A final day of cycling to get me to Lisbon, with the first half through nice country side, this time mostly downhill,  but the second half slogging my way through the extensive and chaotic outskirts of Lisbon in to the centre.  I can't say I enjoyed the latter part of my ride and was glad to get to my Airbnb for the night in the centre of Lisbon.  Except to find that it was on the fourth floor, and I had to lug all my bags and bike up and down.  A pleasant meal that evening refreshed me.  Before going to the accommodation, I did a quick recce of the Airbnb I will be staying at later in the week back in Lisbon with Richard and David, as well as scoping out the railway station that I need to get to tomorrow morning in order to take the train back to Porto to meet up with D and R, who will be arriving in Porto tomorrow afternoon.  The rail journey from Lisbon to Porto is just short of three and a half hours to go 300 kms / 200 miles.  Bullet train it is not, the rolling stock feeling and looking like it had come out of the 1980s with toilets feeding directly on to the line below.  It was pretty full, with Americans and Chinese with humungous amounts of luggage.  And mostly looking a little lost. Anyhow, it got me to Porto and I was able to get to the Airbnb, which was a really nice, quirky house, very comfortable and very interesting.  One final observation about Porto - dog poo / doo, which was in abundance, and not its most attractive feature.  It remind me of Naples which definitely takes the prize for dog mess. They really should do something about it.  Other than that, it is a lovely place, a lot of up and down, with old fashioned small trams rattling about the place.  I'd like to go back for a longer visit.

So, that's the end of the cycling tour (Santander - Leon - Compostela - Porto - Lisbon, with only a little bit of cheating by train in order to keep on schedule), and now it will be a road trip from Porto to Lisbon and then on to Faro. The weather has been very good, except for one day of rain and wind as an Atlantic storm charged over Spain, and it is set to stay fine for the Porto/Lisbon/Faro legs.  I enjoyed my cycling in Spain, where I felt safer and more relaxed than I did in Portugal.  Cycling in Portugal, given the state of the roads I was riding on and the careless driving culture of Portuguese drivers, was not great fun, and I will think twice about cycle touring in Portugal in the future.  The people are warm and friendly, the countryside beautiful, but I value life and limb as well. As I get older I am getting more risk averse, and I like to feel that I am going to be safe and secure when out on my bike.  In some countries you feel that - Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland etc - in some countries you don't, like Portugal, and I will also say, the UK, where I tend not to cycle tour because of the lack of good cycling provision and the general contempt for cyclists by most other road users.  Also, because the weather in the UK  is so unpredictable and variable and you can never be sure if you are going to get soaked, frozen or windswept, even in high summer.

What's to come ?  The tree surgeons will be in soon to do some serious work on trees around, which the Calthorpe Estate is very keen on having and protecting.  The garden needs a revamp which will happen over the winter and then new planting in the summer.  There will be lots of leaves to clear up over the autumn, and gutters to be cleared.  Busy, busy, busy !