20 years ago today – Day 10

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March 13– Evora to Beja, 352 km

It rained last night but this morning it is cool and pleasant. There is broken cloud cover, a perfect day for riding. Mike is fast off the starting block again, with his new freewheel.It is 80 km to Beja, a much shorter ride than two days ago. We take N254 south. It is very flat and straight. We make excellent time and I am keeping up with him. But then he begins to slow because, due to his fast pace the past couple days, his knees are hurting while mine are fine.

My twirly-whirlies are still going fine. I suspect Mike tires to ride ahead of me so no one suspects we are together. He says I am too obviously gay. He has his own toy that clips to his handlebars. It has four buttons which make different sounds when he pushes them – a rat-a-tat-tat machine gun fire, the ding ding ding of a trolley bell, an oscillating siren sound and a yelping sound. He loves to surprise innocent bystanders with them as we approach.

He also says my faded pink helmet makes me too obviously gay, but who is he to talk with his hot pink bicycle shorts and sunglasses? Although the frames are pink, his lenses are orange. He says my helmet look like a pumpkin when he wears them and he amuses himself by calling me ‘pumpkin head’.

Once we reach the village of Viana, just over a third of the way, we take even smaller, unnumbered roads, through the rolling plain of the Alentejo. These country roads shorten our distance and make the day even more pleasant. There is not much in the way of scenery, just rolling farmland and cork, orange, lemon and olive trees. As we reach the village of Cuba, there is a sign that says, in Portuguese, “Welcome to Cuba, a nuclear weapons free zone.”


An hour later, Beja appears on the horizon on top of a small hill, an understated version of the Emerald City. Like Evora, it’s a walled city. The turret of the Beja castle rises above the rest of the town. Mike finds a cheap pension for 2000 escudos and a restaurant downstairs serves us dinner. Before dinner we walk around the town to see the outside of the castle and some of the older houses with their interesting ceramic tiles. It is less touristy and cheaper, but that is because there is much less to see than in Evora.

PHOTO 1: cork oak trees
PHOTO 2: a cork crop
PHOTO 3: gypsies passing
PHOTO 4: Mike, lunch stop in olive grove
PHOTO 5: "Welcome to Cuba, a nuclear weapons free zone"
PHOTO 6: Beja at night