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Cycling from Penacova to Coimbra, and then per bus to Portimao
I had responded to very many ads at the two main portugese websites Idealista and OLX of people renting an appartment in the large Penacova area and in the large Algarve area. But Portugese people seem not to be able and/or not willing to have emailcontact, especially not with english strangers. One time I even got an answer "sure, no problem, you can rent my house this winter". That respons came three weeks after my request. "Maybe next time" he then responded (within 10 minutes) when I mailed him I now was in the Algarve (at some 600kms).
But one woman had responded about her flat being available in Alvor, a small town at some 6kms west of Portimao. I had extensive emailcontact with here for several days, but when I tried to test the moneytransfer by sending € 0.10 to her account my bancapp responded that it was not a valid iban-code. So I asked her to transfer some cents to my account to get her real accountnumber to use, but then it got very quiet ...
I would arrive there the next morning and had informed here I would be able to pay some cash already if I would find an atm on my way over there. But at that last evening she did not respond anymore. Then, at 02h00, she sent me an email stating that the appartment was no longer available to me. Her husband had been transferred to the policeoffice of Portimao (all of a sudden) and her daughter was starting a study in Portimao next week (all of a sudden). That must have been two big surprises to them (both yesterday, all of a sudden) !
I read that email at 05h00 but I decided to change climate anyway. Urgently then today was the last day (morning !) before a long period with a lot of rain and wind would take over here. Being in an another area with a structural +5C extra during days and nights was a nice idea ! So I thanked that woman for her lastminute lies, causing me so much troubles.
By the time of this writing I can inform you that all (!) appartments that I had responded for were still not rented. It seems Portugese like to advertise but are not able to make some money. Which also can be concluded by the minimum wage that is only € 620 per month.
I started packing had a coffee at 08h00 and luckily all my stuff was dry.
Exactly this night there was no condensation, and only the groundsheet was a little bit wet.
Which however refused to dry when I put the tent upside down, despite the wind.
Anyway, I would not be forced to unpack anything if I would end up in a hotelroom.
And the chance for that was quite high then I would have to hurry to get the bus heading for Portimao from Coimbra at 13h15 or the one of 14h15. I would then arrive in Portimao at 19h15 or 20h15, so in the dark. I had prepared three hotels over there as poi (point of interest) in my gps and also the camping in Alvor, which is another 6kms out of town.
Luckily Coimbra was only some 24kms away, so I was only a little bit worried to get there in time. The worries I did have concerned my experiences that cycling along a "horizontal" river does not at all mean it will be an easy trip (outside the NL 🙃).
Was I right ...
All the way along the Rio Mondego I was going up and down.
It all were simple and short minihills but they killed you me.
First thing is I hadn't cycled for too long, and second thing is these ascends are quite steep.
Plus there was a very strong headwind attacking me. I even was blasted to a halt one time and I couldn't restart into that wind for some minutes.
At 12h30 I passed the bridge over the Rio Mondego in Coimbra and cycled on over the boulevard. I knew from my former stay in Coimbra 🖱️ that cycling through the centre would be shorter but also very hilly. At 12h40 it started to rain and at 12h50 I entered the (rainproof) Rede Expressos busstation. I would have a stopover in Lisboa 🖱️ but I knew from last year that that busstation is also rainproof. Pffuuuuhhhh, check.
Then trouble1 began. The woman at the ticketdesk told me I could not take a bicycle with me. That was (to her opinion) only possible with a ticket bought online (why ???). However I was (almost) sure there was not such a remark at the site. Besides that I had no problems at all when I took the bus from Campo Maior to Figueira da Foz 🖱️ in october 2019. Why would they limit that anyway ?
Two colleagues helped here out and the three of them arranged my ticket. Only one ticket, but they assured me twice that that was oké : one ticket for me and my bicycle plus luggage. I allowed myself to have a good coffee at the inhouse cafe and then hurried to the platform. And returned to that cafe to buy a chocolate bar (the first one this year !) and to fill up my bidon. Then it would be a long trip ...
But unloading the bicycle on forehand is a bad idea anyway since the busses are assigned to a dock by the last-minute-arrival principle. According to the women at the ticketoffice the Lisboa bus would park at dock 3 or dock 4.
Then, after only few minutes, trouble2 started. The bus arrived, the driver got out of it and I raised my hand to ask if the bicycle would have to be stored at the left side of the bus (which might be the standard). As soon as I would know that for sure I could start unloading my stuff and get it into the bus. But to my big surprise the driver got angry at me. He was not at all amused having a delay because of some tourist wanting to take a bicycle aboard.
Then he checked my ticket, declared it wrong, marched to the ticketoffice and started a discussion with the women there. He explained them I would have to pay extra for the bicycle plus luggage, so I needed an extra ticket. The women denied that, stating all was included in that one ticket, but they then realised I had to pay, not them. So they produced an extra ticket, I payed once more and finally we took off into the pooring rain ...
We had only one stop on the way to Lisboa which was in Fatima. Before I could get out of the bus to buy a drink the busdriver ran over to me to explain I would have to remove the wheels and pack (protect) my bags in paper before entering the next bus. Removing wheels ? Protecting bags ? In paper ? Anyone ???
I asked him if that was for me or for Rede Expressos, and to my big surprise he said that was for my own sake. But he had no answer to my question how to arrange that, anywhere, anytime. How to handle (and avoid damage to) a bicycle without wheels, and how to handle bags packed in paper, so without reachable handles anymore. And why only my bags ??? All other passengers didn't have to pack there bags !!!
Then we arrived at the Sete Rios Bus Station hub in Lisboa. I left the bus to walk over the left side to unload and saw driver1 already talking to driver2 of the Portimao bus. There body language was very clear.
That driver2 came over to me and caused an awfull lot of stress.
Hurry, hurry, faster, come on, keep moving.
Any normal human being that has ever walked over some heavy bags knows when another human being
has no idea about that.
When the driver continued to shout (!) at me I told him had he two options.
Option 1 was to simply shut up.
Then I had showed them this picture at the ticketoffice (which is on my phone purely for this reason)
and had payed for a ticket for transport of all that was there : me, my bicycle and my luggage.
Option 2 (*) was to be named in my official complaint about him and his colleagues stressfull
and strange behaviour.
The most weird aspect of this all is that there was one more bicycle downunder in the bus. But only my bicycle seemed to annoy those drivers ... Was (is) it my face ? Was it they realised the total contradiction between there life and mine ? I have no idea what caused this unfriendly and stressfull behaviour of both drivers. I was very satisfied with my first trip with Rede Expressos (last year), but this second trip spoiled my appetite completely. There is One Thing a bicycle-traveller is not waiting for : to get stressed by people who have no idea ! Accept me (my money) or refuse me, not first the first and then the second !!! Pffuuuhhhh .....
I got my stuff in the bus, and then myself. We had no stop all the way to Portimao, except for (an illegal ?) one to pickup a person standing just somewhere at a regular busstop. We arrived at 19h45 and when I took my luggage out of the bus driver2 once more came over to tell me that I had to remove the wheels and pack my bags in paper if I ever wanted to travel with Rede Expressos again. Since it was very clear that communicating with him was useless I kept my mouth shut. The bus left, I packed the OnTheRoad 4.0 and also left, into the hilly, dark and abandoned town of Portimao.
The Tarik hotel turned out to be an online-only hotel. Several private owners rent there appartments via bookingsites to make some money. But the man at the reception isn't even aware that one can book appartments there (!). The Studio 17 hotel had already closed at 18h00. The Plaza Real Atlantic hotel had a room available for € 25 per night.
But demanded a deposit of € 200 cash or a creditcard (**), which I both didn't / don't have available. However, something told me they didn't really know what a creditcard is. So I showed them my regular banccard, they noted the accountnumber on a piece of paper and I got the room. At 22h00 I had my luggage and the OnTheRoad 4.0 🖱️ inside, took a shower, a whisky and some ravioli, and went to sleep.
These pictures show you how the place looks like during daylight hours.
Unfortunately Portimao turned out to be a bad choice from the very first moment on. The full area along the sea is completely taken over by the british, and (so) it is very expensive and non-original. Actually the whole Algarve is ! The (only) motto is "Happy hour here, happy hour there, happy hour everywhere".
In the meantime two women tried to cheat on me online while having contact about their appartments to rent. The first one I wrote about at the beginning of this blog. The second one was even quite a bit more money-hungry and sneaky. She demanded € 150 extra per month at the very last minute. After she had offered me to rent some towels for just € 75 per month. Towels that were at the pictures of her "fully furnished" appartment. But I "should understand" being them included in the rent was "ofcourse" not realistic for such a low price (of € 450 per month).
And last but not least even my hotel tried to trick me about a longterm renting deal 😕. They emailed me in the middle of the night they had made a "mistake". The appartment they had offered me would cost me € 100 extra per month.
However, today still was a succesfull day. I did not get wet, found a late-night last-minute room and will be in some 5C higher temperatures starting tomorrowmorning.
What will Portimao bring me ? My winterstop maybe ?