Bike Ride Day 1 - Porto to Esposende

Today’s ride took me along the Portuguese coast from Porto to Esposende. I was riding so close to the ocean most of the day that the guy who provided the bike said, “You probably don’t even need directions, just keep the ocean to your left for 70 kilometers.” “You’re on,” I thought, and that’s mostly what I did without checking the directions very much. I learned that keeping the ocean to your left isn’t as easy as it sounds, and I probably made it about 10 kilometers before I started getting lost. I undoubtedly rode quite a few extra kilometers over the course of the day trying to find the ocean.

Here is an example of where I found the ocean but lost the road. I don’t recommend travelling over sand dunes by bike.

I also learned today that I am actually following the Camino de Santiago for almost the entire ride. I’d thought I was going to be intersecting it here and there, but instead I spent much of the day riding past healthy-looking young to middle-aged white people with Osprey packs, carbon fiber walking sticks and the same granola bars as mine doing a quiet, contemplative walk to Santiago de Compostela, and who glared at me as I rang my little bell so that they would move out of my damn way so that I could zoom past them (apologies to any friends or loved ones who either have, or someday might, walk the Camino).

Despite my bad attitude about the Camino, I experienced the second miracle of my trip, this one while actually on the Camino. I was cycling through a small village which was, you know, like any of your typical medieval villages, full of hilly, curvy, cobbled streets, and I realized with horror that I had lost my phone. I need my phone to survive. It has my maps, my connection to family, all my trip documents, etc. I remembered taking some pictures of a church in the village about a half-mile back and attempted to retrace my route. Amazingly, all the way back at the church was my phone, lying on the cobblestone street where it fell out of my pocket. It hadn’t been run over, stolen, or eaten by livestock. So maybe there is something to this pilgrimage thing. I’ll know more tomorrow, when it is supposed to rain all day, which an omnipotent and benevolent higher power would never allow to happen when I am on a bike ride.