Pedro's little ride around Portugal

[Pedro]

Correction, old simpletons 

[XTreme]

22 minutes ago, Pedro said:

Correction, old simpletons 

[Catteeclan]

Great report Pedro, you pair must stink of garlic by now.
Is there a vampire problem there.

[Pedro]

Garlic doesn’t do that to me, or to most people in southern countries. Don’t know if it’s because of the way you cook it, but none of that here, I think.

[Tym]

Back to your diet @Pedro, if you dont get off this healthy eating kick you;re doomed!

 

Trust me! None of us lived this long eating that stuff....  

 

You want a nice taco cheeseburger you do 

[Specs]

Great trip @Pedro, thanks for sharing. Would really like to try some of that food although not sure how I'd get on with the garlic. Perhaps with the olive oil it would be ok, but it usually keeps me up all night as if I was on bloody speed or something.

The heat unfortunately would be all too much for me. I ventured for a little jaunt last week for some 'advanced training' and managed about 300 miles in temperatures around 30 degrees, and that was way too warm for me. I was in bed by 2130!

[Pedro]

9 hours ago, Specs said:

 

The heat unfortunately would be all too much for me. I ventured for a little jaunt last week for some 'advanced training' and managed about 300 miles in temperatures around 30 degrees, and that was way too warm for me. I was in bed by 2130!

 

That's easy to manage, just don't do it in the peak of summertime like I did.

[Sofia]

Thank you @Pedro for the ride, for the time, for the lessons, for the sharing. 

You (and your bike!) are amazing.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

This has been a very enjoyable read. Love the pics and the food. Ignore the philistines. And @XTreme wonders where the idea he’s a savage comes from

Its making me wonder if I should take the opportunity to look at Portugal before relocating in Spain. Other folk have been saying Portugal over Spain and Ive ignored them because Spains so much bigger and riding into Morocco and Africa from there is more doable. But it looks so green and I do like green.

Octopus isn’t easy to get hold of here. Even squid is hard to find raw (you can get battered rings ). I tried to buy some a few weeks back. The pic below is the current supermarket price, I cant bring myself to pay it, for the money Id rather have lobster.

So sorry to read of your bereavement. You know there aren’t any adequate words because by now you will have had people saying stupid or insensitive things to you, or worse saying nothing at all because they cant cope with emotion but I’m impressed with your candour and your tears and I wish you all the best. Hope time passes as painlessly as possible for you. 

Anyway enough with the empathy look at the bastard price of this octopus-

 

[XTreme]

On 03/07/2020 at 13:22, Sofia said:

Thank you @Pedro for the ride

I'm amazed that I missed this one! 

[Pedro]

7 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

This has been a very enjoyable read. Love the pics and the food. Ignore the philistines. And @XTreme wonders where the idea he’s a savage comes from

Its making me wonder if I should take the opportunity to look at Portugal before relocating in Spain. Other folk have been saying Portugal over Spain and Ive ignored them because Spains so much bigger and riding into Morocco and Africa from there is more doable. But it looks so green and I do like green.

Octopus isn’t easy to get hold of here. Even squid is hard to find raw (you can get battered rings ). I tried to buy some a few weeks back. The pic below is the current supermarket price, I cant bring myself to pay it, for the money Id rather have lobster.

So sorry to read of your bereavement. You know there aren’t any adequate words because by now you will have had people saying stupid or insensitive things to you, or worse saying nothing at all because they cant cope with emotion but I’m impressed with your candour and your tears and I wish you all the best. Hope time passes as painlessly as possible for you. 

Anyway enough with the empathy look at the bastard price of this octopus-

 

Thank you for your words, that's kind.

Portugal isn't for everyone, I would advise you to do a trip and visit places before a final decision. Spain has plenty of regions with lots of green and luxurious landscape, and very diverse culture, food, weather, and people living in each one, by all means don't assume it all looks like the south. 

Also don't choose a region based on it's proximity to Morocco unless you are planning on visiting really frequently.

Octopus is more expensive if you only buy the tentacles, because they're the most looked after parts but I suspect most people don't want to deal with the body part. Buying that exact same thing here would cost pretty much the same, but buying whole fresh and raw is about a quarter of the price. It's a difficult thing to cook nicely, you have to tenderize it properly and not overcook or else it'll get too chewy, too little and it'll be too chewy too...

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

1 minute ago, Pedro said:

Thank you for your words, that's kind.

Portugal isn't for everyone, I would advise you to do a trip and visit places before a final decision. Spain has plenty of regions with lots of green and luxurious landscape, and very diverse culture, food, weather, and people living in each one, by all means don't assume it all looks like the south. 

Also don't choose a region based on it's proximity to Morocco unless you are planning on visiting really frequently.

Octopus is more expensive if you only buy the tentacles, because they're the most looked after parts but I suspect most people don't want to deal with the body part. Buying that exact same thing here would cost pretty much the same, but buying whole fresh and raw is about a quarter of the price. It's a difficult thing to cook nicely, you have to tenderize it properly and not overcook or else it'll get too chewy, too little and it'll be too chewy too...

Thanks for the advice. No matter where I go Ill rent for at least a year first to check its right. 

Octopus Im thinking (if I ever get some) Ill slow cook it so tenderise it before anything else. I have seen some advertised at the Chinese supermarket fairly inexpensively but that might be because Chinese supermarkets aren’t popular here at the moment  

[Pedro]

3 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Thanks for the advice. No matter where I go Ill rent for at least a year first to check its right. 

Octopus Im thinking (if I ever get some) Ill slow cook it so tenderise it before anything else. I have seen some advertised at the Chinese supermarket fairly inexpensively but that might be because Chinese supermarkets aren’t popular here at the moment  

A nice tip, octopus gets more tender if it's frozen, that's one of the reasons it's typical in places away from the sea. Also, hammering (not too hard) the legs before cooking helps. I don't cook octopus or most seafood, too much work or cooking smells.

[skyrider]

On 29/06/2020 at 19:38, Catteeclan said:

Great report Pedro, you pair must stink of garlic by now.
Is there a vampire problem there.

not now

[Pedro]

1 hour ago, Bruce said:

I dont remember this? This is great! Awesome trip, are we gonna get some more soon?

Glad you liked it, it was a really cool ride. Plan is to do one in a couple of weeks, but I am pretty unsure of how it is going to be with Covid. Me and Sofia.

Then again another in proper summer, by myself, and ideally a Morocco one in september or october, but I'm keeping my hopes in realistic levels. You might want to check out the Morocco ride reports, my favourite being the 2017 one, if you like big vistas.

 

 

[Pedro]

There you go