Places

26
May
2019

Sintra, Lisbon, Cascais

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.

  • Villa Sassetti
  • Palace de Pena
  • Courtyard in Palace

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:

  • My favourite colour
Posted by Jackie Barnes in Cities-Towns, Places, Portugal
25
May
2019

To Setubal via Lisbon Airport

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.

  • Praia do Creiso
Posted by Jackie Barnes in Places, Portugal
25
May
2019

Peaceful overnight at Evora … eventually

Stayed overnight at a campsite at Porto Covo, where not made particularly welcome by the main reception person! then inland to a free aire with good reviews at historic town of Evora. Whilst congratulating myself on how well all was ‘working’ at this aire – nice location, safety in numbers, international community, but brits around if help needed quicker etc, the peace of the Saturday night was disrupted for upto an hour and a half, because Benfica had won the Portuguese league. The disruption consisted of the town’s primarily male Benfica supporters driving round and round the town centre roads (which unfortunately went past the aire) hanging out of their sunroofs, shouting, waving flags, and constant pressing of their car horns. It did come to a stop thankfully around 11:30, and indeed a good night’s sleep was had. Evora was worth the visit, as my first inland Portuguese town, and driving the non-toll roads to get there took me through some pleasing countryside.

Posted by Jackie Barnes in Cities-Towns, Places, Portugal
17
May
2019

Vila Nova de Milfontes

Wanted to come here en route to have a look and walk around – have to mark this one as one of the best. The photos say it all:

  • Stunning beaches at the mouth of the river
  • Gorgeous restaurant location – still on the Rota Vicentina
  • It is a shame I can’t appreciate the sea food gastronomy
  • …… from the beach
  • More selfi-ing proof
  • Building from 1600s
  • not just the visual but coming upon the smell from the honeysuckle
  • Very interesting construction

Only around 20 degrees, windy but very pleasant in the full sunshine. Does get very busy apparently between mid July to mid August. Prefer this or Cabanas, to the more ‘full-on’ Algarve or French mediterranean coast.

Posted by Jackie Barnes in Places, Portugal, The Good
16
May
2019

Zambujeira do Mar

Following recommendations, staying at a lovely Camping Villa Park, at the above. The coast is stunning – the coastal path is beautiful, and here’s my attempt to capture some flora actually along the footpath and cliff tops:

  • Village at top of the cliffs – beach below

I should also make mention of the fauna I observed on my walk along the cliffs – what looked like herons nesting on a rocky outcrop. Google tells me these may be Egrets. Didn’t take any pictures for my birder friends to check out. as wouldn’t get enough quality given the distances.

Posted by Jackie Barnes in Places, Portugal
16
May
2019

Europe’s SouthWesterly tip Cabo da Sao Vicente

Yesterday, decided to leave the Algarve via driving to the above, and then up through the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina.

There have been hints that a few selfies would be in order. which I get, so that readers are reassured that my photos are genuine and have not been taken from Google images in some kind of Capricorn One conspiracy. Despite the fact that I have found it rather difficult, the whole selfie thing, not just the embarrassment factor, drawing attention to the poor loner, but also from a practical pressing the button perspective, I will do a few examples every now and then including this one:

  • Enjoyed my first Bratwurst since September
  • Long distance footpath
Posted by Jackie Barnes in Places, Portugal