PeterLambTravels: Day trip to Santarém to meet Rita and João

Dear all,

Well, it is the last weekend of the year and it is not freaking cold. So, I've decided to visit my friends Rita and João from Faro. They came for the weekend to Santarem, about 100km north of Lisbon, so it is possible to go by bicycle.

As I live in the West side of Lisbon and I have started the day quite late, I decided to cycle close to the river to the East side of Lisbon and take a urban train to take me north for some kilometers.

Along the way I have stopped many times for some pictures, as my sister has my SD card for the camera, so I had to use the mini Ipad for the pictures.

So, this has became more like a picture trip, rather than many things I could write about, so specially for those of you that are not so familiar with Lisbon, here you are the pictures of the way:

The start of my trip at my door

Peter Lamb still sleepy in the morning

Bike close to Torre de Belém

Padrão dos Descobrimentos! It os gonna rain soooooon!

Peter Lamb and river Tejo

Former Lisbon's power plant, nowadays electricity museum

Peterl Lamb's bike under 25th April bridge

Peter lamb under the bridge

Terreiro do Paço square

Terreiro do Paço Square

Lisbon's Cathedral

The Pantheon behind and main north train station on the right - Santa Apolónia

It was the first time that I have cycled all the way between Algés and Oriente, following the river path, and it was nice see that the cycling path is now complete:

Cycling path between Santa Apolónia and Oriente

What it was a dream some years ago, it is now a reality!

I have to return to Oriente for some more pictures with good weather. This is the new part of Lisbon, where Expo 98 was held:

Cable car and Lisbon's highest building on the background

Lisbon is hilly!!!

Peter lamb's bike

Peter lamb on happy mode

Lisbon's oceanarium

Peter Lamb and Vasco

Peter lamb and Vasco

Peter Lamb and Gil

I had no idea at what time the train was leaving Oriente's station so, despite of the rain I head for the station. Nevertheless I lost the 12h59 train just by a single minute, so I was stranded for 30 minutes which I seized to start writting this post.

Peter lamb's bike and the urban train that would take me North

Although the train's last stop was Azambuja, I've decided to leave it 2 stations before, so my final destination was Vila Nova da Rainha.

Cycling to Azambuja was pretty fast, but the traffic on road N3 was quite intense. The sideways are wide, but the tarmac was wet, so the truck's spray was severe on me!

When I reached Azambuja, I took the first road on the right to reach river Tejo.

Quiet and nice road close to Azambuja

Small river crossing

The landscape in this area is quite enjoyable and easy to cycle as there are no hills. Nevertheless the wind today was a bit strong, so although the pace was quite steady, there were areas where was hard to cycle faster than 15 km/h.

Countryside

After a few kilometers cycling I have passed near two small airfields:

Taxi for take-off

About 1 meter to touchdown

The journey has continued and sometimes the colours at the fields are quite impressive, considering we are already in the winter season:

Colourful landscape

At this time I realized that there were about 20 km to my destination and I would have at most 75 minutes of sunlight, so I had to stop taking pictures and it was time to cycle a bit harder.

After some time I reached Santarem, my destination of the day!

Peter Lamb and his bike at Santarém

Santarém is a nice city, it is the capital of the gotic style and it is close enough to Lisbon to deserve a day trip, moreover if you rely on the trains to help you out on your journey. A reference though has to be made that most of the city was built over a hill, so the 2 last kilometers are done in a rather steep road!

This region is famous for the bullfights

The Market

Santarem's main church

Finding my friend's house was not difficult, so I have arrived quite on time.

We phoned the train company and there were trains towards Lisbon at 21h08 and 23h08. There was enough time for a lot of chatting, share some stories of the last times and a super nice dinner with their family. It was great to be amoung them and to feel welcome. Thanks a million guys!

Sadly, it was time to leave, but they were super cool to lead my way in their car till the train station! The good news is that mostly was downhill, so I could reach about 57km/h.

Time for some pictures with them at the train station:

What were you doing Rita? Me and João seems scared while you are smilling!

Rita, João and Peter Lamb in normal mode!

At the train, the indication of temperature was 5 degrees, quite chilly, don't you think?

Well train ride was about 35 minutes, almost enough to finish this post.

The original plan was only to cycle from Santa Apolónia (the terminal station) till Cais do Sodré and take a train there till Algés, but it was no wind at all, so I made the 10 extra kilometers till home.

Summary of the day: