Briefly met these guys from Gibraltar, who’d just bought a Ford van 2nd-hand from the UK and had driven it all the way through France, Spain, into Porto and heading back to Gibraltar within a few days. They’re going to customize it exactly how they want.
They have given me a recommendation for a lovely lake in Spain which is on my way from the Douro valley to the Picos de Europa, so a campsite visit there is now planned in for later this week.
Amazingly ended up on our selected Porto visit campsite and indeed the only pitch remaining, next to a Dutch couple I had met a month earlier standing at a campsite bus stop to travel into Granada. This coincidence was further compounded when we found them also occupying the table adjacent to the one we unknowingly took at a cafe in the middle of Porto. So I now know their names, Ans and Piet, and have enjoyed spending abit of time with them, including my first test ride on one of their electric bikes. Piet has put a Brooks classic saddle on his bike, and has the same on his non-folding bike at home. 🙂 Have to say that their Hercules folding e-bike was fantastic and particularly against a very strong northerly wind. Can definitely see the benefits …….. folding certainly, but am I ready for electric?
This is their rig – unfortunately, the camera hasn’t quite overcome the sun and/or shade, (just can’t get a good photographer) but they love their Westfalia VW conversion.
Amazingly ended up on our selected Porto visit campsite and indeed the only pitch remaining, next to a Dutch couple I had met a month earlier standing at a campsite bus stop to travel into Granada. This coincidence was further compounded when we found them also occupying the table adjacent to the one we unknowingly took, at a cafe in the middle of Porto.
At the beginning of my time away, it was very funny to come across a work colleague who happened to be crossing the same Barcelona street in front of the market at the same time as I was. After the initial brain processing, which told me he looked abit like Tom, I came to realize it was actually him!
After 3 nights around Lisbon, drove up the coast stopping to look at the sweeping beaches and the massive surf location of Nazare, before spending 4 nights at the above camping to spend some time in Porto. And now Porto is up there with Ronda and Cordoba.
Got bus from just outside campsite, altho could cycle as only about 5km from centre. On day 1, took a little road train tour, then proceeded to retrace the complete route on foot! Day 2, the ‘6 bridges’ boat trip, and exploring the river bank Ribeira area. Charming city and this photo selection doesn’t really do it justice.
Worthy of an additional photo gallery though for posterity – the ‘to a British person used to the risk aversion inducing health and safety culture’, amazing sharing of one of the main bridge crossings between pedestrians and/or cyclists, and the TRAM!!! not to mention the ease with which I could have chucked myself (or my sister) off.
Stayed at a lovely resort west of Lisbon, Cascais, well-served by buses and trains, enabling us to get to Sintra and Lisbon from just outside the Cascais Orbitur campsite entrance.
Loved both Sintra and Lisbon. Photos say it all.
A snapshot of magical Sintra where we did the recommended climb, and it is indeed a climb!, through the gardens of the Villa Sassetti to the palace. Needs another visit to see more.
Got the bus, then train from Cascais to Lisbon; took one of the iconic old trams around some of the old city centre streets. Again, a lovely city; the first two photos are of Cascais:
I was excited and looking forward to receiving the first official guest of my career break year, albeit the same person who accompanied me in getting out to Spain as part of my 18-19 annual leave and so therefore at that time not quite career break companionship material. I had determined from Park4Night primarily that the best place to park would be P3 official car park at the airport, and best to book in advance online, which I duly did. In driving primarily on non-busy roads for the last few weeks, it was abit of a jolt to find myself driving through the chaos of the approach roads to Lisbon Airport, around various spaghetti junctions, on red alert as I negotiated the traffic and managed to arrive amazingly at P3 at 12:20, when my booking was for 12:15 for 3 hours. In the end, whereas the driving had not thwarted me, getting the car park exit barriers to honour my pre-paid parking was beyond my guest and I, so we duly paid a 2nd time for the privilege of being 2 mins away from the arrivals terminal. Decision made to head for the Parque Natural da Arrabida, past the town of Setubal, south of Lisbon, to stay there for one night to visit some more beautiful coastline before basing ourselves at Cascais, north west of Lisbon for our visits to the capital and Sintra.
The beaches and coastline of this area are indeed beautiful, well worth visiting and we stayed at a really nice, recommended good value small campsite just beyond Setubal – Ecoparque do Outao.
