Carol and Mark in Europe

Granada to La Manga (end of March 2009)

2009-05-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

On Friday we caught the bus into the city centre and then another bus up to the Alhambra. The Alhambra issues a limited number of 8000 tickets each day in morning and afternoon sessions. Unfortunately when we arrived at 11am only afternoon tickets were available starting from 2pm. The Alhambra sits high up above Granada and there isn’t much up there except a few bars, tourist shops and the Alhambra itself, so we had a bit of a walk around, a picnic and a coffee and finally joined the queue to get in. The Alhambra was very similar to the Alkazar in Seville. The views from the Alhambra were very impressive, right across Granada and the Sierra Nevada.

On Saturday we took the bus into the centre of Granada and had a good look around, taking in a couple of viewpoints up on the hill looking towards the Alhambra. We weren’t overly impressed with Granada, I think we’d been spoilt by Seville! However Granada is definitely better where long reaching views are concerned.

Sunday was quite overcast, we drove up to Pradollano (2100m high) in the Sierra Nevada, Europe’s most southerly ski resort and only about a 30/40 minute drive from Granada. There were loads of motorhomes parked up in the special motorhome area high up above the village. We caught the bus down to the village, as walking would have been 2 miles around very twisty roads. We had a walk around the resort and then took the cable car up to Borreguiles (2645m) and were amazed by the number of people ski-ing and snow boarding. There were hundreds, probably thousands of them! The sun was shining very brightly higher up in the mountains, it was a little cooler lower down in Pradollano. Later on in the afternoon we returned to Granada as we wanted to fill up with gas before moving on. We were nowhere near out of gas, but as we’re in Spain we fill up when we know that gas is available as there’s only about 20 places in mainland Spain that we can get LPG from, Granada being one of them.

The next morning we filled up with gas and then headed east to Guadix through more mountains, this time the Sierra de Huetor-Santillan. At Guadix we visited the tourist office to get a map and then walked up to Las Cueves (cave area) where there are around 2000 caves built into the sandstone rocks that are still lived in. We then had a walk around the old town, did a bit of food shopping then headed south easterly towards Almeria province deciding to park up in Tabernas before continuing to the coast tomorrow. En route we drove by Mini Hollywood (which was closed until April), which is where parts of over 100 Western films including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Magnificent Seven were filmed. Almeria is very dry with large expanses of rocky semi desert, just the right landscape for Westerns! Almeria is also a major fruit and veg growing area and has huge expanses of plastic greenhouses.

On Tuesday we headed south into the Cabo de Gata natural park and went to the visitor centre. The natural park covers a large area of coast land in Almeria province. We then drove on to the town of Cabo de Gata and decided to stop as we saw a couple of motorhomes parked up on the edge of town by the beach. Later on we went for a walk along the sea front, we weren’t impressed with the town at all. It was really grim. Even the sand was grim - grey not sand coloured! The next day we moved on to San Jose which was an improvement on Cabo de Gata.

We stayed in San Jose until Friday managing to catch up on plenty of washing as there was a self-service launderette in town which is quite unusual. We then drove along the coast stopping in Las Negras and Agua Amarga along the way (still in the Natural Park). The scenery was really lovely, the hills were covered in various unusual tall grasses and wild flowers. We then drove through Carboneras stopping to fill up with water and then drove around some very steep, windy, quite scary bends onto Mojacar. Mojacar is in two different parts, firstly we drove along Mojacar Playa and then went slightly inland to Mojacar Pueblo. The Pueblo part of Mojacar is high up on a hill with views stretching for miles and miles in all directions. We went for a walk up to El Castillo which is right at the top of the Pueblo to look at the views. We then went back to the Mojacar Playa which is the beach part of the town, it stretches for several miles along the coast but is only a few blocks wide with only low rise buildings, so it doesn’t feel too built up. We stayed at Mojacar Playa until Monday, on Sunday evening and through the night the weather changed and it rained torrentially until mid Monday morning. Given that this part of Spain can get half its yearly rainfall in one day we think it just did!

On Monday we drove inland a few miles to the hill top village of Bedar, we had a walk around and took it the views back to the sea. There were lots of lovely new villas dotted around the hills taking in the same sort of views. The weather up in Bedar was pretty cold and blustery, about 10 degrees C! It was time to ditch the shorts for a while in favour of jeans and coats. We then drove back to the coast and followed the coastal road and inland windy country roads until we reached Puntas de Calnegre, a tiny little village where we were able to park up on the beach next to a few other motorhomes. Ever since we arrived in Spain about a month ago we’ve been in the huge region of Andalucia, we’ve now moved into Murcia which is a small region between Andalucia and Valencia. On Tuesday we continued to drive around the coast, this area also has a lot of greenhouses over huge areas. We decided to stop at Puerto de Mazarron, a tourist town in a lovely location, but a bit run down. The next day we drove slightly inland following a route we’d got from the tourist office, the road started to get very rough so we parked up and went for a walk around. It was a lovely spot just behind the hills that were next to the coast, but unfortunately you couldn’t see the sea. We then drove back to the coast and into the little village of La Azohia which had lovely views across the bay to Mazarron. There was a lovely spot right next to the beach where some motorhomes were parked up and we were tempted to stay the night here but we’d decided we were going to try and move on significantly today so carried on our way.

We carried on driving east, through the middle of Cartagena and eventually to the Mar Menor, a 170km saltwater lagoon which is divided from the sea by a 22km of land called La Manga. This whole area was very touristy and we didn’t really like it, however we decided to drive up La Manga in the hope that it would get a little more rustic the further away we got. It did a bit, but not very. After going up and down La Manga we pulled over to cook a quick meal and set off again, heading to Los Alcazares which was on the coast with views over to La Manga. This area was much less touristy and we were able to park up on the sea front along with another motorhome. On Thursday morning we went for a walk into Los Alcazares, it was pretty quiet apart from a few joggers, walkers and cyclists. It was quite a misty day which was a shame as it would have been good to have had a better view of the Mar Menor and La Manga.

Granada to Barcelona - coming soon!!!

2009-04-10T08:22:00.001-07:00

Due to lack of decent Internet access the blog update has been delayed for a while!!

El Bosque to Granada

2009-03-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

On Friday both the tourist office and the natural park visitor office were open so we visited both. After arming ourselves with plenty of leaflets we set off on a walk up the river to the next door town of Benamahoma which was 5 km away having a picnic lunch along the way. It was another very hot day but luckily the route along the river was quite shady. Once in Benamahoma we walked up to the top of the village and sat and enjoyed the views, then began the walk back. Although the walk was along the river it was quite rocky for quite a lot of the way as the river runs along a narrow valley.

On Saturday morning there were about a dozen motorhomes parked up, a lot of them Spanish who had maybe come to the mountains for the weekend. We left El Bosque and headed east on into the natural park and on up into the mountains enjoying fantastic views along the way. Being the weekend there were lots of walkers, cyclists and motor bikers out. We stopped for an early lunch at a viewpoint near the top of one of the mountains. After lunch we carried on our way enjoying more mountain views until we reached the very picturesque village of Grazalema, we parked up and went for a walk around the village which was bustling with locals and tourists. Grazalema has the highest rainfall in the Iberian Peninsula, shops were selling postcards of the town in the winter showing pretty snow scenes, something we’ve not seen before.

We then carried on our way to Ronda arriving mid afternoon. Ronda is a very scenic town which attracts lots of tourists. It is built across a gorge which is 100 metres deep. The views over the surrounding area are stunning. We stayed in Ronda until Tuesday, then drove north eastwards to Fuente de Piedra which is the main breeding ground for flamingos in Spain, we had a walk around the visitor centre area and saw some flamingos, but they were too far away to take any decent photos. We then drove on up into the hills along lots of winding narrow roads to Cuevas San Marcos, for miles around all we could see is thousands and thousands of olive trees and occassionally an olive oil factory! On Wednesday we drove on to Priego de Cordoba and then on Thursday on to Granada. As we drove closer to Granada we could see the Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance. The photo to the right below shows the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains. We hope to go up into the mountains in the next few days.

Seville to El Bosque

2009-03-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a sunshine and showers sort of day. We walked through the Parque de Maria Luisa which is a large park in front of the Plaza de Espana and then to the Museo Artes y Costumbres Populares (Museum of Art and Costume) and then Museo Arqueologico (Archiological museum) which were both at the far end of the park. Between the two museums was the Plaza de America, another nice plaza which had hundreds of doves flying around. In the afternoon we went in search of a supermarket, we were getting low on fresh food but only bought the essentials as the prices were extortionate! Later on we went to get some water, taking 8 x 5 litre empty bottles with us. Luckily we’d found a tap about 5 minutes walk away earlier in the day so we didn’t even need to move the motorhome. So were able to fill up the tank with enough water to keep us going and will probably keep topping up each day now that we’ve found water so close by.

Thursday and Friday were both lovely sunny but breezy days and we did lots more touristy stuff, the main visit was to the Alkazar and gardens. It originated in 913 as a fort but later became a palace. The palace was similar to the Casa de Palatos that we’d visited a few days previously, but on a larger scale. The Alkazar is surrounded by lovely gardens. From what we’ve seen over the last few days, Seville is a really nice city with lots of lovely buildings, plazas and gardens/parks. It’s also appears to be completely flat, we haven’t seen a hill in days!

Saturday was a lovely sunny day and hot, probably the warmest day since we’ve been in Spain. We decided to leave Seville and head South to Jerez de la Frontera which is famous for being the home of sherry making and also Andalucia’s horse capital. During our time in Jerez we visited the flamenco museum and the Gonzalez Byass Bodega (sherry makers). The Bodega visit was really good and included a tour around several of the Bodega’s in Jerez via a mini tourist train. Gonzalez Byass are famous for Tio Pepe sherry (plus lots of other brands including Croft Original).

On Thursday we drove through some lovely countryside to Arcos de la Frontera and had a walk around. It’s billed as one of the prettiest villages in Andalucia, we thought it was ok but not fantastic although it had some lovely views over the countryside. We then drove onto El Bosque which is a pretty village in the hills with some nice walks. We tried to get some route information from the tourist office but it was closed, so we had a walk around the village and then stopped for a well needed drink in the shade. The last few days have been extremely hot, over 30 degrees in the motorhome. Amazingly the locals are still wearing lots of warm layers!

VRSA to Seville (Spain at last!)

2009-03-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

We left VRSA on Tuesday and drove a few miles north through a nature reserve consisting mainly of saltpans and onto Castro Marim. Although only a small town, it had a lovely castle and fort with great views across Portugal and Spain. We managed to catch up on plenty of washing as there was a very popular public laundry area which had dozens of motorhomes using it each day. It also had a very clean shower block so we both enjoyed a nice long shower! Before leaving Castro Marim on Saturday afternoon, we watched the start of one of the legs of the Algarve Cycle race which was held from 18 - 22 Feb at various locations across the Algarve. We then returned to VRSA as the Carnaval (Carnival) was being held on Sunday.

On Sunday morning we caught the ferry over to Ayamonte in Spain for a few hours before the Carnaval at 3pm. Ayamonte was a really nice town with some nice squares and lots of pavement cafes. It was very busy and a lot of people were in Fancy Dress ready for their own Carnaval. Before leaving Ayamonte we stopped for a coffee in one of the squares and watched the world go by. We returned to VRSA for a late lunch then into town for the Carnaval. By 3pm the main street was very crowded, the procession was large and very colourful with an Olympic theme. The procession carried on circling the main square for about 3 hours.

On Monday we stocked up on food and then drove back to Castro Marim, we were only going to stay there until Tuesday, but the library was closed both days (due to public holiday) so we stayed until Wednesday. We needed the library so we could get on the Internet to check out where we could hopefully obtain a spare part for our water pump. It’s been playing up for a while, Mark seems to have temporarily fixed it, but he’s not certain that it will hold out for long. On Wednesday afternoon we finally drove to Spain! We were sad to leave Portugal, but were excited about going somewhere new.

We crossed the bridge over to Spain, it was only a 5 minute drive from Castro Marim. The first thing we noticed is that the roads are definitely less bumpy, as soon as were were over the bridge the road improved! We decided to head to Isla Cristina which was not far from Ayamonte (which we’d visited on Sunday) but on the coast rather than the river. On the way we saw loads of pink flamingos on the salt pans, we hadn‘t seen flamingos at all in Portugal. We were a little nervous about finding somewhere suitable to park up (after speaking to others who had told us it was more difficult that Portugal), but we quickly found an area just outside the town with some other motorhomes in a clearing of pine trees and behind the sand-dunes. We went for a walk along the beach towards the town and then returned along the path through the pine wood We’ve lost an hour as we’re now in Spain, so instead of going dark at 6.30pm it went dark at 7.30pm which suits us fine! The next day we cycled into and around the town, stopping at the tourist office for some maps of the local area and Andalucia in general. Isla Cristina was in Carnaval mode too, their Carnaval ran for 3 weeks ending this coming weekend! We weren’t very impressed with the town, it was a bit grotty, but where we were parked up was nice so we stayed another night. We tried to find some chamelions as they can apparently be found in the pine woods in this area, but we didn’t have any luck.

On Friday we moved on and drove further than we had in weeks, eventually ending up in Moguer after driving eastwards along the coast through Islantilla and La Antilla, then slightly north to Lepe and Cartaya, then to Huelva and eventually to Moguer. None of the places en route grabbed our attention, so we kept going! The weather over the last few days has cooled down and the blue skies have gone. It’s refreshing to have it cooler for a while as it was getting quite hot in the motorhome at times! On Saturday morning we went for a walk around Moguer which was quite a pretty town and then in the afternoon decided to drive on to Seville. We drove round the centre of Seville for a couple of hours trying to find a suitable place to park, eventually by late afternoon we found an idea place behind the Plaza de Espana which was only a 10 to 15 minute walk from the centre of the city.

Sunday was quite overcast with sunny spells in the afternoon, we headed into the centre and after wandering around for a while went on a tour around the bullring and its museum. As the weather had brightened up we decided to have a tour round the city on an open top bus tour which was a great way to see a lot of the sights easily. Monday was incredibly wet, it didn’t stop raining all day long! We popped to the library for an hour in the morning and went on another open top bus ride late afternoon (a slightly different route) in the drizzle. We decided to move the motorhome to the front of the Plaza de Espana so we’re slightly closer to the centre in case it continues to rain over the next few days.

By the next morning the motorhome was well and truly surrounded by cars in all directions! Parking in Seville seems to be a free-for-all in the free parking areas. We managed to squeeze out of the drivers door, but only just. It appears that a lot of drivers leave their cars parked with the handbrake off and then pay unofficial parking attendents to keep an eye on their car and push it out of the way if another car needs to get out or in! Thankfully it was a dry day, so we made the most of it and walked miles and miles around the city. We visited the Casa de Pilatos which is a 16th Century palace which is covered in brightly coloured tiles. We also visited the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Art museum) which was in a lovely old building which was previously a convent. In the evening we attempted to drive to a tap that we'd seen a couple of days ago (we'd saved it on the sat nav so we could find it again easily) - however it was a complete nightmare, the sat nav kept getting confused about where we were (due to the tall buildings) and was directing us around in circles eventually ending up down very narrow old streets where I had to jump out and watch Mark through. We were dreading having to reverse back on ourselves as we had a lot of traffic behind us. As soon as were were able, Mark parked up and walked ahead to check the route back to a main road. We then gave up the stressful water search and returned as quickly as we could to our parking spot!

Tavira to Vila Real de Santo Antonio

2009-02-18T06:34:00.000-08:00

We left Tavira on Saturday after having two lovely sunny days where we cycled around the town and out to the salt pans in the Ria Formosa It was so nice on Friday that we had take-away BBQ chicken and chips for lunch sat outside watching the world go by. We decided on Saturday afternoon to head inland for a day or two and return to Tavira if we didn’t find water en route. We drove out to the Pego do Inferno (pool of hell) which was a small waterfall and had a walk around the area. We then drove onto Santa Catarina and parked alongside a stream by a local washing area. Mark was very keen and did a load of washing and hung it out while I cooked tea. The next morning we walked alongside the stream up into the countryside and up to the top of a hill where there were just a couple of houses on the top. The views around were lovely with hills behind and in front with the sea in the distance. We could see a hill in the foreground with windmills on it, so after lunch we walked up to the windmills. The views were even better from here as we were slightly closer to the sea and slightly higher too. We now have a very good supply of oranges, lemons and tangerines as we found some abandoned orchards on our morning walk. Later on Sunday afternoon we left Santa Catarina and drove back to Tavira via Moncarapacho, we had a brief walk around Moncarapacho but didn’t really like it so continued back to Tavira. Sunday was a lovely sunny day with no rain at all, so we hope this will continue.

After filling up with water we left Tavira on Monday morning and drove a few miles along the coast to the pretty tiny hamlet of Cacela Velha. We parked up and had a wander round, this appeared to be the last part of the Ria Formosa and we can, at last, see the sea easily. We then drove on a couple of miles further to Manta Rota which is a small town. The beach at Manta Rota is huge with lovely white sand and clean clear waters There was plenty of parking behind the sand dunes, hence there were loads of motorhomes parked up! From the carpark to the beach and along the top part of the beach are plenty of boarded walkways so we got the bikes off and went for a cycle round. Having spotted an English second hand bookshop while driving into the town we go and have a look, after a good long browse I left with a couple of books. I also bought a couple from the market in Tavira a couple of days earlier so have a good supply to keep me going for a while. It was another lovely warm sunny day and shorts and t-shirt are at last becoming the norm.

We stayed in Mana Rota until Wednesday lunchtime after enjoying glorious sunny weather and lots of walks and cycle rides. We even had a bit of a jog along the beach! On Wednesday morning we walked along the beach as far as Cacela Velha and hoped to get from the beach to the hamlet across the Ria Formosa but couldn’t as there was too much water to cross. After returning to the motorhome we then drove on down the coast to Monte Gordo which is the main tourist town on the Eastern Algarve and parked up with quite a few other motorhomes behind the sand dunes. We stayed at Monte Gordon until Friday and then moved on a couple of miles to Vila Real de Santo Antonio (VRSA).

VRSA is the most south easterly town in Portugal. From our parking spot next to the port, we can see Spain across the Rio (River) Guardiana and boats in the marina close by. A small ferry runs between the port and Spain. The weather for the last few days has continued to be beautifully sunny all day long. On Saturday we went to the monthly flea market which was held in a large square in the town, I bought a couple more books. We then went out for lunch and enjoyed a large jug of Sangria. On Sunday we cycled to the point where the river meets the sea and enjoyed views right up the coast to the west and to the north we could see the bridge that crosses over to Spain.

Olhao to Tavira

2009-02-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

We stayed in Loule until Saturday, longer than we expected, but Friday was very wet from lunchtime onwards right through the night so we decided to stay put. There wasn’t much to see in Loule but we were able to stock up on food and water and spend some time on the Internet in the library. There were quite a lot of shops in Loule, Mark bought some new walking boots and I bought a European adaptor so I’m now able to fully charge my laptop via the mains when I’m in a library (much quicker than charging it via the 12V in the motorhome). Saturday was a nice sunny day, we had a browse around the weekly market then walked up to a church up on a hill with views over part of the town and the sea in the far distance. We then had an early lunch and drove onto Sao Bras de Alportel, had a walk around for an hour or so and then drove onto Olhao and parked up in the port area with lots of other motorhomes.

During the night it was very wet and windy which kept us awake half of the night. At around 5.30am we heard a knock on the door, it was a French man alerting us to a street lamp above us which had become dislodged during the storms and was hanging by a cable. Mark moved us forward a few meters to get us out of any danger. Luckily the light hadn’t fallen off or caused any damage by the time we left Olhao by mid morning. Olhao hadn’t impressed us during a walk around the previous evening so we decided to move on to pastures new. We followed the coast road and stopped at Fuzeta which was an improvement on Olhao. We went for a couple of short walks between rain showers! Olhao and Fuzeta (and many other towns and villages both to the east and west) are on the Ria Formosa which is a protected lagoon area which came about after an earthquake in the 1700s! Although the lagoon areas are often quite nice, it makes it difficult to see the sea.

On Monday we moved on again, calling at Santa Luzia en route. Santa Luzia was a pretty little village on the Ria Formosa, it was very small though so it only took about half an hour to have a look around. We then moved on the short distance to Tavira and parked up near to the town centre with lots of other motorhomes. Luckily Monday was a nice sunny day, so we enjoyed plenty of time out and about the town. There are loads of motorhomes parked up in several different areas of Tavira, it’s a nice town with plenty to explore. Tuesday morning was overcast, we did a bit of cycling around but got rained off unfortunately, it looks like it could be rainy for quite a few days, but at least it’s still quite mild and we definitely don’t have any snow! It's now Thursday and we're still in Tavira, it's been a lovely sunny day today (at last!)

And... more of the Algarve...

2009-01-30T04:56:00.000-08:00

We decided to go Portimao for gas and return to Silves for another night, eventually leaving Silves on Sunday morning after stocking up with food. We decided to follow a route shown in a leaflet we picked up in Monchique, the first point being the Barragem do Arade, a dam surrounded by lovely countryside. We stopped for lunch, had a walk round then partially drove round the bendy narrow road alongside the dam and then onto the scenic country road to Sao Bartolomeu de Messines. Although we’ve seen orange and lemon trees throughout Portugal, this part of the Algarve seems to have more than ever, with fields taken over with hundreds and hundreds of trees. We’ve also recently started noticing almond trees as they’re in blossom at the moment. We have a bit of a walk around Sao Bartolomeu de Messines but there isn’t anything of interest to us so we move on to the next place on the route, Paderne. We park up, go for a walk and fill up with water.

The next day we drive on towards the castle which is a couple of miles out of Paderne, deciding to stop at a local washing facility when we see 4 or 5 other motorhomers there. It’s a lovely sunny but windy day, so we decide to do some washing, hang it out, have lunch then go on a walk. The pedestrian route to the castle is signposted, we walk through farmland that seems to have been abandoned. At the foot of the castle is a board giving a couple of walking options, we take the route that takes us along the river, across a ford, past a waterwheel, over a medieval bridge and then up the hill to the castle. The views around us were lovely, the only thing that spoilt it slightly was the sound of the motorway in the distance. We return to the motorhome just over 2 hours later.

On Tuesday we travelled a few miles on to Alte, a small, pretty village on a hillside. Unfortunately major road works were going on in the village centre with diggers and lorries everywhere while the roads were being re-cobbled. We have a good walk around, taking in the “small fountain” and the “large fountain” return to the motorhome for lunch and then go for another walk stopping along the way for a coffee and a traditional Portuguese custard tart. We found some lemons to pick so cooked some nice lemon and garlic chicken with potato wedges and salad for tea :-)

The next day we drove to the Rocha de Pena area and parked in the little village of Penima. The Rocha de Pena is a protected cliff area with a walk up and around it. We did the walk which took about 2.5 hours, longer than we expected as it was only 5km, but a lot of it was uphill and quite rocky. We didn’t start the walk until nearly midday, so we were starting to get a bit hungry! Luckily towards the end of the walk was a café so we stopped for a toastie and then continued. We then drove on towards Loule, attempted to get through a very narrow village road in Pena and changed our mind. Mark reversed into a narrow side road, but then when he tried to go forward the road was just too steep and wonky, the front passenger wheel just wouldn’t grip and just spun round and round. We decided to dump the water that we’d got onboard in the hope that getting rid of some weight at the back would allow the front wheels to grip, but no such luck. In the end we decided to look for help! Found a couple of Portuguese men who didn’t speak any English. Luckily one of them had a 4WD vehicle with a winch and was able to tow us up and out of our predicament. It was a quite stressful!! We gave them some money for their trouble, without their help we’d still be there…

We drove on towards Loule stopping off at Querenca, which seemed to be very quiet and deserted. There didn’t seem to be much to it apart from a church and a couple of cafes/restaurants, so we took a couple of photos and carried on our way. We eventually arrived in Loule early evening, parked up and will wait until tomorrow until we take a proper look around. Luckily we’ve got some drinking water to keep us going until we can find some water tomorrow!

More of the Algarve

2009-01-23T05:30:00.000-08:00

The next day we moved on to Sagres which is right at the South Westerly tip of Portugal. It was quite disappointing and we really didn’t understand why loads of motorhomers are parked up there. We moved on the next day, Thursday, unfortunately it didn’t stop raining all day.

We headed along the east coast and drove through several small coastal villages before stopping at Praia de Luz. Parking for motorhomes was banned from the seafront, so we parked in a quiet residential area just behind. We went for a walk down to the beach and into the town, calling in at the local supermarket that sold a good selection of British products at extortionate prices! The next day was overcast, but dry, we walked up through the town up to the cliff to the east and then back past lots of big villas overlooking the town with the coast in the distance.

Saturday was a lovely sunny day, we had a long walk along the coastal path to Burgau (a village to the west of Luz) passing quite a few walkers going the opposite way. It was lunchtime when we got to Burgau so we stopped for a toastie at a busy café (full of brits) overlooking the sea then walked back. After recovering from our walk we ambled down to the seafront at Luz late afternoon, which was quite bustling. Luz has been a really nice place to stay, but we’ve decided to move on to Lagos tomorrow.

On Sunday we filled up with water and headed 10-15 minutes down the coast to Lagos, went via a couple of supermarkets to stock up and then headed to the marina and parked up close by with about a dozen other motorhomes. Lagos is larger and busier than we like, so we doubt we’ll stay long. First impressions are that it’s nowhere near as nice as Luz! We have a bit of a wander around the old town, most places were closed as it’s Sunday. Early next morning we decide that we’ll move on from Lagos, so we head to the beach at Alvor and then outskirts of Portimao. By lunchtime we’d decided that this part of the Algarve is far too built up and not very attractive unless you‘re on the coast, so we headed inland to the mountains to the town of Monchique. It was only about a 40 minute drive from Portimao, but it could be a world away. The drive to Monchique was quite bendy and scenic. We parked up in next to the aerodrome which was recommended by the tourist office, a couple of German motorhomes joined us. We stayed in Monchique a couple of days. The weather was quite changable, mostly sunshine and showers with some hail storms thrown in!

On Wednesday we filled up with water and headed to Silves. Silves is nearer to the coast, but far enough away to not be over commercialed! It's a really nice old town with lots of cobbled streets and pavement cafes. We visited the castle which has some lovely views over the town and the rolling hills beyond. Whilst up high at the castle, we spotted several areas where large groups of motorhomes were parked, so later in the day moved to a large parking area near the river. We went out on Wednesday evening to a traditional Portuguese restaurant, pictured on the right (Mark had sardines and I had chicken piripiri) and some very nice Vino Verde (green wine). It's a Portuguese wine that is slightly sparkling and tastes a bit like champagne.

Thursday rained pretty much all day, although it stayed warm. Friday is dry and warm but overcast. We'll probably be moving on later today as we need to start our search for some gas before it runs out...

Onto the Algarve

2009-01-13T10:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday was another lovely sunny day, we filled up with water then made our way to the campsite to use the launderette. We left the washing and then went to the market and supermarket. After lunch we drove out to a nearby port before returning to collect our nice clean washing.

Sunday was the warmest day we’ve had since Christmas, we went for a bike ride down to the harbour and then over to the other side of the estuary. The main road was luckily nice and wide and very quiet but quite hilly! We then turned off onto a country road down to the coast and continued cycling over a boarded walkway over the sand dunes. We stopped at lunchtime for a picnic in the sand dunes (picture to the right shows the view from our picnic spot) overlooking the estuary and Vila Nova de Milfontes. On returning to the motorhome we had a couple of cups of tea and recovered from our cycle ride, according to the sat nav we had cycled just over 11 miles! So we think we’ll be saddlesore tomorrow… Mark was looking a bit pink after being out in the midday sun! Inside the motorhome it was 30 degrees C, opening the sky lights soon cooled it down. Later in the afternoon we went on a short bike ride up to the lighthouse, chained up the bikes and went for a walk along the beach and into the sand dunes. As always, lovely views whichever way we looked. Picture to the right shows the view from the motorhome at sunset.

By Monday we decided to move on from Vila Nova de Milfontes, we drove about 20 minutes down the coast to Almograve and had an early lunch before starting off on a walk. We’d picked up a route map a couple of days earlier from the tourist office in Milfontes for a 5 mile walk. Although it wasn’t a very long walk, it was quite hard going as the majority of it was over sand dunes and beaches. We then drove onto Zambojeira do Mar, a small town on the coast for the night.

It rained heavily in the night and was very windy too! By mid morning it calmed down and it turned into quite a nice day, cloudier than recently but nice and mild. We left Zambojeira do Mar and headed down to the Algarve stopping for shopping en route finally stopping at Vila do Bispo (mostly because it’s got free wi-fi in the town centre!!) The wi-fi is a bit sporadic though, so apologies if I don't reply to all emails!

Back to the coast

2009-01-09T11:36:00.000-08:00

Monday started as a chilly, dull, grey day and pretty much stayed like that all day! We decided to move back to Alcacer do Sal for a day or two as we didn‘t really like it at the barragem, so moved on after readjusting the satellite. We managed to get the UK channels we wanted at the barragem and tested the same settings when we got back to Alcacer, it still worked! We had perfect BBC, ITV, etc etc both sound and vision! But by the evening, unfortunately we had less luck, we could only receive the vision (in a very pixelated form) and hardly any sound. So we’ll try again in the morning to see if we have any luck. So we’re back to watching Portuguese TV through the analogue aerial, at least there’s a National Geographic program on everyday at 9pm for 45 minutes which keeps Mark happy! By Tuesday we manage to get sound and vision again after some more tweaking. It’s definitely not a case of being able to turn the TV on and it works… that would be a luxury! Even when we manage to get the TV working, we’re very limited to how much we can watch it at the moment as we have to rely on how much our leisure battery is charged. As we haven’t been driving much lately, we are solely reliant on the solar panel for energy, and as the sun hasn’t been shining much lately we don’t get much charge! Luckily the sun shone all day on Tuesday so we had quite a lot of charge for TV viewing in the evening.

Unfortunately on Wednesday morning we find that the gas is low a couple of days earlier than expected, so we can’t even boil the kettle for our breakfast cuppas as the flow is so slow! So we fill up with gas, water, food and head on our way through the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve, through loads of pine trees growing out of the sand (pine kernals are one of the main crops grown in the area, together with rice). Cork oak is also grown and along the way we see lots of trees which have been partially stripped of their bark for cork. We stop at Carrasqueira, an old fishing village with several traditional houses made out of rushes and wood, we have a bit of a wander round then head onto Troia, then Coasta de Santa Andre finally ending up at Sines late afternoon. Some parts of Sines are quite nice (the old town) but newer parts have quite a lot of graffiti. The next day is lovely and sunny and we go for another walk around the town, have lunch and then head on down the coast. Much of the coastline of Sines is industrial (power stations and petrol), but once a few miles down the road we entered the national park that stretches down to the western Algarve and the scenery was really beautiful. We drove past lots of secluded, unspoilt beaches until we reached Porto Covo, we parked up on the outskirts of the village along with 7 or 8 other motorhomes. We were up on cliff looking over to the Sines on our right and Porto Covo on our left. We then went for a long walk into the town then back along various beaches. Porto Covo is a traditional village with nearly house painted in traditional white and blue, it's nice, but doesn’t have a lot going on, so we‘ll be on our way tomorrow.

On Friday morning we drive just 20 minutes down the coast to Vila Nova de Milfontes, which is partly on the coast and partly on the estuary of the River Mira. It’s a medium sized town which is well kept and has a nice feel, so we’ll stay here a couple of days we expect. There‘s quite a few motorhomes parked up along the sea front (parking overnight is banned but it looks like no-one takes any notice of that!). We had a long wander round the town and visited both of the campsites in search of a launderette. One of the sites has a self-service launderette and will let non-campsite users use it, so we’ll be heading there tomorrow. The last couple of days have been lovely and sunny, so the solar panel has been working well for us. In the evening we walked into town and found a nice bar with wi-fi, so have been able to upload the blog!

It’s now 4 weeks since we arrived at Dover ready to set sail on Saturday 13 December 2008. So far we have driven nearly 1900 miles and have followed to route shown in yellow on the map below.

To the barragem and back...

2009-01-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

It rained heavily in the night, but was brighter with the odd downpour during the day. We explored the town, walking up to the castle. Along the way we saw rice paddy fields, herons, stalks, huge cactus hedges and a community clothes washing area! Luckily we also found the local library which had internet access, so it was good to be able to catch up with emails, research and blog updating.
Thanks everyone for all your emails and messages, please keep them coming :-)

Later in the afternoon we invited our new friends over for a cuppa. For the first time we opened the habitation door (the door into the living area). Up until then we'd used the space by the door as a bit of a storage area, but thought we'd better be civilised and tidy up as we had visitors! Dennis and Kath gave us advice about a problem we have with our satellite dish and as a result Mark is going to try and get up on the roof and adjust the LNB tomorrow.

The next day (Sunday) is misty and quite cold early on, but by mid morning it was a lovely sunny day. Dennis and Kath popped over to say goodbye, we left soon after and go to a nearby barragem (dam) that they’d told us about. We went via the local supermarket then headed out into the country and arrived at the dam mid afternoon, by now the weather had turned a bit gloomy. There were quite a few motorhomes parked up, apparently some live at the dam all year round. There’s a restaurant and shower/toiler and water facilities (we took one look at the showers/toilets and quickly decided to keep using our own facilities!)

As we’d removed the ladder off the back of the motorhome to allow us to fit our bike rack, we had to be inventive and find a way for Mark to get on the roof. So we drove up alongside a large recycling bin and he climbed up using that. So with me in the motorhome watching the screen, Mark adjusted the LNB on the satellite dish. Due to moving so far south, the LNB needed to be moved by around 30 degrees. For the last couple of weeks we’ve only been able to receive a very small amount of TV channels (such as BBC News, Sky News, CNN, S4C, Radio 2 and 4 and BBC Parliament!!) So we were keen to do whatever we could to try and get more lighthearted entertainment. However we need to persevere and try again tomorrow. It appears that our dish may be a tad too small to pick up the channels we want whilst in Portugal and Southern Spain.

Rainy Portugal!

2009-01-03T07:07:00.000-08:00

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!

Onto the west coast of Portugal

2008-12-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

We stay in Belmonte until Tuesday as it was such a nice place, the sun continued to shine. We moved location from the castle as a huge bonfire was being built and we were starting to get in the way, so moved into the town. The next day we were wedged in by parked traffic, but were soon able to get out.

We headed off soon after mid-day over the Serra Da Estrella mountains and down the other side. The views were amazing both en route and at the top, the photos we‘ve taken don‘t do justice to what we actually saw. The roads were a little scary at times, but we live to tell the tale!

We saw quite a bit of snow when we got to the top. It took longer to go over the mountains than we expected due to only being able to go at about 10mph for much of the way therefore we didn’t get to Coimbra as we hoped, so we parked up somewhere en route.

We headed to Coimbra first thing on Wednesday and parked up by the university, had a bit of a wander round and then drove onto Condexia. We had a walk around the old ruins and then headed to Nazare which is supposed to be a nice old fishing village. We got there about 4pm and left by 5.30pm as we weren’t impressed, it was tacky and scruffy and not where we wanted to spend Christmas eve night (apart from it had a nice sunset as we were leaving...)

So we headed down the coast to Sao Martinho do Porto which was only about 15 minutes away but 100 times nicer. We parked up on the sea front and went for a walk around and found somewhere to eat (at last!) and had a couple of drinks. Our Portuguese is getting a bit better and we at least know how to say Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Goodbye, Thank-you, Yes and No! We bought some drinking water today as we’re getting a bit low and the last thing we want is to run out of water on Christmas Day!!

On Thursday we woke to the sound of waves crashing onto the beach which was unusual given it was Christmas Day (photo shows the view from the motorhome). We moved the motorhome to a side street one block away from the sea front due to daytime parking restrictions of 2 hours and went for a long walk around the town with a stop on the way back at a beach front café for a coffee.

We found a water supply at the market, so we’ll fill up the water tank tomorrow. After some lunch at the motorhome we went for our first cycle ride, away from the town across the sand dunes. Luckily there was a boarded walkway/cyclepath the whole way or we’d have got nowhere fast - sand is impossible to cycle on!

After cycling back we had another walk around town. Throughout the afternoon there were loads of people out and about walking or driving along the sea front, the cafes and shops were very busy too, quite strange for Christmas day. We returned to the motorhome early evening and cooked our Christmas dinner - turkey, mash, broccoli and gravy with Christmas cake for pudding.

We stayed at Sao Martinho do Porto until Saturday and planned to drive to Estoril. It was a good day to drive on as it was overcast and quite chilly!

We didn't get far on our travels before noticing a large walled town on a hill in the distance, as we got closer it seemed very busy so we decided to park up and take a look.

We quickly found a car park specially for motorhomes with about 20 motorhomes already parked up. The medieval town of Obidos was well worth a visit, we took a walk around the rampards which were open on the one side with quite a long drop below! We had a wander around the old town and had a cherry liquor which seems to be a traditional drink of the area. We then drove on for half an hour or so and parked up in a town square for the night.

Into Portugal

2008-12-22T02:26:00.000-08:00

We manage to get LPG the next morning and with a full tank drive onto Ciudad Rodrigo (an old walled town). We park up just outside the entrance - the motorhome is too tall to fit through the arched entrance. The tourist office is right next to us, but by the time we have some lunch the tourist office is closed for siesta time - we need to remember this whilst in this part of the world! We wander around for a while in the afternoon and then again in the evening, some locals are putting on a performance to music which we don't understand, but we watch for a while. We try to find somewhere to eat and manage to establish that the locals don't eat until later, so restaurants don't open until 8.30 - 9.00pm, so another failed attempt for us to eat out! We decide to get some cake from a nice cake shop to stave off our hunger until we get back to the motorhome, we won't be doing that again though, as two slices came to £7.00!

We wake on Sunday to freezing fog, thankfully we have plenty of gas so the heater is put on full blast. The motorhome warms up quickly. We head towards Portugal and just before we reach the border the sun starts to shine brightly. Unlike the border between France and Spain, the Spanish/Portuguese border has border control with serveral booths across the road, however we were able to drive straight through - maybe they don't bother on a Sunday! As soon as we were through the border we were waved down and given a bag of Portuguese newspapers plus a mobile phone SIM and a pair of stripy socks! Unlike France and Spain there were "Welcome to Portugal" signs to welcome us. The sun continued to shine and we decided to head to Belmonte as our Camperstop book said that there was parking beneath the castle and water available. Belmonte is just below the Serra Da Estrella which is the highest mountain range in Portugal. It was quite a steep climb to Belmonte but it was worth it as it's a lovely little town. We parked up on the main street, had some lunch then went for a wander. We found a good place to park right by the castle and found a water fountain in a small park close by. After our wander we popped to a busy pavement cafe and watched the world go by. It is a really, really warm day. We return to the motorhome and move it to the place we found earlier, fill up with water and put the water heater on to have much needed showers. Mark has bought a rechargable shaver today, so hopefully he'll be able to have a very overdue shave once it's charged up (he's not shaved for over a week as his shaver doesn't want to work with the inverter). Our new parking spot is the most picturesque that we've had so far, overlooking the Serra Da Estrela mountains with their snowy peaks on one side and the castle to the other.

Strangely Portugal is an hour behind Spain, so we're back on the same time as the UK, gaining an extra hour today. Later we try to find somewhere to eat, but as usual we give up and cook for ourselves! The town has many bars, but they only offer snacks.

Dover to Spain

2008-12-19T10:55:00.000-08:00

We caught a ferry from Dover on a wet, windy December morning to Dunkirk where the weather was pretty similar! We spent the next 3 days driving through France as quickly as we could stopping overnight in small towns en route. Much of France was very flat with ditches instead of hedges, we saw lots of wind turbines and mistletoe as we travelled through the countryside .

By Wednesday we decided to spend less time travelling and do some sightseeing. We drove from our overnight stop to Biarritz and parked up on the sea front, we spent a couple of hours wandering around this nice coastal town, albeit very quiet in December.

We then drove the short distance from Biarritz to Hendaye (the last French town on the west coast) and parked up at an Aire with half a dozen other motorhomes, we‘ve started to see more motorhomes over the last couple of days. On Thursday we drive the few miles into Spain and take the coast road which takes us through forests and mountains and lots of lovely scenery. We’re now getting short of LPG (which we use for heating, cooking and the fridge) and wish that we’d filled up in France, luckily the weather has been milder the last couple of days so we’ve not needed to put the heater on in the evening. Hopefully we’ll find somewhere that sells LPG tomorrow, before we completely run out! We’ve now clocked up just over 1000 miles since leaving Shropshire a week ago.

On Friday we drove to the centre of Bilbao and drove round in circles in an attempt to park as we wanted to visit the Guggenheim museum, we gave up in the end as nowhere seemed suitable to park a motorhome. We drove on through Spain towards Portugal and directed the sat nav to the one place along our route that sold LPG. We arrived at 4pm to find it was closed, we eventually used various books to write down some questions in Spanish and took our scribbles into the business next door, no-one spoke English but they helped and showed me the Repsol website showing that it should be open until 8pm. We’ve decided to stay in this town (Valladolid) for the night and try again tomorrow as it’s apparently open from 9pm - 2pm. We’ve had lots of sunshine during our drive today, so hopefully that will continue. Hopefully we should reach Portugal at some point tomorrow and in another couple of days we should get to the coast.

We've made it to Dover!

2008-12-12T15:57:00.000-08:00

We left Shropshire yesterday and travelled towards a little village near Northampton so it would be nice and easy to get the satellite fixed this morning. It took longer to fix than expected (3 hours!) but at least it's sorted and the TV works again at last. Then it was onward to Dover... a long, long drive, especially as we were hitting the M25 on a Friday afternoon, very bad timing! We had a couple of breaks (one to Sainsburys to stock up on lots of baked beans, tea bags and ketchup!) and another later to cook some food - better than the KFC we had last night :-) We finally got to Dover just after 10pm. It's a crazily busy place with loads of lorries parked up on the way in and even more queueing up to get to the ferries. We've found a place to park up near the town centre in a nice residential area, luckily one of the houses has been kind enough to leave their broadband unsecured and therefore let me use it. We're hoping to catch a Sea France ferry tomorrow (Saturday) at 12.35pm, but for one reason or another the website won't let me finish our booking, so I need to ring them in the morning... Hopefully places will still be available. If not, there appears to be plenty more sailings throughout the weekend. We'd like to arrive in France while it's still daylight so that Mark can get used to driving on the right. Probably a good idea, especially after the long day driving he's had today. Anyway, enough for now, time I got some sleep! See you in France :-)

First post

2008-11-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

This is my first ever blog post and is really just a test to try and work out what I'm doing! The idea is to set up a blog to record our travels around Europe in our motorhome. We're still a few weeks away from the off, as we're patiently waiting for Mark's house sale to go through. We're hoping that by the end of this month we should be able to set sail and head towards the sun. That's enough for now, time to work out how to add photos...