Out of Portugal and back to Spain

Hey guys!
Our weather has improved substantially in the last few weeks which has finally allowed us to go out and see the areas a little more. The South East side of Portugal was fantastic once we got into the mountains a bit more. Have to say we are more of mountain landscape people than beach people. The beaches of the Algarve are beautiful but the mountains always seem to offer such a better array of visuals.
We had some really good rides in Portugal with one of them emmm…not so good. Well it started out good enough. The plan was to ride from our casa (more about that later) to a little seaside village just on the border to spain. It was supposed to be just a casual 3 hours. As we are riding Lisa points out that we are only about 30kms from this river town (Alcoutim) which apparently has this fantastic beach. I was thinking to myself ‘that’s gonna be a long return but we might be able to grab a bus back’. So we get to the town. First thing I do is hit a tourist bureau as I am tired (didn’t eat for a big day) to ask if there is a bus back to Tavira. Turns out there is and it will be here in 1.5hours. Perfect. Can we take bikes? ‘Yes I believe so’. Perfect. Lets eat. A hearty meal of French fries and fried meat takes us to 4pm where the bus driver says ‘no bikes’. What the F@#$ do you mean no bikes? ‘No Bikes.’
Alright well double time back home then. Mmmm… french fries say no way. So we decide lets take a ‘shortcut’. If you ever find yourself in the backcountry of small European countries and decide to take a ‘shortcut’ you can pretty well say you will get lost. ‘Won’t be a problem we have a map that links this town to that town to our town’. Off we go. We get to the proverbial crossroads. Easy LONG route home the way we came or ‘shortcut’ route. We take shortcut route. First turnoff puts us on a dirt road. Not liking the look of this. Well its only 4km to the next village. Might be a road there. Its now 5:45pm. Sunset at 6:45. We are so screwed. Get to the bottom of the dirt road. There is a river. There is no bridge. You have got to be kidding. So we flip it and head back up the dirt road. Full carbon road bikes on dirt roads is not recommended. We finally make it back to pavement around 6:15. I don’t know how we managed it but somehow we find a cab in this 400 person town and it turns out to be a station wagon. 50 Euro later we are home. Cabbie was impressed we got to his town though. http://connect.garmin.com/player/27410196 this is the ride. If you zoom into the map you will see Furnazinhas and the turnoff we did to hit a river and have to return.

Our stay in Eastern Portugal was interesting to say the least. Our first place that we stayed at was supposed to be this Fantastic ‘upgrade’ of being right on the water with a beautiful view of the islands etc… well the place did have a nice view however the interior was somewhat a little less. Note: When deciding to rent places and all they show you is pictures of the view and the outside…. There is something wrong. We are welcomed to a cottage that must have been designed by ‘old and depressed inc.’ Picture old dark crappy furniture covered in doilies and knick knacks. I could’t turn around without knocking a doll off a table. It was really weird. You have this beautiful setting on an acreage, but no windows. And not a bulb above 40w. I checked. Place sucked. No heat. Every time we turned on the toaster and forgot to turn off the oil heater (that had to travel from room to room) we would blow the power. It totally sucked. I was actually out in the forest collecting wood to burn it was so cold. AND THE BEDS…..Oh my God. They had to have been found from behind a second hand store where the second hand store was throwing them out. SO BAD. I digress… moving on.
Turns out that we had booked almost 10 days with this company and we were actually moving to a second place with them. We decided this was not going to happen if the next place was as bad as this one. So we ride out to it one day. http://www.eastoffaro.com/Accommodation/Brook_Cottage . Looks super rural. Turns out YES it is super rural. If you look at the photos, it kind of makes it seem like the place is within a bunch of little homes. Well the reality is that it is one 500sf place within a series of completely rundown not habitated house that are connected by a 500m dirt road. Lol. It was certainly country livin’. The place though was great as the weather finally turned for us and got quite nice. This got the place tolerable for temperature. One thing was that it was so old, the doorways were all original height (5ft) so I had a few cuts on my head. It was good though. Its funny for some reason people seem to think you need so much to make the person happy when really all they need is heat, a good bed, cooking facility. If you fail on 3/3 perhaps home rental is not your forte. Movin on.

Hello Seville, Spain.
Ok remember your lessons… do not enter city at night. Check. Get directions before arriving. Check. Be calm. Check. New lesson learned. Once you realize yes you are lost…. Stay in the roundabout until you figure out where to go. Picture the bickers circling in their little car and maps everywhere trying to figure out how to get to the apartment 2 blocks away. Its just not that easy in these towns. Finally make it. Place is good. Parking is crazy though. I thought Lisbon and Porto were crazy. Spain is insanity. People park wherever they can put their car. They actually hire beggars off the street to move their car when someone wants to get out as everyone is double parked. As in there is a row of cars parked down the road and right beside it is a second row of cars constantly being moved to allow the other cars to leave. Seville is crazy. Needless to say once the car was parked it was never moved again. One cool thing in Seville is that they have free bike usage. Essentially they take a deposit on your CC and have bike kiosks all through the town. So you ride a bike from one area to another, park it, go do something and take another if you want. Really cool system as the walking can get tiring. I got tired of Seville quickly. The monuments and churches were starting to blur together. No riding as it was too hard to get out of the city.
Hello Granada
Granada is cool. One again the parking/car scene is crazy but once you have it figured out it is good. The vibe in Granada is very laid back and easy going. It is quite a bit smaller than Seville. Went to a Moorish bath house the first night as it was kind of rainy and cool. Very nice experience. About 7 pools all of differing temp from cold to hot. Lots of walking down little alleyways and streets. Been here now about 6 days with a couple more in the countryside again. We are right at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada so the nights are chilly. The views are fantastic though.
That’s is my report for now. Hope everyone is good.
Mac
PS: I will post up some pics later as my internet connection is really slow.