PeterLambTravels: Day trip with Luis Basch - Cycling from Azambuja to Montijo

Dear all,

Besides it has been a great weekend with my couchsurfers, Sunday was a day to get back to the road and have a day trip.

It was really cold in the morning so the outfit is totally different from the summer trip.

I have made a stopover at the bakery to have some supplies for the day. Nothing beats the fragnancy of warm pastry in the morning!

I left Alges towards Alcantara around 8h30, trying to catch the 9h06 train to Azambuja at Alcântara Terra.

Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

The best place for breakfast was still closed!

Buying the ticket and boarding the train was easy and it is nice to see that they have an assigned area for bicycles on the trains. However there is still no racks or similar to have the bikes standing alone without falling.

My bike taking a ride

This day trip was planned to be a weekend tour to Porto Covo to meet João and Rita, my friends from Faro, however their plans to go ther have changed, so I stayed in Lisbon. So plans were ajusted and due to better weather on Sunday, the original idea of cycling on Saturday was ajusted as well.

This time I am not cycling alone, as Luis decided to join me!

Luis is a 19 year old guy, planning his trip around Europe starting on March. I met him on Couchsurfing weekly meeting and invited him to go cycling with me, to share some of my experience and just enjoy a day riding :)

Luis and our 2 bikes

Due to work, I wanted to pass near Vale da Pedra and Valada in order to have a look at the water treatment system, that collects water from Tejo's river and after a treatmemt system supplies the water into Lisbon.

Our bikes just before the cycling starts

Although we were way into the autumn season, it was a very sunny day and the colours were great.

Autumn season has arrived

After Valada, there is a very nice bridge to cross the river:

Bridge close to Valada and Muge

The cycling had to start on a more steady pace, cause we would be cycling around 100km

Me and Luis cycling in an almost desert road

This road is totally straight for 15 looooong kilometers!

It was nice to be back to this roads after some months, this time in good company. Last time I have cycled this roads again, on the hottest day of the year. I got here around 43 degress, and to be quite frankly, I do not miss it that much! :)

During the way weass near some Air Force field, where, at the entrance, you may see the old Fiats from Portuguese air force:

Former military planes from Portuguese air force

On Sundays, there are not many boats connecting Montijo and Lisboa, so we cycled hard to get ourselves on the 17h boat, otherwise we needed to wait there for 1h30.