Advertisement
Published: August 17th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Bom Dia!
Estrella Mountain Dog Crossed into Spain on the 19th, leaving the glitzy beach resort of Biarritz behind. The entry into Spain was non-existent took us a while to realise we had changed countries! Drove along the Spanish north coast past the busy beach resorts of San Sebastian and Zarautz, spending the night at Santander. It took two attempts to get Clancy up the hill in the campsite after she stalled at the top. Enjoyed our first Cerveza and pinchos in town that night.
Next day was a fast tracked pilgrimage to Santiago de Compestella where we mixed with the Christian pilgrims who had made their way there by foot to see the Cathedral where St James’ remains are said to be entombed. We stayed here one night before heading to Portugal and the city of Porto the next day to meet up again with Fay.
We enjoyed the next few days in and around Porto, sampling Port and walking through the tiny streets. Mum was very impressed with my attempts to eat a dish of Bacalhau (reminiscent of days being forced to eat smoked cod on Good Friday!). The magnificent tile facades got us a bit snap happy as we
Weary Pilgrim
Santiago de Compestella had never seen so many Azulejos in our life!
Got lost heading out of Porto trying to avoid tolls and headed inland to explore the magnificent Serra De Estrella National Park after Porto. Spent a very cold night up in the mountains camped on the edge of a dam. The sound of bells in the valley had Fay perplexed and we lost her for about two hours in the morning as she searched for the source. We found the answer as we left when we came across a herd of goats, the goat herder and five beautiful Estrella Mountain Dogs. At first we thought the dogs were a wild pack until they ran up to the car with tails wagging! These dogs are endemic to this area and have been used by the farmers here for centuries. The pure breed is currently in danger of extinction and there are some breeding programs in place.
Clancy managed to navigate the windiest road in the world to Mantegias where we visited a lovely waterfall before moving on to the deserted ancient old town of Sortehlo. This beautiful little walled village was very quiet apart from the cats and
Porto
Rooftops and Ribeira dates back to the 11th century. Next stop was a night in Tomar at a cute little camping ground. Enjoyed our first Super Bock beers that night in preparation for our assault on the Knights’ Templar the next day. The impressive and mysterious Convent de Cristo is the home of the Knights Templar and houses some amazing buildings including a 16-sided chapel.
After Tomar we refuelled our spiritual zeal with a visit to Fatima, site of the famous apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1917. The site is now a huge complex complete with a new church that can hold 7,000 worshippers. It was amazing to see so many passionate Catholics, some even shuffling 150m on their knees to the site.
Next we headed to the coast passing through Batalha with its impressive Battle Abbey and the beach resorts of Nazare and Obidos arriving at an overflowing camping ground in Peniche. Enjoyed fantastic, cheap, fresh seafood that night in town.
After a quick spin around the point of Peniche we headed to the little historic walled village of Sintra which was packed with day-trippers from Lisbon then headed to Cabo da Roca which is
the most westerly point in Europe. Took the obligatory photo here than found a lovely little campsite in Cascais which treated Fay to some traditional Portugese dancing at the bar that night.
On our way to Lisbon the next day we visited the very cute Convent de Capucho, an old monastery built into the side of a mountain. This was a very peaceful place and had been humbly built with tiny rooms and sparse resources, a contrast to the many opulent palaces we had visited previously.
Next stop Lisbon….
Advertisement
Tot: 0.312s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 24; qc: 105; dbt: 0.114s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb