Onto Portugal!

When I’d researched the drive to Porto a couple of days previously, it appeared to be about 150 miles, or about 3 hours away. When I checked it on Monday morning however it had moved a further 70 miles to the west! ( or perhaps it was me….) So, we were a bit late setting off. That said, it was an easy journey, as once we hit the motorway it was pretty much the same road all the way. During our conversations with a number of more experienced neighbours on the two previous sites, we’d gleaned that the Portuguese road tolls were extortionate, but that many could be avoided as they required you to register beforehand, and if you failed to do so they couldn’t chase you up as they weren’t able to access the UK registration database. Apparently it was something to do with the EU having funded the roads, and Portugal having been told they couldn’t impose tolls on these roads, even though it was to help them repay their debts to the European Central Bank following the Financial crash. Anyway, we decided to register and pay up. We then learned that it was only larger vehicles that were charged more, and cars (even towing caravans) were just a few euros. Everyone who’d given us the advice had been driving a motorhome, so were paying the same as wagons. One up for the caravaners eh? We arrived around 4 pm local time (Portugal are on the same time zone as the UK) registered at the campsite, and settled down for a quiet evening in. We had a bit of disturbed night, as the campsite is situated under eucalyptus and pine trees, which at the moment are shedding seeds – the size of acorns – which sound like bullets when they land on the caravan roof! Tuesday morning we caught the bus into Porto. The bus service here is really good – a bit like London where you pay one price for a zone, and they also have something like an Oyster card which we bought at tourist information. The journey in was an experience though with the large single decker going at a rate of knots down streets only just wider than the bus, with parked cars, and buildings right up to the edge of the road, some of which bore the scars of earlier misjudgements! Porto is quite a busy city, with lots of fast moving traffic, and difficult to find road names. We spent much of the day sitting in cafes watching the world go by and drinking wine. I’ve spent less productive days, honest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t stay all day as we’re booked to stay here for a week, so took the bus back to the site mid afternoon and went for a bike ride. Wednesday we decided to have a day off and go to the beach as the forecast was good, and so we had a leisurely start, and then cycled off to the beach, about half a mile away, where we had the whole place to ourselves, as you’ll see from the photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it got a bit hot, we had lunch at a beach bar and then back to the site for a bit of housekeeping, and to christen Ros’s George Foreman grill. Sites in Portugal are few and far between, and the standards are pretty basic. This is one of the better ones apparently, but if that is the case then I’d hate to see one of the poor ones! For example, their idea of cleaning the toilet block is to hose everything down (we think about once a week, whether it needs it or not!) and then to sweep the water out of the door. I did spot a single bathroom cleaner spray, but that remained outside the block in a shopping trolley and clearly was only to be used in an absolute emergency! In addition they have decided to boil their guests who decide to use the showers, ensuring 3rd degree burns if you attempt to actually get under the stream of water. There’s no facility to adjust the temperature, so you either fry or go without! They also adopt an approach to toilet paper that appears to becoming more of a trend (we’ve seen it now at 2 of the 3 sites so far) and that’s to provide a single large toilet roll dispenser outside all the cubicles for everyone to share. I can’t be sure, but I suspect that they want you to take what you need before entering a cubicle as I can’t imagine they’d want everyone popping out halfway through with trousers round their ankles! However, this in itself presents you with a dilemma in that you have to decide beforehand how much you’re going to need. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m never really sure how much it’s going to take beforehand. Do I overcompensate just to be safe, and what if I still underestimate and the ‘trousers round your ankles’ gauntlet has to be run after all? Clearly they want you to take your own, which is what I’ve decided to do, as it’s much less stressful!

Today we took the bus back into Porto first thing, bought tickets for a train journey to the Douro Valley on Saturday and had a lovely breakfast of coffee, cakes and croissants.

Porto’s most famous cake is the Pasteis de Nata, a custard tart with crisp flaky pastry and it is absolutely delicious! We then caught one of the open topped buses for a city tour to get our bearings. It actually took us 45 minutes to track one down that we could hop onto – they always appeared to be just out of reach, and as we arrived pulled away, but eventfully we nailed down a bus stop and got on board. It’s a great way of seeing the city, and you get a commentary to boot, so a good way to learn about what you’re seeing too. The only downside is that the commentary is interspersed with a soundtrack of a lady singing in Portuguese – she manages to make every track sound the same, a bit monotonous after an hour or so!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent most of the rest of the day on the two tours, with a break for lunch where Grant tried the Francesinho sandwich (another Porto special which consisted of an all day breakfast between two slices of bread, wrapped in cheese and then covered in tomato sauce) and a stroll by the river, and then we caught the bus back.