Sunday, August 06, 2006

Great roads in Portugal

My purchase of a Lotus Elise is coming closer. To celebrate it, here are some of the best twisties in Portugal.

1. The Sintra tour: I still haven't figured out the best circuit here. The goal is to keep to N247 as much as possible and then taking a secondary road on the east side of the mountain to avoid the large straight created by N8. My suggestion, just by looking a the map is to exit N8 just after Linhó.

2. The Fátima tour: I have only done the Fatima-Ourém part of the trip. It's really twisty, although it crosses some small towns. Again from looking at the map, my suggestion woukd be to take 349 down from Ourém and then taking the 357 to Boleiros and back to Fátima, going through the border of serra do Aire.

3. The Abrantes-Tramagal quickie: This is an insane bit of road with a quick succession of hairpins and sharp turns. It will only entertainyou for 15 minutes, but you'll get out of the car at Tramagal with your legs shaking.

4. The Constância tour: This circuit integrates the Abrantes-Tramagal quickie described above. Start from Constância heading north on the 358, take the Martinchel exit and follow it to Andreus and then Sardoal. Follow the 358 southeast to Mouriscas, then follow west to Alferrarede and Abrantes, take the quickie from Abrantez to Tramagal and then back across the river to Constância.

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