Owner: Bike Hippies URL:http://bikehippies.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 09:23:26 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: We are Hel and Dgym, two computer programmers from England who have sold our house, left our jobs, got on our bikes and started cycling around Europe. We are having a lot of fun, seeing some lovely scenery and discovering fantastic ice cream. Site statistics:Click here
Typical English grub 2006-12-04 14:01:00 We have been back in the UK for two weeks visiting a few people and getting some peace and quiet from that damn dog. It was a long and tiring journey involving a four-hour bus trip to Porto, a flight which reached Stansted at 11:30pm, a very long and slow queue for passport control and a long wait for the bus to Heathrow at 2:25am followed by another long wait for the bus to Woking, which dropped us off outside Woking Station at 6:30am. By this time it was raining so we hurried down the road to shelter outside Rachael and Pete's house until what we considered to be a good time to knock on the door and wake them up (about 7am, of course they may disagree about that being a good time :)Despite all the things that we don't like about the UK, it was unusually good to get back and indulge in things like showers that are hot for more than a minute, (relative) peace and quiet, a change of clothes, and of course heavy traffic, miserable weather and winter colds.We're not planning on spendi Read more:English
Piri-piri brownies 2006-11-11 22:43:00 1. Make chocolate brownie mix. If you don't have a tried and tested recipe of your own, pinch somebody elses. I used this one from the BBC.
2. Add as much chilli as you dare. I used a mix of piri-piri powder (lethal stuff) and crushed dried piri-piri peppers.
3. Bake
4. Eat
5. Burn Read more:brownies
Lisbon 2006-11-11 11:39:00 We spent a few days in Lisbon
last week. As Portugal's rail network is (a) sparse, and not very useful (we would have had to get a bus and three trains) and (b) not that cheap, we decided to get the bus. This involved a half hour trip to Chaves, followed by a change and an approximately eight hour journey to Lisbon via Vila Real, Regua, Viseu, Coimbra and Fatima. It was nice to see some more of the country, we learned that not all of Portugal is as mountainous as the area we're in, but there are some very beautiful parts, especially the river Mondego near Coimbra. It's just a shame the bus driver was a bit crazy and by the time we reached Viseu (notable for the windiness of its roads) I was green in the face and desperate to stop, fortunately we got a 45 minute lunch break there which provided ample recovery, and the journey thereafter wasn't so bad.
We reached Lisbon at about 4:30pm and took the train to Cascais (seaside resort where dgym's mum was staying with some friends). We
By popular request 2006-11-09 13:32:00 We've been staying in Valpacos for a couple of weeks now, having mostly got used to the idea that people were so willing to help two wet, smelly foreign strangers and welcome us into their lives. Strange isn't the right word for it, it's sad that such things might be considered strange - but it is very much at odds with what we are used to.
We are living with Manuela, her father, and a Ukrainian girl who speaks good Portuguese. We still don't understand much of what is said, but are learning to pick out words, and are coming to the conclusion that most conversations are about food. Everybody cooks for everybody in the house - huge pots of soup (including a fantastic Ukrainian red soup), stews, roasted castanhas (chestnuts)... We have been working our way through a selection of delicious sausages which hang over the fireplace, some made with bread and some with honey. Unfortunately, we have provided suitable representation for English cuisine by cooking such delights as a bland, tas Read more:popular
Wednesday 18th October - A strange day 2006-10-23 12:51:00 dgym
Our last day of planned cycling in a country usually goes slightly awry, either because we can't find accomodation where we were hoping to (France, Netherlands, Germany, Spain) or because we got horribly lost (Belgium) or just because we have to cross 2 miles of London. This time it was raining and we had a hill to get over, but other than having to get off and push because a cobbled street was too slippery for our tyres nothing too strange happened and we made it back to Valpacos in reasonable time.
Comming in to town we headed straight for the cafe we had stopped at last time, we were both wet and it was raining too hard to eat lunch outside and we knew we could get some sandwiches there. The trike attracted some attention as ever and when we sat down one of the locals tried a bit French with us. Upon learning that we were English he tapped his friend on the shoulder who turned round and said hello with a definite cockney accent - he was Portuguese but had moved to London more Read more:October
, Wednesday
A lesser form of travel 2006-12-09 10:46:00 We arrived back in Portugal last night after spending three days driving here from Guildford, via the Dover to Calais ferry. A lot of this was boring (and sometimes expensive) motorway, but the best parts were spent following our cycles routes, either in reverse for the first part of France, or just as we did a few months ago across Spain.
It is an interesting mix of pride and astonishment to see exactly how far we travelled each day. 50 miles a day may not sound like much but even in the car we would be lucky to do that in an hour. The hills aren't any less deceptive either, I actually checked to make sure my hand brake wasn't on at one stage, then released we were going up the same climb that had caught us out last time, it really looks flat but the engine was struggling and telling me otherwise.
Yesterday we were in Spain for the sunset and it was absolutely gorgeous. Most of our route across was stunning, and on lovely quiet roads too. If only it wasn't so far from England, and
Saturday: Cycling in the clouds 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today started out rainy, and stayed rainy until lunchtime. We started out of Cervera with a long climb into the mountains. It was supposed to be the scenic route but it's a little hard to appreciate the scenery when your eyeballs are busy being pelted with raindrops. We reached the grand altitude of 1413m at one point today, not so hard to believe as it was preceded by an enormous climb. After that, the road dropped down into the valley of the Carrion river and things got easier. We stopped at midday for some lunch - we didn't really want to stop as we were damp and didn't want to cool down too much, but also very hungry. So we found a sheltered spot during a less rainy interval and got out the brie and baguette. (yes I know, but given the choice between French and Spanish cheese, what would you go for?) I began to change out of my damp stuff into thermal wicking gear, and just as I was pulling on my legwarmers, the sun began to show through the clouds for the first time that day. O Read more:Saturday
, Cycling
Friday, day of rest 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Well if you people in offices get to spend your Friday
s drinking beer and surfing the internet, why shouldn't we take it easy too?We weren't quite ready to get back on the road this morning, so we decided to put in another day at Cervera to get another menu del dia for lunch, allow my washing to finish drying and generally gear ourselves up. Besides, we had been wanting to leave early this morning but in our excitement yesterday at having some internet access, we completely forgot to go grocery shopping.We have been treated very well in Cervera - we had some nice cakes for breakfast, were well fed again today at lunchtime, and the place we're staying in is really nice, the lady who runs it is very sweet, she even took my damp washing off the windowsill this morning and reappeared with it this evening, all dried and ironed. It is actually a hostal we are staying in, not a hostel - there is a difference. For the benefit the nice young gentleman who asked what a pension was, and anybod
Monday 2nd October: Giant birds nests 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Sunday was another short day, intentionally so, and quite rightly so, we were a little tired from Saturday's climbing. We rode from Guardo to Cistierna, only 19 miles and not too tough, but still a little hilly. We found a hostal at Cistierna, discovered all the restaurants in town were either not really restaurants, or just closed "for personal reasons" (the owners wanted to watch the footy). So we ended up eating raciones at the bar belonging to our hostal, they had spanish omelette which was very nice.Monday
was a long day on the flatlands, taking us away from the mountains and along the River Esla, past Leon and into La Baneza. It has been suggested that the majority of the Iberian Peninsula's precipitation ends up on terrain such as this, however our observations indicate otherwise. We got a fair bit of rain in the mountains, however today has been a dry day with sunny intervals and an horrendous headwind. We noticed a strange phenomenon in the villages we passed through - the c Read more:October
Tuesday 3rd October: Soggy 1970-01-01 00:59:59 dgymWe have come a long way over the last two days, 114 miles in total. I was a bit worried that the sun would fry us during the afternoon but luckily we were too busy gettting drenched for that to happen. The strong head wind has also been a problem, but we have made it this far and are now set up for a short trip across the border tomorrow if our clothes dry out in time. Google Earth is a great tool if you can find an internet connection, I was able to get a very good idea of the terrain we were facing from Cervera to Portugal. In fact we would not have attempted the last two days if it hadn't been clear that we were going to be going through a lot of flattish country. We have not seen very many places to stay after leaving the mountains, if we had our days might have been somewhat shorter, and the cycling has been a little dull too, but all that looks set to change just a few miles down the road into a new country and a new set of mountains.The trip has also been good for getting s Read more:October
, Tuesday
Thursday 5th October: Portugal 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The first challenge on Wednesday, after tearing Dgym away from the excellent doughnuts of the hotel's cafe, was to top up on water. As we passed through the town we kept our eyes open for a shop that might sell us a litre or two - no such luck. However, on the outskirts of the town we saw signs to a petrol station 500m away. 500m down the road, there was a turning and a couple of bars, but no petrol station to be seen - until Dgym pointed out to me the large, rusty overgrown petrol-station-like shelter thingy, which had clearly been closed for at least a decade. It is not just our maps that are out of date. Somebody needs to go around Spain with a big black permanent marker, correcting all the dodgy signposts. We then began our last few miles (about twelve of them) into Portugal
, which consisted of a long climb followed by lovely winding mountain passes. The border was unmanned, as many of them are in Europe these days, but you could see where there used to be barriers.So we carried o Read more:October
, Thursday
Thursday 28th September: Menu del dia 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today was a short one. It was going to be longer, but we both felt like we were cycling through treacle - probably a combination of poor nutrition over the past few days, and quite a long day yesterday.We stopped in Cervera around lunchtime and got ourselves a room in a hostel (which is nicer than the word "hostel" would suggest, it's just a nice little room with the skin of a dead goat on the floor). After freshening up a bit, we headed out to where we'd seen a sign for "menu del dia" for 8 euro - and had the meal we had been waiting for the past four days. A huge vat of noodle soup from which we were allowed to refill freely, followed by an enormous plate of chickpeas with vegetables and various meats (including a large hairy lump of pig fat which we ignored) - we stuffed ourselves silly, and then had to choose desserts. We didn't know what any of them were and the waitress was having trouble trying to explain them to us - so, bless her, she just brought out one of each for us. TH Read more:Thursday
, September
Tuesday 26th September: Vertical kilometre 1970-01-01 00:59:59 helWe're quite high up, although not quite sure how high. On Monday we travelled from Balmaseda to Espinosa de los Monteros, where we found a campsite, tried to camp, but for some reason or other, were not allowed to. (See, we are actually trying to use our new tent, just not having much luck). However, they did have cheap rooms at the campsite, (it would have been even cheaper if Dgym hadn't inadvertently pretended we were over 30), with free wifi in the room. Pretty nice.Today we didn't come very far, at least not in the horizontal plane, and got to Soncillo, where we are staying in a very nice guest house. Vertical
ly, we've come quite a way. We've had a lovely descent or two but also climbed a fair bit - over all we have gone up. The sun is pretty harsh, we're grabbing shady spots wherever we can and getting through a lot of suncream.The eating situation is slightly awkward, they don't seem so keen on it here. It seems to be a choice between nibbling on raciones and sandwiche Read more:Tuesday
, September
Saturday 23rd September: Blergh 1970-01-01 00:59:59 dgymMum, hel and I went into Chichester at lunchtime on Friday and got caught in a fantastic downpour. At least we all had coats on but our trousers, socks and shoes got soaked through. The weather dried up quicker than my shoes so when we set off for Portsmouth the sun was shining on me and my new plastic bag socks.The ferry left a little late and the sea has been a little choppy but so far so good.We spent all day on a ferry, which can be a bit dull but we did at least see some dolphins.helIt's not far from Bosham to Portsmouth, and our ferry departed at 21:15 so we didn't leave until late afternoon, and spent most of the day in Bosham, apart from a short trip to Chichester during which it rained so hard we were soon wading through water three inches deep and getting our trousers and shoes thoroughly soaked through.The ride to Portsmouth took us high up, overlooking the coast. We rolled down into Portsmouth, which is a beautiful city of submerged shopping trolleys, smashed phone bo Read more:Saturday
, September
Sunday 24th September: Hilly 1970-01-01 00:59:59 dgymArriving anywhere new on a Sunday
tends to be a problem. The good news was that we already had a map, the bad news was that it is thirty years old, and a very strong head wind was making us work hard at going downhill. The hills have been massive and the views have been worth it. We have however stopped because of hunger, lots of bars are open and they seem to have tapas at the counter but we have yet to figure out how to get a full meal. The town we have stopped in is very picturesque and hopefully we will be posting some pictures.I am becoming a little concerned about the size of my thighs, but I still have a way to go before they make me look any odder. A small mercy.helSunday was an early start, forced upon us by the ferry's arrival at 8am local time (7am according to our body clocks) and the awakening made no more pleasant by the fact that it came only about three hours after the drunken howling chav-monkeys had finally left us in peace, so we were not exactly chirpy when we Read more:September
Wednesday 27th September: Fruit Sandwiches 1970-01-01 00:59:59 dgymApart from the beginning of the day our route has flattened out a little. There were even some stages where we made some progress. Tonight we finally found an open campsite and even had a decent meal. We met a lovely Yorkshire couple also camping here and joined them for dinner. No one seemed particulary impressed with Spain as a touring country but we are now looking forward to Portugal even more and we know one good campsite and restaurant to go to, which is great as they are just as we come in. Another week and we will be there.helLast night we had fruit sandwiches for dinner. The restaurant that had been open in Soncillo when we arrived, had closed by 7pm. The owners of the shop over the road sent us down the road to a restaurant that was supposedly 1km away. At 500m away, there was no sign of it (and the next day when we headed further down that way there was still no sign of it) so we went back into town, by which time most of the shops had closed and we were only able to buy Read more:Wednesday
, September
, Fruit
, Sandwiches
Monday 25th September: Hard work and good results 1970-01-01 00:59:59 dgym Today we continued up the valley on the hardest part of the journey yet. The hills are really deceptive here - we have been caught out at the brow of hills to find that the road isn't flat or going down as we had percieved but is still ascending. It only really sunk in exactly what we had achieved when we got to the top of the longest hill and looked back to see a stunning view beneath us.The sun and the long ascents without any shade made for some tough conditions, but thankfully it was mostly quite cloudy and the sense of accomplishment and an orange at the top of the hill made it all worth while.This evening we found a campsite that wouldn't let us camp, but gave us a room instead for 23 euro. That includes breakfast and internet access from our room. We even got a decent dinner which is very hard to do here because they have nothing but ham, cheese and fish. This time we went to a grocers to get some fruit and vegetables into our diet. I long for a proper meal, quite how a c Read more:Monday
, September
, results
Friday 6th October: Vinhais 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Vinhais is one of those towns where it is very hard to find somewhere that doesn't have a stunning view of the mountains, we completely and utterly failed to find a room that met these criteria, and ended up with a view like this: We also spotted a lovely house just out of town, overlooking a similar view (minus billboard).Wouldn't say no to that. Unfortunately, Vinhais is on the N103 which is the only real road between Braganca and Chaves, both of which are quite big - so it has a bit too much traffic to be really pleasant. It's been quite a short day today, but we've been up three or four big climbs. Tomorrow we're turning off the N103 and onto some littler ones. We are pleased with Portugal so far. We are finding decent rooms for 25euro, and the food has been most excellent (and easy to come by). Today we had quite an early lunch because the bread we bought this morning weighed a ton and Dgym didn't want to carry it any more. It was nice bread - dense and brown and quite cake Read more:Friday
, October
Saturday 7th October: stony ground 1970-01-01 00:59:59 We climbed up out of Vinhais along the N103 to a lookout point which had the most spectacular views but also the most spectacular amount of litter. We continued along the ridge for some distance, during which I got a puncture (front tyre, sharp stone) before leaving the main road at Rebordelo. The smaller road was lined with fields of olive trees, grape vines and other delicious looking stuff. We have also been seeing fields of ripe pumpkins and heavily-laden chestnut trees, mmmm... It would have been a lovely area to stop for lunch, but the flies were terrible, there were literally swarms of them, and they just gravitate towards us when we stop (Perhaps we ought to wash more). We eventually found somewhere to stop and continued to munch on our eternal loaf of dense brown cakey bread, which will probably do us another day still.Not long after that we reached our campsite on the River Rabacal, which we were pleased to find was open, had a restaurant, and was about half the cost of the S Read more:Saturday
, October
, ground
Sunday 15th October - Dogs 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The dog thing is ridiculous here. This morning in Pinhao we were awoken at quarter past six by somebody driving around with a trailer full of yippy little creatures making noises that belonged not to dogs, but to tortured budgies. Tonight in Alijo we are staying next door to a concrete enclosure of yet more impossibly high-pitched animals and the sleep prospects are not good. As much as we wanted a decent meal in Spain, we want a decent night's sleep in Portugal. We made the mistake of opening the windows in our room and were quickly inundated with swarms of flies. A quick trip into town stocked us up with plenty of fly paper and now we are having some fun collecting tiny corpses on a bit of sticky paper. It's like watching the footy, only much better.We stopped considering Poland as a potential place to live - it's not that we particularly disliked anything about it, we just didn't particularly like anything about it either (well there were the cherries, and the nice cake shop, bu Read more:October
, Sunday
Cakes 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Well we did say we would educate our readers on the topic of Portuguese patisserie and we're not the kind of people to break those kind of promises, so reluctantly we dragged ourselves down the local pastelaria (there was a good one at Tabuaco and we gave ourselves another day off just to check that it really was rather good).Clockwise, from top left:1. Nutty goodness (chestnut, we think) in a flaky pastry case.2. Moist chocolatey loveliness with chocolate icing, this one really was fantastic3. Coconut cake (apologies for the bite marks, dgym was out of control)4. Mostly like an eclair, I think the orangey stuff was some form of orange-based confection.And, for anybody who thinks we may not have truly earned these cakes, this is what the terrain is like around here:Somebody forgot to iron Portugal. Read more:Cakes
Sunday 8th October: uphill all the way. 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Our day started at 7:40am inside a cloud. Everything was damp and misty and quiet, and we found a long, long line of very busy ants transporting eggs across the road. It was about 10-12m of ant - quite impressive, apart from the fact that there was a little puddle in the middle of a manhole cover which was messing things up for them big time. A few would just fall in and drown - but more than half of them would get confused, turn around and go back the way they came - apparently ants have no sense of direction. The rest went around it, so at least some progress was being made.The cloud lifted, the sun came out, we packed up and, careful not to interrupt the line of ants, left the campsite. We climbed up to Valpacos, seeing some very nice houses along the way in Possacos, and Valpacos itself turned out to be quite lovely too. We looked out for a padaria (bakery) but they were all shut, as were all the other shops - then we remembered it was Sunday
. So we stopped at a cafe and had some n Read more:October
Monday 9th October: uphill some more 1970-01-01 00:59:59 We had breakfast at about ten - bread, jam, ham, cheese, fig and walnut cake, coffee... all of which was delicious, and then we said our goodbyes and continued sweating our way up the long, long hill. The sun was no kinder to us today and we went another thirteen miles before reaching the top of the hill. Lunch was in a bus shelter, and unusually fly-free. We had sausage with fresh brown bread rolls (not so dense this time), a leftover fig from yesterday and an orange. The oranges are most excellent here. The afternoon was much kinder to us, with a lovely foresty descent into the valley town of Villa Pouca. Villa Pouca is quite nice, but would be slightly nicer if they weren't digging up the roads left, right and centre (it's like a little slice of Poland fell into Portugal) and if they weren't building an enormous motorway bridge right across the valley.However, it does have a fantastic cake shop. Damnit, after 27 miles of uphill, we deserve cake! We agree most strongly with Portug Read more:Monday
, October
Thursday 12th October - slowest day yet 1970-01-01 00:59:59 dgymToday we did a nice little 500m climb for a warm up, then went down 400m very slowly (it was very steep and the road surface was a bit bumpy), and then went up another 400m in the afternoon. I think that is proof enough that trikes can do hills. Because we were on very small roads the gradients were far harsher than we have seen so far - we only covered 23 miles. Going down into the valley my brakes got literally boiling hot (I'm glad I tested them with a little water rather than my fingers) and then it was my legs' turn to suffer on the other side. It was a great day's cycling, but we are staying two nights at the hotel to recover and I hope that is enough. Read more:October
, Thursday
Friday 13th October - Legs of steel 1970-01-01 00:59:59 There are things we like about Portugal. The weather is lovely (although much easier to deal with the sunshine when you're not sweating your way up a hill). There are some beautiful houses here with stunning views. The prices are low - we can usually both get a good meal for 15 euro, and rooms are typically 25-35euro. The food is of excellent quality, and the Portuguese are clearly quite serious about their cakes.However, there are also things we don't like. There is quite a lot of litter in the countryside, particularly in laybys, lookout points and other roadside stops. There are a lot of noisy dogs, especially in the towns, many of them bark all night. There are quite a lot of flies around. There are also a lot of those insanely loud little scooters around. And the standard of driving leaves a lot to be desired. It wasn't too bad, at least not by English standards, until Wednesday when we reached the port-producing region of the Douro river and its wine tourists driving from one Read more:Friday
, October
Coming back. 1970-01-01 00:59:59 All this happened nearly a month ago. We've just been very lazy and not actually got around to posting about it. Well, we left Portugal after spending a final freezing cold night at the house (it was so cold in Portugal - we laugh now to think of all we said about having a nice mild winter in Portugal, especially given the recent weather in England). The next day, we booked a ferry from Santander to Plymouth, not wanting another three day drive so soon after the last one. We managed to squeeze the bike and the trike into the back of the car along with all the rest of our stuff, exchanged our piles of English goodies (we didn't stick around to see the full reaction, but we know the Wensleydale with cranberries went down well) for some local sausages, and said our goodbyes. We drove up the road and spent the night in Vinhais, in the same room we'd had on our last visit. The room was draughty but at least there was a heater, a warm bath and plenty of blankets - and no barking dogs to w
What now? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Having seen quite a few countries last year and found that most of them have quite a few good things going for them, but still not finding the desire to actually live in any of them, we are not really any the wiser as to where we do want to live.That's partly due to our changing requirements. We started out wanting somewhere nice and cheap where we could buy a really cheap house and live off the interest on our remaining savings. Which wouldn't be a lot, but in countries like Poland or Slovakia, it would keep us in dumplings.Our requirements now are slightly different. We don't want a huge journey back to the UK to see our friends and families (we have decided that we don't like flying, and we only like ferries if they stay away from the Atlantic - Trains are fine though). We have tried out freelance coding over the internet, and had some success - this considerably increases our budget. We want somewhere nice and quiet where the dogs don't bark all night, and we want somewhere th
The world's smelliest sausage 1970-01-01 00:59:59 In exchange for our selection of English goodies we were sent away from Portugal with a selection of the region's finest sausages. These included some tasty Jewish alheira sausages, which like a lot of Portuguese food, were strongly flavoured but really nice (especially with olive oil and a little piri piri), and some blood sausages - which Dgym wasn't keen on but I quite liked.The third type of sausage we took back with us was the "stomach full of ribs" - I don't know what its proper name is, but is exactly as it sounds - a pig's stomach stuffed with its ribs. In Portugal, as we observed and experienced on several occasions, they are not wasteful when it comes to pig-parts.This is the sausage before boiling. It was dried out and quite hard. We'd had it since December, but these things keep for months.The first step was to wrap it in foilmmm, easter egg.Boil in the foil for an hour and a half. They tend to cook with massive pans in Portugal, this was the biggest we had and it bare
hats and trikes 1970-01-01 00:59:59 dgym's new hat Originally uploaded by orangebrompton. I meant to post this before. We got awesome hats for Christmas (thanks aunty Mo & uncle Mark). Dgym's goes particularly well with the trike. Check it out.
A nice place to live? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 We have been trying to avoid high house prices, mosquitoes , noisy dogs and unfavorable self employment laws for a while now. The further we go the easier things become financially, but it also becomes much harder to see our family and friends. We have even tried to persuade family and friends to come with us, but the response has been less than enthusiastic.If you can't find the house you are looking for, you can always try building your own. If you are prepared to do all the work yourself and use cheap materials you could end up with a nice place
like this self built house for under £20,000. Of course we would have to change the name of our blog to Bike Hobbits, but but after that we should be all set.Early next month I am going on a hang gliding course in Spain with Steve. I am really looking forward to it, it should be a lot of fun and hopefully we will get some great photos of the scenery and not too many of hospitals.Hel has seen enough of Spain for now, and is planning on a l
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