Still in Portugal. But oh so close

Day 5 - Porto to Casa de Aldarete

A day when Dale and I get a late start because I have to get a new rack for my bike. We spent some time at the local bike shop and while one of the guys was working on mounting the rack we started talking to a nice Portuguese man who was in the store buying a bike. His English was impressive, turns out he had spent some time as a surgeon in Oxford, Edinburgh, and London. He ended up offering us some beds at his "casa" up towards Valenca, which was a bit further than we planned on going but we told him we would see how far we made it. Equipped with a hand drawn map to his house and a phone number, we headed North out of Porto.

It rained and it rained some more. For team Dale and Mike, knees were sore and spirits were a bit low. At least my bike was working. As usual, we got a bit lost while going through the different cities - pulling out the compass, heading north, and eventually finding our way out. We hit our first mountains of the trip, which brought long slow climbs and worn out break pads after the descents. And the rain continued.

We pulled off for some dinner when it started monsooning around 6:15, had some tasty chicken plus lots of bread and nutella. When the rain let up it was dark and we still had at least 25km to the apparent "casa" of our friend, Dr. Flavio. The people at the cafe laughed when we pointed up the road, they knew something we didn't. I think we climbed for the next hour or so, guided by headlamps and bike lights, and finally we crested the mountain and started to go down. Down meant windy mountain roads and lots of breaking. Morale was a bit low. At least the rain had stopped.

Finally we saw one of the signs on our map that Flavio had drawn. We followed a few of the turns and came to the "Casa de Aldarete". We called the number and Flavio answered, laughing and saying that he thought we were not going to make it. He let us in through the gate and ushered us into the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We entered a room with a fire going for us to dry out our gear. He showed me the guest house where I would be staying with my own kitchen, shower, and bedroom. Dale got the palatial treatment in the real Casa. After showering off and changing, Flavio's wife prepared us a traditional Portuguese meal and let us sample some of the house wine. Yes, they have a family vineyard at the Casa. It was probably the best thing that could have ever happened. They kept forcing food on us, making us drink more wine, and then they let us sleep. I have never slept so well.

Day 6 - Casa de Aldarete to ???

Mid Day 6 right now, at a Biblioteca in Valenca, Portugal. Broke another spoke about one mile into this morning's ride and had to fix that. It has been raining very hard and we are feeling pretty down about the 5-day forecast ahead of us. Rain, rain, and more rain. Looking at some train schedules to possibly avoid rain and cold in the mountains. It is miserable outside.

I want to go back to the Casa de Aldarete and eat more Portuguese food.