Back into Spain - Travelling to the north




Up on a Mirador in the National Parc - They are all standing by a steer drop "I'm not going up there"

 

Caceres (day 184 Spain)

Back in Spain again nice to be on decent roads for a change, it is a good drive to Caceres with some excellent tarmac, we arrived late on the camping aire and was full, so we parked adjacent on the coach park. We set up home and then walked into town up the narrow cobbled streets up to the large square, we spotted the White storks nesting in the church towers then headed for a local tapas bar to watch the bull fighting which is still very popular in this part of Spain. I don’t think we will be going to see a real bull fight it all seems a little one sided, I think the Christians had a better chance in the Roman Coliseum back in the day. Watching it on TV  is  mesmerizing with all the theatre and drama along with lots of blood. Caceres is in the image of a traditional Spanish town with narrow streets and balconied houses with their washing hanging out. Back at the van we met an English couple Bob & Patricia who let us share their connection to the free electric point, so free camping and free electric great, it’s amazing what lights your candle when you have been away for a few months.

Caceres

Caceres Old Town

Parque Nacional de Monfrague (day 186)

After a few days in Caceres we moved on toward Palencia but on the way we decided to stop in the Monfrague National Parc to view the Eagles and Vultures we had been told about, this point in the trip has been one of the highlights of the whole journey the photographs don’t do it justice, it’s the one time you wish you had a better camera or a decent pair of binoculars. As soon as we drove into the area of the national parc we were looking to the sky there were eagles soaring on the thermals everywhere we looked, I’ve never seen anything like it you can literally spend hours just staring up in the sky watching these fascinating birds flying, they make it look so easy, we also viewed them standing on the cliffs warming their wings before flight then they all take off together to go looking for a meal.




 'Twitching'

 

Eagles drying out there wings

They are really Eagles!

Palencia (day 189)

  Today we drove to Palencia we stopped for breakfast in Baños de Montemayor a pretty town with an alpine feel.  In Palencia we eventually found the Aire not before the Satnav took us thru a pedestrianized area first to a lot of head shaking from a bus driver.  The camp spot was very pleasant and we decided to go for a walk into town, we have still not got used to the siesta time where everywhere is shut for four hours “I’m not surprised Spain is almost bankrupt they are never open” Palencia is a typical working town situated along the river Carrion with a little known Cathederal, known for its snails - apparentley!.

Catching up with some old friends in Palencia

Donostia San Sebastian (day 191)

Today is a driving day, we drove 180km and arrived in San Sebastian at about lunchtime after an early start.  As we drove towards SS, we started to descend off the plains, it was a considerable drop down to the coast and felt abit like a roller coaster ride.  The weather improved quite a bit with temps of around 28ᵒ C and glorious sunshine. The camp spot was just behind the University with good parking places and clean facilities, after setting up we went for a walk, well it was siesta time again and we eventually found the beach, the promenade looks a little like an English Victorian seaside town. We walked to the old town which isn’t that old because the English burnt it down around 1813 and it wasn’t lager louts either. San Sebastian has a really relaxed feel about it and while we were there just outside the church we were treated to a demonstration of quality brass instruments.  Over the next couple of days we explored the town, walking along the promenade, chilled on the beach and went to Monte Urgull, where there is a mammoth figure of Christ and the Castillo de la Mota, it is a fair climb, but worth it for the views out to sea and back across the bay to the town.

The statute of Christ - looks like hes holding a cigarette!

Basilica de Santa Maria

Brass band in front of Church

Ol Town with the Monte Urgull in the background

Hondarriba (day 194)

Before heading off into France we decided to do a big shop, as Spain is a lot cheaper than France, so we put the nearest Lidl into the sat nav and drove off with our long shopping list.  After filling our baskets, we arrived at the checkout to “Bonjour”; we had foolishly driven into France to do our shopping, silly us.  Anyway we went back to Spain to visit Hondarriba, a beautiful walled town with a really good Parador, we did enquire about prices for the night, but decided it would really blow our budget. We stayed for lunch and then moved on to an aire at St Jean De Luz, for the night just over the French boarder.



The wall town of Hondarriba



Next stop - Portugal

We arrived in Portugal early Monday morning, the clocks change to English time once we crossed the river border, jumping back an hour.  First quick stop was Castro Marin just over the border, a town with a castle in it, and a camping aire, we had a quick look around and moved onto Villa Reale De Santa Antonia.  A frontier town along the Rio Guadiana, that was re-built in the 17^th Century after a tsunami.  It is a vibrant town, with plenty of shops and bars to keep us occupied considering the weather has been a little unsettled for the last few days.  We stayed at an aire situated on the old docklands area of the town.  First impressions; Portugal has a lovely traditional feel to it and has embraced the motor caravanning fraternity.



The Square at Villa Reale



Moving on we passed through Monte Gordo, then onto Manta Rota, a pretty little town on the coast with an aire, in summer a busy tourist resort, in winter very quiet – story goes that a couple of years ago the mayor ordered that all the motorhomes should be banned from the town, and then the local shopkeepers and restaurants’ were up in arms as they had lost their winter trade, and they covered up all the warning signs with plastic bags, the mayor rescinded his decision and set up an aire by the beach with all the facilities, and now it is full with many vans over the winter for only 4 euros a night and everyone is happy!!  After a couple of days we moved on to Santa Luzia on the outskirts of Tavira, a really pleasant village, on the estuary with cobbled streets and tiled walled houses, and a fresh fish market on the harbour, all the shops are hidden within the traditional narrow back streets of town.  Santa Luzia is "Capital do Polvo" in English "Octupus Capital, which is there local speciality, we sampled the local octupus at restuarant on the front.  We stayed here a couple of days, cycling to Tavira for a day.

Octupus Restaurant at Santa Luzia

Just a comment from Si “the driver” the Portuguese along with the Spaniards seemed to have taken their driven test with the “stevie wonder school of motoring”.

Olhoa Market

From Santa Luzia we travelled down the coast, to look at a stop in Olhoa, we found the camping stop, at the side of the Port, we decided to have a look at the town and discovered that there was a busy Saturday market on by the Estuary, we parked up and went to stock up on supplies. It was a busy and vibrant market with plenty of fruit and veg stalls, along with numerous ladies selling the shellfish and snails.  Si practiced his Portuguese on the old lady stall holders, they are more forgiving with our poor language skills we found a small café & ordered coffee and Portuguese tart to celebrate a sunny day, there hasn’t been so many since we came over the border at the beginning of April.

 

"I better check the change"!!

Coffee and Cake time

Gale Beach

We didn’t stay in Olhoa, but found a lovely aire near Gale beach, just passed Albuferia, and camped there for the Easter weekend.  The owners of the aire were very friendly and offered us an Easter cake, which had a hardboiled egg (still in its shell) inside it, nice gesture, but we ended up giving it to the birds.  During our stay we visited the beach several times and even ventured into the ocean, the first time since or trip began – it was freezing.

Gale Beach

Tradional wash House at Paderne

Leaving Gale Beach and saying our goodbyes to both old and new friends we had met, we drove a little inland to Paderne, a small village with a natural spring ‘font’ and a traditional washhouse – where the locals still come to wash their smalls, and we managed to capture this on camera, although she was a little shy!!



Si washing his "bigs" at the Padern wash-house



Over the next week, we followed the coastal road along the Algarve, stopping at Portimao, Praia de Rocha, Alvor, visiting one of the many Barragems at Bravour and continuing to  Lagos, Boca de Rio, Praia de Luz and finally arriving at the Sagres the most south westerly point of Europe. Over the past week the weather had been very changeable, sometimes grey, raining, then sunny, but always a strong wind, this is normal for this time of year.  Sagres is a surfing resort, but it was even too windy for the surfers. 



Beautiful Beach at Praia de Rocha



Praia de Luz

Barragem at Bravour

The Fort at Sagres - "it blow me away"

 Silves

After reaching the farthest point in the Algarve, we decided to do an about turn and travel inland for the remaining of our time in Portugal.  We arrived at Silves, a beautiful fortress town with an ancient Moorish castle dominating the skyline. Silves was known as the Kingdom of the Algarve, The area around Silves is the largest producer of Oranges in all of Portugal, most of the town was rebuilt after the great earthquake of 1755. Silves has a very relaxed and welcoming feel to it.  We camped in the car park next to the sports complex, by the river, after exploring the town; we went for a swim in the pool. 



Lovely Square in Silves



A square in the old town of Silves

     We have noticed that there are a lot of Storks nesting in Silves, on some very strange places and everywhere you look they have taken up residence even on the dead palm tree stumps. We have found out that the White Stork at one time was on the endangered list, but the numbers are back up, after electricity companies have made their pylons more Stork friendly, and they have decided to stay in Portugal for the winter instead of migrating to Africa.

Stork making its nest on an dead palm tree by the river

Stork by the local supermarket

Stork in the centre of the old town

 Before leaving Portugal, we wanted to try some of the traditional food and walked around town looking for a popular spot to eat one lunchtime. We came across a restaurant on the main road thru town opposite the old roman bridge called Churrasquiera, we had a very substantial meal of Peri peri chicken & chips, salad, bread, olives, cheese’s  and a pudding of orange segments with cinnamon and almonds along with a litre of white wine all for 19 euros (£17) for us  both. As you are eating, if you look up you can see the housemartins nesting above your head.



Si's favourite eatingestablishment (the dogs got no chance of scraps with Si around)



The next day we  went exploring on the bikes and came upon a campsite, a short distance from town, in a peaceful location, amongst the orange groves and along the salt water river that flows from Portimao to Silves, for only 5 euros including electric and showers, and an added bonus, there was a bar with free wifi, just down the road - a little three star gem.

Jo catching up on the blog, by the river at camping Silves

Alcoutim (day 177)

Leaving Silves we decided to make the longish journey to Castro Marim, this is the first town we stopped at on our arrival into Portugal.  Stopping here for lunch of Gazpacho & bread,  and then driving on up to an aire overlooking the town at Alcoutim, on the Rio Guadiana. We strolled down to the river and viewed the town on the Spanish side of Sanlucar de Guadiana. There is a little boat that goes across twice a day and we can hear the church bells chiming on the Spanish times being an hour later than Portugal. 

Sanlucar de Guadiana in Spain

 We passed through Mertola, on our way to Mino De Sao Dimingos, the aire was in a lovely position, laid out on a peninsular, by the side of the Barragam de Tapada Grande.   A really traditional Portuguese town close by, with what we have since found out could be apparently the oldest mine in the world dating back more than 4000 years.  Hot showers in the town square were great possibly a throwback from the mining days, but you did have to bring your own shower head or put your finger over the end to spray the water over yourself. One of our best places to stay so far (4 stars)

The town of Mertola

Our camp spot in Mino

Looking back onto the aire

Monsaraz (day 181)

We stopped overnight at Monsaraz, a fairy tale walled village with a delightful medieval atmosphere. It was originally fortified by the Knights Templar.  Looking out from the Castle you have amazing views of the surrounding landscapes. Looking into the castle grounds from the tower you can see the old bull ring.



A view of the lakes from Monsaraz



Castle at Monsaraz

Castelo De Vide (day 182)

We set off for Castelo de Vide along the planned road, it’s worth a note about the roads in Portugal at this point. The roads along the coast of the Algarve are just wide enough, but are in poor condition and the roads heading north along the river Guadiana are perfect for your little two seater sports car, but rubbish for a campervan with a passing articulated waggon you have to step off the black stuff and onto, no not the pavement they don’t exist just Roman style block paving, could even be from the Roman times sometimes they feel like a cobbled street with a lick of tarmac over the top, it becomes very expensive if you clip your mirror. I think the Portuguese roads could do with an extra inch either side….”.couldn’t we all”.  We stayed here a couple of days, parking behind the sports centre, it is a pretty town, with a well preserved old town, we watched the celebrations for day on the town square.

  



Old Town



Town Square

Barragem Povo (day 183)

We travelled to a Barragem (dam to a reservoir) we were told was a great place to camp, the weather wasn’t very good and it was I bit sodden but would be a great place to stay with better weather, so we travelled on deciding to make it a big journey today ending up in Caceres in Spain a total of 150km passing thru Nisa, Castelo de Vide, Marvao and then onto Caceres.  We had a wonderful time in Portugal despite the weather, as the Portuguese say "April is a month of a thousand tears"