Estrada Nacional 2: Chaves to Viseu

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Chaves

   Chaves has been a border town for two thousand years, and it still has the look of one. It lies in the broad Tâmega valley in northern Portugal, a few kilometres from Spain, with a Roman bridge over the river, Trajan's Bridge, built in the first century and still carrying foot traffic. The Romans came for the hot springs, which they called Aquae Flaviae, after the emperor Flavius Vespasian, and the water that rises in the town at over seventy degrees is still used in the spa today.

   Read the complete Chaves write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Chaves is where the day begins. Next is Peso da Regua.

2. 2. Peso da Regua

   Régua sits on the south bank of the Douro river, a working town of about five thousand people, and it is the capital of the oldest demarcated wine region in the world. In 1756 the Marquis of Pombal, the chief minister of Portugal, set the borders of the Port wine district to protect quality and prices, and the steep schist hillsides terraced with vines around the town have been cultivated for centuries. The landscape, with stone walls rising in steps from the river, was listed by UNESCO in 2001 as an example of a cultural landscape shaped by human labour, and it is one of the most beautiful in Europe.

   Read the complete Peso da Regua write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Peso da Regua comes up about 90 km into the recorded legs. Next is Viseu.

3. 3. Viseu

   Viseu sits on a granite plateau in the middle of northern Portugal, and for a rider on the Estrada Nacional 2 it makes a natural halfway point between the Douro and the Tagus. It is a handsome, orderly city of about twenty-six thousand within its core, with a cathedral square, a medieval centre of granite houses, and a long reputation for good living. The city is the capital of the Dão wine region, whose reds, based on the Touriga Nacional grape, are some of the most elegant in Portugal, and the vineyards lie on the sheltered slopes around it, protected by mountains from the Atlantic rain.

   Read the complete Viseu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 161 km.