May is when Jackie’s parents generally come to stay for a couple of weeks and therefore our chance to get a few days away for a camping trip. We chose the Alentejo again (we went to Marvao last year) because it would be warm, there would be plenty of places to take the dogs walking, there are a few interesting towns and we could enjoy the last of the spring wild flowers. We camped at Camping Rosario which turned out…
We had been putting off going to the Algarve primarily because it is the most popular area of Portugal by far. So I was worried it would be packed with foreign tourists, expats and all that goes with them. However, a good friend of ours had a holiday home in a less-touristed part of the coast and so we thought we would give it a try. After all you can’t malign a place properly until you’ve been there yourself, can…
This website contains photos from some of the most exotic destinations on the planet. Controversially (at least to my family) one exotic destination was missing up till now – the island where I was born and grew up. Although I live abroad, I go back every summer. Perhaps my time away means I appreciate it even more when I come back. Anyway, here are a few snaps of my last trip back. Apparently it was one of the worst summer’s…
We occasionally go for walks with a group of friends known appropriately as ‘Portugal friends’. Obviously the hairy one is a popular participant in these events, the most recent of which took place not that long ago. As we hadn’t been for a while there were lots of enthusiastic greetings for the hairy one, accompanied with cries of ‘oh gordo, gordo’. I think it was a compliment but it actually means ‘fat’. As Labradors (as well as some of us…
An unusually warm September meant that we could get away for a final weekend camping trip for the summer. The destination was a place we had intended to visit many months before – Salamanca. We weren’t disappointed. It was a three hour drive to the border and then once over we stopped for lunch at the first major town in Spain – Ciudad Rodrigo. After Ciudad Rodrigo we headed East for a further hour across the plains to Salamanca. We…
One of the best things about Central Portugal and amongst the first things we discovered since arriving here were the river beaches. All over Central Portugal the local municipalities have selected a local beauty spot and improved upon it. In the main they have dammed a river, or partially dammed it to make a swimming area and then included some facilities, a cafe usually and picnic areas and places to lie out in the sun. All are unique in their…
We’d just bought a new supa dupa BIG tent and so to test it out we went up to the Serra da Estrela for a night. We weren’t disappointed – either with the landscape which was stunning, or the tent which was massive. Only problem was, I had mislaid the stopper to our blow up mattress so it was a night spent on the hard ground. Just as well it was just the one night. The campsite we found, Covao…
Recently we had friends staying at Casa Azul and that meant we could leave them to look after the chickens, bees, veggies and the hairy one (we only had Jussi then) and enjoy a few days camping. Everyone we knew in Portugal said the Minho region was gorgeous so we decided to head up north. On the way to the campsite we stopped for lunch in the historic town of Amarante. No photos of the delicious roast lamb we enjoyed…
On our short hop to Spain in March we passed a beautiful area of Portugal right on the border. We said then that we would return and we have. We camped for a few days in view of the fortified hilltop village of Marvao. https://www.globalwanderings.co.uk/countries/portugal/marvao/1.JPG Marvao is a beautifully restored old village. Unfortunately in the winter it lies above the cloud line and so is cold and misty and in the summer it boils under the fierce sun. Therefore its…
Portugal is rather a thin country so it’s a similar distance from our house to the sea, or to Spain. Mostly we go to the sea but occasionally we have hopped over to the other side for a few days change of scenery in Spain. This was such a visit. Although the border is long, there are only three or four crossings and the population on the Spanish side at least very sparse with only a few towns of interest….