Week 71 3 -9 August CRD57. Europe Wk5

Sunday 3
After brekky we went to a point opposite where Kate would sail out and enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the cliff top restaurants while we waited. Afterwards, we headed back to our cabin for a while before going to a bilingual church, at 7pm,  which was great. We head for Portugal tomorrow.
Monday 4
Packed up and after breakfast we start our journey to Portugual. Basically drove the superhighways again through undulating too hilly country. Every now and then it would open up into some amazing vistas. Stopped a couple of times. Tried to work out toll roads. We registered for them just in case. We will continue to tick the no toll roads box. There were electronic check points we went through but no prices on the signs. Not sure. Hard when you cannot read the signs. We got to Autodromo do Algarve. What MotoGP calls Portimoa circuit. Track was not open today but we drove right around the outside. Stop at a couple of spots where you can get a good view of at least parts of the track. Like PI there is a gocart track beside it so I decided I was going to do that. When I was in the cart I realised they no seat belt and no roll bar. Travel insurance probably does not cover this. Very good fun. 15mins was heaps long enough. From here back into Portimoa to our accomdation for tonight. It looked dodgy from the narrow street but inside it opened up into a beautiful home. We had a spacious room. Lovely owners. We went out to a restaurant at that recommendation. They cooked a full fresh fish for us. Took a walk along the river/port braodwalk for icecream then back to our place. Probably leaving a bit later than was wise but OK. 
Tuesday 5
Left Portimoa for a fair day's drive to Carasa in Spain. Mostly country driving.  First stop we went into a small town cold drink and a pastry. Even in the small towns people live in row housing with no yards. Next we went to Moura. The aim was to avoid the highways. Here we stopped for lunch which I think we would of failed to order without the help of another customers who could translate for us. We got the biggest ham and cheese toasty you have ever seen. We then crossed back into Spain, our destination was Carese and old city and our hotel was right on the square. We had to park in a nearby carpark and trek the last 2-300 mtrs. Great location and a proper hotel this one. 
Wednesday  6
Started the day explorering the old town and visiting am old church. Climbed to the top of the Bell tower to look out. Amazing construction. Back on the road to Segovia a mix of highways and byways. Host was great. He had studied in Australia so felt like a friend from the start. He gave us great detail about what to see and do and where to eat. Segovia has a huge high Roman aqueduct. Amazing structure and in pretty good condition. 
Thursday 7
Today we did our washing and a walking tour of Segovia. It was pretty hot so we did the west end of the aqueduct, our washing and the top of the aqueduct to Mayors Plaza for lunch in the morning and after a siesta we did the walk to the castle and some of the wall. If you come to Spain Segovia should be on your visit list. Probably could give it another couple of days. 
Friday 8
Made an early start today to travel to Valencia through the mountains. For greater variety of country today. We saw lakes and rivers as we made our way accross Spain. The idea was to find a good bike road and we did. We when via Guadalajara and Cuenca. Was about 8hr of travel. Please to stopped when we got to our hotel for tonight. 
Saturday 9
We went out and visited the racetrack. The main straight grandstand was open to the the public. This would be a great place to watch MotoGP. From most of the stands you can see the whole track. After an hour here we headed into the city to do a bike tour of the city. The city seems large and disjointed. Lots of apartment living. Valencia has some amazing contrasts of very old and very modern new. The river flooded the city in 1957 so they redirected the river and made the old river bed into parkland. So when it flooded in 2024 it flood a different part of the city. 

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