Home at Last through Spain

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And Through Portugal

We had a lovely time driving slowly up through Portugal with some lovely and some not so lovely weather. We managed to pop into Lisbon when it was wet and it doesn't matter then. It is still a great place for a short break.

We discovered history in Mafre, Tomar and Obidos. And some religiosity in Fatima where we got wet. After that we moved further north to a small campsite near Oliveira dos Hopital past Coimbra where we cycled and stayed for a few days before finding Braganca which was beguiling, a real find. This was our last stop in Portugal and we took to the hills to find Spain.

Asturias and Cantabria, north Spain

But we were a bit heavy perhaps as we overheated our breaks coming down into Spain. We waited over half an hour for them to cool down. Ooops. But we liked the towns we visited including Leon where Lesley got lost looking for the tourist office. She begged a phone from a passerby remembering her own phone number so as to phone Michael waiting in the motorhome on a loading bay. Still the sites were good.

We wild camped the whole way to Bilbao stopping off at San Vincente de la Barguera where they were in the middle of an annual festival of the sea when they take a statue of the Virgin onto a fishing boat and take her out to the ocean and get her tossed about on the waves. They then return her to a sanctuary for another year. A lovely couple of days interupted by the music shows each evening which did not stop till 4.30 am.

The 30 hour ferry to Portsmouth did not go quite to plan with 6m waves from two directions causing the ferry to go slow and for it to slam into the waves all night. Lesley took to her bed! But the channel was nice and calm.

And so home. But via Guildford to see Anne, Graham and Ben who remembered us with a smile.

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