mixed in at spots, but it becomes a more metropolitan experience as you near Porto.
• Rest day in Porto.

Facts:

July 19th - Rest day in Porto.

This is a fabulously beautiful city. It bends, slopes, reflects light with vivid sounds. It is a tourist area, but not exclusively so. Passing through the tight hilly streets above the river is one of the great experiences. If you are the praying type, you will find lovely and live churches for that, covered in Porto´s distinctive tile art.

Above the river, style and shopping are on display. All the possible variations from bouquet to mall present themselves.

My suggestion is come now before it is overwhelmed with big tour operators. I haven't met an American since Lisbon.

Facts:

July 18th - 5th prospect leg /L7 (actual) - Aveiro to Porto

Distance - 42.489 miles/ 68.38 km

Time - 4:50 (start 9:44am)

Weather - 30c/12km wind (lucky to cool down after yesterday).

Climbs - A couple at the end.

Difficulty - 2 distance

Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands climb.

10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.

Hotel - Grande Hotel do Porto - 94usd with breakfast. Not Recommended. Nice, but tourist hotel.

Comments:

A. I was worried about making the distance. The 15th is still effecting me.

B. It was a long day, but got it done. The climbs at the end were difficult.

C. Things are changing. Porto is clearly a beautiful tourist site, but you can feel that you are entering the tideline between the Duro and south Portugal.

Facts:

July 17th - L6 (actual) - Mira to Aveiro

Distance - 24.9046 miles/ 36.64 km

Time - 2:25 (start 10:45am)

Weather - 102.2f/39c !!!!!!!! with 5km nw wind

Climbs - none.

Difficulty - 3 - Heat!

Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands climb.

10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.

Hotel - Hotel Aveiro Palace - 69 euro´s without view and with breakfast. Not Recommended.

Comments:

A. You have to watch out for the heat. I was nearly in trouble at the end without realizing it. Once your eyes start closing and the water bottles are hot, you need to start paying attention to signs of heat exhaustion... if you are keeping up with the water, not sweating any more, and it´s super hot...well, that´s an iq test.

B. Great college town with excellent food.

Facts:

July 16th - L5 (actual) - Figueira to Mira (Logo)

Distance - 24.9046 miles/ 40.08 km

Time - 2:57 (start 10:57am)

Weather - 21c with 14km nw wind

Climbs - 1 at the start of the day. had to walk sections.

Difficulty - 0

Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands climb.

10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.

Hotel - Quinta da lagoa- 65 euro´s with breakfast. Quiet family place with a pool. Recommended.

Comments:

A. The first climb was difficult. Walked sections.

B. Flat river planes after that. I need the short days to recover from yesterday.

C. This part of the coast is lovely. There are tourist, but not overly so. None are Americans.

Figueira da Foz - First day real pain.

Facts:

July 15th - L4- (actual) Batalha to Figueira da foz

Distance - 44.5399 miles/ 71.68 km

Time - 5:46 (start 10:19am)

Weather - 21c with 10km nw wind

Climbs - the first one almost killed me.

Difficulty - 5 hard... the lights went out around 3.5 hours.

Scale: 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands climb.

10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.

Hotel - Hotel Wellington- 55 euro´s with breakfast. Too tired to search for something else.

Comments:

A. The first climb was outrageously difficult. It took about 50 mins. to make the first 5k. I have climbed high mountains faster than that.

B. It left me with burning legs, about 3 miles down, and 40 to go. Complete noddle by the time I made it here. Cramps.

Facts:

July 14th - Caldas da Rainha to Batalha

Distance - 30.49 miles \ 51.62km

Time - 4:23 (start 10:45am)

Weather - 21c with 14km nw wind

Climbs - 2 class 4, 1 class 5

Difficulty - 3 Moderately hard

Scale:

• 0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands.

• 10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military.

Hotel Batalha - 35 euro´s with breakfast. Too tired to search for something else.

Comments:

A.  Sweating out the sick, making three climbs were fairly tough. The winds grind on you and make hard to keep a consistent temperature.  

B. It´s mostly uninspiring rural agricultural land. I wanted to see the interior of Portugal too, so I am happy with the route. Tomorrow, the road turns towards the coast, so this might be the last of redneck land.

C. Batalha (Battle)- There is a wildly spectacular Monastery here.

Sick in Caldas da Rinhas

Facts:
            Sick here for 5 days. July 9th through July 14th.

July 10th - Did not sleep until 2:30am. Woke-up thinking of toughing it out. That ´hard man´ technique proved to be a quick mistake. It was followed by the ´try another approach Sparky´ method, sending me back to the Hotel SANA.

Given the sleep issues, I picked up some extract and sleep-aid. Personally, I strongly dislike using any form of sleeping pills, but I should have done this earlier. Time change is always an issue but never as much as this trip.

July 11th - Feeling much better. Sleep helped significantly. I could have given it a go today, but it's probably better to recover some health before pushing it.

Walked around the town a little today. There is a nice park and a good mix of new\old buildings. There´s nothing in particular to recommend a visit, but it´s easy to see why people live here. It's pretty, has everything you might need, and families are strongly connected.

July 12th - Sick still. Planning on leaving in the morning. I will go to bed early and hope for an equally early start. Started coughing today.

July 13th - Sick still. Hoping this is the last day. Coughing.

Comments:

A. In order of vile, Top 5 things to ruin a bike-trip:

1. Get hurt
2. Get sick
3. Get a broken bike that can not be repaired at roadside
4. Get robbed
5. Get arrested (Specifically, arrested for doing something without realizing it illegal. Any other kind of issue with the law... well, you deserve what you get.)

All of them result in stopping you. They are expensive and steal motivation.

I am suffering number 2 on the list. Nasal Infection turned cold.

B. The one word description for Caldas da Rinhas it would be: Tranquil.

That might be true of all that I have seen in Portugal so far. Families are both young and tight. Measured by voice volume and physicality, you do not see the kind acting out easily found in our shopping mall. It´s fairly homogeneous, Christian (Catholic) and Portuguese. But there´s something deeper than that going one.

These are people under tremendous a debt crisis. The kind of debt crisis that would produce aggression in the U.S... noticeable aggression. Remember our cities in the 80´s? Here. Nothing. Some protests of course, but those are limited to specific targets. The news is noticeably absent of bleeding leads.

I've been talking to a few people. They are not happy. If they have a job, they will do anything to keep it. Without one, they do not have good chances in finding one. But, you do not get any crazy talk about the government taking away my handgun... ,nor crazy action...people shooting on the highway for example.

There is a drug problem and some crime, but this is not a violent society... not in any way that I can see. I watched a soccer (futebol) game. The Portuguese repudiate violence where we embrace it. There are limits to winning.

You might file this under, ´Be Careful what you assume. The traveler sees what their preconceptions more often that what is actually true´. That might be part of the case here, but I expected to see despair, riots, crime, and violence given the economy.
 

C. Translation of Caldas da Rinhas = Spas of the Queen. There is a hospital and thermal spa here.

D. Speaking some portuguese is great, but you might want to be careful with the phrase: ´Eu gosto meu cabelo pequeno´ when stopping in for a haircut.

My scalp requires suntan lotion... even with the helmet... for a while.