Pedro

Yes, typical dictatorship: low education, no vices, god-country-family, no external influences, virtue, etc...

Coca Cola and rock music was forbidden in Portugal until 1974, people you smuggle Coca Cola bottles under car seats on the border like it was hash. Political ideology was censored, etc

Better call them Professor Asscrack, then

Nice choice, you were going for one of top three most uninspiring locations ever with the other one next to the bin and mcdonalds publicity

They’re twats, Pete!

I like that, there are no poplars around here

Holy shit, what is that?

I stopped on an open trail, walked 20 meters over dirt uncultivated farmland, which was unmarked and open, and took a picture from outside a crumbling building. I told him to call the cops with a report before going away. I do understand some of these guys around here are a little too protective of their land, but fuck him, now his clean car is full of dust inside, which thinking about it didn't do much to appease him

Properly clean wheels! And nice bin, too

Just have to say, I am quite content with the sun glint off my bike's front brake disc, it was on purpose!

Woke up feeling normal, today, and went for a ride to check out the RARET. Even though this didn't create the photo content I was looking for I have just recently found about this bit of history and it interested me, so here it is. RARET is short for portuguese RAdio de RETransmissão (Retransmission Radio). At the time Portuguese leader (dictator) demanded that this station only retransmitted content created elsewhere, and no person worked there that wasn't a sympathizer to his party, the Estado Novo, to do this his political and censorship state police went through every worker with a fine tooth comb. (PIDE - Police for Investigation and Defense of the State) Portugal wasn't really a place of free speech or liberty back then, which is quite ironic since this station started to retransmit the american "Radio Free Europe / Radio Free Asia" mostly trying to convert people on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Salazar's phrasing very roughly translated by me, it's a difficult speech to convey in English: "A big number of European countries, threatened in their life and liberty, are now counting with the aid of the United States and with the help of each other for the defense of divulging their patrimony. It seems difficult, in such circumstances to be absent from this." The content transmitted would in languages very much foreign to most portuguese residents, so people from the Eastern block were in charge of monitoring them to make sure they wouldn't be retransmitting Russian programes. Mr Pasqualino (an Italian), a guy who was fluent in 12 languages was the master linguist, often pointing out they were receiving the Russian transmission which arrived here in far stronger signal than the American. It's very recognized that without him this station would frequently be transmitting the Russian signal, and that would be most inconvenient. He would receive transmissions from Germany in Vila Franca de Xira, record them, and then drive them over to Glória do Ribatejo for broadcasting those recordings. Strange times. Eventualy, this was streamlined... The engineers brought from the armed forces to work the radio and electronics eventually got into a groove and found themselves with plenty of free time, hence they were put to use in a Technical School that was built in Gloria do Ribatejo (name of the town translated to Ribatejo's Glory). This school was open to whoever intended to enroll, and was responsible for a big increase of kids from this village to get a quality education and a substantial increase in their progression to Universities, not much of an occurrence before that. The RARET obviously had a medical facility to care for it's staff, this was quickly put to use and open to the community, their ambulance and maternity ward made a big difference in the lives of those people back then. The RARET transmited from 1951 until 1996, which quite surprised me. Upon shutting down, some building were donated to the community, some were converted to the local council management, some modified and converted for community groups to use. All the now obsolete radio equipment was dismantled and donated to the local council, who having no alternative use sold it for scrap. The whole thing was a big positive influence in the quality of life of this village, and it stopped with the best impact it could have. The main buildings are currently abandoned just a couple of kms out of town, and I went to have a look. Unfortunately I couldn't really get a close look at the thing, I rode around the entire compound searching for an opening but it would have involved climbing over a fence or forcing a gate, and I wasn't going to do that. Main entrance: A glimpse at the compound homes, now unused, apparently 70 homes used to be occupied by people working here. The main building in the distance, Typical local broken road around the fence, plenty of houses around though. Rear entrance, also pretty shut On the edge off the Village, a few posters with period pictures were posted this year, celebrating the 70 years of the first transmission in 4th July 1951. Popped to the village for a pick me up expresso, old builders' homes converted to a new community building and park, named after the Radio Free Europe president: During this RARET operation, Portugal went into war in Africa and Asia over it's colonies independence, the last country in the EU to have colonies is not the proudest moment in our history, but even worse is that the way we left was very damaging for those countries's future. A small memorial to a couple of local soldiers who died overseas. It started getting warm, and I headed home. I was a little disappointed that access to the buildings wasn't easy but I did stop on an abandoned crumbling building for your delection So here: Exiting, the property owner stopped by me on his pickup and was apparently very irritated that I took a couple of pictures of his crumbling building, even though it's door was wide open and I didn't go in. As I asked why he was getting so aggravated he started to get more and more irritated, and proceeded to move his pickup a few meters forward to write down my plate number, which he did over a thick cloud of dust when I got on my merry way, what a twat he was. A brief stop over my favourite bridge on the way home, Ponte Rainha D. Amélia: Plan was to pull some weeds in the afternoon, but it's too hot and I'm not feeling that right now. This report turned into too much of a history lesson for my taste, sorry about that, but if you're up for more here is a link to a page with some old pictures of the radio station: https://restosdecoleccao.blogspot.com/2014/07/raret-radio-retransmissao.html

I am almost afraid to ask what that is after the description of that night.

I think I've posted a picture or two of that bridge before, maybe with the 1150 or XR, maybe not on this thread though. It is completely my favourite bridge, quite small but it's close to home and I ride through it to get over the Tejo River when going out on a big ride to the Alentejo via back roads. It was inaugurated in 1904 for railway use, back then at 840m it was considered the longest in the Iberian Peninsula for train use. In 1996 a new bridge (the ugly concrete one on the right) was built next to it, and it was then converted for road use in 2001. Funny, construction first started in 1901, the work converting it to road use was in 2001, a full century later.

I was going to take it while riding but the grid makes the bike slowly drift to the right a few inches at a time if I don’t touch the bars

I feel sorry for her having to have you drive her and whining all the way

All pictures or video of it imply you only hang off it though, and don’t ride it…

An over 40º ride through the Alentejo is always a nice adventure.

That looks so tempting! And easy terrain on the big bike too, not sandy How far do you figure are the hills in the distance? 30 or 40km? Apart from that, before this it seemed a properly cold and grim ride

a long term investment

like that specific cockney, yes

Yes, you do sound like you're John Wayne's deputy in an old western. In a nice way.

That guy doesn't sound like Pete at all, to me. I think you're focusing on the accent and not the guy's voice. That, or you all sound alike to me, which might not be wrong.