Day 4: Castro Daire to Chaves and the end of the N2.

Leaving Castro Daire this morning the weather was clear and sunny but cold. I was glad to have packed my winter riding gloves, and pulled over within the first 10 minutes to swap to them. 5 minutes later, i ran into what i was really hoping was behind me, a closed road. This time however the detour i took was short, and got be past the closed portion of the road and on the way.

The first 45 minutes of riding was nice, very much like yesterday, but nothing like what i was soon to discover. Leaving Lamego, which is a good sized town, i found this vista just 10km down the road.

Vineyards at the start of the Douro Valley.

The views of the vineyards and the valley are incredible.

From this point the roads started getting really fun to ride. First was down the mountains, with twisties all the way, and then we would eventually climb back out of the valley. I took a detour at the bottom of the valley to go see the big dam on the Douro river.

This is the Hydroelectric dam at the bottom of the valley.

Another shot from the dam.

From the dam, i went back into town to take the bridge across the river and start the ascent back into the mountains. The roads were great riding. I found a vantage point where the road had been damaged that looked back over the river valley with great vistas.

The tiered vineyards in the Douro.

Another image of the valley.

Another view from the spot the road was partially blocked.

I left this lookout and the video below is one of the somewhat viewable videos from the day. My pendant camera is just not working well. No video stabilization at all. I will need to invest in a proper GoPro solution for the next trip.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/1d37dd_889ba482d77a4bf5b4a64a8827351969/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Riding up the valley.

When i finished climbing out of the valley, the roads were not quite as tight, but still a lot of fun to ride. Note one of the two amazing bridges that cross the entire valley.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/1d37dd_00388e5a81d847fd97aa1899b296bbcf/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Behind traffic, but the scenery and views of the bridge are great.

Once i climbed out of the valley, my route planner took me onto one the main autoroutes for about 18KM. I was only a couple KM down the highway when i started to get concerned about my pendant camera. I slowed down from 120 to 90 in the right lane, let go of the throttle to open a pocket zipper and then as safely as you can do it while riding at nearly 60mph with only one hand on the bars, pulled the pendant camera off the magnetic pendant and put it in my pocket.

Once it was secured, i sped back up to somewhere near the 120k speed limit and almost immediately felt a whack on the back of my helmet from the magnetic pendant as it caught the wind and whipped around from front to back. I was sure that the cord had broken and it was gone, but was pleased i had saved the camera and the footage on the memory card.

Knowing there was nothing i could, or more importantly should do while on the autoroute, i kept on to my exit and then found that my pendant was still there. Stretched out completely, but the cord was still intact.

From there it was only 4km to Chaves and the end of the N2. It was a very cool feeling to finish this part of my ride. With the N2 done, the next part of the adventure can begin.

The marker for the end of the N2.

Had to stop at the Kilometro Zero bar of course.

After having completed the N2 i made my way to the hotel and then started out exploring this very attractive town. Chaves was really just coming alive, due to the warm weather. People were out walking and children were playing the parks. I was taken by the fact that the town is completely surrounded by mountains. This has been a recurring theme on my trip, but i was not aware of how mountainous the interior of Portugal is.

View of the river with the mountains in the background.

View to the South in Chaves from the river.

Another view of the mountains that surround the city.

I wandered through town looking for Frango Asado, and i was not going to accept anything else. I trusted my instincts and walked away from the park and the touristy locations and found what looked like a hole in the wall with a completely jammed parking lot.

I walked into this "little" spot and found that there was a 200 seat restaurant attached that was 80% full. I was relieved that even at 2:15 they allowed me to be seated. I ordered the Frango Asado i had been dying to have and house red wine. What i got was a full 1/2 chicken, a platter of rice, a tray of olives, bread and a platter of fries and a full bottle of really decent red wine.

The chicken was absolutely fantastic, and the house wine was quite good as well. Staff was efficient, but there was absolutely no English spoken. They were not rude about this at all, but just kept speaking in Portuguese making it clear that it was up to me to figure out how to communicate what i wanted.

I was shocked when it came time to pay the bill. A half chicken, rice, fries, olives, bread and 750ml of red wine.......the bill was 12 Euros. This was a fantastic meal, and it cost less than $20 Canadian.

Walking home from lunch in the warm afternoon sun, it was nice to see the parks full of families enjoying the start of spring proper.

The city waking up to Spring. Chaves is really a beautiful town.

Tomorrow my trip carries on across the northern part of Portugal towards the Spanish border.