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.  

A little secret ......

As we are about to leave for Spain and will have no internet access for a while, I thought you should know that this is how Jean does the Blog!  In her leopard skin patterned fleecy jump suit with accompanying pink clogs.....

When she finds out about this posting I will no doubt be murdered, so farewell dear world!

Au revoir à la France

So, we are travelling again tomorrow towards Spain and eventually Portugal for the winter.  Our last few days have been very pleasant here, quite mild and sunny with the odd lunch taken on our terrace.  We did try to take a last meal in a nearby village but it seems most are closed for the whole of the Christmas period only re-opening after we have left. 

Sweet Montbazilac wine.

Market days are still important though giving the locals a good chance to catch up with friends in the nearby cafes.
 

Truffles anyone?

We are making the most of the internet connection here before setting off, not knowing how long it will be before we find Wifi again on our travels. 

Happy New Year to all our friends and family.

Our route so far ………  now being continued!

A walk with friends

A few days of magnificent weather before predicted rain, sent us out with our new visitors Steve and Cathy, to make the most of the weather.  All wrapped up, we made a short stroll in the sun up to Pardaillon, our nearest village. 

The next day we woke up to a heavy frost and minus 5° but we were determined to get out again.  There are a number of marked walks in the area so we chose one of these around Loubès-Bernac  where we knew these was a Bar/Restaurant  incase the chill set in.  On the way, we passed a fairly remote building all shuttered up but advertising bread “cooked on a wood fire”.  Upon investigation and per the note pinned to the door, we decided they were open so we peered in and gingerly stepped inside.  In the gloom we found four loaves and some rolls propped up on a table together with a weighing machine which calculated the cost of each loaf.  How quaint and totally unlike anything one would see in the UK.   We left our money for the loaf we had chosen and shut the door again seeing no-one else all the time we were there.  The loaf was very good by the way!

Church in Loubès-Bernac

The walk we had chosen wasn’t very long but had superb views and many old windmills along the route.  We even found a grand log of wood along the path perfect for our woodburning stove - Cathy and I took turns in carrying it.  Once we arrived back in the village Les offered to put the log back in the car while we strolled around to check out the Lavoir and other village relics.  The one pictured below, which we had guessed to be either a well or a horse-shoeing contraption turned out to be a bullock castrating machine !!! ….ouch.   

As it was now lunchtime we decided to go into the restaurant “Chez Nelly”  for the set menu joining around 16 workmen who were already ensconced around a large table and on their second course.  After a lovely four course meal with wine we staggered to the car only to find that our pilfered log had again been pilfered by someone else – what a cheek!     

In the evening we had a great time singing Christmas Carols in both French and English in the square in Eymet, and yes...... the free mulled wine was much appreciated. What a lovely day, I don’t think we could have fitted any more in, collapsing at home at around 8.30pm. 

December scenes

We are still able to go for some lovely walks and when the sun is shining it’s really quite warm. I have included here some of the lovely views and scenes near to our house.

Persimmon - Sharon fruit tree

Scarecrow!

Our house in the distance

Monteton Church 

Much to our surprise Christmas decorations and fairy lights are appearing in the towns and villages even in the smallest hamlets the square will have handmade decorations of some kind or another.  Baubles and tinsel are attached to fir trees which line the streets at road level, there’s not that much traffic but we can’t think these decorations will last that long being blown about with every car that passes.  Our own village is starting to look festive too with a few lights and garlands. These more upmarket decorations we found in Bergerac recently.