Porto - A Coruña

Porto bid farewell to me with splendid weather: crystal blue skies, no clouds in sight, a pleasant 17 degrees. The morning traffic was chaotic like everywhere else, with the Portuguese adding to the chaos by stopping unexpectedly to let passengers get in or out. This usually happens with stoic calm from all other road users. Honking was almost non-existent.

So, I took the highway out to escape all of it as quickly as possible. Once I had left the Greater Porto area behind me, I headed into the beige hinterland. Beautiful roads, lush greenery everywhere, and vineyards as far as the eye could see. After more than two hours of driving, I found a wonderful rest area on a mountain with a fantastic view.

You can also find free-ranging cows here and there; even a roundabout offers a cow a bit of variety.

And then came the moment to say goodbye to Portugal. Just as unceremoniously as I entered, it was time to leave the country. I mainly noticed it when the time was reset by one hour. The reason, by the way, why Portugal is in a different time zone than Spain is purely political. In 1940, Franco decided to adopt Nazi Germany's time for political reasons. Although Spain is geographically at the same latitude as England and Portugal and thus should follow Greenwich Mean Time, this has never been reversed by the Spaniards.

In Galicia, it was also a roller-coaster ride again, with some beautifully constructed roads. I could let the GS fly; it was incredibly fun.

And then came the big annoyance: my brand new navigation system (no - not cheap Chinese stuff, EU-made) had occasional minor hiccups and software problems on the trip. But suddenly, it could no longer be controlled via the GS controller, and worse, it was no longer charging. Being somewhere in the middle of nowhere, without a map, and suddenly having no navigation system is not funny.

After various attempts, I was at least able to coax the device back into charging before the battery completely drained, and I eventually arrived in A Coruña.