A very old granny has been left in charge of our Miranda hotel, as it it a Sunday when her daughter has a day off. Granny only speaks Portuguese and probably the very local "Mirandes" language. She thinks we are French and tells the her daughter, this too. When we try out our Portuguese for the first time in a local bar, asking for a beer, we are brought a cup of tea. We will have to try harder.
There are the remains of a big castle that blew up in the C18 , killing 400 people!
The old houses are all cleanly white painted, with enormous exposed stone lintels over windows and carved doors. Very quaint.
We are an hour early for breakfast, as we now discover that Portugal is an hour behind Spain! A walk round the town and a coffee in an early-opening cafe fill the time.
There is no road near the Douro river now as it enters a ravine so we head north west along a road shown on the map as very wiggly and with a green edge to show it is very scenic. It is indeed breathtaking as 30 miles of hairpin bends take us up and down into deep valleys lined with olive groves. Only a hand full of cars share the sweeping views with us. In the 2 tiny villages where we stop for a cold drink and to refill our water bottles, the lady bartenders both speak French, which means we can give up our struggle with Portuguese for now. Lovely as these villages are, their cobbled streets are very uncomfortable for tired cyclists.
Most Spaniards seem to eat their evening meal after 9pm, not good for starving cyclists. In Spain, we managed well on tapas being available early evening. We are not sure what Portugal has to offer as
yet, but in our trawl of bars and cafés for early eating, we find many still allow smoking inside! Spain was like this some time ago, but has now tackled the problem, hopefully Portugal will soon follow.
Miles to date:- 425
Location:Miranda do Douro to Macedo
