Friday 2 August 2013

Wedding Cake

The friendly owners of Casa Pombal Guesthouse offer me advice about my route for today, plus an ample morning buffet in the delightful blue-tiled breakfast room. I am still feeling weary, so I decide to spend a few nights in Porto.

The wonderful advice takes me on a scenic ride along a twisty road that follows a narrow wooded valley. Below is a deep clear river with canoeists playing in big yellow plastic boats. I keep half an eye on them and the other one and a half on the narrow road!

I pass through an old high stone wall into the Serra do Buçaco. The aromatic forest is dotted with crumbling chapels, ponds, fountains and exotic trees. In the midst of the forest stands a wedding cake of a building. Once its conglomeration of turrets and spires was a royal retreat, now it is a luxury hotel.

I continue to ride through the forest along a bone shaking road to the fine viewpoint of Cruz Alta. Descending from the summit, I exit the walled forest and pick up the back road to Porto...

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