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November 26 Saturday Bicycle touring Portugal from Medina Portugal to somewhere along Costa Azul The guards were right. There is lots of cold water. I endured another quick chilly splash. We ate while standing up at the outdoor dishwashing sinks. They don't have tables here -- or toilet paper -- or hot water. It must cost a fortune to maintain these places, huh? There are some amenities for the big bucks we're paying. Like a tennis court. Locked. A pool. Drained. A store. Closed. It costs us $23.50 to get our passports back. Susan returned with a look of astonishment on her face. Talk about a rip-off. Haven't they heard of off-season? We go to Sines -- or at least in the direction we thought was Sines -- but we learn we can't trust the signs to Sines. We end up on a dead end road in a little fishing village. I take a picture of the boats and nets stuck in a lagoon. We eat lunch by a beach. Two huge tourist buses and four mini vans pull up and leave after twenty minutes. I guess our Portugal cycle tour isn't off the beaten tourist path yet. We back pedal four kilometres on our fully loaded touring bicycles to a turnoff and find the road we should have taken in the first place. When bicycle touring in Portugal, make sure you leave plenty of time to get lost. At least for us, getting lost is a daily occurrence. Some of our impromptu excursions have been entertaining though. I can hardly wait until we hit countries that don't use our alphabet. I am having enough troubles now. Guess what stop signs read here? STOP. Yep, so far only Quebec has something besides STOP printed on a stop signs. Arret. The campground we pedal our little touring bikes into wants to charge us extra for our bikes -- and they do. Cars cost $3. So, our three bikes cost three times as much as a car. Gotta love those quick-thinking entrepreneurs. We have been putting our two little cycle touring tents side by side and throwing our green tarp over top and telling them it is one tent. They charge per tent, per person, and per vehicle. I've gotta say it: Costa Azul sucks for fully loaded bicycle touring. The roads are crappy. Cobblestones and potholes do not make for an enjoyable cycle tour. And I hate the blowing sand. Much too gritty ... especially in my sandwiches. Hey, maybe that's why their called sandwiches? Since we're in a touristy area, I hate the money grubbers who have their hands out for everything. We're not people here; we're merely dollar signs. Choose a different place to cycle tour if you're not into being treated like a dollar sign. We arrived at the campground at 3:45 PM. The check-in doesn't open till 4. Will they let us in early? Not a chance. The check-in workers stand around talking to one another, ignoring us because they know we want to check-in. We lean our touring bikes against some trees and open our maps. We check to see how we can cycle away from this tourist-area crap. Four oh five PM rolls around. A check-in person slides open a window on the office. As we continue to study our map, she clears her throat repeatedly in an effort to get us to notice her. When we finish with the map, we look up but continue to sit where we are. She pulls some ugly face and throws up her hands. She walks out of the booth, back to where the two other "workers" are, and proceeds to loudly discuss gringos. We decide to stay. I walk over to the empty booth to check-in. They have a saying here: minyata, meaning later ... much later ... as in tomorrow. When I ask them to do something, they say, "Minyata, minyata." Can you wash my clothes in the washing machine? "Minyata, minyata." Can you dry my clothes in the dryer? "Minyata, minyata." Apparently, it turns out that it's only when YOU want something done. We check-in and cycle down the lane to find a spot in the trees. I dump off my cycling gear, empty my panniers, and head for town centre to buy groceries. On the way to the store I pass the check-in person. Then I see her in the store. Hey, isn't she supposed to be working in the booth until 7? So that's why she wanted us to hurry up and check in. She had grocery shopping to do. On company time. |
