Grumpy Old Men On Bikes

‎Today should have been a lazy 50 but we had to re-do the 10 miles that we backtracked yesterday to find a hotel. It was still pretty easy going and we were in by 2:45 (no sweeping for me today). We are staying in a small hotel in Mora. It was once a grand private house and is now a 15 bedroom hotel which we have completely taken over.  ‎The owners are lovely and very keen to impress us. When Rob arrived with the luggage they insisted he joined them for lunch then greeted all the cyclists with home-made lemonade. Tonight they are serving us a 'tradditional' Portugese dinner and my hopes are high. We have a wonderful room overlooking open countryside (see picture) and tomorrow the sun will rise and greet us through our picture window. Today was sunny and hot; the forecast for tomorrow is 'chuffing toasty'. I here the weather is poor in blighty.......snigger. Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the EE network.

‎2 entries in 1 day....you lucky blighters. So, when the last entry was filed I was sunning in the park. The phone rang and it was Rob, my partner in crime, to inform me that he was outside our hotel for the night and it had gone bust. Bugger.   To make matters worse it was the only hotel in town. Buggery bugger. We needed 16 rooms. Buggering buggery bugger. To cut a short story long, we are in a very nice hotel that required backtracking 10 miles and the application of considerable financial grease......particularly upsetting since the original hotel was prepaid. Did I say bugger? Running cycle trips in the sunshine is mostly money for old rope but not today :-(

Today I am sweeping - this means riding with whoever happens to be at the back. I left the hotel 5.5 hours ago and have done...drum roll....‎35 miles. This may be a new personal best (worst?). Sweeping relies on 2 specific skills: 1/ riding very slowly - I have a natural God-given talent 2/ being very patient and tolerant - oh well, 1 out of 2 isn't bad I am sitting in the park tanning my eye sockets while waiting for my wards to finish their 3 course lunch. ‎Last night we visited a Chinese restaurant (after all, when in Rome.....well something like that ‎). The mad old crone who runs the place is known to us from our research trip last November and is the main reason for the visit. As with the previous visit, she spent the evening staring at us and cacklin hysterically every time we said or did anything.   Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the EE network.

This ones for you honey...special request. I am 4 days into an end to end of Portugal and hadn't intended to blog the trip but one of the two 'shes that must be obeyed' has indicated that she would like it to be otherwise. So don't blame me, blame my daughter! We are in Pombal, about 200 miles from the top, and have enjoyed 4 days of splendid weather and splendid riding and it has all been rather...well, erm.....splendid. I am riding the whole trip so am having to overcome a rather serious training deficit but the miles are helping to make my '10000 miles in 2014' attempt seem slightly less impossible. We have a mixed group of 22 but i think i am the third youngest so have no excuses and am trying to be manly when the hills get steep. The most important thing you need to know about Portugal is that it is chirpy chirpy cheap cheap. Last night, at dinner, we had a salad, a very generous main course, all the wine we could drink ( which, naturally, is S