Porto

With 257 photos taken over 2 days, Porto deserves a post all to itself.....don't worry I won't bore you with all the photos, but it is a beautiful city. We didn't realise quite how big until we took a Yellow Bus tour which included a cruise and 2 Port Lodge tours, with tasting, all for €22. The great thing about this tour was that you could get on and off wherever you wanted and also included the normal bus trip back to our Orbitur campsite at Madalena, an hours journey through the narrow streets from the centre. The local bus ride was an adventure in itself due to the speed which the driver skilfully negotiated the narrow lanes. There is a great beach here in the centre too, lovely destination for a short break.






This advert made us smile...."Join the sexiest paper on earth" ....


The Ribeira section down by the river is a warren of narrow streets and steep steps up to the centre. Washing still hangs out from upper floor balconies and many restaurants crowd the river bank. We stumbled across this little gem, cafe with the red doors below, tucked away in an ally just off the river....sorry...no name but if you can find it then order the Bolinhos de Bacalhau, a local fish cake we watched the lady make, absolutely delicious!





These boats used to be used to transport the barrels of port from the Upper Douro vineyards down to the port area here, but now they are just used during regattas by the Port companies and lorries are used to move the port.






The river Douro flows 576 miles from Spain to the Atlantic here. In the upper Douro valley grapes are grown in what was the first ever demarcated Port region and it is now recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The river cruise took us under the 6 bridges, one of which was built by Gustave Eiffel in 1877.


Vila Nova de Gaia is on the opposite bank to Porto and is where all the port is blended and left to mature in the barrels. The maritime climate makes ideal conditions and also it is shaded here until late in the afternoon. We toured the Calem and the Graham's lodge and tried out a selection of their port. There are now several bottles stashed away in Libby for drinking later.


Like any city it has its share of dilapidated buildings and graffiti, though we did find the streets very clean.


Below is a statue to the Luso-British Forces. It is a lion crushing the French eagle which celebrates the victory in the Peninsular wars. Maybe this old alliance is why the Portuguese people are so friendly towards the British tourists today. We have found welcomes and smiles everywhere.

Peniche to Costa Nova

At Peniche the headland sticks out into the ocean and it was even windier than ever, we did see a few brave vans parked up here. Also some fishermen were perched on the edge of a sheer cliff edge, not sure if the fish would hang on while they reeled it up the 100 foot cliff! We drove around the coast to Baleal and watched some surfers and went a walk over the causeway to wander around the narrow streets and white washed houses.
Then on up to Nazare, a traditional fishing village with a marvellous beach, where earlier in the year an American Surfer was towed out to surf a 100m wave before it crashed into shore. The large waves here are a result of a deep water trench just off the coast, which then shallows rapidly only meters from the shoreline. In certain weather conditions this produces exceptionally large waves. They were certainly crashing in whilst we visited, but not quite so big!
The little funicular railway took us from Nazare up to Sitio at the top of the peninsular for a couple of Euros. Here we got fantastic views of the sweeping bay below.


The classical image of Portugal is these fishing boats on the beach, which used to be hauled ashore by a team of oxen. We only saw them in this area though as many have now be replaced by modern boats and the old ones seam to decorate several town roundabouts!
In Nazare we also saw fish being dried on wire racks and many of the older generation dressed in traditional costume. Instead of mending nets the fish wives were trying to rent us a room, obviously more profitable, how times have changed.


At Sao Pedro de Moel, near to Marinha Grande we stayed at a campsite and chilled out for a couple of days. Tim even managed to put the hammock up for a few hours rest! Though we did cycle 10 miles to Praia de Vieira and had a scrummy sardine lunch while watching the waves crash ashore. The road was one of the straightest and with a great cycle track the whole way, but it just went on and on and on.....



At the end of the cycle track was a market place and these lovely candy striped houses.


As we had some tickets to use up for Orbitur Campsites we chose the next one up at Praia de Mira where there was a kite flying competition. The local children had made them out of paper and string and they where flying very well in the strong breeze. Some of the fishing boats shown above were here and the fishermen sorted the fish out on the beach. Some of it was quickly auctioned off and several of the locals were filling carrier bags with the smaller fish that had been discarded into the sand.


We hadn't planned to stay at Costa Nova, but it was a glorious Sunday and we found a small craft market taking place. We stopped and bought some biscuits from two sisters who also had some lovely handmade bags and purses for sale. They have a blog here.
The town is well known for its candy striped houses, each beautifully painted and full of character. We bought Dorado and prawns from the market as well as some lovely bread. The Portuguese rolls and bread have been tasty, especially for our pick nick lunches.


Now off up the coast to Porto.

Sagres, Zavial to Costa de Santo Andre

Two weeks spent between Sagres and Zavial. In and out of the sea, sunbathing out of the wind and some coastal walks.


We made it back to the lovely little restaurant at Ingrina and had the most fantastic prawns and Sea Bream.


With just over three weeks left we decided that we had to head north up to Carrapateria. We have spent seven weeks on the same two pages in our map and it was finally time to change the page! Total mileage so far is 1250.


Tim ran out of Jazzers and so we had to make some by melting the chocolate in the windscreen and then liberally sprinkling it with billions and trillions. This was one giant Jazzer!





Odeceixe



The view from Almograve was stunning coastline in both directions. We spent a few hours looking at the folds in the rocks. Some had been folded under so much pressure that they had over turned back on themselves.






......and at last we saw the sun set over the sea.



A quick campsite for washing and showers at Vila Nova de Milfontes, unfortunately it was a bit far out of the town and so we shall have to return here another time. A short hop up to a new Aire at Porto Covo and then skipped around the refineries and smog at Sines to Praia de Santo Andre. Here we are now....no pictures yet but using the wifi in the bar while we can.

Alvor to Sagres

This will be a little photo heavy as we've not had a campsite for a while and for some reason my ipad mini won't charge from the van. I probably have to buy an Apple charger for around £30! ( edit...I wrote this 2 weeks ago....but no wifi)


These Russian Dolls were from a market in Lagoa, I have a set at home but mine are from around 1978, where as these have a sticker that says 1998. I love how they look and when/if I ever make a sewing room then I will have a shelf especially for them. Though I guess I will never remember what is inside each!
Alvor in the guide book looks like a small old fishing port....it has been modernised, lots of lovely restaurants and still has some character. It was popular port in Roman times and despite suffering extensive damage in the 1755 earthquake it is still a popular holiday town, with a superb beach. We stayed on the Aire here for €4, but the constant wind was blowing dust at us all day, so we continued west.





On to Lagos which had loads of tiled houses with old wrought iron balconies and fortifications left by the Arabs in the 8th century.





This is a statue of Henry the Navigator who turned Lagos into an important naval centre in the early 15th century and financed expeditions down the coast of Africa. It is here that in 1441 the first slave market was held and a plaque indicates the area under the arcades on the far right of the photo.


We finally managed to get a shot of an Azure Winged Magpie. These we have seen many times in large flocks, much brighter to watch than our magpies.


At Boca de Rio we parked as close to the beach as we could and stayed until our food ran out. The sea was quite warm, but still no surfing.


The next beach at Praia de Ingrina was even nicer, though we planned to eat in the restaurant, only to find that it was closed on Tuesdays. If we had a day like this at home this beach would be jam packed. Tim caught 3 mackerel out on the rocks, but they weren't big enough to eat, so he let them go.


On to Sagres, the town furthest west and also the name of the delicious beer that we have been drinking. The far south west tip is Cabo de Sao Vincente where there is a lighthouse, so we peddled over for a look and found yet another beach (Praia do Beliche Beach).....this one had surfing waves and was down out of the wind. It's been very hot....but only if you can hide from the wind!
There are many tiled houses, but this one looked like it was done from a sample pack, very cheerful amongst all the white houses.


This Rosa dos Ventos, wind compass is inside Prince Henry's fortress, though there is some disagreement on what it was actually used for. Lots of wild flowers and birds on the coast path, Choughs too.....though unfortunately we didn't see any.


Our first view of the west coast, looking out over the Atlantic, though Libby was glad she had 4WD to get here.

Alte to Pria de Marinha

Alte is a tiny, unspoiled inland village on the Algarve. It is famous for the Fonte Grande, which is a weir on the River Alte and so we went a lovely long walk, followed by ice cream! Here we saw the first of the traditional wash houses, still used today for scrubbing clothes outside.

Then on to Silves, with the biggest unofficial Aire we have seen so far. There must have been over 60 camper vans staying in a car park by the sports centre, where there is free wifi and showers for €2.50. There are some "long termers" here as there are supermarkets within walking distance, water and a waste disposal point. Silves was also popular with the Romans and then the Moors, when it was renowned as a centre of culture on the Al-Garb (meaning The West). There is still a substantial red sandstone castle that looks down over the pretty town which used to be a port until the river silted up. We saw a couple of pleasure boat trips, full of tourists from the coast. Though it was nice, I wouldn't want to spend a month here as some do.






We treated ourselves to a paid Aire at Parque Da Gale, near Gale Beach €6.50, electric and wifi....a lovely place to stay, but no shower :o(
We cycled into Albufeira for Tim's birthday and had a fantastic meal of Piri Piri chicken and Dorado, Sea Bream. The food here is certainly fresh and delicious, strawberries, oranges, tomatoes are all extremely cheap and very flavoursome. I can imagine these streets and beaches in the height of summer being busy with people on package tours, where as now there are just a few people around, some you can tell are on golf holidays, with matching shirts and socks!


These fresh orange juice machines are all over the place and great for a refreshing drink.....we've now bought an orange squeezer and have it for breakfast.


Gale beach


Then we continued west to a beautiful section of stunning coastline where we were able to walk along, access the deserted beaches, swim and eat in beach cafes. The sea here is a perfect turquoise in the sun, which suddenly seems to have become hot and the wind has warmed up. This is what we came here for and it is all wonderfully relaxing.