We so liked this valley on the 'Alte' ride that we decided to explore the roads some more possibly as far as Sao Bartolomeu de Messines. (See AL06c 78km 883m).

The valley was great and all the roads quiet with some beautiful fields of wild flowers.

Alas, when we got to the fork in the road to Bartholomeu, we had a communication breakdown and I headed hard left on to the N road. Bartholomeu will have to wait for another day!

All down on this beautiful N road for 8km to Purgatorio'. Fortunately I left Purgatorio quickly and on to lunch in Paderone. 

Our final distance became 69km 772m.

The church photo was taken from our balcony (2nd floor). Bells start ringing at 8am.

The large stone barriers on the mountain are on either side of a vineyard - possibly the stones that were dug up before planting vines?

Red  and yellow flowers are now mixing it up with the white daisys.

This was a beautiful ride .. and we are starting to get the hang of this area! We have found a few great roads out of town that quickly get us on quiet roads.

We now realize the heat map in rwgps is meaningless so we pick the absolutely smallest roads we can find. We've also discovered that some of the N roads have huge shoulders. Other N roads run parallel with A highways and are thus quiet. Sunday is a quiet day as many cafes and restaurants are closed in the country.

Cheers
Marion and Harold

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