WAITING FOR CUSTOMERS

.....Use of straw hat included

LUNCH ON THE BEACH

Easter Sunday
Erromardie
St.Jean De Luz

Easter Saturday....bar by the campsite

6 oysters and a glass of wine for €10......Erromardie plage at St.Jean De Luz. The campsite is next to the bar on the left.

TRIALS & TRIBULATONS....Things don't always run smoothly

25th March 2016

The problem at Ribadesella was stopping at campsites halfway up mountains, which was then repeated at San Sebastian.  The first site had fantastic views of the the Picos da Europa, a rather striking mountain range close to the coast, especially from the pitches on the higher terraces. OK,  so I should have walked up there to check out the terrain and size of pitches but as the place was empty, having oly opened that day for the season I thought it would be fine to drive up. Big mistake. We're too long with too big a rear overhang, especially with the bike carrier to try negotiating tight uphill bends. When we got up there, the pitches were too small so I had to turn around and managed to crunch the front skirt when dropping into an unnoticed gutter whilst reversing. Not major damage but irritating damage just the same. We then had to find somewhere to park that wasn't too soft because it rained a lot and the ground was grass. Anyway we walked down to town on the sea which was pleasant but closed. Very striking houses on the promenade. Long walk back up to the site. Rained overnight and ground was v.wet so we decided to leave. Picked out a nice site on outskirts of San Sebastian without realising it was on steep side of hillside. Very tight access to pitches and unable to get van level as no room to manoeuvre onto ramps, resulting in the occasional problem of waste water from bathroom sink backing up into shower which is full of dirty washing bags and only rescued just in time. Spent some time under the van trying to sort the pipes out without success despite getting very wet from dirty water. Also discovered that I had managed to lose the locking water cap somewhere, probably not seating it properly and it working loose. Fortunately have spare emergency cap but not lockable. Weather ore cast bad so decided o move after one night, both feeling fraught.
So drove to St.Jean de Luz. Long delay at Spanish / French border with dozens of gun toting police strung across the road at the toll station which is the de facto border.......this was 10.30am Tuesday morning and 2 hours after the Belgian atrocity. The hundreds of lorries were being funnelled into one lane and stretched back for miles but they weren't being searched, just watched . Don't know what they were hoping to achieve........
At last a great site at St.Jean de Luz. Nice big flat,level pitches,  20m from the sea......high tide at 4am is very noisy, big rollers.  Another reason for leaving San Sebastian was the discovery that prices went to high season on 23-30 March ie from €17 to €35 per night. This site is €15 until July which might explain why it is very busy for easter. Lovely walks along the cliffs to town about 1.5miles  or towards  Biaritz the other way. Also a cycle path in both directions so staying here till after easter.

BOARDWALKS BY THE SEA AND PORTO

20th.March 2016

The Obitur site was very good and not very busy, but then everyone is heading south to the warmth of the algarve. The weather warmed enough for a long walk along the beach and a bus ride to metropolis of Figueira da Foz which is a pleasant town where Wellington first landed at the start of his iberian campaign but after 5 days we decided to head for the bright lights of Opporto, not having been there since 2010. Found an excellent little campsite at Vila Chã, about 20km north and on the metro line. The site is about 200 m from the beach which has about 10 miles of boardwalk from Vila do Conde along which one is also urged to cycle and which is great fun......although we were hampered at one stage by a school outing of several hundred teenagers who completely ignored our attempts to pass through despite various adults shouting at them. In the end we gave up and popped into a bar for a drink whilst they dispersed, only to discover a very pleasant restaurant at which we had lunch. This boardwalk must have cost a fortune to install all along the dunes and from various signs was paid for by the EU and a jolly good example it is of money well spent.
The campsite organised a taxi to the metro station, having advised not to leave the bikes there for a day although I think it would have been OK, and the taxi was only €6. They also supplied detailed instructions on how to buy the right tickets but even the assistance of 2 Portuguese ladies failed to produce any legal means of transport from the ticket machines. Our instructions warned that they would not accept foreign credit / debit cards which proved correct, one machine would only accept coins of which I did not have enough (2 return tickets were €11.40) and the second machine wouldn't take notes which the ladies said was a fairly regular occurrence when it hadn't been emptied. One of the nice ladies then said she would stay with us until the first major stop in Porto where we should dismount and buy tickets, and she would be able to explain to any inspectors why we had no tickets and save us from being sent to prison.. this worked well and no inspectors jumped on looking for fare dodgers so we were able to get off at a major station, buy correct tickets and continue legally. Apart from the obvious, the actual metro tram system was brilliant. So we wandered from the top of the city to the bottom, in and out of churches and things until we reached the river and then spent 30 minutes choosing a restaurant for a splendid lunch in the sunshine in a lovely setting. I like Porto, a very walkable and pretty city ; and full of shops selling interesting port.
The campsite shop also sold port and did me a good deal on 6 bottles of Offley 's Tawny for €30, which was better than the Intermarché or Pingodoce supermarkets and just was what I was looking for...
The weather forecast for the weekend was foul so we decided to move on Friday,  to near Vigo. Nice trip over mountains covered in mist and fog.
We still have 2 weeks before needing to be back to Calais, but the plan of slowly meandering up through Spain and France is being thwarted by the weather which is looking cold and wet across Northern Europe or the next 10 days. Stopped outside Vigo at a small town called Arcade which had lovely aire on the quayside of a marina, overlooking a sea inlet and resembling a fjord. ...to get us in the mood for June. ...nice views, esp at night with lights over the water and an illuminated suspension bridge.
Good to get back on decent roads in Spain. The Portuguese roads may now be the worst in Europe as they try to get you on horribly expensive toll roads.
Drove from Vigo up to Coruna, passing Santiago de Compostheap of which I have written previously and will never mention again and a lovely scenic drive in mainly sunshine up to coast and along to Gijon. Campsites in its neck of the woods don't seem to open until easter (next week), but a couple near Ribadesella opened on the 18th March  so here we are, now in the rain at Camping Ribadesella which has decent wifi so that with the wonderful Wifi booster and Filmon, we got to watch  (almost uninterruptedly) England win the grand slam .....for which Don now owes me a bottle of brandy.

The Gf beats a hasty retreat. ..

The GF contemplating a dip.....

Lawrence and Arabia...

....a selfie in the sun on Sunday.

Riddle of the sands

...A strange encounter on the beach at Figueiras.

UPWARDS & ONWARDS

10th. March 2016

Maybe too far north too early,  fooled by the early fine weather.  Not that it's cold, just windy and the wind is straight from the north with the jet stream vertically above portugal until next Tuesday when the wind does a 180° shift. Out of the wind it's lovely and warm but on the beach here at Figueiras de Foz which runs N-S for about a hundred miles the effect is an icy blast which cuts you in half walking upwards
We left Milfontes on Monday 7th and headed to Fatima to say our prayers at another of Europe's holy catholic sites. They very thoughtfully provide an Aire right behind the basilica which we had intended to use overnight after visting the shrine of the visitation but as we stepped from the van we realised that we were well above sea level in the hills and the temperature had dropped 5° and the wind increased 20mph so we decided on a quick visit and press on.
This is a weird place. The basilica is quite imposing,  on high in the centre of a semi circular colonnade which stretches a 100 metres either side. In front is a huge flat plaza sloping downwards to give everyone a view, and can hold 300,000 pilgrims.....and a chapel on the side on the site of the visitations. Unfortunately the whole thing resembles the setting at  Nuremburg for one of the rallies and has about as much soul, and you can imagine the columns draped in swastikas. And it's not just me cos the GF  thought so too. There's also a huge place to light candles which again is weird as it's so hot from all the wax burning at the bottom that any candle placed in a holder bends over within 30 seconds and drops to the bottom adding to the conflagration. We thought it was most amusing. The basilica itself is extraordinarily plain inside, containing the graves of the 3 children who saw the apparition and nothing else.
For those interested, Wikipedia explains all and has pictures. Don't go on a windy day in March.
So straight on to another weird site, this time the campsite O Tomanco  near Lourical. This had been recommended and given fine weather would be lovely. A Dutch eco camp probably describes it best. Chickens, geese,turkeys,black Vietnamese pot bellied pigs, guinea pigs by the 00's. Strange tree houses, yurts, and tubos which are concrete sewer sections with a back, a front of glass with a door and a board at 1/3 height which makes the fixed bed. There is one electric lamp and a curtain over the front, and you can rent one to sleep in. And Hans was a very pleasant and interesting guy. In the season he cooks, a great bar and a bbq pit and bet it's great fun for backpackers etc.but we only stayed the one night as we were the only ones there and it was damp and chilly in the pine woods. Had a nice walk the next morning round the local fields and village but decided to move on at lunchtime to Figueiras.
This is an Orbitur site of which we don't have a great opinion but as it says on the ACSI review site "this may be the best Orbitur site.....". Right on a hundred mile beach over the sand dunes which,if you hadn't been to Pilat you might think (erroneously)were the largest in Europe.
And the beach is just a beach as far as you can see, not even a hut to buy a beer. But windy at the moment although spectacular. And then we found this restaurant down the road in a housing estate that was a converted house and at 12.45 had a queue. We got in early. The GF opted for what the phrase book called 'boiled mix portugaise style' and which seemed the most popular dish, I had the meat skewer. There was enough for 4. The GF had  a huge plate of bits of boiled meat (incl a pigs ear )and boiled veg and wolfed the lot! I had the less adventurous bbq'd skewer with about a lb. various meats and a dish of bubble and squeak. Half a litre of white and the same of red, fresh fruit salad and coffee for €7 each. No passing trade, not  even a sign of any size outside yet over a hundred customers, nearly all parties of 4 men or more ;  no wonder they go to sleep in the afternoon. I did.

SPIRIT OF AVIATION....

...This monument commemorates the first (? was there a second?) Macau to Portugal flight in 1924 which took 3 men 3 months and ended here in Vila Nova De Milfontes. An interesting little nugget of inconsequential trivia which will never be useful in a quiz.

MOTHERING SUNDAY A LA PORTUGAISE ....

....The remains of a Cataplana de peixe which is the Portuguese version of a bouillabaisse for two. Excellent restaurant. J&J, that's another €75 on the ever increasing mothering Sunday lunch account...

There's nothing like a Shag on the rocks

PORTUGAL'S ATLANTIC COAST

Vila Nova de Milfontes

DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND.......

3rd March 2016

Some of those who read this know Marianne,  others have probably heard me talk about her. She makes me smile when I see her because her zest for life is so positive that she just lights up everything around  her and never stops talking, so to suddenly discover 3 days ago that the scan showed cancer in the pancreas, liver and lungs was devastating. We're just glad we were here to give Paul some support but we'll never go back to Olhāo.
They flew home via an air ambulance today, leaving the van on site but god knows when Paul will come back to fetch it. The next few months will be his worst nightmare and that's just one more problem.
We left Olhāo his morning and stopped at Portimao which was a mistake so we'll be moving on swiftly......it's wall to wall  all day English breakfasts, Irish pubs, Sky sports and Sunday roasts.. and we haven't seen the beach,so off to Vila Nova de Milfontes since we've never been there before.
Apart from the bad vibes of Olhāo,  we cycled on the salt marshes, took the ferry to the island of CULATRA , had a picnic and walked to Farol to catch the ferry back. Went to the market, the jazz bar and the french restaurant for beef bourguignon(?) at €7 including 1/4 ltr wine, a huge dish of strawberries and coffee. Walked in the nature reserve and saw the egrets come home to roost at dusk so we managed to keep going in the sunshine.....shame about the rest of it.