Seaside at Nazarre

horse mackerel drying in the sun

Made it to the coast at Nazare for bank holiday weekend. It’s a typical old fishing village and a popular local seaside resort mid away between Porto and Lisbon. An interesting mix of old and new and at the holiday weekend it was quite busy. The friendly Portuguese neighbours bought us some fresh sardines cos we could only find frozen ones. Campsite is a mile from beach and high up in the hills - a good invigorating walk! Bumped into some more Brits - unusual round here - bathing poodles in washing up sink - very unusual.

Treated ourselves to Sunday lunch, a delicious sea food 'stew' of shellfish and a nice bottle of Vinho Verde. Portugese owners just started business after moving back to Portugal from Stevenage!   

Stayed for 3 nights for some beaching, washing and to avoid the holiday traffic then off towards Lisbon for a fleeting visit shopping in the local market on the way. Weather is perfect for us, still very sunny and not too hot, both starting to get a tan. The diesel, food and wine are all very cheap.

Bathala the ancient capital

We left early to go back to coast again a bit further south stopping off Batalha which is original capital city of Portugal. It has a monastery which is part church, part museum and part national  monument to the unknown soldiers who died in WW1 and WW2. We have never heard of it before but is a very impressive structure which took over 200 years to complete. King Henry the navigator and many other kings are buried here.

Fatima - an amazing catholic experience

We moved inland again to spend a day in Fatima the big catholic pilgrimage site in Portugal, which is very impressive. The main square will have upto 1 million people on the main religious date of 13 May which celebrates when some local children first saw the vision of the Virgin Mary.

Pilgrims demonstrate their humility by crawling the whole length of the square and then 3 times round the church. There old men in their 80's to young mothers carrying babies.

Masses take place all day and we joined in the candle light procession round the square then stayed overnight on the huge car park with other assorted motorhomes including one big British one.

The Atlantic beaches

Super site in pine forest, 500m from miles of deserted beach. Another barbeque, bottle of wine and lulled off to sleep by sound of the Atlantic breakers in the distance. Took photos of Mr and Mrs Duck (easter eggs) on the beach this morning - but now they have melted.

Atlantic coast here we come

Stopped off at Coimbra, an old university town built on a hill, for some sightseeing on the way to the coast. Gladys (our sat nav system) tried to send us the wrong way down a one way street – much tooting of horns - but we got away with it unscathed. Temperature hit 92 deg in van despite being parked in the shade for much of the time. It was much more pleasant when we reached the Atlantic coast at Quieros with a nice sea breeze.

Viseu

Spent 2 days in Viseu our first Portugese campsite, it was a bit like like Buxton, and enjoyed the local 25th April Liberation Day celebrations in the market square. Its getting warmer, exposed knees to the sun for first time and had a couple of barbeques.

Never heard such loud crickets or barking dogs.

Portugal border

Drove into Portugal via the mountains, there are some serious hills even on the main roads, 2 miles of 1 in 10 made the van sweat a bit.

Salamanca

We stopped overnight just outside Salamanca and took the 1€ bus into the beautiful old town on Sunday. We walked around and had tapas and a coffee in the square. David Beckham was playing for Real Madrid and we saw him on TV in a bar. the old town

Heading South

Saturday was fine again and we left on longest leg of 200 miles thru mountians to small town 50m north of Salamanca on river Douro. Soon found that our GPS software had a problem when we went thru a new tunnel in the mountains. As it did not know about the tunnel and lost GPs signal at the same time it decided to route us back where we started. Walked into town and felt completely out of place in shorts and tee shirt as locals are still in jeans and two sweaters. It was obviously not on the tourist route and we attracted many disbelieving stares.  

Noja for a few nochas

Had a smooth crossing from Plymouth and landed in Santander at 9:00am on Wednesday. Made for Noja where we have stayed before and we were on the beach by midday. All too easy so far - left Croft on Tuesday in drizzle and were lying on the beach Thursday in warm sunshine.

Unfortunately it then p***ed down with rain most of Friday, but it gave us a chance to buy some prawns and wine from the site supermarket, sort out some routes and get the Spanish mobile registered. As it turned out this was the last rain we were to see for 4 weeks.

Brittany Ferry to Spain

We left on the Pont Aven overnight ferry bound for Santander on Wednesday morning. The Twurp was fully equipped for a long trip south including a small house plant called Katie and two chocolate Easter ducklings from Jill.

Obidos and Sintra

Another bit of culture at Obidos a very attractive walled town of cobbled streets and old world charm, and close enough to Lisbon for American tourists. Sintra is also a major tourist attraction but not very motorhome friendly due to steep hills and windy roads. Somehow we missed the main car park and ended up in a tiny 'car' park in the old quarter down steep windy cobbled streets. Needed more time to appreciate Sintra but we have got a bit 'cultured out' now.