Mid Portugal

Thurs: 24^th April.  It was fine early this morning and looked like being a sunny day…and then it rained.  While waiting for the weather to improve, we did a few odd jobs around the ‘house’, not leaving the campsite till noon.  Today’s destination was Porto with a detour to Penha, specifically to take a ride on the cable car to Guimaraes which had been suggested, among other places, by Chris and Rosa, Portuguese born friends of friends.  Unfortunately, the cable car was not operating

but we had magnificent views from the church at the top of the hill,

enjoyed a little wander around the lovely gardens, visited a grotto

and the café and as much as we’d have liked to stay and explore further, the rain came down with a vengeance, it was bitterly cold so we continued on towards Porto. 

We drove into finer weather and by the time we reached Porto, the sun was shining though it was still very cool.  Once we’d parked Boris in a carpark by the river, where ‘autocaravanas’ can stay overnight though not authorised to do so, and Mike had chatted to a German couple who’d been there for 3 days and who passed on a few tips, we rode the bikes along the river to the town and strolled around a little before returning to Boris to cook our evening meal and settle down for a quiet night. 

We decided to stay two nights, and tomorrow plan to take a port wine river cruise on the Rio Douro, take the funicular to the old town, explore and then walk down to the river, have a ride on the cable car and enjoy Porto, which looks very interesting.

 

 After dinner we engaged in an interesting conversation with a Spanish couple who were also staying the night and came to say hello as they recognised the flags…they have a son living in Perth and are going to visit him in November. 

We’re looking forward to tomorrow!

Fri:  25^th April.  What a fun night we had!!  Luckily, I had a slight stomach upset…I say luckily because otherwise I probably would have been in a deep sleep by 1.00a.m. and not heard the noises which alerted me to the fact that there was evil afoot.  I fell out of bed and opened the rear blind to see three youths in the process of liberating the bikes from the rack…I woke Mike, who in his loudest voice politely requested them to leave, which they promptly did, and in world record time.  On investigation, we found that they had sawn through the outer tube casing on the chain but had managed to sever only a couple of the inner wires.  Mike found another, thicker bike chain in his box of tricks and put it around the bikes and rack, together with the damaged but still effective one.  We made some tea and kept vigil for a couple of hours before turning off the lights and trying to sleep. Not possible…every little sound we heard we were up peering through the windows and door and when a vehicle arrived at about 4.00a.m. and the engine was running for about 15 minutes, we were wide awake and on guard, wondering what was going to happen next.

Well, judging by the sounds emanating from the vehicle, it would seem that the engine was left running to warm the vehicle in anticipation of the hankypanky which was to follow.  Still sleepless at close to 5.00a.m., Mike was standing by the door when one of the would be bike thieves came skulking back…he didn’t see Mike and ran for his life when Mike once again, very politely, suggested he p..s off!

What was left of the night was quiet and uneventful and we watched the dawn break over Porto while silently paying tribute to our Anzacs, sadly agreeing that we wouldn’t be comfortable leaving Boris unattended while we went sightseeing, and we definitely would be unwilling to spend another night here.  So, the good news is that we still have our bikes, the bad news is that we didn’t get to see all of the Porto we wanted to see and that is extremely disappointing!

We left just after 8.00a.m., both exhausted after our tense and sleepless night, and headed for a caravan park at Vagueira, about 130kms south of Porto. The only photo we took today was in Costa Nova where many of the houses are painted in a variety of coloured stripes…unusual but interesting. 

After settling in at the caravan park, Mike rode to a bike shop nearby and bought a length of very thick chain and a very large padlock, so any future would be bike thieves will have their work cut out for them.  An afternoon snooze, long, hot showers, dinner and an early night ended an unhappy day, but as Mike is wont to say “The sun will go down tonight and the sun will come up tomorrow”.

Sat:  26^th April.  A late departure this morning due to heavy rain (the sun didn’t come up!)  We travelled mainly on minor roads and our first stop was in a small village which boasted a wonderful baker shop/café with the best looking cakes, pastries etc. we’ve seen so far on this trip.  Although we only planned to buy a loaf of bread, we felt compelled to relieve the shopkeeper of a couple of Portugese tarts and an f.a. cream cake as well.  It was a day of travel today, stopping at Figueira da Foz for a break and again at Marinha Grande when we spotted an Aldi store where we bought Mike’s favourite Knoppers and Haselnusse Schnittes (chocolate covered hazelnut wafer biscuits, discovered last year).  Oh happy day!

On arrival at the caravan park in Nazare, we stayed put for the rest of the day…the rain has been on/off all day but the forecast for tomorrow and the next few days is for sunshine.

Sun:  27^th April.  We woke early to welcome sunshine, so an early breakfast and showers and we were packed up ready to head down into the town.  Not a lot was happening when we first arrived, we were quite early and life doesn’t start happening until late morning so there were not many people or much traffic about but that changed as the day wore on and the town was chokkers in the afternoon and early evening.  We strolled around for an hour or two, rode the funicular up to Sieto, a town on the cliffs overlooking Nazare, treated ourselves to lunch at a café back in town, and strolled back to Boris for a couple of hours’ break. 

In the late afternoon we wandered back to the seafront where most of the action was happening, then spent a good half hour or more sitting on a bench in the sunshine watching the passers by passing by and then followed the sound of voices in song, to the church where there was a mass in progress.  Lovely!  What a super day we had!  The sun did come up after all!