Beyond My Eyes.

Jyri Manninen | Kajura


This third day of riding on my Portugal’s Northern Coastline and Peneda-Geres National Park cycling tour would be another almost century long one, starting from the relatively quiet Torreira, by the Aveiro Lagoon, to the very touristic, beachside tourist city of Póvoa de Varzim. At approximately the half-way point, I’d go through the major northern city of Porto, which is located on the banks of the Douro River. The morning’s ride had me leave Torreira at the crack of dawn, and I was able to ride in very quiet traffic conditions, given it was a Sunday morning. In fact, for the first few hours, I think I saw more cyclists out on their training rides than I did cars!


As lunchtime approached, I reached the long and busy beachside stretch leading up to the mouth of the Douro River. There was now a lot of traffic, pedestrians as well as cars, but the excellent bike paths made it fairly painless to navigate the chaos. I meandered along the south bank of the Douro to the famous Ponte Luis I bridge; and what views! After crossing it, I made my way back to the coast on the northern side to continue my ride up to my day’s destination of Póvoa de Varzim. On this stretch, the riding surfaces were quite varied, including nature trails, stretches of sand, wooden boardwalks, as well as very rough cobblestone roads in and around the small beachside villages, which actually resulted in Matilda breaking a couple of spokes on her back rim, but luckily not resulting in any warping.


While it had been a rather excellent day of riding, I was running very low on fuel once I reached Póvoa, and the only thing I had on my mind on arrival was to get me a shit ton of pizza and beer. So, once Matilda was set up for her rest at the hostel, I walked a few kilometres to my favourite refueling station, ‘Mr. Pizza; and boy did it totally hit the spot!

The horizon far;
all that lays ahead, still hides.
One day, I will see.

‘Beyond My Eyes’ by Jyri Manninen


Now, with a belly full of goodness, I slowly strolled back to my hostel along the beachside boulevard, as I enjoyed a wonderful, prolonged sunset over the Atlantic. It allowed me the perfect moment to reflect on not only the fantastic first 3 days of this current tour, but also on all the amazing places and experiences that still lay ahead of me, not just in northern Portugal, but also, in future years, over the ocean’s horizon.

Be blessed,
Jyri Manninen

The Lonely Road.

Jyri Manninen | Kajura


After the way-more-than-I-should-have-done opening day ride of 150km, I wasn’t sure how my body was going to react on this second day as I headed north from Figueira da Foz towards Aveiro. Fortunately, the terrain would be virtually flat, once I’d negotiated the climb up and over Cabo Mondego. After a quick coffee and cerveja break in Quiaios, I hit the long isolated straight up to the Tocha turn off, and, to my surprise, I actually felt really good. Basically, I could only recognize just a small amount of residual fatigue from the previous day’s ride.

I had my lunch break by the church in Tocha, which is located about 7km inland from the coast. I would then soon return back to enjoy views of the Atlantic Ocean at the holiday resort town of Praia da Mira. However, apart from a quick scan of the lagoon and beachfront area, I continued on my way, as I quickly started to feel quite out of place amongst the large crowds of holidaymakers. I guess that introvert in me still hasn’t gone anywhere!

For a moment brief,
as if, never was I here.
The road home, I found.

‘The Lonely Road’ by Jyri Manninen


It wasn’t long before I reached the southern end of the Aveiro Lagoon, and I tracked along it up to the Ponte de Barra, which I had to cross to reach the ferry terminal at Forte da Barra. From there, it would be just a short boat ride over to São Jacinto. At this point, I‘d still not quite decided on what the day’s destination would be, but after reaching the camping ground in Torreira, which was super well managed, and also very cheap – I think it was just 6 or 7€ for me and my tent – I made the call that this would become my home for the night at the end of day 2.

To unwind a little after another solid day of riding, I walked back down to the waterfront to buy some food from a local supermarket, and then soak in the views of the lagoon, as the light of the day gradually began to fade behind me.

Be blessed,
Jyri

On the other side.

Jyri Manninen | Kajura

Having just completed the Via Algarviana camino trek just a few days ago, I was now already off on my next adventure, the 4th leg of the Life on the Run Tour de Portugal bicycle adventure. This would also be the final journey that I would share with Matilda before her retirement. It would be a 2 week long, approximately 1000km exploration of the northern coastline of Portugal and then the Peneda-Geres National Park, which is located over an area straddling the north-east border with Spain. The return trip would also include some amazing, historic places, but more about them in later posts.

As we departed from Peniche, we passed by the Statue of Our Lady of Good Voyage, the patroness for wishing safe trips for the fishermen of the Peniche peninsula. Well, we weren’t going fishing, but I imagined that she was wishing us a safe journey too. After a brief glimpse of Baleal beach, one of the most popular in Portugal for tourists, in particular for beginner surfers, it was time to head to Nazaré via São Martinho do Porto. The ride there was over very familiar terrain, as I had run and rode over it many times before, both while living in this area some 6 years ago, and then on subsequent visits. 


After Nazaré, the scenery ahead would all be completely new, except for the city of Figueira da Foz, where I had visited briefly on a day trip with my mum several years earlier. Figueira da Foz would, in fact, end up being our destination for this opening day, a very solid effort of 150km. We handled it surprisingly well, despite not having ridden together for over 2 years.

When you amply roam,
your limits, you will surpass.
The unknown awaits.

‘On the other side’ by Jyri Manninen


I had to remind myself that the point of this journey wasn’t to make it a purely physical performance challenge, and so I had to do my very best to pump the brakes a bit. It was much more important to enjoy the awesome scenery, as opposed to worrying about what our average speed and daily distances were going to be. Well, I guess it’s hard to not keep behaving as an athlete, even though my competitive days are now long behind me in the rear view mirror. I have to admit that I still haven’t quite found the right balance with this, but it’s most likely due to now only having a 2 week time window to ride, while having so many intriguing places that I still wanted to see. One day, though, I will head off on a trip without any time constraints, and then I can truly move with complete freedom, but that time is not yet nigh. However, In many ways, this long first day would end up being a rather good reminder of the strength of Matilda’s and my 6 year relationship, which had originally developed during our 55 day, 4200km ride from Finland to Portugal.

Our first major interim destination would be the village of Carreço, some 400km further up the coast, where that epic inaugural ride had, in fact, ended back in late 2017. I already wondered how I would feel finally connecting back to that major locus of change in my life. It felt like it would actually provide the opportunity, in a sense, to resume that original journey once again?

Be blessed,
Jyri