Cycling de Ecopista in Guimarães

A photo of a bike path with the text cycling the Ecopista in Guimaraes

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Guimarães, with its medieval UNESCO World Heritage Site core, is probably not a place that comes to mind as a vacation destination, but we really enjoyed a week in this small town in Northern Portugal, not too far from Porto. One of the reasons we travelled there was to cycle on the Ecopista de Guimarães, a shortish ride on a rail to trail to the town of Fafe. The other reason is to escape the tourist hordes in the larger cities.

We weren’t entirely sure if there would be bicycles available for rent, but we figured that if there is an Ecopista, there is a strong likelihood someone may rent bikes. And indeed, Paula and Carla from GetGreen (Mobilidade elétrica) or email: getgreen.pt@gmail.com rent several bicycles and fortunately they were located in easy walking distance from our rental place at the other side of the small medieval downtown core. We rented two e-bikes, given the somewhat hilly character of the city and also because I don’t think they even rent out standard bikes. I don’t recall seeing them in the modest store.

14^th century arch

In fact, our route to the store passed a 14^th century arch, the Padrão do Salado, which was built after the Spanish and ‘Portuguese won the Battle of Salado against the Moors in 1340. The arch stands at Largo da Olieveira (Olive Tree Square), called after – you guessed it- an olive tree that grew there, was chopped in the 1800’s and quickly replaced by another one after the population loudly protested.

A pedestrianised square with people sitting on patios at the end of October. On the left an arch is visible, in the centre stands a smal olive tree. the square is surrounded by old three storey houses in yellow and white colours. Most houses have tiny balconies made of metal or wood. — “The arch and the olive tree” (that sounds like a fable)

In order to get down to the closest bike path from the store you can either bike a block on a busier road, then turn right and find your way south to the bike path or you could just take the shorter but busier route on cobble stones and sharing the road with buses, Volvos, BMWs and Jaguars. For some reason, Jaguars are a thing in Guimarães; in a week I must have seen at least 20 Jaguars, more than I saw in the previous 60 years of my life.

a woman in a jeans shirt cycling on a cobble stone street in Guimaraes — The shortest route to the bike path via a cobblestone street: don’t lose your momentum uphill!

Largo do Toural in Guimarães

The more direct, but busier route passes along the Largo do Toural with its erratic paving pattern. But is it? I have not seen any references in any guide book, but if you look at the square from above on Google Earth, you’ll see what I think is the old city map paved into the square. How cool is that? It must have been quite a job designing it to scale on that square and then lay it out with the black and white cobbles.

A woman in a jeans shirsts holding a bike at the start of a bike path. Next to her is a bike counter in Guimaraes — The start of the first urban stretch of the pathway

Once you have hit the bike path that runs along Rua Antonio da Costa Guimarães and the train station and passing a roundabout or two (you’ll be separated from car traffic) you ‘ll hit Rua Dr. Alves da Cunha, which is the Guimarães section of the pathway. The actual Ecopista starts in the northeast of town but Guimarães was so kind to build a pathway on another stretch of the old railway track leading to the Ecopista, with only a very short missing link.

bike racks, a repair tool post without tools and a metal plate show a neglected picnic spot — At the start of the Guimarães part of the Ecopista to Fafe: the bike tools are gone!

A man with a bike stands under a banner that shows the start of a bike path in Guimarães.

Three stages

If you read up on this Ecopista on other websites, it is a bit confusing because older websites only mention part of the Ecopista, so here is the short version of its history: Fafe built the first seven kilometers out of Fafe towards Guimarães on an abandoned railway track. A few years later, Guimarães built the other half out of Guimarães, connecting to the Fafe half, so now they had fourteen kilometers. Then Guimarães built a six kilometer ‘urban’ stretch from roughly the train station to the start of the Ecopista.

a bike lane with red lines on each side and several posts delineating the directions on the bike lanes in Guimarães — The stretch on route N101

Don’t skip this first part as it gradually gets you uphill and allows for several great vistas on the town and it adds a few extra kilometers. You’ll be meandering underneath a gondola built to the top of a nearby hill, past sports facilities and a park. Eventually, you’ll hit a a roundabout with the N101 where you turn right (the N101).

The bidirectional lanes peter out and you’ll be sharing the road for 500 meters. That is too bad as it is a bit chaotic with two strip malls and a gas station. If you keep a close ear and eye on what happens around you (which you should always do anyway) it is very doable though. I think the space is there to build that last 500 meters. After you have turned off that road you are approaching the start of the actual Ecopista.

Boulders and eucalyptus trees outside Guimarães

The route starts at a picnic spot that has seen better days and a large entrance banner across the pathway at the bottom of a highway berm. The first kilometers of the path run along some light industrial buildings and housing before it eventually leaves Guimarães behind. It quickly becomes greener now with some small scale agriculture, rocks and boulders and eucalyptus trees.

A woman bikes between rocks on a pathway

Soon we’ll pass the highest point of the route and the gradual descent starts. On our right we have nice views over the valley we just entered from the pass. It looks like we passed an old railway station and we noticed and smelled remnants of recent forest fires.

A woman looks down on a patch of burned forest — Burned bushes along the path

As we keep on descending we switch our motors off. We admire a stream, some grapevines, lemon and orange trees, shrivelled tomato plants and the omnipresent granite homes, barns and posts. Yes, even posts are made of granite. Actually, everything is made of granite in the region. I can’t imagine chipping away at a granite bolder to make a 10 foot post.

A grainte post stands in grass and weeds along the pathway. There are remanants of metal wire hanging off the post — Posts made of granite dot the landscape

Galão and Pastel de Nata

One of the former railway stations, in Cepães, has been converted into a coffee place (Bar da Estação) with the former platform, now a patio, overlooking the pathway and the village. This is the place to have your galão with Pastel de Nata.

a former railway station converted to a bar. People are sitting outside on a patio that used to be the platform. Two bikes are parked in the front. A curled bike rack is visible but not being used — Artsy but useless bike racks. But we were not worried about theft anyway

The path eventually ends at the outskirts in Fafe. You could cross the road and continue on a somewhat dated bike track next to the road until you arrive at a square in front of city hall. We decided to turn around though at the end of the official Ecopista and rode back the same way.

a short stretch of a bike path on what looks like a former side walk — a birectional section

a woman bikes behind a bus stop on a pathway along a road — a birectional section

Wayfinding signs show distances to several destinations in Guimarães — Wayfinding along the pathway including two cherries (or is it more profane?)

Away from traffic in Guimarães

A map showing the route. It goes northeast first, than comes down towards teh southeast, then goes up north east again — The blue dot is the highest point at 350 meters. The actual Ecopista starts roughly above ‘Mesão Frio’ at the top.

Total distance was around 42 kilometers, including the short distance from the rental bike store. As it is a former railway track, it is not a hard ride. Most of the time you are climbing and descending between 0.2 and 2% with a short exemption of 6% according to Strava, which was probably where the path meets the N101. You’ll be cycling away from traffic for most of the time, other than the short stretch from the store to the pathways and that bit on the N101. I was happy to see there are a few more birectional bike tracks in Guimarães.