March 8 :: Tomar, Portugal
March 8 :: Tomar, Portugal :: 98km / 3910km total
A massive sightseeing day as I took in, or in some cases passed by, four major tourist sites, some of them World Heritage. First stop, yesterday's target of Alcobaca for a 12th-century Cistercian monastery. As I rolled into Alcobaca I wrestled with the one big drawback of solo bike touring - what do you do with your bike when you're seeing a tourist site? In Asia and Africa tourist sites are spread out far enough for this not to be a problem - you simply plan to sleep in tourist towns, which has the double advantage of more choice of restaurants, etc. But compact, history-rich Europe is a different matter, with its density of tourist sites, and standing in front of the Mosterio de Santa Maria de Alcobaca I helplessly scanned around for a place to safely leave my bike. Ticket booths are a good place to leave the bike, but the ticket booth here was inside the monastery... so I was out of luck. I peeked inside, dashed around a bit, then scampered back out to my bike, and rode off.
Then to nearby Batalha, for a stunning 12th century Gothic monastery. Gargoyles, flying buttresses, pinnacles, parapets, the works. Fortunately it was far more dramatic outside than inside, as again I could not venture more than a few metres inside the door. From Batalha I pushed over a steep switchbacking road to Fatima, a Catholic pilgrimage site that draws 4 million pilgrims per year. Some shepherd kids 'talked' to the Virgin Mary here in 1917, and then some gathered crowds saw some sort of crazy sun-spinning thing, hence the big to-do. Fatima is definitely a Catholic tourist town, with wall-to-wall shops selling the tacky bric-a-brac that Catholics do best. I picked up a 4-foot high porcelain Virgin Mary, strapped it to the back of my bike, and rode off.
More climbing brought me to my final, and most-anticipated destination, Tomar, and its Templar fortress / church / monastery. Being a stopover town I grabbed a room, locked the bike inside, and was now free to explore, unencumbered. The fortress was fun, but a bit of a letdown being without any kind of self-guided tour or routing, like many buildings of this type that I've been to.
Cycling in Portugal has been a pleasure, albeit tough with the hills and the wind. Drivers here are fantastic, very respectful and careful of me on the road... my guidebook talks about the 'crazy Portuguese driving habits'... listen, I know where to find crazy drivers, and they ain't in Portugal. The roads are smooth, often with a paved shoulder, twisty, and rolling. Often what I'm seeing reminds me of the countless hours of Tour de France footage I've watched, the roads passing through little towns built RIGHT on the road, corners everywhere, cobblestones, stunning scenery, and of course this IS Europe. I'm looking forward to the next 5 days of cycling South towards Faro, my final destination in Portugal.
A massive sightseeing day as I took in, or in some cases passed by, four major tourist sites, some of them World Heritage. First stop, yesterday's target of Alcobaca for a 12th-century Cistercian monastery. As I rolled into Alcobaca I wrestled with the one big drawback of solo bike touring - what do you do with your bike when you're seeing a tourist site? In Asia and Africa tourist sites are spread out far enough for this not to be a problem - you simply plan to sleep in tourist towns, which has the double advantage of more choice of restaurants, etc. But compact, history-rich Europe is a different matter, with its density of tourist sites, and standing in front of the Mosterio de Santa Maria de Alcobaca I helplessly scanned around for a place to safely leave my bike. Ticket booths are a good place to leave the bike, but the ticket booth here was inside the monastery... so I was out of luck. I peeked inside, dashed around a bit, then scampered back out to my bike, and rode off.
Then to nearby Batalha, for a stunning 12th century Gothic monastery. Gargoyles, flying buttresses, pinnacles, parapets, the works. Fortunately it was far more dramatic outside than inside, as again I could not venture more than a few metres inside the door. From Batalha I pushed over a steep switchbacking road to Fatima, a Catholic pilgrimage site that draws 4 million pilgrims per year. Some shepherd kids 'talked' to the Virgin Mary here in 1917, and then some gathered crowds saw some sort of crazy sun-spinning thing, hence the big to-do. Fatima is definitely a Catholic tourist town, with wall-to-wall shops selling the tacky bric-a-brac that Catholics do best. I picked up a 4-foot high porcelain Virgin Mary, strapped it to the back of my bike, and rode off.
More climbing brought me to my final, and most-anticipated destination, Tomar, and its Templar fortress / church / monastery. Being a stopover town I grabbed a room, locked the bike inside, and was now free to explore, unencumbered. The fortress was fun, but a bit of a letdown being without any kind of self-guided tour or routing, like many buildings of this type that I've been to.
Cycling in Portugal has been a pleasure, albeit tough with the hills and the wind. Drivers here are fantastic, very respectful and careful of me on the road... my guidebook talks about the 'crazy Portuguese driving habits'... listen, I know where to find crazy drivers, and they ain't in Portugal. The roads are smooth, often with a paved shoulder, twisty, and rolling. Often what I'm seeing reminds me of the countless hours of Tour de France footage I've watched, the roads passing through little towns built RIGHT on the road, corners everywhere, cobblestones, stunning scenery, and of course this IS Europe. I'm looking forward to the next 5 days of cycling South towards Faro, my final destination in Portugal.
posted by Graham Durrant at 3:42 PM
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