Rainy Portugal!

As luck would have it, we’d unknowingly parked right next to a water supply, so we filled up with water while we had the opportunity and continued on our way down the west coast, stopping at Ericeira for a few hours. We found a sandy parking spot on the north side of Ericeira where lots of surfers and body boarders were parked up (apparently the World Body Boarding championship is held in this area). We watched the surfers brave the high waves (you can just see 4 or 5 of the surfers on the pic) and walked along the coast (even paddling in the sea for a bit - it was a bit cold!) then walked towards the town. The scenery along the coast was beautiful, with very clean beaches. We then drove on slightly inland towards Sintra, another old town which has World Heritage status. For the first time we saw people pitched up on the side of the main road selling fruit and veg to passers by, we must have seen 7 or 8 different stalls. This area has a lot of stone walls which adds to the rustic scenery.

On arriving in Sintra we found a place to park up in a nice residential area close to the new town. We walked into the old town which was very picturesque and busy for a early Sunday evening. After wandering for a bit we found a place to eat with a set menu for 8 euros each which was quite good value for soup and bread, main course and a chocolate moose (the moose was a shop bought one in a plastic yogurt type container!!)

All day Monday it rained so we caught up on shopping and had a lazy day.

Tuesday morning looked a little brighter, we left Sintra and drove to Cabo da Roca which is the most western point in Europe. It was incredibly windy there! The national park around Sintra seems to be a popular place for cyclists, we saw loads between Sintra and Cabo da Roca. We then travelled on to Cascais, stopping on the way to see the Boca do Inferno (which means mouth of hell) which was basically a big arched rock that the sea flowed into. Cascais is quite a large town that seems to have quite a few 5 star hotels.

We found water, filled up, parked up, then went for a walk around the marina and around the old town. At the marina we saw loads of fish swimming close to the surface by the harbour wall. The next day was New Years Eve, it was raining. We needed to get provisions as it was likely the shops would be closed on New Years Day. The sat nav directed us to a large undercover Shopping Centre on the outskirts of Cascais, so we had a wander round, bought plenty of food, stopped for a coffee and then returned to the motorhome and onward to Lisbon.

We arrived in Lisbon early evening, slightly stressed due to the traffic! As usual Mark coped well with the driving, but Lisbon was the largest and busiest city that we’d encountered. We had set the sat nav to guide us to the Zooilogical Gardens and we luckily found some parking in a residential area close by. We decided to cook tea and then venture into Lisbon, but by the time we’d eaten it was raining and we decided to stay in. So we watched some Portuguese TV and saw in the New Year. On New Years Day it was drizzling, but we decided to try and get into the centre of Lisbon. We used the sat nav to guide us on our walk into the centre of the city, taking about 90 minutes. By the time we got into the centre it was pouring with rain and we got soaked! By then we’d discovered that Lisbon had a small underground system and used it to get back after exploring the centre for a while. Lisbon appeared to be a nice city, but unfortunately it was raining heavily and we were keen to move on whilst it was quiet on New Years Day. Luckily, although it was raining, it was very mild, so we were able to dry out reasonably quickly. We left Lisbon and travelled south a couple of hours to Alcacer do Sal which is a town on the river Sado.

The next morning we went for a wander and found a large parking area with water and another English motorhome parked up next to the river. We returned to the motorhome for lunch, then moved to the river area, filled up with water, had showers and gave the motorhome a good clean inside and out (you can just see our motorhome on the right of the picture). Whilst Mark was cleaning the outside of the motorhome he met one of our neighbours Dennis and we were invited for a cup of tea with his wife Kath. It was nice to spend a couple of hours chatting to some English people, they had been full timing in their motorhome for 4 and half years!