The west coast of Portugal

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HI all
Well we've been in Portugal for over 3 weeks now, here's were we've been so far.

Thursday 14th October
Our first stop was just over the border at a site in Caminha and as the name suggests it is on the banks of the Minha river, from the empty beach we looked north across the estuary and back into Spain from where we had just come, it was literally a stones throw away. The site was run by a company called Orbitur who run around 20 sites along the coast of Portugal, more details to come on them later, the site was to a decent standard and next to the beach. We spent 2 days here, again on the beach and in the sea and having the locals watch us thinking are they stupid it's October! and we wandered around the small charming town as usual and ate out at a restaurant in town on the second night, we had to wait for over an hour for the place to open, then realised that Portugal were 1 hour behind Spain, we hadn't even noticed for nearly 2 days!!! so we put our clocks back and gained an hour that night. The lamb roast in the restaurant was spot on.
Our next stop was just down the coast at Viano de Castelo at another Orbitur site, similar layout and facilities to the one at Caminha.

Here's a tip to anyone thinking of a campervan or motorhome trip to Portugal in late season, the Orbitur sites are good value and are mostly open all season, they are mainly on the beaches all the way down the coast of Portugal and not that far apart so easy to drive from one to the next and you don't need to book, see www.orbitur.pt for details.
Viano was a nice place, a nice marina and a few plaza's with cafe bars, we cycled in for tea and had massive ice creams afterwards.

For the next few days we stayed at a site 15km outside Povoa de Varzim, too far to cycle to town so we stayed on the site and enjoyed the sunny days and strolled on the deserted beach. As we travelled south along the coast roads we came across some very poor quality roads, een the main roads had massive pot holes but the worst were the local roads they use cobbles as the main road cover, not good in a motorhome, this was true of the next stop off Lavra, all the streets were cobbled and were ridiculously bumpy. The Portuguese obviously don't spend that much on roads but they have invested heavily in the beaches and access to them, almost along the whole coast new decked walkways have been installed and most of the beaches tidied up and cleaned regularly.
We planned to stay a while around Porto and the site at Lavra had a bus straight to Porto's centre for just over 1 euro each for a 10km journey so it was a great base. The beach here was good and Dan got some good skim boarding practice in, he even got me skim boarding the next day (see youtube for skim boarding vids). The bar at this site was open and even had a TV so it was a couple of nights of European football with a few beers.
We got the bus into Porto on the Friday and found Porto very interesting city, with it's tight busy streets you can take a nice stroll down from the Torre Dos Clerigos down the hill to the Douro rivers edge in the Ribeira, Porto's oldest district where from the north riverside you look across south to Vila Nova de Gaia where all the port houses are still based, lots of these were established by the British back in the 18th century, Croft, Cockburn and Sandeman just some of them, (Port is how Portugal got it's name), in fact the Brits have had quite a big part to play in Portugal's history, the half English Prince Henry the Navigator is one of Portugal's favourite sons, he set up the school of navigation that lead to Portugal discovering many new sea routes around the globe and in the 19th century our Duke of Wellington had a hand in forcing Napoleon out of Portugal and Spain by reorganizing the Portuguese army. We wandered all the way from the Riberia to the mouth of the Douro passing a maze of narrow streets and alleyways and under the Ponte Dom Luis 1 brdige and finally down to Foz on the sea front. We stopped here a while and had another game of mini golf, we thought we played quite a bit of mini golf but on this course we came across 3 old blokes who were proper geeks, they had their own selection of around 30 golf balls in their own carry cases and were practising for ages on each hole!! Is there a mini golf tournament somewhere???We took the old tram back into the city centre and caught the bus back to site, on the bus route home we passed a massive chemical site on the sea front at Matosinhos, what a place to put it, oh the memories of BP Saltend...
We had another quiet day in Lavra then we moved south of Porto to a small seaside resort called Madelena. It was in Madelena that we decided not to cycle on Portuguese roads anymore as they clearly don't have any consideration for cyclists, they don't have road markings or sign posts and they overtake on any street at any opportunity, we nearly got wiped out several times that afternoon.
Monday 25th October and it was into Porto again, on the bus at 6pm rush hour and this time the route took the bus through villages with the narrowest of roads with the smallest of gaps between houses and at stupid speeds around blind corners, we were glad to get off. The reason for Porto again was to watch a football match at Porto's Estadio Do Dragao, we took the metro straight to the stadium, got a ticket at 15 euros each and took our seats with all the Porto fans. Porto have a great history having won the Portuguese league on numerous occasions, also the Uefa cup and back in 2004 under Jose Mourinho the Champions league and the stadium certainly is top class. Porto played some quality stuff and beat Leiria 5 v 1 with the Hulk scoring twice (see video). We decided to take the taxi back and not risk the bus journey again.

Leaving the Porto area after 6 days we took the coast road again (and avoided the pot holes) and passed by the city of Aviero and onto a site at Vagueira near Vagos. Again an almost empty site but we met a British couple who were on their way to Spain for the winter but apart from them no one was around. We cycled (on the path) to the beach and again the locals watched on in their winter coats as we hit the surf, the sand here was perfect, clean and golden. After a second day relaxing again in the warm sun we packed up and set off towards Figueira de Foz, we passed through many small towns and villages and stopped a few times to check out the local shops (it's always worth a look around) we crossed over the 2 rivers and onto the site in Gala south of F de Foz. Another stroll on another deserted beach and a few games of football in the hot sun that afternoon but by nightfall the weather had changed, the forecast was for 3 days of heavy rain and boy did it rain! There wasn't a lot we could do in the very heavy showers apart from catch up on emails etc so we decided to move on the next day and head for Nazarre. Unfortunately the site was shut (no explanation) so we kept going and found ourselves in Foz Do Arelho, the weather was still bad so between showers we checked out the town and went down to the beach where the waves where the biggest we'd seen and the wind whipped up the sand into a blizzard so no sun bathing today so we got cabined up and watched a couple of dvd's.

Monday 1st November (November already, we've been on the road more than 3 months!!!) we left Arelho and went south on the toll road into Lisbon, our first stop was the Estadio de Luz (The Stadium of Light) Benfica's home ground to buy tickets for their game against Olympique Lyonnais. We bought tickets and visited the clubs superstore before heading to Lisbons municipal campsite just 10 mins away. Why every city in England doesn't have a municipal site is beyond me, they bring in so many visitors to the city centre. This site was on the western side of town next to the Monsanto park area and within walking distance of a large shopping complex so we wandered across had tea and picked up a few provisions, on the way back we came across a store called Decathlon which was massive pretty much sells everything to do with sport, we ended up buying allsorts from there.
The next day was the football game so we made a day of it and went to the Colombo complex which is across the road from Benfica's ground, it has a fun centre for kids, shops and eating places, we went on the funfair, played 10 pin bowling, shopped and ate then went across to the ground well before kick off. As we were in early we got some great pictures of the stadium, this was better than Porto's ground and the atmosphere equally electric (the Portuguese certainly get animated during a game). As Benfica are nicknamed the Eagles just before the kick off a golden eagle is brought in and flies around the stadium and the fans chant something to it, the game itself was great a 4 v 3 victory to Benfica and top quality football on show. 13 goals in 2 games we definitely chose well. After a quiet chill out and relax day (with a little bit of cleaning) we headed for Lisbon centre. The bus went straight to the Placa da Figueira and we jumped onto the Lisbon sightseeing bus from here, we like the sightseeing buses as we like to see the whole of the city from the bus then decide where to look more closely, so off we set to the eastern side of the city and to the area where expo 98 was held, from there we circled around the north of the city, both these areas have a very modern look and feel to them, then back into the centre where we went to The Hard Rock Cafe Lisboa our third Hard Rock of the trip (Amsterdam and Paris), the kids like collecting the t-shirts, it's a bit expensive but the ribs are well worth it. We then caught the bus out west to the Belem area of the city, this route was through the old parts of the city and much like Porto had very narrow streets and alleyways but it looks much cleaner and better presented than Porto. Belem is an area very much associated with the sea and is a very affluent area with lovely villas and houses, there are many things to do in this area, much like the rest of Lisbon really. The bus route had shown us what we wanted to do so the next day it was back into the centre and on the bus to the Expo site and a visit to the Oceanario (Aquarium), touted as the biggest in Europe it didn't look much different to The Deep in Hull with many similar species on display, what was better was the layout with viewing areas for the main 2 tanks at every turn and with it being fairly quiet we could browse as long as we wanted. After the Oceanario we took the Teleferico cable car along the Tejo river front to the tallest building in Lisbon the Torre Vasco De Gama and back, with great views of the eastern part of the city, the river and the Ponte Vasco De Gama it was good trip. After lunch at the nearby Vasco De Gama complex (Vasco is very popular round these parts) we got back on the bus and headed for the zoo. Most people have mixed feelings about zoo's (they shouldn't keep them locked up/but it's nice to see them, sort of thing) well kids love em and it was Harrys first zoo, we spent the rest of the day here until sundown then headed back to site.

Saturday and Sunday were spent recharging our batteries and doing the washing etc, we said goodbye to a British couple we'd spoke to on the site, they actually travelled most of the year and wrote for MMM magazine and we caught up on emails again sat outside the bar in glorious sunshine along with others from the site, this site was actually quite busy, well it is the capital city.

Monday was to be our last full day in the capital and it was my turn to chose, so I lined up a couple of walks around the old districts of the city centre (oh the kids were looking forward to that!). Straight off the bus and up the Elevador da Gloria (tram) and we were into the Chiado and Bairro Alto areas of the city. These areas have become the ritzy areas for shops and cafes using the old buildings well and keeping the placa's tidy as places for people to sit and soak up the sun (not today it was cloudy), you can spend quite a lot of time around here shopping, eating and wandering around the smart streets. After a stop off for refreshments in a Pasteleria it was then onto Alfama, Lisbon's oldest district. Here the streets narrow to become becos and travessas which are a warren of interconnecting alleys, passageways and steps leading up from the main praca to the highest point in the centre at Miradouro de Graca with views across the city to Castelo Sao Jorge and the Ponte 25 de Abril. In Alfama there are many churches and buildings dating back to medieval times. I think the kids quite enjoyed it in the end and they learnt a bit more history on the way.

All in all Lisbon is a really nice place, not what I expected and certainly a lot more to do than you'd think, we've spent a leisurely week here and really enjoyed it, if time was tight I'd say a 4 day long weekend would make a great city break. Portugal so far has been relaxed and a really nice place to be at this time of year.
Were heading south tomorrow and plan to be in the Algarve by next weekend where we will probably spend about 4 weeks.
Bye for now
Neil Daniel and Harry x

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Photos

Caminha
Looking from Caminha in Portugal over the mouth of the river Minha back into Spain

Caminha beach
The usual site of lovely empty beaches along the west coast

Sunset over Viano de Castelo beach
The decked walkways have really improved access to the beaches in this area

Porto - The Douro
The cruise boats lined up on the Douro

Porto - Ribeira
Some of the old buildings along the river front in the Ribeira district

Vila Nova de Gaia
The view across from Porto to the old Port houses

The perfect beach - Vagueira
The beach at Vagueira was the best so far, soft sand, shallow waters and spotlessly clean.

The Teleferico
The cable car runs along the Tejo river front

Lisbon Zoo
Harry feeding the Giraffe a leaf

The view across Lisbon
From the Miradouro de Graca

Lisbons Alfama district
The trams run around the tight narrow streets

Praca de Comercio
Lisbon's main square on the river front

Alfama
A typical alleyway and steps from this old district

Alfama - Tiled scenes
These tiled scenes are common in the older parts of portuguese towns and cities