CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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 427 km round trip from Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo - roughly 6 h 37 in the saddle. On the way it passes Alto Douro Wine Region, Historic Centre of Guimarães and Couros Zo and back through Alto Douro Wine Region. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 97 km this is Douro Valley N222, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Thirty thousand years ago, give or take, people in this valley scratched horses, aurochs and ibex into the schist rocks along the River Côa, and their drawings would almost certainly have been drowned if a dam had been built here in the 1990s. Instead, after a fierce campaign, the dam was abandoned and the Côa Valley rock art became one of the most important open-air Palaeolithic art sites in the world, listed by UNESCO in 1998 together with Siega Verde across the border in Spain. Faia, in the side valley near Vale Afonsinho, is one of its core sites, with engravings and some rare painted figures on the rock faces above the river.
Read the complete Faia - Vale Afonsinho write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Faia - Vale Afonsinho is where the day begins. Next is Alto Douro Wine Region.
The Douro river has been carving a gorge through the north of Portugal for millions of years, and for about two thousand years people have been planting vines on its slopes. The terraces, held up by stone walls, climb steeply from the water and rise through schist and slate in rows, and the effect, in the right season, is of a vast green staircase. The Alto Douro was the first wine region in the world to be officially demarcated, by the Marquis of Pombal in 1756, and UNESCO listed it in 2001. Port wine, the sweet fortified red that made the region famous, is still made here.
Read the complete Alto Douro Wine Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alto Douro Wine Region comes up about 117 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Guimarães and Couros Zo.
Aqui nasceu Portugal, says the slogan painted on an old section of the town wall: Portugal was born here. Guimarães claims to be the cradle of the nation because Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, is said to have been born here, and in 1128 he won the battle of São Mamede nearby, against his mother's forces, a key step towards independence. The castle on the hill, a compact fortress with a tall keep, and the small Romanesque church beside it, where he is said to have been baptised, are the symbols of that story.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Guimarães and Couros Zo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 214 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Guimarães and Couros Zo. Next is back through Alto Douro Wine Region.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alto Douro Wine Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Alto Douro Wine Region, late in the day. Next is Faia - Vale Afonsinho.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Faia - Vale Afonsinho write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Faia - Vale Afonsinho. That is the ride.
Faia - Vale Afonsinho → Alto Douro Wine Region is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Alto Douro Wine Region → Historic Centre of Guimarães and Couros Zo is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centre of Guimarães and Couros Zo → back through Alto Douro Wine Region is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Alto Douro Wine Region → Faia - Vale Afonsinho is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.