Breakfast at 8, with briefing by bikes at 9 (this was the same all days). Started to ask names and sort people out. We set off at the back, and were soon on our own (this was the same all days).
First part of the route was little ups and downs/ins and outs along the coast. The views were great, and I'll stop mentioning this as the views were great for all the trip.
First coffee stop where we caught up with the peleton
What at the time seemed a long drag up to Col de Palmarella (408m) (little did we know what was to come the next few days) ended disappointingly at the cafe shack said the unfriendly local hadn't any food, only drinks. We had Oranginas and watched the sweaty walkers come up from the beach. Some wizzing down then up to the second smaller Col de la Croix.
Splatters of rain that I ignored but the Stoker geared up for, more wizzing down to a lunch stop where we just caught the peleton leaving.
More wizzing down to Porto where the hotel was up above the road leading down to the port/beach.
We washed out the cycling gear and put out to dry. There was pool, so we changed and as the tiles looked slippy I walked barefoot down some stairs, thinking this was the best thing to do. I slipped and banged my butt and back down three stairs, only saved from worse by having held onto the handrail which broke. The Stoker thought this was the end of the holiday with me incapacitated, but the only injury was grazed knuckles. I was lucky but shaken. A dip in the cool pool and a sleep on a sunbed made it all better.
Later it rained a little, but we umbrellaed up and walked down to the port where we had...yes you've guessed it ... had a drink (with peanuts) before walking back up to the restaurant of the hotel. Names started to get tied to faces, and characters were evolving as you have in any group.
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