Lisbon to Vila Nova de Milfontes

Oct 5 2023

Vila Nova de Milfontes accommodations: Selina Milfontes Hostel

Four hurdles to clear today:

1. Get to the bus station. Elly called an Uber!! Well, to be honest, the hotel receptionist did all the work. However, both Elly and I feel empowered to try it again. The car was great, the driver was great. He started speaking French to us when he found out we were Canadian. Elly speaks French fluently, while I bumble by. Elly is amazing.

2. Get on the right bus. It was pretty straight forward, as it turned out. It’s not that hard to figure out the Portuguese for “bus number,” “bay number,” and “seat number.” There were screens telling us what we needed to know. The bus driver scanned our tickets, and away we went.

Leaving Lisbon by the Vasco da Gama bridge, the longest bridge in Europe

Fishermen casting their nets in the shallows at the far end of the bridge

Stork nests

Less than fascinating scenery -- but hey, we scored seats at the front of the bus!

3. Get off at the right town. Not that hard, although we’d been pronouncing “Milfontes” the way the Spanish might; the e before the s is silent — “Millfonts.”

4. Find our way to our accommodations. Google did the mental work, we the physical, loaded like burros with heavy totes full of all the stuff we have to fit in the panniers.

Some of my friends will be happy to know we stayed in hippy accoms, a hostel that has a meditation room and offers free yoga. It also offers a free welcome drink and a massive included breakfast. We had a private room with ensuite. We agreed we would like to spend a week here some time. Maybe inflict it on our children.

Just outside our door, a place to relax and read German or Japanese books

 

Not a lot of time to enjoy Vila Nova del Milfontes because we had to get our bikes set up, but it’s a charming seaside town that deserves more than a night. There is a spectacular beach that we never got to set foot on. Yes, worth more than one night, but we have ten days with the bikes, and a lot of ground to cover.

Ceramic and wool, Portuguese cousins of Shaun the Sheep