Portugal, land of beautiful beaches and giant strawberries

It’s been a week since our last update and we are now blogging from Portugal!

After deciding to stay another day in Seville, Friday saw the three of us explore the area on foot.  First stop was the Parque de Maria Luisa.  I’m not particularly well versed on the history of it, but from what I can gather, the park was created for an international fair in 1929 and contains a number of examples of Spanish architecture from different periods, culminating in the magnificent Plaza de Espana.  Needless to say, Powell loved the park, but more for the ducks than any of its architectural merits.

After a good explore around the park and lots of sniffing and attempted duck chasing for Powell, we headed back towards the cathedral and the touristic centre to pick up where we ran out of time on Thursday.  Although it is very touristy, it still retains a good deal of charm despite the obligatory tat shops.  We found a restaurant for lunch and sat outside at a rickety table and chairs, Powell lying patiently in wait, knowing what these little sit downs usually mean.  The menu del dia was €10 a head for 3 courses.  The food wasn’t quite up to the same standard as the fair offered by Pimenton restaurant on Thursday, but it was tasty nevertheless and set us up for the rest of the afternoon.

With no particular plan, we meandered around the rest of the historic centre, taking in the atmosphere and snapping pictures along the way.

After a little less than 6 hours of wandering around Seville, we headed back to Dora to prepare for our onward travel on Saturday.  Powell was flat out within minutes, having not had his usual mid day nap time!

On Saturday, we headed to Valverde del Camino.  Having read that there was another via verde there, we were eager to see what it had to offer.  The aire was also free of charge, with a servicing point.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered that everywhere was closed due to a bank holiday that we had been unaware of.  Luckily we found a local corner shop selling bread and milk to tide us over until Monday.  Shopping sorted, we offloaded the bikes and headed off with Powell in tow.  We have decided that we’ll likely come back to this aire.  The scenery is beautiful and there is literally miles of biking too be done.  Pete discovered that the via verde, contrary to the indications on the tourist map, actually goes in both directions (north and south, not just south) from Valverde del Camino; the northern part of which, was just a stone’s throw from the aire.  We didn’t explore it this time around, but hope to do so next time.

We had planned to stay in Valverde del Camino for two nights, but I was eager for a change of scene and pace, so on Sunday, we decided that after just over 3 months, it was time to leave Spain and see what Portugal has to offer.

The first thing we found that Portugal offers, is toll roads!  Upon entering Portugal from the south, the only way in, unless you take a considerable diversion (approx 100 miles!) is via the toll motorway.  We also discovered that there is no payment method on any of the toll roads, so if you happen to be taken onto one via a sneaky diversion (due to roadworks for example), then you could find yourself getting a fine for diving on the toll roads.  To be on the safe side, we registered a card at the toll station, which was clearly signposted ‘foreigners / tourists’ on entry into Portugal.  This method gives us 30 days of travel on the toll roads, should we wish to use them.  Unfortunately, we discovered afterwards that there’s actually a service charge for using the service, but at approx 60p, it’s hardly worth worrying about and I’m pretty sure it’s less than a fine would be.  Once we’d set ourselves up as ‘legal’ toll road users, we exited the first chance we got and headed onto the N125, the main toll free east – west route across Portugal.  It didn’t take us long to realise why there’s a toll road.  The national road is in a terrible state.  However, it’s free to use and as we don’t generally travel very fast, the only issue we have is the excessive rattling from the contents of Dora!

Our first stopover in Portugal was just across the border in Vila Real.  At €4.50 a night including servicing and wifi, we were chuffed that there was still space there.  We really had no idea what to expect from Portugal as we’d not done a lot of research on it.  We couldn’t possibly fit travel books for every single country into Dora, so we had to be selective.  We have ‘Europe on a shoestring’, which covers all of Europe, but it only covers a handful of towns in each country.  The book is the only reference we have so far for Portugal.  I’m thinking that was probably an oversight, as we have a book on Morocco (which we are unlikely to visit on this particular tour).  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Vila Real is a pleasant little town.  Being in the Algarve, it very much caters to tourists and you can’t go past many shops without seeing the odd bit of tourist tat and what we now know to be pretty much the national symbol, the rooster of Barcelos.  The beach, in our opinion, is the real gem in this place.  Neither of us can remember the last time we saw a beach so clean!  As we didn’t see any signs excluding dogs, Powell enjoyed a good romp around too.

We spent two nights in Vila Real and took advantage of the Intermarche 500m away and stocked up the cupboards for the week.  I also took some time to listen to my Portuguese language CD...I’m now able to count to 10, say please, thank you, yes, no, ask where the bar is and ask if one speaks English!  Portuguese is one of the oddest languages I’ve heard.  To read it, you’d think it was vaguely similar to Spanish.  However, when you hear it spoken, it sounds like somewhere between Spanish and Russian!  I think it might take me a while to pick it up...but I’ll persevere.  The CD I have is very limited as it only really gives you holiday phrases.  However, it’s better than nothing for now, but I’m on the hunt for a Portuguese ‘learn English’ book as all of the words will be in both languages, it makes no odds which way round it is!

Our second stopover was a mere 10 miles west, at Manta Rota.  We had intended to go to Tavira on Tuesday, but after checking our stopover guide, I decided we may as well check out the place at Manta Rota in case we might be missing a trick.  We’d have missed a big trick if we’d gone past.  This place is the ssame price as the last one, but if the sand dunes weren’t in the way, we’d have a sea view.  As we’re on the same stretch of beach, it’s still beautiful, but this aire is much more out of the way.  If we didn’t have other places to see and people to meet, we’d happily stay here for a few more days.  It’s certainly one to keep on the radar if we pass through here again.

So we arrived in Manta Rota on Tuesday and it’s now Thursday.  We’ve spent a couple of days chilling and taking Powell for long walks on the beach; he absolutely loves it and sprints up and down, getting covered in sea spray and sand.  The weather has been amazing.  We’ve been blessed with blue skies since we arrived in Portugal; I don’t know that it will last, but we’re enjoying it while we can.  We’ve been wearing shorts all week!!

I’ve also started embroidering!  Before we left for the tour, I made a quilt out of old clothes.  Ever the creative one in the relationship, I thought it would be a nice addition to our future home on four wheels and I thought it’d be good to upcycle.  So the quilt came with us and over the last few months, I’ve added bits to it, in a bid to make it a memory quilt.  Back in France, we met Francie and she very kindly gave me a bag of embroidery silks.  I kept them in my sewing box until eventually I made a start on brightening up the quilt a couple of weeks ago.  Now that I’ve started, I intend to add little reminders of each country as we visit it, such as a bull for Spain, Portugal’s Barcelos rooster etc, in addition to my own little designs as and when the mood takes me.  Thanks for the inspiration, Francie!  Maybe it will become a family heirloom....or maybe it will fall apart before we get back to the UK; but in the meantime, it keeps me out of trouble!  My next aim is to get my paints out...

I don’t know if it’s a regular thing throughout Portugal, but we’ve noticed since we arrived in Portugal, both of the aires are serviced by a number of local businesses, providing bread, fruit and veg and laundry to your door.  It makes perfect sense and helps to contribute to the local economy.  One particular vendor sells the most beautiful tasting bread and a Portuguese speciality ‘Pastel de Nata’ –custard tarts, but they’re so much nicer than the British ones!  Another sells 2kg punnets of strawberries.  Now we both like strawberries, but I think we’d be ill if we ate that many between just the two of us.  Today, when the sales man knocked, rather than refusing as we did yesterday, I told him in Spanish (as we’re still near the border, Spanish is still widely spoken) that the punnet is too big and instead asked him for half.  Initially he just dropped his price to get us to buy the lot, but as we hate wasting food, we finally managed to make ourselves understood and passed him an empty box to decant the strawberries.  I have NEVER seen strawberries so huge!  One of them was literally the size of my palm!

Just to back track a bit...Pete had a bad experience with some fruit that looked and smelled beautiful in Seville.  In the Parque de Maria Luisa, as in most of Seville, there are countless orange trees.  Pete being pete, decided that it would be nice to pick an orange straight from the tree.  I declined his offer of getting one for me and got a nose full of orange as he peeled it while we walked through the park.  It did smell beautifully citrusy.  Unfortunately for Pete, it didn’t taste the way it smelled!  It would appear that either late Feb is not the time for ripe oranges, or this particular variety are not for human consumption!!  He likened it to eating a lemon.  Maybe they have CCTV and like to watch the tourists help themselves to the inedible oranges...!!  All I can say is, I hope the strawberries actually taste as good as they smell...

We’re on the move again tomorrow and this time we’re definitely heading to Tavira.  We need an admin day so will be heading to a campsite to sort ourselves out.

It’s only day 4, but we’re liking Portugal so far.  We’re looking forward to seeing what else this country has to offer.