He says – Rocks, Skulls, and ahhhhh!!!

22 - 24 August 09

We got up and Tam was feeling sick. We however made the decision to get moving and went on what turned out to be a 40km disappointing megalith hunt. Hot frustrate and ill we headed decided to just move on. Once we arrived at Portalargra we discovered that the campground there was closed too. This was despite the many bloody city signs that just kept point you up the 30km of switch back mountain pass never once did they tell you that is was closed. However an enterprising campground owner did put a poster up for his place on the locked gate. We now had an other 80k to go to get to Castilo de Vide and the nearest campground. With a bit of two up navigational savvy we got lost and road around for about an hour before Tam’s illness made her grumpy and in no uncertain terms told me to go back and find the dammed place. We did just that this time with hardly a wrong turn (motivated navigation, I guess). When we did find the site, it was run by a Dutch guy (there must be no people left there).

We spent the next few days exploring the area, the two big towns in the area, Marvao and Castilo de Vide, are both old walled medieval citadels. Marvao was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. I though Evora was nice, but Marvao with its white washed walls and cobbled narrow streets over took Evora in seconds. The entire city was said to only have 350 people left living in it. We spent lunch watching bee eaters flying by the walls in a great display of acrobatics. The thing that I could not believe was that there were so many empty houses again. These could so easily be made into B&B all to easily. All the region needs is to advertise. The Algarve did and look at it, it is crawling with…ahh…okay so maybe lets not advertise.

Castilo de Vide, was simular to Marvao, just more of a real city and with out the amazing views. We spent the afternoon there exploring the tiny streets and labyrinth of the old Jewish quarter. On the way out we stopped at a small Roman city, it was expensive to get in to and not well preserved as such we only looked at it form the outside, but had seen enough of these in the UK to know what we were looking at. We thought we would try our luck again and go megalith hunting. The hunt started off very badly, with us not being able to find anything. Eventually we found one. It was 30k or so from where we initially wanted to be but at least we found one. It was obviously a fertility symbol. Now having our fix on that one were able to track down several others. Including a small one that was only about 800m from or tent (as the crow flies) you could see the tent from it but not vis versa. So in one day we did prehistory, roman history and medieval history.. not bad for a 50k ride..

I have really fallen in love with central Portugal.. It goes to show that my theory of try everything 3 times is right.. when we first got here is was not great.. Porta was bad, the camp site was hell… Lisbon good, Evora great, Marvao is excellent and now I don’t really want to leave. Everywhere has good and bad places.

I have fount that the people here in Portugal are not an openly happy people, which can make or break a trip. The number of times Portuguese have just come stared at us or the bike, during which we say “hello” (Bon Dia) and they just look at us like we have 10 heads is uncountable, the number of time this has happened and they then turn around and chat is 2. The first was a guy who spoke to us spoke perfect English and he was fun (see above for brits and sports)! The second guy was on our way down to Castilo de Vide, we stopped in a small town for lunch, and this old man who just came off his bike (a week before) was interested in how I ride the behemoth that is Anubis and how much safety gear cost. He is really banged up after his fall (but he is still riding in a horse riding helmet and a t-shirt). It was fun trying to figure out what he was saying and trying to answer his questions. Then conversation then went beyond our comprehension and he started to talk about things we had no idea about. None the less it was nice to have some contact with the locals. I don’t not feel that this is tourist thing and there does not seem to be any difference between strangers that are Portuguese. They are a polite people but not overtly friendly and jolly. I have been watching the interaction between people in shops. It almost always goes the same they walk in “Can I please have….” The serving person repeats the request, serves it. Person one “thank you”.. Later on “bill please” .. “your bill is X€” they pay and leave. Never unfriendly just not friendly.

We headed back to Spain, via a little town called Campomaior. We went this way for one reason only they also have a chapel of bones. This one was not on such a grand scale, and was built when a gunpowder factory blew up killing 1500 people. They had no way of identifying the bones so lumped them together in the chapel. I decided that I really liked the idea. It is so much better then a mass grave and a plaque somewhere. This is immortalising the victims in a way that could not be done other wise. The one thing that did make it a bit creepy, to me, was that the chapel was contained with in a person’s house. 1500 odd skulls (or bits of) and 2 entire bodies right next to their living room and you could just look though the window to see it. The concept was still good to me but the idea of it being in a house was a little odd. Don’t get me wrong the house was attached to the cathedral and was most likely a member of the clergy who lived here, but I would not want to eat my corn flakes every morning with 1500 skulls looking at me. Beside the occasional one fell down and would make the most awful sound. Crack Crunch.