Blogs from Braganca, Northern, Portugal, Europe

Having received an invitation to attend Smart Travel 14 in Northeast Portugal is an honour, and I'm thrilled to be in the lovely city of Braganca with my generous hosts. Portugal is a country steeped in tradition with world class architecture, culture, gastronomy and wine, and the Northeast is home to the world famous port wine. There's so much on offer in this region the Portugese may just have a chance of civilising me! Everything travellers love about Western Europe is right here in the friendly Northeast, and my worldly hosts have left quite an impression. i suppose that's to be expected, as the Portugese ruled half the world during the height of the Portugese empire. So here I am, ensconced in Braganca and Mirandela for the duration of the event, and grateful for the opportunity. ... read more

Clarissa Tomtom let us down again as we tried to get away from the coastal area and on to the road East. It seemed to take an age to get through the little, all cobbled, roads of Estela and onto the main road we had been looking for. We found the road eventually which was not the route Bob had originally planned but had had to change as we were starting from a point lower down the coast because of our change of campsite. We were supposed to follow a picturesque route along the river but the route we took had few points of interest. We were to pass the medieval city of Guimaraes. We’ve been there before in 1995 on our honeymoon so I thought it might be nice to drive through or at least ... read more