Altura to Alvor

Two weeks after setting out from Santander we made it to the Algarve coast. Our first stop was at Altura, where we had stayed last year. The beach here is fantastic and Tim had a go at fishing one afternoon....though he didn't catch anything, just weed.
The weather became showery, but warm for a week and so we continued West to an official Aire at Manta Rota. It's €4.5 to stay, including water and Wifi, but €2.50 extra for electric, which we don't use. Again, lovely beach and a few shops and restaurants.








At Pedras D'el Rei there is a fantastic train, which runs out to an island with an anchor graveyard. 100's of anchors from the old fishing boats, left in the sand dunes, it looks like a modern art installation. Here we coincidentally met up with friends from last year and also new friends who we had first seen 2 weeks ago!


From Pedras D'el Rei we cycled back into Tavira for the day to look around the beautiful old buildings with fantastic doors and meal out, just to sit and watch the world go by.





Once the weather cleared up we went to the campsite at Olhão for 3 nights, €7.60 per night. We had the luxury of a shower before looking around the Moorish architecture of the town. Tim enjoyed acting as tour guide for David and Jean, we had a great day out at the Saturday market, bought fish for tea and then to the 7 Stars bar for tapas and refreshment. Here they sell superb wine in 5 litre containers for either €6.50 or €9 depending on quality and strength!
On the Sunday we all caught the ferry to Culatra, an island made from a sand bar, with a small village and some restaurants. The weather was perfect and so were the shells on the beach. It's part of the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa and there was plenty of photo opportunities.


With all the washing cleaned and dried, we moved off the campsite to Praia de Marinha. Here we had a couple of beach days and a cliff walk to a cafe nestled in a small cove.


Praia da Rocha has a lovely Aire for €2.50, located between a marina complex and this lovely beach. It is a bit more touristy here, but it was nice for a change, we even joined in a stag night with some lads from Manchester. On the Sunday it was even more people around as a large Thompson's cruise ship came in. Lots of the passengers were wandering the streets of Portimão, but we think they would have been better walking a bit further down the river to the beach at Praia da Rocha. We cycled to Portimão to buy some lovely Piri-Piri chicken..yummy!


We then drove about 5 miles along the coast to the pretty fishing village of Altura, because of the Easter weekend and the fantastic weather, we have stayed here for a week on the Aire, €4.
You will be pleased to know that we've had thunder storms today, but we still managed a BBQ at lunch time :o)

Location:Alvor Portugal

Santander To Alcoutim

We are on our travels again. Departing from Plymouth for Santander on the 16th March and the crossing was thankfully flat calm after all the storms we have had this Winter. Our first night was at the "Elephant Park", an official Aire at Parque de Cabarceno. A couple in another van had just spent 6 hours going around the safari park here and it was a lovely sunny day too.
After the long treck over the mountains to Braganca last year, we decided to take the easier route via Salamanca. We found a great place to stop, bought some delicious slices of Iberian ham, 5kg sack of oranges and wandered around the beautiful city in hot sun!





We pushed on to Portugal and stayed within the protective walls of the Vauban star fort at Almeida. We love the Aire here as you can imagine what it would have been like during the wars and there is a small museum. Horses still roam around the grass banks on the walls and it was worth the detour North to stay here.
Not wanting to follow exactly the same route as last year we headed for the Aire at Marvao, but we never made it as we found this amazing spot in the middle of a Barragem (reservoir). Libby didn't get her tires wet, though we parked as close to the water's edge as possible!
It was lovely and hot during the day, but one night the temperature fell to 1 degree c, so it was a little chilly!





We eventually made it to Mavão a few days later. The Aire is around 2800 feet up and has spectacular views out over the border to Spain.


Last year we went to stay at Monsaraz and we loved it, so we went back again for a couple of nights. If you stay here then be aware that the church bells ring very loudly, all night! But the views are superb as is the little fortified town. There are some lovely craft shops and small cafés here and it is just a delightful place to stay.





We continued south .... and as Tim could smell the sea we just called in at the Mina de São Domingos for a quick lunch stop and then a look at Pomarão on the Guadiana River, before stopping at a lovely Aire in Alcoutim. We are now on Page 90 on the map...the one where the sea is not far away, but it is so nice here that we are staying a few days and had a treat for lunch in the Riverside Bar. The white buildings are across the Guardiana in Spain. Thankfully there has been a lot less rain this year and the river is about 10ft lower than it was when we were here last year.


Now to go back to the bar for a few beers, just so I can use the wifi.....haha!

Where are we?

I tried to post this a couple of weeks ago...but there was a problem with the photos (thanks Jan for letting me know) ...... So here it is again ... With photos... It was so annoying not to be able to blog whilst away :o(


This is the lat & long of where we are. So you could Google it or put it in your sat nav!



This is the view in one direction and....



.... This is the other direction.




In 1933 it looked like this.




This poster is in the window of the boulangerie where we buy our croissants.



And this is the fantastic view from where we are staying.
If you've been on Instagram then you will know that we are in Biarritz and it is fabulous. The weather has at times been too hot, in the mid 30's, but it has chilled down this week by 10 degrees!
We are having a superb time and not yet ready to move back North.

Normandy

After driving 15 miles from home....we arrived in France!! The weather was glorious for our first 5 hours and then it changed for the worse! We spent a lovely night at Mont Saint Michel.


A photo from a lovely exhibition in the Cathedral, sorry I didn't get his name though.


Our Airs book listed the Aire as €10, but the area has been redeveloped to allow water to flow around the Mont again to prevent the area silting up. The Aire is now €20 (but thankfully we are small enough to count as a car which was €12).
We did manage to contribute to the French motorways as we paid a toll for €51......by mistake....another reason I should try and improve my French!
We then went over to the D-Day landing beaches. What a nightmare it must have been for the men of all nations that battled it out on these beaches.


This bunker and restaurant are still here today.


Utah beach where the Americans landed and fought their way up to Cherbourg. The Battle of the Hedgerows took far longer than anticipated, at times loosing one man per meter advanced. The museum here is excellent and has many articles from the war....including tanks and planes.



The American cemetery at Omaha Beach has 9387 headstones. 45 sets of brothers were buried here and a visitors centre personalises their very sad stories. It's an incredible sight and a moving experience to visit here.


After a visit to Honfleur, we found a peaceful spot by the Seine for the night....luckily these massive cargo ships didn't make too much noise!
After a week in Normamdy where it had rained every day but one, we decided to curtail our trip and drive South to find some sun.


We ended up on Ile de Re. We love it here and always treat ourselves to a campsite with a pool for a few days. After a 26 mile cycle ride to see the lighthouse I deserved a relaxing swim.


The blue sky didn't last long and it has now rained every day except two....so tomorrow we head South again....at this rate we will end up on the Mediterranean though we never planned to go that far. My long walks in the Dordogne book won't be much use.


As usual, loving the French food and markets. I have spent my holiday money on ice cream from La Martiniere who is one of the top 5 ice cream producers in France.



I also bought this book and though I can't read much of it, it has some lovely water colour paintings.

Porto to Santander 2

The last leg of our journey took us North East from Porto, through a national park, over the mountains and into Spain. Here we had been told about some remarkable thermal springs that flow into this pool and into the river. We had a lovely soak and again in the morning, when the steam was still rising. The water temperature was so hot that I had to get out, cool down and then get back in again! It is wonderful to see places like this that are unspoiled, if this was at home it would have broken glass around and some idiot would throw a bottle of bubble bath in it....like they do with the fountains in Plymouth...so very sad.


We went back to Vidiago campsite on the North coast of Spain. Followed the path to the caves, it was a bit spooky with only the two of us in there, in the dark. The purple colours and the stillness of the deep rock pools were impossible to capture on film...or pixels...or whatever it is these days!


Our last stop before the ferry was at the Cabarceno safari park. It is the largest wildlife park in Europe on the site of an old mine. Though we didn't visit this time, at €24 we are planning to spend a full day here next year. These photos were taken from the road through the village and it was nice to see that these animals had a very large space to roam around in.





Then on to Santander for the afternoon. This was an extremely hot day and we wandered around the shops that were shut until 16:30. Unfortunately we didn't find the beach, but now we know where it is then next time we will be able have an ice cream! We also stocked up at the Carefour....though we scraped under the 2.1m height barrier.....we found the high vehicle parking on the road around the corner on our way out.



Just some of the 20 bottles of port, several boxes of wine, vodka and a selection of beers....including a crate of Sagres......we are set up for a BBQ ..... When Summer arrives!

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.