Day 80: Benavente to Lisbon – 55k

6,288km down: 0km to go!!

We had a great meal last night in the hotel restaurant, we were all pretty happy. We also got given our tour shirts so we could wear them into Lisbon. Plus Gergo had put together a slide show of photos from the tour which was pretty good.

Today was a late start as we did not have to be up for breakfast until 8am so I enjoyed sleeping in. We left the hotel about 9am and rode 17k, then all met up to ride in a convoy for the remaining 33k.

Leaving the hotel in the morning wearing the tour shirt

The drivers in Portugal are really nowhere near as cyclist friendly so the convoy was pretty slow, as we were very cautious. It was actually much better once we were in the city, even with all the traffic.

On the way we passed another bullfighting ring in a small town. Bull fighting seems to be a bigger thing here than Spain. They have female bull fighters as well. In Spain the tide is turning against bullfighting, over 50% of Spanish people think it should stop. It would be interesting to know the percentage here in Portugal. It seems to me to be unfair that the bull is predetermined to die. I prefer the method in St Gilles in France, where the bull wears carpet on his horns and when it is over it gets to go back to the farm.

Bullfighting ring on the way from Avis to Benavente on day 79

We arrived in Lisbon about midday. We had stopped 12k out and had a sandwich. This morning when we had breakfast in the hotel we were told we could make a sandwich. It seemed really strange taking food from the buffet and putting it into a plastic bag.

When we got to Lisbon we stopped at a park across the road from our hotel and had some sparkling wine and photos. In total we have done 6,288k! An awesome effort.

The park in Lisbon where we celebrated, across the road from our hotel

Opening the sparkling wine on arrival in Lisbon

Then it was time to box up my bike, sort out my stuff, throw away quite a bit, and get things ready to pack. Tonight we have a celebration dinner at 7:15pm.

As I fly out tomorrow I have not got a lot of time to look around, so am going to head out to look around for a couple of hours now.

The TDA Crew: Gergo, Esther, Cristano, Ezther, Miles, TJ (Miles’s wife, only with us part of the time) and their son Kaia

The seven full tour riders: Brett, Michel, me, Dan, Danya, Jan, Scott

Categories: Cycling trip | Tags: , , , , | 9 Comments

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9 thoughts on “Day 80: Benavente to Lisbon – 55k

  1. Shellbe

    CONGRATS MUM!!! Well done. Such a awesome job you have done!! so proud! see you in a few hours, am counting down. xxoxoxox
    p.s. you look very cute in the top photo 🙂

  2. Rebecca (BizzyBex)

    Well done! I’m seriously impressed. Did you have days when the last thing you wanted to do was to cycle 100kms? Would you be tempted to do another one of these tours?

  3. Kazza

    Yay, done and dusted!!!! C u soon. I have sum yummy bubbly 2 share with u!!!

  4. suzanne

    yahoo! well done sis! hope you have a great flight home! xxx

  5. You are amazing!

  6. Dianne and Dave

    Well done Kaye. We have enjoyed your blog and Dave was great at putting up the flag for each country you were in – Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal (got the lot). I guess we should put up the NZ flag now! We look forward to the third Friday in October 4.30pm at the Rockz !! Love D and D

  7. Adam

    Well done Kaye, fantastic achievement! First of many I expect!

  8. Vicki

    Well done, Kaye! I am full of amazement for your achievement – it is not a small thing you have accomplished! Wishing you a safe return. I have enjoyed following you on your endures 🙂

  9. Lizzy

    Epic!

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