Atlantic coast -Portugal

24-25/05/2019: Villa Nova de Milfontes

Km travelled today/sum: 218km / 4855km
Sun shine, 25 degrees, highway and nice country roads

We left Lisboa over the ‘Ponte 25 de Abril‘, a huge hanging bridge which didn’t allow motorcycle rider to use the left lane. Not long after, we turned off the highway to follow some of the more scenic roads through a national park. At one point, we saw a lot of stork nests on any imaginable place with height.

So we stopped and took some pictures.

 

We continued through the national park on the curvy roads meandering through the green hills. It was just enjoyable. Our next planned stop was ‘Die letzte Wurst vor America’ and then to Albufeira, but that would have been a long day. Instead, during a petrol stop, we looked around and found something close by, on the side of the national park. So we booked it and when we arrived, we got a room on the first floor with a nice balcony. Since we would like to call Germany to congratulate my mum for her birthday, we would be up late/early, so we decided to stay a day longer.

Since we still had time before sunset, we explored the village close by. There was an old castle and the river mouth leading to the ocean and a nice beach.

The next morning we slept in and started to walk around after lunch time. We went back to the beach, this time walked up to the ocean. At the end of the road was an extraordinary sculpture. As we found out, it was the ‘Arcanjo Statue’ symbolising a cry, an alert to the planet that melts.

From this point we could see the Atlantic beaches as well as back to the castle in town and the bridge, spanning over the Mira River.

When we were passing the restaurants, we noticed that people were eating something like peanuts, but with a snail shell. The items in this dish looked too small for snails. So we got adventurous in the next restaurant and ordered one serve. Well, it turned out that this are snails, Portuguese snails (Há Caracois) but much smaller than the French once. I must admit, they didn’t taste bad.

After all the hard work so far, we thought we need a holiday. So we looked for accommodation in Albufeira, which has a kitchen, is close to the beach, doesn’t cost the world, has free Wi-Fi and secure motorcycle parking. To our surprise, Sigrid found some accommodation ticking all these boxes. So tomorrow, we will have a look at the point where the Atlantic and the Mediterranean sea meet and then set off to Albufeira.

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