My route today took me to Santarem over the to- be- expected ranges of hills and small mountains, up and down valley.  Portugal is a rugged and mountainous country, the river valleys providing the main through routes where possible, but since most go them go from east to west, and I am doing north to south, it means I have to cross them, which means down and then up and then down and up again !  The new autovia follow the same north - south routing, but they just build soaring bridges over the valleys.  All built with EU infrastructure money, no doubt.  Not that I am complaining, as an unreconstructed EU fan and keen on us returning to the EU fold.  I don't buy the argument that the British people have made their decision. The British people didn't understand what the EU was about and what the debate was about.  All they did in their referendum vote was give the government of the day a kicking after 8 years of austerity and vote against immigration and foreigners, because that's what xenophobic Brits do. Why shouldn't I still argue against something that 48 % of people did not vote for ?  Do you think the likes of the Brexiteers /UKippers would not still be pushing for their agenda if they had lost the referendum ?  So, I am perfectly entitled to keep arguing the case for belonging to the EU again.  At the moment, I am very disappointed in the Labour Party who seem to have brought in to the narrative that we shouldn't introduce divisive issues that will split the nation, meaning the EU issue.  Nonsense.  Politics is divisive.  That's half its fun. No, I am still an ardent EU fan, and always will be.  I hope that one day we will rejoin.  If they will have us pesky Little Britons back!  By the way, where are the Sunlit Uplands of Brexit ?  Anybody seen them ?  Oh, I forgot - Brexit hasn't been done properly yet, so we are still waiting to see them !

In Santarem I stayed at the Umu Hotel, which is evidently keen with cyclists, because there were a number of us there, including a party of Belgians of a certain vintage, with a wagon to take their kit and provide sustenance throughout the day at various stops.  I think they were Fleming Belgians, a bit serious and not terribly friendly to a fellow cyclist, I thought.  Belgians are a strange bunch anyhow, riven with historical, culture and linguistic divisions between the French speaking and Flemish speaking populations.  It's a hybrid, artificial creation formed 15 years after the Congress of Vienna settlement of Europe following the eventual defeat and demise of Napoleon, when in 1830 various provinces of the Netherlands broke away and formed Belgium.   I think !  They were pretty atrocious colonial masters of vast swathes of central Africa, only slightly bettered by the Portuguese in Angola, Mozambique and a clutch of other smaller countries.

One interesting observation while being here in Portugal, especially in places like Porto and Lisbon, is the racial mix of the people with African, Indian (Goa was another Portuguese colony) and anything in between, all reflected in the people on the streets.  There has evidently been a lot of cross fertilisation which is reflected in the population mix.  Not so the case in Spain.  Yes, in Spain you get the new immigrants / refugees who have come over from Africa, but you don't get so much of the evidence of mixing of populations over the years,  probably because the Spanish didn't have that same kind of empire in Africa / India / Far East.  Oh, I forget, of course the Spanish do still have Cueta and Mellila on the North African coast.  But, they apparently don't count when it comes to their case against the British holding on to Gibraltar !  Mind you, I'd gladly let them have Gibraltar, and the Barbary apes on the Rock,  which is a dump of a place in my experience.

The Belgians at the Umu Hotel had arranged a big meal for themselves in the hotel dining room, but there was no room at the inn for people like me, so I took myself off up the road and found a really very good sushi / noodle / poke place that mostly did take away, but also had a few tables.  It was really good, fresh and tasty, in contrast to much of the oriental food that you seem to get at home which looks as though it has been lying around for ages already cooked in the kitchen and then just reheated.  The Belgians went off the next morning early, and I noticed that a good number of them had electric bikes.  Mmmmm?

Food in Portugal isn't as good as in Spain.  Sorry, but just my observation !  Spanish food is more authentic, Portuguese food seems to have succumbed to a lot of the fast food wave, with a bit of piri-piri thrown in.  I know that down in the Algarve in some of the finer eateries you can get excellent fare, especially fish and seafood, but the generality throughout rural Portugal and even in Porto and Lisbon leaves a bit to be desired.  Service is also pretty slow, certainly at two places in Porto that I have eaten at, mainly I think because they just don't have enough staff.  One restauranteur said the problem was young people didn't want to work.  An ongoing effect of the Covid times.  Also, Portugal is more expensive than Spain.