Our first two weeks in Portugal

We stayed with my uncle John until Sunday January 20^th.  We had a nice time but the weather wasn’t too good with mainly cloudy days and occasional rain.  In fact the Saturday was awful with heavy rain and very strong winds.

He lives in a fairly remote detached bungalow, and although he has electricity, the sewage is a cesspit and they have no mains water.  They have a large underground water tank that they have filled (which they pay for) and it also collects rain water from their roof.  So when you run a basin of water to wash in it’s slightly brown.  Any drinking water has to be bought in bottles!

My uncles house

Parked in his garden

 They don’t have internet at their house and were using a local internet café which they had to pay for, but Jean recommended they try the local library.  They didn’t even know where it was, but once we found it they joined up immediately so they could have free use of internet (either on their computers or by wi-fi), access to DVDs and English library books. 

When we left them we headed east along the coast and are now on an aire near the Spanish border at a place called Manta Rota, behind the sand dunes with direct access to the beach.  For 4.5 Euro per night we get hardstanding, waste water and toilet disposal point, electricity for 3 hours per day and free wi-fi (which isn’t actually working at present due to upgrading).  It’s quite social with vans from all over Europe – mainly Germans, but also Dutch, Belgian, French and British.  We have made friends with an English couple - Wenda and Mike from Weymouth, and have been on a lovely walk along the coast and salt marshes this morning to a lovely small Portuguese village where we had coffee.  We are joining them in their van this evening to play some board games.  They have been telling us stories of the motorhome adventures – they even took their van to the United States and spent 6 months travelling around, plus they went to Tenerife, and countless trips around Europe.

Walking with Wenda and Mike

We have had mixed weather here, mainly sunshine and about 20 degrees in the day, but also some cloud and the odd shower.

We think we will be leaving here tomorrow and heading up to a nature reserve right on the Spanish border, after which we will start to slowly work our way west along the coast.  It seems there are plenty places to stop along the coast – some have to be paid for at a nominal cost (like this one) and many that are free.  The free ones usually have no water services so are OK for 2-3 nights.

We’ve now lost all the TV channels on the satellite (we were OK until about 50 miles from the coast) so it’s DVDs and books!  From what we’ve seen and heard on the news the weather in the UK has been pretty awful so we are glad we are down here in the warmer climate!

Over the border to Portugal

After travelling through Spain down to Badajoz we crossed the border almost without realising it – no “Welcome to Portugal” signs at all.  It seems most of Europe has a very relaxed view of borders unlike the UK.  Now we had to get the Portuguese phrase book out and start swotting up just to say a few words, the people don’t like the Spanish much and seem a bit affronted if we use the few Spanish words we know by mistake.  All quite confusing for our little brains!

The further south we travel the more wild flowers we see in and around the trees - the countryside is still green and beautiful but now with a carpet of yellow and white flowers. There are cork oak, eucalyptus and olive trees - brown cows, sheep and brown pigs graze underneath, making for a very pastoral scene. 

South of Castro Verde we climbed up over the last mountain range to Säo Bartolomeu de Messines and were surrounded by orange and lemon trees.  The almond blossom was also beginning to show.  Spring seems to have arrived early here and we don’t mind at all.

We will now spend a week with Les’s uncle, where he has plenty of room to park the van in his garden.  Then we will move on south to the coast and then further east as far as the Spanish border where we are told it’s quieter.  Our route since 1 January from the Gite in France to Portugal is below. 

Evora Moorish church tower

Female Peacock

in the Gardens in Evora

Stop the van - Guinea fowl crossing ! 

Northern Spain

What a surprise to us!  After leaving the incredibly built-up San Sebastiàn area, the mountains we came to were quite imposing in the grey light and it was only when we came nearer to Burgos we felt more “at home” with the country.  Maybe the rainy weather had something to do with it. 

Burgos

 

The countryside from Burgos to Caceres was constantly changing with only one dry and arid patch near Cuéllar.  Otherwise very green, undulating and really quite pleasant. 

The cities we visited gave the impression of life being lived rather than the “closed for lunch” feeling in some French towns.  

Council offices Palencia

  

The people are very smiley and friendly, well dressed and seem quite affluent, but perhaps it’s just this region of Spain hasn’t felt the economic downturn like the south.

However, evidence of overspend is everywhere on the road network with half finished roads to nowhere and road bridges with no road attached.  The ‘spaghetti junction’  type intersections had hardly any cars on them and one wonders if they were really required - unlike the long promised new A27 road near where we live.  We also saw large apartment blocks unoccupied and part finished.   

Salamanca Cathedral

All in all we liked this part of Spain and look forward to seeing the North Western area on our return journey.  Don't forget to check the diary sections for more details of our trip.