Saturday 24th September 2002 Praia de Ancora to Vila Cha 46 miles
Our first night in Portugal was very pleasant, the campsite was woody, green, and rustic but we had a good sleep with an equally good breakfast outside in the fresh morning air. Today we are going further south along the coast to Vila Cha to a campsite there. To get there we have to go on the motorway as it’s the quickest and most efficient.
Once on the motorway we get comfortable and settled in, Hayley is still doing the driving, and Del’s foot is slowly getting better but not quite ready for driving yet. So we are trundling along quite nicely when suddenly we see a sign with a wifi symbol a car and a euro sign. Hmmm. We carry on and see another sign about a lane for “foreigners”. Now we are confused and a little concerned that this must be a paid motorway that requires a toll. So far we have not stopped at the usual barrier and collected a ticket, as one would do in Spain or France.
We stop in a carpark and look up what is required for driving on Portuguese motorways. Yes we should have looked it up first, we know, but we didn’t, so now we have no idea what we are doing.
It turns out that in Portugal if you are a foreign registered vehicle then you must pay a toll and or a tax, one or the other or both. Eh? And you must pay for it in advance either by buying a pass of 4 different euro values or a three-day pass or….. it just goes on and on and it’s all in Portuguese, it’s for foreigners but it’s all in Portuguese. Grrr! Thank heavens for Google translate. We finally find a way to buy a pass online, however, once you start using the motorways you can’t find out how much credit you’ve got left.
Del finally finds a website where you can put your registration in, name, and telephone number, and it will tell you how many ‘infractions’ you have and if you do have some you can pay there and then.
Without a doubt the most complicated, convoluted, patience-trying method of toll-paying ever contrived. We are not the only ones. We later find out that foreign traffic has fallen in Portugal as visitors just find the whole system difficult to navigate. It is a bit mad…
We finally arrive at our campsite, it’s lovely. We are shown a pitch and settled in.
There is a recommended restaurant across the road so off we go for a fabulous feast of BBQ’ed gigantic prawns and calamari on skewers with red peppers, served with fries and a salad. Brilliant. This is helped along with a bottle of the house white. We can’t help ourselves and so we have dessert. The whole bill was just over 40 euros. Bargain.
Back at the van Hayley is unloading chairs from the back and the double barrel heavy-duty foot pump falls hard on her bare foot, producing a cut and a bruise, and just to add insult to her injury, some considerable pain.
We are doing well here. Del with his smashed big right toe and now Hayley with a nasty bruise and pain on her left foot. Doing very well.
Once Hayley has settled, Del is off for a shave not before dropping his razor blade on the floor, and instinctively catching it and cutting the pad of his right index finger. My god the pain. It stings all night and bleeds for ages!!!!
So between the two of us, we now only have two good feet and three good hands! Great for basketball.
Hayley is a bit of a crisp fiend on these trips and likes to find the most obscure tasting crisps in the shops. Today she excelled herself with a bag of fried and egg and bacon flavored crisps. They truly do stink.
We both know when the other has had a sneaky try as the stench of the open packet being opened in the van is telling. A most unusual purchase.
No dinner tonight as we had such a wonderful lunch, so we opt to walk, or rather hobble, to a bar on the seafront that will give us a brilliant sunset. Sure enough, the sky is clear and the sun is about 40 minutes from setting.
We order two small beers and get settled in when suddenly a local by the name of Dave, approaches us, rather worse for wear on white wine, and starts to talk to us. It was a funny 30 or so minutes as we spoke about food, the weather, in fact almost anything but in three languages, English, Spanish and a bit of French. He was very drunk and very funny and a kind good-natured drunk!
We are saved as we focus on the sun slowly setting into the Atlantic. Wonderful.
It’s getting cold. Time to go back to our home on wheels.
Sunday 25th September 2022 Vila Cha to Costa Nova 64 miles
We are packed up and ready to go. A quick service, grey water empty, toilet clean, and freshwater fill up, and we are off once again at the mercy of the Portuguese motorway system. Great.
We need to stop off first at the restaurant where we watched the sunset from and pay for the beers. It was cash only and we had no cash. It’s more tricky now than ever, do people accept cash only, card only? Another covid hangover. He trusted us and just told us to “come back later or tomorrow and pay” Blimey imagine that happening in the UK?
True to our word we stopped by to pay for yesterday’s sunset beers and while we were there we had a fabulous coffee and some traditional Portuguese “pastel de nata” A custard tart to you, in puff pastry. It was very good, with an unobstructed view of the Atlantic.
Most of the local roads here are cobbled and in a motorhome, it’s slow and noisy. There are many miles of cobbled streets in this part of Portugal, you can get sick of it. In fact, so far the roads in Portugal are not the best, the motorways are ok and some of the main roads are not bad but even some of them can be a bit ropey as we found out as we drove through the outskirts of Porto, the back of the van lands sharply into a pothole, that was so loud and sharp we thought the back axel was going to get pulled away leaving us with just our home on two front wheels.
That being said the journey was pleasant enough with lovely blue skies and 24 degrees which felt hotter than it said. It’s windy though.
We approach Costa Nova which is a long spit of land down the west side of the country. It is also famous for its brightly coloured striped houses along the front. It’s very busy, with lots of traffic.
There is a 5-day festival in the town and the streets are packed. There is a procession going on and Hayley is doing a great job of navigating the traffic, people, and dogs as we weave our way to the campsite.
We get a warm welcome, pay 19 euros, and were told where we can go. It’s rustic but the spaces are good and the facilities, whilst dated, all work and do what they are supposed to do.
Finally, after a week of being away, we get the bikes off the back of Jess. Hayley’s foot is still a bit sore but better than yesterday. Del’s foot is still a bit tender but cycling a bike should be ok. We shall see.
It’s a lovely bike ride along the front. The houses in all their multitude of colours look wonderful in the sun. We cycle around the back streets and find a restaurant right on the beach. We give it a try but there is a queue and Del is not a fan of queuing to eat at a restaurant so we buy ice cream and cycle back to Jess.
Hayley puts together a smashing afternoon spread of Jamon serrano, boquerones, and tomato bread.
The rest of the day is spent sitting in the sun, planning the next few days out in Portugal, reading, and just enjoying the afternoon sun. Del tidies up the van locker hiding the foot pump well away so it can’t jump out again when Hayley looks at it. Still windy though.
Tomorrow we are going further south.
Monday 26th September 2022 Costa Nova to Costa de Lavos 59 miles
It was a noisy night last night. The five-day festival ends today so last night there were live bands on until 3:00 am and the noise was wafting our way, which ended with a fireworks display.
It’s a bright sunny morning and today we are heading to our last Portuguese coastal stop in Cost de Lavos. In Figueira de Foz. As usual, the roads are atrocious until we reach the motorway which turns out to be one of the best roads ever. Very smooth and empty. After paying the 6 euro toll we are back onto dodgy local roads towards our free night stop in a large parking aire right by the beach.
Lunch today in a typical real local place comprising of spicy chicken, rice, fries, and a salad, served with a glass of cold white wine. This place is miles ahead of Nando’s, the food here is far far better, and far cheaper.
Back at the van, the rest of the day is sat in the sun just in time to grab the remnants of a bottle of red wine from a night or two ago and to go to the beach to watch our last Portuguese coastal sunset for this trip. One of the best sunsets yet, with no clouds just the sun dissappearing gently below the horizon.
It gets cold quickly so it’s back to Jess, heating on and bed.
Tuesday 27th September 2022 Costa de Lavos to Sao Joao de Areias 60 miles
It’s a bright, sunny but cool morning. Our free stopover last night was excellent, very quiet and peaceful. Short simple breakfast, a quick diesel fill-up, and some shopping. Today we are moving east, inland, and slightly north. We have seen the last of the Portuguese coast for this trip and now we are on a motorway to a small town in the hills called Sao Joao de Areias where there is a super cheap campsite run by a couple of Belgians, or are they Dutch?
It takes just over an hour to get there when we arrive we are greeted by Amanda, an English lady who makes us very welcome into this small but practical campsite. She is looking after the place as the owners have had to go away. We have a nice little pitch. There is everything we need here for 10 euros, including a free bread delivery in the morning.
We have been away for 11 days now so today is laundry and cleaning day. Everything is stripped out and we do three machine loads of laundry, change the bed, full van service, internal clean throughout…Hayley does a lovely job of the bathroom and shower!
It’s a lovely day so we just stay with Jess, doing the washing, reading, chatting, and just enjoying the sunshine in this lovely place.
There are a few chickens here that have attracted Hayley’s attention. She used to look after some back home at Quarr Abbey, so she is very fond of them.
We are visited by Amanda, the host, so we invite her in for a coffee and a chat. She proceeds to tell us some great stories of all the different campers that have visited and tell us that we are the only Brits to have visited this year which is odd given how lovely the place is.
Hayley is in planning mode again. Tomorrow will be our penultimate night in Portugal before crossing the border back into Spain.
Wednesday 28th September 2022 Sao Joao de Areias to Meda 78 miles
This morning it’s a bit grey, looks like rain. There is a bag of 4 fresh rolls on the table outside, part of a ‘welcome’ when you visit here. Nice. We have a nice breakfast of cold ham, cheese, and boiled eggs with our fresh bread.
By the time we leave the clouds have broken a little. A longish drive today to a town called Meda, more inland as we go east towards the border with Spain. It’s mainly motorways that are in good condition but we still have to, on occasion, battle the potholes, and poorly made country and town roads. As usual, Google takes us down a few dodgy back streets before finally delivering us onto the right road. The weather has cleared up and the scenery here is wonderful. We are approaching the Douro Valley, which is between Portugal and Spain. In fact, the Douro Valley is where the grapes are grown to make Port, or Porto as it’s called here.
The fortified wine is called Port after the town of Porto, which is on the coast. The river Douro flows to the Atlantic through the town of Porto. Why they don’t just call the drink Douro we don’t know. Guess Port is easier to say when you have a few too many of them.
We arrive at the Municipal campsite in Meda where we are welcomed by a very cheerful, friendly chap who shows us to our spot after paying a staggering 12 euros. It is very nice here. Well maintained and just out of town. Once settled in we make our way into town to hunt down a good lunch.
It’s not long before we are settled in by a very friendly lady at the local restaurant who brings us chicken, ribs with fries, and rice. This is served with a half liter of white wine. It was all so very nice. After she brings us the house dessert which was equally splendid. We thought that as we are in the Douro where the port grapes are grown, then we should have a small glass of port to finish. She brings us a red and white port, very tasty. Just to make sure that we agree that it is tasty, we ask for another two. Yes, they are indeed very tasty.
We say farewell to our host and head across the road to a pastelaria and purchase four Pastel de Natas, a custard tart in puff pasty, but they are very famous here in Portugal and they take it very seriously.
We take them back to Jess and have one each with a cup of tea. Later we sit outside in the afternoon sun but the clouds are rolling back in and it’s quite chilly so it’s time to go back indoors.
Tomorrow we are going deeper into the Douro Valley to a dam that crosses the Portuguese and Spanish border. There is also a rather splendid cathedral to see there.
No dinner tonight. We watch something on Netflix about some murderers with a bit of cheese and some crackers.
Thursday 29th September 2022 Meda, Portugal to Zamora, Spain 123 mile
We are woken up this morning by the pattering of rain on the roof. It’s only gentle but soon builds to be quite heavy by the time we have breakfast. Today will be our last day and night in Portugal. We get packed up and service the van and make for the off. As usual, we are led up the garden path by Google maps that takes us once again through the cobbled streets of a local town.
Its raining, raining heavy now but soon we are on a clear open road that is in good condition. There is hardly any traffic.
We have noticed that once you get out of town the roads are almost empty so it does make it quite pleasurable especially if the road is in good condition like this one. The scenery is fantastic and the weather has cheered up for a while. The lakes here are immense, they go on for miles twisting around the hills and mountains, quite a sight.
We are heading for Miranda Do Douro. There is a dam here that sits between Spain and Portugal. We intend on staying there for the night but when we arrive we find that the parking is a little bit on the slope which can be tricky. We have a walk around the town and get a good view of the dam, we can even make out the border sign, the blue ESPANA sign surrounded by gold stars.
It’s decided that we move on. There is another place we can stay, right by a lake. On the way, we stop and have a good look at the dam, it’s quite something, massive. The sub-station is gently humming away as the water gushes underneath the dam producing electricity. We cross the border into Spain, without a doubt the quietest border crossing ever. A gentle twisty road, a sign to say you are in Spain and that’s that.
We arrive at lake Ricobayo which, is sadly looking a bit sorry for itself. It’s a massive lake but the summer drought has hit Spain quite badly, so the levels are quite low. How long can this go on?
We are the only ones here and decide that, even though the view is brilliant and we can have the whole place to ourselves we should move on, in fact.
Soon we are on our way. In the distance, we can see the sky getting darker and darker than black! There is about to be an almighty storm.
Sure enough, the heavens open 10 minutes before we arrive in the Spanish town of Zamora, north of Salamanca but south of Santander, in the middle, there. Somewhere.
We are going to a free overnight parking place. Hayley does the navigating and soon we are just outside the town of Zamora and settled into a nice space with a few other vans from France, Spain, and another Brit. We get settled in and take walk into town.
Del’s foot has been making some improvement, driving is ok and walking is getting better although there is still a bit of an ache. Hayley’s foot has recovered but with a slight bump on the top of the foot.
It’s a lovely place, Zamora. Our first real town since we started. It’s very clean and tidy and very… “Spanish”. We like it. We pop our heads into a few churches, there are lots here. There is a church-guided tour happening, so Zamora is the place if you want to look at churches. After a small beer in the sun, it’s back to Jess for a smashing dinner.
We liked Portugal but we feel, like the north of Spain, we didn’t spend enough time there. This trip was a taster and we do have plans to come back to Portugal. It’s very cheap for food and drinks, diesel is slightly cheaper than in the rest of Europe. The people that we met were very nice to us and very welcoming so it’s definitely a place to come back to in the future. There is some lovely countryside and they have the longest sandy beaches we have ever seen. So yes Portugal gets a big tick and we will be back again, hopefully soon.
Tomorrow we are heading north to Valladolid, which used to be the capital of Spain back in 1600 and something and only for about 5 years. It also has the accolade of the capital of tapas, so we are looking forward to that.
Friday 30th September 2022 Zamora to Valladolid 63 miles
Quite a change from yesterday. We have clear blue skies this morning and it’s a pleasant temperature. Zamora was a hit. A nice town and a free overnight stop. You can also do a full van service free of charge.
We set off and the views are wonderful, flat, very flat and brown. The hills look like someone has taken a knife to them and flattened them all off.
Valladolid is where almost everything in Spain is made. All the major European car companies have a factory there, if you pick anything up in Spain it will say it’s made in Valladolid, so we don’t know quite what to expect except that it is the capital of tapas, the famous Spanish side plate that was placed on top of your cold beer for free in the old days, but now tapas has been turned into a trendy and sometimes expensive night out. How times have changed.
It’s a very pleasant journey to Valladolid and trouble-free getting to our night stopover which tonight will be 5 euros. The parking spot is secure and well kept. Good. Once in and settled we take a walk into the city of Valladolid, which is twinned with Orlando in the states.
It’s very nice here, but very nice. It’s so clean and spacious. We make our way to the Plaza Major, the centre of the town. It’s spectacular, what a lovely place.
We have a good walk around this lovely city before settling into a tapas bar called Los Zagales. This one has taken the old-fashioned tapa and turned it into something quite special by theming them all into strange and wonderful concoctions, and has won top prizes for doing so.
We get through 7 of their special award-winning tapas, starting with one that looks like a cigar in an ashtray but is really sardines with filo pastry. All of them are quite unusual and tasty and a couple of glasses of cold white just helps lunch along. The bill was cheap, cheaper than we expected, and well worth it. A great way to spend a couple of hours.
With the need to walk off lunch we find the city park, famous for its bird life and tame squirrels. It is without a doubt one of the best European parks we have been in, and we have been in many.
It’s a lovely place with peacocks and peahens just strutting around freely and yes the squirrels are tame, one ran up Hayley’s leg!
Back at the van we relax and contemplate the evening. Hmmm. Where shall we eat tonight?
Because the lunch was quite heavy we decide to take a walk into the town, it’s busy, there is a lovley buzz in the town. We find a place next to the cathedral where we have three tapas of meatballs, fish and salad, washed down with a small glass of beer. Very traditional. The walk back to Jess takes us back through the main square which is beautifully lit up.
We sit at a bar and have a Pacharan, a sloe-flavored drink from Navarro. We enjoy watching the people go by, in fact, we really love Valladolid. A truly wonderful gem of a place, a place that we will definitely be returning to.
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