Louise booked via Campspace. “No, sweetie,” I say to Mira, who is looking at me with a hopeful look in her eyes – because we do go for a quick walk around the neighboring field quite often late in the afternoon – we aren’t going anywhere, because I have to wait for her to arrive. And in the meantime, I can keep gluing, so I’m going to make some more glue now.”
When I come back, there is a cyclist standing there, fresh from the Eurovelo 2
Louise is a cyclist. A real one. From a family of cyclists and hikers, who admittedly didn’t care for it for a while (like during puberty), but later just went back to cycling again. And alone. “I get approached constantly,” she says, “that’s the fun part of traveling alone. And Portugal is a great country for solo cycling.”
Flying to Porto, with the bike in a box
“The bike has to go in one of those special bags, right?” I ask, but no: “I just take a box. Bike shops usually have boxes, so I’ve always been fine.” She lives 10 minutes from Zaventem, so flying isn’t a problem. It costs an extra 80 euros to take your bike with you. At the cycling and walking fair – one year in the Netherlands, the next in Belgium – you can find out all sorts of things about how, where, and when you can cycle everywhere.
Careforluggage is a company you can hire to transport your luggage anywhere. The only condition is that you stay a night at the affiliated campsite/hotel.
Look, real cyclists know that, because every gram counts!
She went cycling for a week with her oldest sister Justine’s son. Christmas presents are “preferably not materialistic, but linked to an experience” – so the nephews get a sleeping mat for the tent, or something like that, plus a week of cycling with Auntie. Getting the bike into the box is a challenge that caused a lot of headaches the first time, but “my dad is helpful and comes up with a solution involving screwing the box shut with drywall plugs, so you don’t have to use a lot of tape because that isn’t reusable and where do you get it from in your host country?”
The bridge in Figueira was a huge challenge for a cyclist
The bike path on the bridge itself is nothing special, and on top of that, you have to lift your bike over the guardrail. “I thought, I’m going to die here,” says Louise, even though she doesn’t exactly strike me as the weak-woman type (hello, when you cycle all over Europe from top to bottom all by yourself!), “it makes sense that they ride fast, but if I catch a gust of wind … and I can’t stay in my lane … but it seemed like they had respect because everyone went around me, and I got across safely.”
The same day, a pickup truck suddenly stops at the top of the stairs, and two men come down a few steps. I am sitting there concentrating on sticking my mosaic, but I go over to them and ask if they need help, because apparently something is going on. One man looks Portuguese, but the other is wearing one of those typical bicycle helmets and those special shoes.
The Portuguese man tells me that he picked up the cyclist in Alqueidão, where the Eurovelo 2 passes by
“He didn’t know where he could stay for the night, so I just brought him here,” he says, “because he can camp here, right?” Yes, he certainly can! With Louise’s bridge story still in mind, I ask him: “They are building a special bicycle bridge for the Eurovelo, aren’t they?” “Certainly,” he says, “they are already working on it; it is near the Quinta do Canal, it will take another six months or so.”
The Frenchman’s name is Philippe, and he came to Porto by Flixbus; the bicycle, however, in a special bike bag. He is going to his son in Seville, and from there he is having the bike shipped to his home address in bits and pieces, and then he will take the bus back himself with his little backpack. Seville is still quite a long bike ride away.
Dedicated cyclists – the Eurovelo is apparently becoming a huge success!
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(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings.#cyclists #Eurovelo2 #Camping )
We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa.You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
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