CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 132 km round trip from Lisbon - roughly 2 h 19 in the saddle. On the way it passes Cultural Landscape of Sintra, Royal Building of Mafra - Palace, back through Royal Building of Mafra - Palace and back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra.
For 32 km this is Atlantic Coast N247, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 24 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Lisbon is built on hills, as the old joke goes, to give the trams something to do. The city rises from the north bank of the Tagus river on seven hills, a tumble of tiled houses, church domes and steep cobbled lanes, with yellow trams creaking up the slopes, and the great red suspension bridge, the 25 de Abril, spanning the estuary. In 1755 a huge earthquake, followed by a tsunami and fires, destroyed much of the centre and killed tens of thousands, and the flat grid of the Baixa district was rebuilt afterwards under the Marquis of Pombal. The hill quarters of Alfama and Mouraria, which came through, still have their medieval twists and turns.
Read the complete Lisbon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lisbon is where the day begins. Next is Cultural Landscape of Sintra.
Lord Byron called Sintra a glorious Eden, and two centuries of romantics, kings and eccentric millionaires have tried hard to prove him right. The granite range rises abruptly west of Lisbon, catching Atlantic moisture so that its slopes are draped in mist and dense, damp forest of oak, cork, fern and exotic trees planted by nineteenth-century gardeners. On the peaks and in the woods stand the Moorish Castle, its walls snaking along the ridge; the Pena Palace, a riot of yellow and red towers built for King Ferdinand II in the mid-1800s; the Quinta da Regaleira, with its spiralling initiation well; and the exotic Monserrate palace. UNESCO inscribed the whole cultural landscape in 1995.
Read the complete Cultural Landscape of Sintra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cultural Landscape of Sintra comes up 15 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cultural Landscape of Sintra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
30 km in you reach Cultural Landscape of Sintra. Next is Royal Building of Mafra - Palace.
King João V of Portugal had a great deal of Brazilian gold and a vow to keep, and the result is the Royal Building of Mafra, a palace, basilica and monastery so large that it seems to belong to a different scale of town altogether. Construction began in 1717, reportedly in thanks for the birth of an heir, and the project absorbed enormous resources and tens of thousands of workers. The facade stretches for some two hundred and twenty metres, with the basilica in the centre and the royal apartments in the wings, the king's at one end and the queen's at the other, a long walk apart.
Read the complete Royal Building of Mafra - Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Building of Mafra - Palace, about halfway. Next is Royal Building of Mafra - Palace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Building of Mafra - Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Building of Mafra - Palace sits at 59 km, about halfway. Next is back through Royal Building of Mafra - Palace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Building of Mafra - Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Royal Building of Mafra - Palace comes up 74 km in. Next is back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cultural Landscape of Sintra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
89 km in you reach back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra. Next is back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cultural Landscape of Sintra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra, late in the day. Next is Lisbon.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lisbon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 132 km.
Lisbon → Cultural Landscape of Sintra is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cultural Landscape of Sintra → Royal Building of Mafra - Palace is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Royal Building of Mafra - Palace → back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra → Lisbon is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.