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….
After months of desert-like conditions in Central Portugal (we had no rain at all even in September), a week of rain was forecast for the first week of October. Therefore we decided to make the best of our last day of sun and headed to Nazaré. It was our first time there and well worth it. Although the summer crowds had gone there were enough people about to give it a bit of life. We didn’t actually make it to…
Our friend Sarah (an American, living in Paris whom we met in Jordan) was over for a short stay, so it was the perfect time for our first visit to Tomar, home of the Knights Templar of Crusader fame. Having done little research prior to our trip, in many ways made it even more enjoyable. The town itself, with a pedestrianised centre full of old buildings, narrow lanes and an impressive town square is charming enough – and we were…
It was a glorious sunny day, not too hot, so we took time off from Casa Azul to stretch our legs, and hunt for a few geocaches near the schist village of Talasnal. There are a number of Schist villages in the region, ‘schist’ being a reference to the slate of which all the houses are made. The villages themselves are all fairly inaccessible in the hills to the East of us but all in stunning mountain and forested scenery….
Paul de Arzila is a little known conservation area near Coimbra and the Mondego river. We spent some hours down there observing birds in March including the Marsh Harrier and herons. The villages nearby are also quite interesting with a number of old churches. Marsh Harrier Purple Heron Grey Heron More photos here
We only spent a few days in Porto but it was enough to enjoy this beautiful city. Not as chic or as gentrified as Lisbon, Porto had a real old world charm. The down at heel suburbs by the river had an almost Dickensian feel to them. One of the highlights of the holiday was to sit on the waterfront sipping a cold white port enjoying the warm early evening sunshine. Here’s the view from the bridge over the river…