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.
From Mafra it runs 122 km to Mafra; allow about 2 h 13 of riding. The stops in between: Cultural Landscape of Sintra, Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of and back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 25 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.
For about 34 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.
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 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 about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of.
In Belém, the river Tagus widens toward the Atlantic, and the whole district has the feel of a farewell. This was where Portuguese ships left for India, Brazil and the spice islands, and where the returning ones anchored, laden with pepper, cinnamon and gold. A good deal of that wealth went into building. The Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, begun in 1501 under King Manuel I and paid for in part by a levy on the spice trade, and the Tower of Belém, finished in 1519, are the twin pillars of a style that takes its name from the king, Manueline, with carved ropes, anchors, armillary spheres and exotic plants in stone. Together they were listed by UNESCO in 1983.
Read the complete Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of. 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 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 at Royal Building of Mafra - Palace. That is the ride.
Royal Building of Mafra - Palace → Cultural Landscape of Sintra is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cultural Landscape of Sintra → Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of → back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cultural Landscape of Sintra → Royal Building of Mafra - Palace is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.