Once again, Walter started out first and Mike, Stu and I rode out together with the expectation that we would catch Walter.
The roads were rolling but the profile was mostly downhill. It is listed as 45km (about 28 miles) and 292 meters (about 1000') of climbing.
Here's the strava link to the ride although there is something weird going on in the middle of the ride (notice the straight line - I think my computer shut down for a while): https://www.strava.com/activities/1610072644
Here's the Ride with GPS link (with the same problem): https://ridewithgps.com/trips/23790624?privacy_code=9jPdB8tyInBGFvmh
About halfway through the ride, we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant that VBT had arranged. A young woman with minimal English took care of us and we were able to order a variety of grilled sandwiches or pizza along with a vegetable soup and drinks. The vegetable soup was pureed and delicious. The sandwiches were basically paninis but there was way too much food considering we had to get back on our bikes and for me, the choices for me were risky. As Walter put it, our tuna melts were a lot of fat held together by bread and a little tuna. Most of us only ate half of our sandwiches and I told the guides they might save some money and food waste in the future by maybe serving half a sandwich and making the second half optional. Otherwise, I assume they would have to throw them out. That probably reinforces a stereotype that Americans are rich and wasteful.
The rest of the ride was a slog. I might have enjoyed it more if I had waited another hour before getting on the bike to get a little more time to digest. Otherwise, the ride back was pretty uneventful.
We unpacked and checked into our rooms but since it was only 2:00 and we had more than a few hours until our next event, I asked David if I could go out again. We agreed that I would be back by 3:00 or else he would have to go out looking for me. I was planning to ride out of the town on the road we used to enter Mertola but I ended up going out the other side of town. It was a slow but steady climb and at 2:44 I realized I had exceeded 50% of my time. Fortunately, the return was all downhill and except for the occasional car, it was a beautiful descent with sweeping turns, good visibility and just enough speed so that I had to use some skill to keep from crossing the line to being out-of-control.
Mertola is built on the river Guadiana. The Guadiana makes up part of the eastern border of Portugal and Spain and eventually flows into the Atlantic. Here's a picture of the city from across the river. Our hotel is the modern white building above the pathway that goes down to the river.
Before you get too excited, here is the view out of the window of Walter and my room. There's a little construction going on. There is a bannister in the window frame and we hung our laundry on it to dry.
The hotel we were staying at is called Museu. The reason is that it is built on an archaeological site.
This is what it looks like from the lobby looking down.
After the ride, we walked around the village. There are swallows and they build their nests on the outside of some buildings. If you look closely, there is an adult perched on the outside of one of the nests in the middle of the picture.
These next two pictures require no comment.
Later, we went on a tour of the walled city. Our guide was Fernando and he first took us to a church that had been repurposed, depending on the predominant religion of the time. So while it is a catholic church now, at one point it served muslims and you can see that in the architecture.
Here's our group.
We climbed to the castle and saw site with an active archaeological dig. We were too late to go into the site although Mike had walked around earlier when the four of us were strolling the village. At some point, Walter wandered off and Stu and I sat down on a bench. Mike said he had to keep moving and he was rewarded with a view of the site inside the fence.
This is what it looks like through the fence.
Here's Fernando pointing out the finer points of how they used every possible material in their construction.
Our guides gave us three recommendations for dinner. We walked through town and when we passed one of the recommended restaurants, some folks would peel off. The second restaurant was closed so the rest of us headed up to the Brazilian grill. It was an authentic Portuguese experience, both in terms of the food but also the clientele. We arrived a little before seven and the place was empty. When we left around nine, the place was packed including families with small children.
Since our tour guides had walked us to the restaurant, we invited them to join us. While dinner was fine, to me the highlight of the evening was being able to chat with David and Jorge and get to know a little more about their personal lives.
I was particularly interested in David's career trajectory: undergraduate major in anthropology, master's degree in environmental philosophy, work as a consultant for business and the government, owner of a start-up for environmental projects, soon-to-be father and a small-time farmer. While he is a pretty high-powered guy to be a tour guide, he loves what he is doing. You can't beat that.
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