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View from the walls of Parthenay The Portuguese Trip 2014 The Plan......
Ferry from Pole to Cherbourg, a new crossing for us, then meander our way to Biarritz, Mike always wanted to go there, them on to Spain, visit Jude, Cadiz (Mike always wanted to go there too!) and turn right into Portugal. Follow the coast to Lisbon and Oporto. Back in to Spain, Santiago De Compostela, along the North coast cross the Pyrenees and head for home via Dover. Stop in London and visit Beth and Rob's new house. Approximately five weeks! Hmmm! A big plan.
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Not due to leave until tomorrow, excitement got the better of us and we left this evening, Parked up on the quay at Poole, with dozens of other vans and boarded early in the morning.
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Flat calm crossing. Headed south for Gr, Gr, Granville. Lovely site, but not “Open All Hours”. Stayed 2 days.
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Thursday, rained most of the day. Eventually stopped, we took our scooter in to Granville and walked
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Our 2014 Outfit to the headland. Cool and Breezy
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Set off early, traveled to Parthenay. Cycled into walled town. Nice site but not fully open yet!
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Traveled to Oradour-sur-Glane. Visited the exhibition and the town, infamous and
harrowing. Then traveled, very subdued, to Thiviers. Campsite by a lake in the woods. Tried to lift our spirits with lots of wine. Failed.
Awoke to cuckoo again. Where's my gun?
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Weather is forecast to be cool and cloudy so we decide to have a long day driving and head south as quickly as we can. Six hours later we hit Ondres near Bayonne, Camping Du Lac. Another splendid camp site.
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Rainy morning made bleaker by discovering a puncture in a tyre on the trailer! We have a spare wheel for it but......... different size wheel nuts mean we can't get it off. Camp maintenance man comes to the rescue. We're soon on our way to
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The harrowing Ordour Sur Glane Memorial the nearest tyre retailer for a repair kit. Finally got under way at 11:30. Heading for Burgos.
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Mike had his customary bought of “le runs” last night but is much better this morning.
It's snowing! Fluffy seeds falling from the trees. Four inch deep “drifts” along the edge of the paths. See photos.
We trained today, Jayne ran 5k and Mike cycled 22k.
Cycled into Burgos and visited the cathedral, spectacular! Lovely city. Lunched outside in the Plaza de Mayor. Cycled back and lay in the sun. Nice.
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Moved on to Salamanca. Camp site at a very nice hotel. Mike went for a ride on the scooter into the town. Barbecued chicken and vegetables.
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Jayne ran for half an hour. (Mike held her coat!). Travelled down to Judith's house in San Pedro. Sat in the sun and barbecued prawns and mackerel. Yum!
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Judith and Mike shower cubicle
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It's "Snowing" shopping this morning. Cubicle assembling for Mike, Jayne and Judith did a 10k walk and washed and ironed everything in sight.
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Mike did 23k bike ride to Roman reservoir. Finished cubicle assembly.
We went into Merida for a wander around the shops and a beer in the square.
After dinner, (chicken casserole), we all went to a golf presentation night at The Parador Hotel, where Judith picked up a prize of a free nights stay at The Parador Hotel! Free beer, wine and nibbles! Well! It would be rude not to. Judith was driving the ambulance.
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Judith played golf. Mike fixed his Spanish bike, the one he leaves in Judith's house.
We packed and left for Cadiz.
Lovely camp site on the beach at El Puerto de Santa Maria.
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Cycled down to the port and caught a ferry over to Cadiz. Really lovely city with fabulous, recently restored, cathedral and medieval buildings. Alleyways filled with
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" You didn't pack the snow chains?" quality shops and tat for the cruise ship tourists. P&O's Oriana was in town.
Lunched on fried fish and took the ferry back to the site.
Scootered around the town in the evening.
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Exercise day. Jayne ran for 35 minutes, Mike cycled for 80 minutes. Packed up and headed for Isla Cristina, on the Portuguese border. Long drive! Huge, well organised, campsite in the pine woods across the road from the very long beach.
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Well, Isla Cristina and the surrounding area including La Antilla and Isla Antilla are fantastic. So nice, we “dropped anchor” for six nights! We've never stayed so long in one place before. Temperature hovered around 32 degrees for the duration of our stay.
We cycled and scootered into town, visited the amazing fish market which is a couple of hundred yards from the busy fishing harbour. Cycled and ran for exercise, everywhere is so flat and safe. Went to the stunning beach every day and swam in the sea. Swam in the camp site pool.
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Isn't nature amazing? Ate loads of fish and enjoyed some wine. Bliss!
Catchphrase, saying or word for this years trip is: Hamburger. We watched the second Pink Panther film, starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau. Hilarious! There are lots of kiosks in Spain selling hamburgers. (Hambgr!) You had to be there. Watch the film.
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Weather forecast predicted a change to cooler weather, 24 degrees and sunny periods, so we reluctantly moved on after giving the van a good clean inside and out.
Entered Portugal and, as planned, skipped much of the Algarve. We headed straight for Lagos. Another good camp site, we are following the ACSI camping club brochure and it is proving to be very reliable.
Using the Scooter again we popped into the lovely centre. Wandered around the shops and alleyways and took refreshment in an outdoor bar. All the bars were setting up big screen televisions outside to cover Portugal versus Germany and there were lots of fans, of both sides, dressed in their team colours, good naturedly wandering around the town.
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El Cid. Or "Charlton" as we call him Weather cool and cloudy a.m. So we set off for Santiago Do Cacem, a small, pretty, mountain town. On arrival it was difficult to find parking, with the scooter trailer we are a long vehicle now and reversing is to be avoided unless there's lots of space! So we pressed on for Lisbon. We arrived around 4:30pm, after a long drive. Eventually found the camp site which is allegedly a 30 minute bus ride to the centre.
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Took the bus into Lisbon. We thought about taking the scooter but the traffic was manic yesterday evening so we thought better of it. Took the city bus tour and walked up to the castle. Lovely city.
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Headed for Nazare, another terrific camp site about 2 km out of the town. Took the scooter down the steep hill to the seafront and a beautiful beach. There's a cable railway up the cliffs, reminded us of Aberystwyth but with sunshine of course.
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Decided to stay another
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Burgos Cathedral. 'Nuff words! day so we exercised and then longed and read the rest of the day. Weather changed in the afternoon, quite cool and breezy.
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Long run today up to Porto, rained a lot on the way. Couldn't find a camp site! The first one had closed and the second, from our GPS coordinates, did not exist! So we parked on the estuary and took the scooter into the old quarter. Mike had been there before with work so it was nice to show Jayne the place. Had a glass of chilled pink port in a bar with a view of the old town, sheltering from torrential rain.
Left Porto and on to a camp site from our trusty ACSI book. Unbelievable! We shouldn't have gone there but we were very tired by this time. The access to the site was down narrow cobbled streets. The camp site owner guiding us down with inches to spare. The site itself was very nice with fabulous views but how on earth were we to get back out in the morning!
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Barbrcue time in dappled shade. Salamanka Beautiful morning, breakfast outside enjoying the view over the valley. The owner arranges for the traffic to be stopped coming down the lane and we very carefully manoeuvred our way up the cobbled hill. Wheels started to spin and the clutch overheating light came on, the tow bar grounded with a thud and Mike's blood pressure was off the chart! With a final incantation of “ Stupid bloody place to have a camp site.” We were finally free!
Long drive back to Burgos where we stayed on the trip down.
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Travelled up to Ondres, near Bayonne, another camp site we stayed at on the way down. Swam and lay by the pool. Clouded over later and cracking thunderstorm.
Mike feeling unwell and took to bed by 7:30.
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We've booked our crossing from Calais for Saturday morning 28
th so we have to get a move on. Mike still under the weather as we set off for Bordeaux. Easy driving for a change. We should have gone a little further but
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Quiz Time: Spot the warship? Now you know why they're painted grey! Taken from the Ferry to Cadiz called it a day at Village du Lac Camping de Bordeaux. Brilliant site again.
Jayne swam and lay in the sun. Mike stayed in the shade and felt sorry for himself.
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Chris Prker
non-member comment
Sounds Fab
Hey you guy's Sounds like your having a fab time and hope you hit the sunshine soon, take care and lot's of love. Chris.