April 23, 2026 – Ericeira to Santa Cruz

Sadly, it was another night of poor sleep. A few mosquitos in the room, warm, not adjusted yet, a failure of a Tylenol Cold night time to knock us out led to a groggy morning. Breakfast in town with a mediocre coffee led us to find a good coffee shop further delaying our departure!

Of course, we had to check out the surfing beach on the way out of town, specially since we had stayed at a “Surfers Hostel” the night before.

It’s always good to have a plan, but be flexible πŸ™‚

Our goal today was to cycle to a small beach area called Porto Novo that had 2 hotels that we should be able to stay at.

The route had some busier road sections, but with some judicious selection of rural roads, we were able to avoid most of the busy roads. That’s why the GPS route looks so windy!

Lots of beautiful scenery as the gravel roads hugged the coast later in the day.

About 5 pm, we pulled into a town Santa Cruz which was about 8 km before Porto Novo. We made an executive decision to stay in the town and avoid another sunset arrival, continuing our late arrival, late start routine that is wearing us down.

A quick search on google found a nice B&B and we rode our bikes over an were promptly checked in! I helped fix a broken light in exchange for a nice bottle of white wine πŸ™‚

Our hosts recommended a nice restaurant and we went for a delicious meal of fresh, ocean caught Sea Bream! I am not sure what our fish’s name was. But he/she was face down on the plate and still had eyes! I feel kind of guilty eating while watched πŸ˜‰

The display case was pretty amazing, many things that I wouldn’t eat!!! lol

In the next photo, there are barnacles in the upper right corner. That’s one thing I won’t be eating!

Well fed, off to bed for hopefully a better night of sleep!

Comments

5 responses to “April 23, 2026 – Ericeira to Santa Cruz”

  1. Miles Tindal Avatar
    Miles Tindal

    So jealous of your fish dinner! I think I’d happily eat most things in that display case πŸ˜€

    1. Steve Williams Avatar

      The barnacles were way over the top for me! They seem to be popular here, in the fish market, grocery stores, nicer restaurants.

      But the fish is very good! We learned a bit on our food tour in Lisbon. If the fish is sold by the serving, it’s likely not fresh. When it’s sold by the kg, it’s fresh caught fish! We asked when we ordered the Sea Bream because it was on the menu twice. The per serving was still fresh, but it was farmed fish. The per kg was one of the fish in the display case.

      Kind of a weird ethical decision, but we went with the wild fish. If it’s “ethically” fished, is it any worse than fish farming? humm..

      Cheers,
      Steve & Adele

  2. Roger Galbraith Avatar
    Roger Galbraith

    Surprised that you had mosquitoes in your room … I thought that they had all emigrated to Revelstoke last summer.

    1. Steve Williams Avatar

      There were only 3 or 4. Just like people, there are always the hold outs from leaving πŸ™‚

  3. Betsy Avatar
    Betsy

    The fish looks delicious! I hope you’re sleeping better now. 🀞

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