Day 2 commute on the N2 heading North - Couco (near Mora) to Ucanha (just south east of Lamego)
Up early at the Ranch this morning for a lovely breakfast. They even had a mini panacake making and heating machine which I know my kids would have loved.
Bikes loaded and we were off just after 9am and the weather was already a heady 24 degrees.
Again the N2 provided a variety of road riding from twisties up and down the valleys (and mountains as we got further North) to long straight sections. Much milage was covered today!
We stopped several times for coffees/ drinks/ fuel as we made good ground.
Viseu was the largest town we passed through, and right through the centre we went. It was easily the busiest place we'd been for this entire trip. A very, VERY stark contrast to the little villages we passed through in the mountains on the ACT trip.
A short stint on an IE road (their equivalent of a dual carriageway) which was actually a navigation error saw us hit a major traffic jam, everything static ..... something we'd never envisaged on this trip! Still, the benefit of two wheels meant we could skirt in and out of the traffic to the next exit and we made our escape to continue on our way.
Just outside of Tondela we stopped for a late lunch, around 3pm. The option were either a hot pork or hot veal sandwich and they were absolutely dee-lish (I had veal), and only 3.50. So good I had to have a second (cos it was a very late lunch and I was very hungry ....... well, tbh I only managed half of the second sandwich - eyes bigger than my belly! - but the other half didn't got to waste!)
We continued on and stopped at 17:20 for a coffee and to search for a hotel for the night. We opted for a wine tasting/ tour type place slightly off-route (20mins). Given it was out of town that was fine as it had a restaurant and a bar. We got to the hotel and checked in but after some confusion about the booking - their system said we had 3x double rooms despite having booked 3x twin rooms - this worked in our favour as Kirky managed to get us 6 double rooms ..... bonus. But the downside was that the restaurant was fully booked so no food for us tonight..... unless we wanted to head back into town but we CBA tbh and we were still quite full from the late lunch.
Soon after check-in we hit the pool and the sauna.......much needed after our long road trip today. Then it was family calls then to the bar for beers, nuts and crisps for dinner.
