Week 7. 25th of January – 2nd February 2025. Lisbon to Home 1120 miles
Saturday 25th of January 2025 (Lisbon Day 2)
We can’t seem to escape it. Last night we had a massive fall of rain, really heavy. On the upside, we have got up this morning to clear skies, even though it’s still a bit chilly. No matter, we have a good breakfast, do the weekly blog check, work out the route etc. for our last week (which will change of course) and do a van clean before setting off for Lisbon city once again. But what this…? Visitors.
We take the easy option and use an Uber cab into town. They are so cheap. It cost 5 euros last night to get from the town to the campsite which is a 10 to 20 minute drive depending on traffic.
We are dropped off in town and off we go. Lisbon is spread out, very hilly and busy! We intend to do as much as we can such as try all the different types of transport, food and drink. Of course, we’ll never get anywhere near the latter, but we will try. After some walking around we venture onto the old trams they have here. The old tram network is over 100 years old, the council, in their wisdom, years ago started to decommission the system but there was a backlash from the locals and tourists alike, so there was some backtracking.
They are small and rough and snake their way through the tight hilly, cobbled streets, but they are fun. You get to see a lot, especially on the famous No.28.
We have a cone of Dutch-style chips with piri piri mayonnaise, which are delicious.
Onwards, more walking, admiring the buildings and countless monuments. There are some great views of the city from here.
We like Lisbon, it’s a lively place, the people are friendly and to just walk around is fabulous. It’s busy, even at this time of the year so the summer must be madness. We can understand why the locals are getting fed up and why councils are imposing tourist taxes, and new and sometimes expensive fees to get into attractions etc, but we all know that that won’t stop people from coming. We always pay in the end!
We take the steep walk up the top of the Santa Justa Lift, built in 1902 to get to one of the higher parts of town and take in the views of the city below. There is a rooftop bar not far away from where we take a seat to carry on and enjoy the view and watch the afternoon sun change colour on the houses on the hill opposite us, helped along with a white and a red Port. What’s not to like?
Tonight we are looking for a traditional Portuguese night. There is a style of music hear called Fado so we are looking for some of that and a good feed. We wander into the back streets and find a lovely place that has traditional Portuguese dishes and music from 7:30 and it’s Fado. Excellent…
We are shown to a table upstairs, we’re the first to arrive. The service and the food are fantastic and cheap. The 4 piece band, 2 guitar players and two singers strike up and we are serenaded as we pay the bill.
We liked the singing, but after 20 minutes it would probably get on our nerves. Have a listen at the link above and you’ll get the idea…
We use our last form of transport, a funicular back down from where we have had dinner and to a Ginjinha bar which is basically a “hole in the wall” bar that just serves a local cherry liqueur. Not finished yet, we are on our way to a cafe for a Pastel de Nata and a glass of port. It never stops!
We are done now, so take an Uber back to camp. We have done 11,000 steps and 12 floors of walking! We have seen a lot, tried lots of typical food and drink and enjoyed all of it.
Lisbon is a wonderful place and one that we will certainly come back to. We have hardly scratched the surface of this wonderfully, chaotic, beautiful place. Tomorrow we have to move on even though we don’t really have a plan. We’ll do that over coffee in the morning.
Sunday 26th of January 2025 (Lisbon to Evora – 82 miles )
Over coffee, we look at the options left for our final week. We were going to go to Nazere to see the famous huge waves but sadly, according to the local webcams, it’s not playing ball today. Shame. We have decided to head inland, go east and stay in the Roman town of Evora. It’s a cold damp morning, slightly chilly.
We set off and thread our way through the complicated and bumpy road network of Lisbon and get onto the motorway.
The rain is off and on all morning. The countryside does look rather good but would be better in the sunshine, which we have not seen for a while now. Oh, and it’s windy too. The clue to the weather is that the fields are a vibrant green.
We have acquired a fault and found that the left turn rear indicator at the back is not working. So when we get to the next campsite we will need to have a look a that.
We arrive at the campsite just outside of Evora. The plan is to get parked up and take a bus into town but discover that the bus doesn’t run on a Sunday, so we will use Uber for 4 euros each way later. It’s still raining, so Del checks out the indicator problem, and Hayley gets some laundry on. We have a damp towel situation brewing.
Fortunately, the indicator fault is not serious A dry or dodgy connection on the lamp bulkhead. For now, it’s working, but we’ll keep an eye on it over the next few days.
It’s a miserable day so we decide to stay on Jess and will stop in Evora on the way out tomorrow. So tonight we have an excellent dinner in with some good music to chill out to. A bit of a washout today, but we are lucky to be doing what we are doing.
Monday 27th of January 2025 (Evora to Caceres, Spain – 117 miles – Portugal to Spain)
We have finally seen the window of good weather close. Last night we had heavy rain and wind again. We had very little sleep, so we’re sluggish this morning. As we look out the window this morning, the campsite is a mud bath, and it’s still raining. The Spanish, for the first time, have named a storm, and it is the one that today is in the UK, storm Herminia. It is racing through the Iberian Peninsula and causing havoc.
Today we are moving to Caceres, a city in the province of Extremadura which is in the west of Spain, 100km or so from the Portuguese border. The city has an old part, but really old, we are looking forward to seeing it.
First, we think we might try and have a look at the town where we are staying, Evora. It’s supposed to be a very nice town and well worth a look. We pack up and do a full van service. Del manages to leave behind a small rubber mat that we use outside the van to stop trailing dirt into the van. We bought it on our first trip to Spain 6 years ago. Odd how you get attached to some things. We feel sad and miss it! We give up on looking at Evora, the roads are just dreadful, the signage leads us all over the place: dead-end here, no right turn there, it’s raining, and we just get fed up and give up.
The drive to Caseres is long and tiring, we don’t notice crossing the border into Spain. We have rain and wind all the way, and the roads are twisty in some parts. It’s a bit of a slog, but the scenery is nice, even in the rain. Lately, we have been looking at places and saying, “…it would look nice in the sun…” Oh well. We know where we would rather be…
Two hours later, we arrive at Camping Caseres. For 21 euros, we get a pitch but with a small twist. Each pitch has its own ‘outhouse‘ that has a shower, toilet and washbasin. Different.
We get settled in and set off to catch the bus to the town. A short walk to the bus stop and we are on a bus that only costs 1 euro 10 cents. The driver doesn’t mess about. He drives the bus like he’s in an F1 race, making Del giggle, we are positive that on some of the roundabouts we are on two wheels!
The city of Caceres is lovely, even though we get caught out in a massive fall of rain.
We have come during the afternoon lunch break, so everything is closed, too late for lunch and too early for dinner. No matter, we have a good look around and make our way to the old town, which is just fantastic. The old town was used as a location for Game of Thrones.
Being a damp, cold Monday afternoon, we seem to be the only ones wandering around this once fortified town, wandering around the old stone buildings and narrow streets. Wonderful. The sun has come out for a while as we decide that we have had enough and go in search of something to eat. It’s still too late and too early so we cut our losses and head for the bus stop and back to camp. We came to see what we wanted and after 3 and a bit miles of walking, we decided that we had had enough. Back on the F1 bus to camp, and by coincidence, it was the same bus driver, Max Verstappen, to drive us back (he gets about). He even recognises Del. In lightning speed, we arrive back where we started a few hours ago. It’s getting cold, so we decide to have dinner at the campsite restaurant. It’s nothing special or fancy but we really enjoy our simple Spanish dinner. Time to try out our ‘outhouse‘ shower. It’s quite a novelty to have a shower and toilet room on your pitch. It’s excellent. A nice hot shower. Del prepares the room, clears the way and showers first. Hayley next while Del gets a hot tea on and we settle in for the night. Despite the weather, we have had a good day. Tomorrow, we are heading for a two night stay in Salamanca. The forecast has a maximum temp of 5 degrees, 1 degree overnight, can’t wait…! Tuesday 28th of January 2025 (Caceres to Salamanca – 125 miles) We have woken up this morning to… surprise, surprise… sunshine…!!! and no wind… It won’t last though, the forecast for Salamanca is for rain and wind. We shall see. It’s also very cold there, -2 last night, and 6 during the day. A light breakfast, and we are off. It’s a good two-hour drive today and a bit of a climb to over 1000m, with snow on the mountains around us. It’s a fabulous drive though. The scenery is fantastic. When we get glimpses of the sun the countryside is beautiful, green and lush. A very nice drive. We stop at a restaurant just off the motorway and have a three-course lunch, a menu of the day, for 14 euros, three courses, bread, a drink and a coffee. Great. Full of food we set of for the last 45 minute push to the campsite which is south east of the city of Salamanca. The weather is changing all the time, sunny then rain, can’t make its mind up. We arrive at Camping Regio. It’s a little bit scruffy and the ground is chewed up in most parts, but we get a warm helpful welcome and told to pitch up wherever we like. We are not here for the campsite, we are here to see the city of Salamanca. The bus is easy from here, 20 minutes or so to the centre. We have a cup and tea and set off just before 5. It’s feels freezing, 5 degrees… A 20 minute bus ride later and we are in the centre of Salamanca. The city is just beautiful, one of the best we have seen yet. Salamanca is a university city and world famous. We arrive first at the Plaza Mayor. Wow! We thought Seville was impressive, but this is something else. It is so beautiful. Our walk takes us next to the cathedral which is actually two together, one built in the 12th/13th century and the other in the 16th. Sadly we are a bit late and the cathedral is closed to the public, so we will have to come back tomorrow. We have a good long walk outside the cathedrals and return to the old town and the main university. What strikes us most is that it’s so clean and tidy, with no litter, fag ends or squashed chewing gum. Why can’t everywhere be like this? It’s just perfect. We pop into a bar for a vermouth and wait for it to get dark so that we can see the old town lit up. It’s just as impressive at night as it is during the day. We nip back through the Plaza Mayor which again is just breathtaking. We have an hour beofre our bus back so we go into a bar and try two local tapas and a drink before making the 8:30 bus back to camp. It’s cold. We plan to come back tomorrow to look in the cathedral. The weather is forecasted to be a bit mucky tomorrow. Rain and wind. Wednesday 29th of January 2025 (Salamanca – Day 2) It’s always about the weather… This morning we have rain and strong winds which are predicted to get even stronger, so we sit it out in the van. Hayley does some research for the last few days of our trip while Del does some homework. After gusts of 60mph winds, we finally get a break in the weather and catch the bus from the campsite. Today we are going to the cathedral as we missed it yesterday, it closes at 4 pm. The main road where the bus stops is closed due to a strike by taxi drivers. They are on strike because of the high cost of insurance and repairs. Er… don’t we all suffer from that? The bus stops some way away from the normal place, the rain has started and we get a bit of a soaking on the way to the cathedral. 10 euros later we are inside one of the biggest and most impressive cathedrals we have ever seen. Built in the 16th century the cathedral is just immense. How these things got built back in the day just holds us in awe. It’s amazing. We have a good look around by following the small arrow which eventually leads us to a door that takes us into the cathedral next door, this one built in the 12th/13th century. Smaller than its next door neighbour but impressive all the same. Our ticket allows us entrance into a museum that holds walls of religious paintings and ornaments. It’s all rather good but we notice that it’s all about pain and suffering. None of the paintings ever show anyone smiling… It’s all about pain and death, some of the paintings are quite violent showing one guy getting skinned and another painting of a woman being beaten. Not for us. At the end of the museum you are led into a room that has small swivel cubes that you sit on and on the cube is a pair of VR glasses. Now these are amazing. You are given a 360 fly through both cathedrals. There were lots of ‘ooo’s’ and ‘ahhhs’ from us as we sat there swivelling around on our cubes, heads nodding up and down. What a sight, but it was fantastic. Next, there is a small immersive room with 360 projection onto walls showing an animation of the city of Salamanca being built along with its famous cathedrals. Next we buy a ticket to climb the steps up to the bell tower of the cathedral. There are stops on the way that allow you to walk outside along some of the cathedral roofs, then back into the cathedral along a small walkway that runs along the inside high up in the ‘new’ cathedral. What a view. Finally up in the bell tower. We miss the three o’clock chimes but we get the 15 minutes past. Hayley is already a bit nervous at the height we are at, and jumps out of her skin when the bells toll. The views up here are wonderful. We go back down the precarious spiral staircases and we feel we need a stiff drink and something to eat, so we are on the hunt for a ‘menu of the day’. For 16 euros each we find a place doing a three-course lunch, drinks and coffee. We have the same, a lentil stew followed by a thin frying steak and potatoes with pepper. A fantastic lunch with great service from a typical Spanish waiter. They are just good at it, they make it a career. Quick, efficient, not always over friendly, but you are not there to be mates. We like it… Back for a walk into the Plaza Mayor. We miss our bus so we go back and have a drink while we kill time for the next one. Finally, the weather has calmed down. No rain, no wind, clear skies, but it’s quite cold. We finish the planning for the rest of the trip. Tomorrow we are going to Valladolid, the capital of Spanish tapas. It’s a lovely city, so we are looking forward to visiting again. We have enjoyed our time here in Salamanca. It really is one of Spain’s finest cities and Spain has a lot of them…! We will come back again. Del wants to move here! There is a lot to see and it has a very safe comfortable feeling that is difficult to describe. It just feels “nice” to walk around. Thursday 30th of January 2025 (Salamanca to Valladolid – 75 miles) We have been to Valladolid before, out of curiosity. Everything we picked up in Spain was ‘Made in Valladolid‘, it has a big industrial space, but the centre of the city is fantastic, with it wonderful eateries and the park, so it’s worth another visit. We set off in sunny but cold weather. It’s a short drive today, an hour and 15 minutes. We stop off for coffee and then it’s non stop to Valladolid. There’s plenty of space for us in the motorhome parking area. For 5 euros you get a spot for 24 hours, no electricity, but you can empty the grey tank and change the toilet. Once we get settled in we set off for a walk in the park. Hayley has a bag of nuts to feed the tame squirrels that roam the park. It takes a while but we’re able to feed two of them. The park is lovely, a bit wild for a city park, but it is looked after. The last time we were here it was a lovely warm sunny day. Today it’s much cooler and the trees are bare but it’s still a lovely walk. Valladolid has won many competitions for its tapas, the small dish that is given with a drink. They used to be given free, the small dish with a small nibble of food would be placed on the top of your drink. Now, it’s a big thing. We have learnt never to go into a bar that calls itself a “Tapas Bar”. Tourist trap, guaranteed. There is no such thing as a tapas bar, just a bar. We try one that from the outside looks like nothing really, but inside the small bar it’s packed. We are lucky to get a recently vacated table by the bar. We order three delicious tapas from a very friendly lady called Julia. This place is rated as the best for tapas on Trip Advisor, and because we are in the cooler season, we are the only ‘foreigners‘ in the bar. Another short walk and we try out a Michelin-rated restaurant that does a small selection of tapas. Hayley has a small red wine and Del a 0.0 ‘Tostada’, a non-alcoholic beer which is excellent, the best of the non-alcoholic beers Del has tried. It turns out that currently, 16% of the beers served in Spain are non-alcoholic, so they must be good. The Spanish like their beer. There is a cathedral here, which is a little more ‘modern’ than most we have seen, but nice to walk through, even though half of it is taken over by a paid art exposition. It’s late in the afternoon, so we slowly head back to Jess via the Plaza Mayor and have chocolate con churros. We dive into a Jamoneria to buy some Spanish ham and a stick of bread, just in case we get the munchies later on this evening. Back at Jess. We settle in for the night and tackle one of our escape room games, a new one… We didn’t do well. Friday 31st of January 2025 (Valladolid to Cobreces – 153 miles) It’s a beautiful morning in Valladolid. Clear blue skies, cold but lovely. We have a quick breakfast, get cleaned up, and are off and on our way north towards Santander for our last night in Spain. We are heading towards Cobreces and a small aire there that has everything and is situated in a small town. The drive today is fantastic. The countryside as we get further north is stunning with green rolling hills and small villages in valleys, the lovely sunny weather is helping of course. In the distance, we can see the Picos de Europa which are covered in snow and from the motorway look amazing. The Spanish motorways are fabulous, you get the odd bit of rough road, but in general, they are smooth and well maintained with plenty of excellent service stations along the way. We arrive at Cobreces and get settled into our pitch with a nice view of the town with its two spire church. It’s still sunny and bright, but it’s warmed up enough for us to go for a walk on a 2km round trip to the beach which is situated in a small bay. We stand and look out to sea. Tomorrow we will be on this sea heading home. Back at Jess we take advantage of the sun and sit out and have a beer and a chat, it’s the best weather we have had in a while so we soak it up as much as we can. An English van, which is on the same ferry has pulled up next to us with their dog, Hugo. Nice couple, stories are exchanged for a while before we shower have dinner and settle in for the night. It’s cold outside. We will be up a bit early tomorrow to do a shop and get ourselves ready for the 32 hour crossing back to Portsmouth. Saturday 1st of February 2025 (Cobreces to Santander – 25 miles) Today is our last day in Spain it’s the last day of this trip. The next few days will be spent getting home from Santander to East Cowes on two ferries. The first is the Brittany Ferries from Santander to Portsmouth, the next from Portsmouth to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight. We are up early this morning. It rained heavily in the night, which surprised us as yesterday was such a lovely day. We need to do a bit of a de-prep of Jess and stop at a supermarket to get a few goodies to take on the ferry with us. We are in the line for the ferry early, our ship is the ‘Santoña’, which is only 2 years old. We are directed on and into the belly of the boat and parked up, two floors up, and we are in our cabin, which is small but cosy and has everything we need for the 32-hour trip. We have an outside cabin, which is what Hayley wanted and quite right, too. There has been some really bad weather on the Bay of Biscay recently. We met a couple who said that the waves were anywhere between 8 and 11 meters. Rough. The journey was so rough that passengers were confined to quarters, in other words, ‘stay in your cabin’, and their van got damaged by another sliding and hitting it. Hayley has emetophobia, a phobia of vomit! (Nice) Many people suffer from it and because of the reports of a possible rough sea (and the prospect of other people getting seasick), she bought a cheap flight from Santander to Stansted for 17 quid…. 17 quid…!!!! It costs 28 to go from Southampton to London on the train… For that price it was worth having it on the back burner in case the weather kicked up again, she could make the decision on the morning of departure. During the moring Hayley has been watching the weather and decided that it will be ok for her to go on the ferry with a maximum predicted wave height, rounding the corner of France, of 4m. Once we get settled into our cabin we have a walk through the ship and go out on deck to watch our departure. We have had some heavy rain again this morning and the sky is heavy with more as we depart. We watch Spain disappear into the distance, make our way back to our cabin, and go to the restaurant for a light lunch. We are both tired this morning as we didn’t get the best night’s sleep. After lunch, it’s back to the cabin. We try to watch the film Dunkirk but only get 45 minutes in, so we try to sleep, which we both manage for a bit anyway. After a sunset aperitif, dinner tonight is in a very pleasant restaurant on board. A nice dining room, good service, and very well-presented, the dishes were quite tasty. Helped along with a small glass of red. Still tired we go back to the cabin and try and watch some more of Dunkirk, we didn’t make it to the end. Time for a shower and bed… We are done! Sunday 2nd of February 2025 (Santander to Home, UK – 603 miles) We were in bed by 9 pm last night. Del had the best sleep he’d had in months, possibly a year! As for Hayley, it was not so good, but she tried. She experienced the turn from the Bay of Biscay into the English Channel at Brest, France. By all accounts, there was quite a long rolling swell as we turned the corner but quite comfortable. She did get some sleep from about 6 until 9 then we get up and set off for breakfast. It’s a lovely day, blue skies but with a force 5 wind. The crossing is so smooth and gentle. Breakfast done we shower and sit in the public area and try one of our escape room games but halfway through we realise we need internet for the game to work. We give up and decide to try again another day. We get our coats on and go for a bracing walk around the outer decks. It’s breezy but lovely. With 8 hours to go, we retire to our room and finally finished the film Dunkirk, followed by an Indiana Jones film. Three hours remaining and we go for a light dinner. We are to arrive in Portsmouth at 8 pm but we have to wait until 10:30 for our ferry home. It will be midnight before we are home. 32 hours later we are docking at Portmouth, on time at 8 pm. It takes a while to off-load everyone, but we have eough time to do the short drive to the Wightlink Ferry and home. Just before midnight we are home. Jess is parked up overnight outside the flat with Del staying on board as we can’t get access to the van storage until the morning, but we are finally home. Safe. We have enjoyed this trip very much. We have visited some places from previous trips that we enjoyed, but we have also visited some new and interesting places this time around. Del managed to squeeze some work in to keep the van tokens coming in. A fabulous 7 weeks out in Europe. Here are a few stats from the trip: Miles driven – 2974 Sailing miles – 723 Tolls – 214 euros (mainly in France) Diesel – 533 euros (£444) Every 6 and three-quarter miles cost us £1.00 (approx.) We are already looking forward to our next trip in the spring/summer. It will be another long trip where we hope to do some of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. We have looked at a map and the time we have available and planning has already started, Again we thank all of you who have been following our journey and reading our daily ramblings. We are not doing anything special here, this is just our travel diary that we are sharing with friends and family. We enjoy reading past trips and reading your comments, we love hearing from you. We would like to wish you all good health and safe travels wherever you go. To travel is to live and we are trying to do as much as we can while we can. Best wishes and lots of love. Del, H and Jess…
Hello John. Great to hear from you. Yes Lisbon is a place we will go to again. It's a bit…