Monday, May 5th, 2014
Route Map and Garmin Ride Staistics
The day dawned foggy, but fortunately this burned off before we started riding. However, it did get most of us into arm warmers and/or gilettes.
The ride out of Espinho passed through a very nice pine forest which tuned out to be owned by a nearby NATO base whic we had passed earlier and thought was a prison. Occasional "inhabitants" of the forest included to odd lady of the night, but not in the same quantities as in parts of Italy.
For non Bike Adventurers, every now and then one has to stop to do a "page turn" of the route maps, this being the first of the day.
Now a route map is a set of instructions designed to get everyone from "A" to "B". They are usually put into a map holder connected to ones handlebars as follows:
The trouble is, they are not always easy to read for those requiring reading glasses, and are more difficult to read when the road is rough or cobbled. They are the day's "Bible", but are gradually being replaced by GPS and SatNav devices which are not always totally accurate themselves.
Derek and I got a bit ahead of the mini peloton at one stage and then discovered that nobody was following. It subsequently turned out that Tony D had a puncture and everyone behind had stopped to help. It's so easy to get "isolated" at either the front or the back of the ride.
Back together again, we passed some kind of road structure which the local storks had taken over for their nests.
And then arrived in the large town of Aveiro where we planned to have lunch. It was a rather nice place with some incongruous statues/sculptures in the main street.
As well as a river that looked a bit like a faux Venice.
The group had a nice (and cheap) "menu executivo" and then set off for some long, straight riding beside a lagoon. Somewhere along the way the GPS/SatNv route failed some riders and the map riders got a bit ahead. Just before the end of the ride, the group reformed over an ice cream in a roadside cafe.
At the destination, there was an issue with hotel incompetency, and we all amused ourselves while it was sorted out.
Personally, I think the hotel was quite nice, if a little too "chic". Only time will tell whether it survives the downturn in Portuguese touriism.
It had a fantastic pool and spa on the top floor, but when you went there you realised that the glass roof made the room too hot, and the over-heated pool provided no respite. In other words, it looked better than it functioned.
Being extremely early in the season, most of the beach-side bars were still closed, except for this one. Unfortunately, the tap beer had been exhausted on the weekend, and the bottled beer was restricted to 200ml mini bottles.
We had another fine meal in a nearby restaurant, and retired to write our blogs etc...
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