N2 – Crossing in time of pandemic

Estrada Nacional 2, as we know it today, starts from Chaves and ends in Faro. There are more than 700 kilometers registered in roadside landmarks. If where it starts there seems to be no doubt, along the route one can see the various changes that have taken place over its 75 years of existence.

Regarding the end, opinions are diverse. The greatest certainty is that this is a road that cuts across the country from top to bottom and shows us a little bit of Portugal as it is, more kilometer less kilometer.

Touring Nacional 2 is an adventure that is lived in the first person, depending on the means of transportation. From the comfort of the car to the pair of sneakers, the decision is up to whoever is willing to take on this challenge. I did it by bicycle, my favorite means of transport when it comes to knowing, seeing, observing the colors, smelling the smells, stopping where I want at every moment, feeling the atmosphere of the places, but also the difficulties and tracing facilities.

It was on the bike that I revisited places and met others for the first time. Little by little, I confirmed the opinion I already had about the heterogeneity and beauty of our Portugal's landscapes. Cycling across a country, even as small as ours, is also a life lesson with nuances of willpower and sacrifice. Looking at things as they are. Some simple and others more complex. Go ahead without the worry of time.

Alvares, municipality of Góis – Photo: Fernando Viegas

As it is a road that develops mainly in the interior, desertification and abandonment are obvious to us. Houses that have lost their roofs or part of their walls, villages that are practically deserted, forest patches blackened by the fires that tore them apart, or land where a seed has not been sown for a long time. And in the end, everything comes together in a singular image that results in Portugal today, where there is a lot and a little, the good and the less bad.

In between, there are also the cities and towns where traffic is more intense, contrasting with the absolute tranquility as we move away from them.

But there is, above all, an experience that takes place along a road that was once the driving force of economic activities that developed in its surroundings. Many of them have disappeared, just as parts of their journey have disappeared.

Kilometer by kilometer, the feeling of freedom comes to life, which has its maximum splendor in places such as the slopes of the Douro wine region – that magnificent work where man carved in nature and made the supreme nectar of the grape sprout – the various mountain ranges where the air It cools down, the road slopes and you can only hear the wind blowing. The banks of rivers with flowing waters and others that are more still in the magnificence of the various dams. Finally, the Alentejo plain, where the gaze is lost on the horizon, before facing the hardships of the Caldeirão under a merciless sun. In the sum of all this, there is the formation of a mosaic of colour, life, beauty and charm that we call our Portugal.

Alto do Caldeirão – Photo: Fernando Viegas

But not everything is joy and happiness. There is no way to hide it. These are difficult times in which we live. At every stop, whether to eat, rest or stay overnight, fear is felt at every corner. The virus that changed the world is very present everywhere, especially in the lands where it turned into an outbreak and took lives without pity or pity.

Therefore, people keep their distance and do not receive us as they would like. The hospitality of a people is put to the test for reasons of force majeure. The conversations aren't the usual ones and a welcome to my land is replaced by a put on the mask and sanitize your hands.

A stop in a village to say good morning to an elderly man who is sitting in the shade of a tree by the side of the road, watching who passes by, turns into a shock. The best thing is to move on. Affections are suspended. Hopefully they return soon.

And so much, but so much remains to be said of six days crossing Portugal on a bicycle, experiencing the intensity of the moments, while I remember the minutes and hours I saw my country as it deserves to be seen. With time. Carefully. With affection and admiration. Because anyone who has never seen him like this doesn't know what he's missing.

Photos: Fernando Viegas