Tuesday, 30 June 2009
We try our hand at animal husbandry
20th – 28th June
The journey to Julie and Khaled’s was fairly uneventful and straightforward. The amazing thing was just before we reached the French border it was just like something out of the Wild West. It appeared that the whole place was full of French people, every car had a French number plate, and every few kilometres there was a restaurant with a supermarket attached which was basically a booze store. It was also the last place to get cheap petrol/diesel before France as it’s about 25p a litre cheaper in Spain, so the garages were full.
On our arrival in Canet we were given the usual full-on Shbib welcome and as I walked in the door a beer was thrust into my hand, very nice. It was then decided that it would probably be best to take our van around to the back of the house, where it would be fine, unless of course it rained heavily. In which case we will be here for some considerable time!
As Julie and Hannah were leaving in 2 days time it was obviously very important that we begin right away to learn about the eating habits of the various animals we were to be left in charge of. I say ‘we’ when really I mean me as the small one is very happy to remind me of the various feeding points and when to feed them but not to actually handle any of it. Her attempts to interact with them have met with mixed reactions. The dogs think she’s great and even although she does not continually throw things to be brought back, they will always be found lying around her reclining chair in the garden.
The cats do from time to time get a stroke but on the whole do not crave our company much. However the donkeys bless them are to say the least somewhat puzzled by her. This is because we have been shown how to stroke and pat them and they seem quite taken by us. An electric fence goes for miles around the property, (I mean miles!), so that they cannot wander off. An important portion of this fence is of course around their paddock which can be shortened by moving one arm of the fence, which is always live.
These poor defenceless creatures were delighted when Joan went up to them then suddenly I heard a cry, help I’ve been Pablo’d, poor Joan was stood there covered in dust all down one side where he had rubbed himself against her as a sign of affection. Later Pablo came over to be stroked, she was soo pleased with this that she leaned towards him, just as her hands start to stroke under his chin she makes contact with the electric fence! They both jump back in shock and it took sometime before she could convince him it was a mistake. Finally he and Poppy, the baby, came over to her and blow me if she didn’t do it again! They are now a little wary of her unless she is inside the fence.
I of course spend lots of time inside the fence feeding, locking in, letting out and of course removing the piles of poop. All the donkeys seem happy if a little cautious of me and my only problem is that Annie does keep sort of leaning on me and it is difficult to remain on ones feet. So here we are settled well into the farming life with cats, chickens, donkeys, Guinea pigs and birds first thing in the morning and the same in the evening plus the dogs and collecting the egg’s and watering the garden.
During the day our time is our own and we have visited a few places recommended by Julie, one was a Mediterranean garden which has been cut out in the side of the mountain. We arrived at lunch time and walked steeply uphill from the car park to a minute bistro with 4 tables, 1 chair either side in the street balanced precariously on a piece of decking. After a very pleasant meal and a carafe of chilled rose wine we set off again almost vertically up until we arrived at the entrance to the garden. To our surprise the lady who had been sitting next to Joan in the restaurant was waiting to sell us a ticket. Later we found out we could have come on a slightly easier route but it was much longer, we know because we came down that way. The garden itself is like all these things, a work in progress, but even if you were not interested in the garden, for the €5 entrance fee it was more than worth it for the incredible views in both directions along the river.
On Sunday we went to Narbonne market where we managed to buy four pairs of shoes, some underwear and a pair of sunglasses, none of which sadly fit me but Joan bless her has said she will wear them, what a trooper! We then went to Narbonne beach for an hour which we thought was a couple of miles from Narbonne but is actually 10 miles away? With the temperatures up in the 30’s we tend to spend our other time either sitting under the trees in the garden, staying inside which is nice and cool or out driving, thank God Julies car is air conditioned. Well that’s about all for now, it’s good to see Reena has put a nice meat curry on her recipe blog, it will go nicely with all this hot weather we are having at the moment.
Oh, and welcome home to Pam & Colin, hope the holiday was as good as it sounded on the phone.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan
XXXX
The journey to Julie and Khaled’s was fairly uneventful and straightforward. The amazing thing was just before we reached the French border it was just like something out of the Wild West. It appeared that the whole place was full of French people, every car had a French number plate, and every few kilometres there was a restaurant with a supermarket attached which was basically a booze store. It was also the last place to get cheap petrol/diesel before France as it’s about 25p a litre cheaper in Spain, so the garages were full.
On our arrival in Canet we were given the usual full-on Shbib welcome and as I walked in the door a beer was thrust into my hand, very nice. It was then decided that it would probably be best to take our van around to the back of the house, where it would be fine, unless of course it rained heavily. In which case we will be here for some considerable time!
As Julie and Hannah were leaving in 2 days time it was obviously very important that we begin right away to learn about the eating habits of the various animals we were to be left in charge of. I say ‘we’ when really I mean me as the small one is very happy to remind me of the various feeding points and when to feed them but not to actually handle any of it. Her attempts to interact with them have met with mixed reactions. The dogs think she’s great and even although she does not continually throw things to be brought back, they will always be found lying around her reclining chair in the garden.
The cats do from time to time get a stroke but on the whole do not crave our company much. However the donkeys bless them are to say the least somewhat puzzled by her. This is because we have been shown how to stroke and pat them and they seem quite taken by us. An electric fence goes for miles around the property, (I mean miles!), so that they cannot wander off. An important portion of this fence is of course around their paddock which can be shortened by moving one arm of the fence, which is always live.
These poor defenceless creatures were delighted when Joan went up to them then suddenly I heard a cry, help I’ve been Pablo’d, poor Joan was stood there covered in dust all down one side where he had rubbed himself against her as a sign of affection. Later Pablo came over to be stroked, she was soo pleased with this that she leaned towards him, just as her hands start to stroke under his chin she makes contact with the electric fence! They both jump back in shock and it took sometime before she could convince him it was a mistake. Finally he and Poppy, the baby, came over to her and blow me if she didn’t do it again! They are now a little wary of her unless she is inside the fence.
I of course spend lots of time inside the fence feeding, locking in, letting out and of course removing the piles of poop. All the donkeys seem happy if a little cautious of me and my only problem is that Annie does keep sort of leaning on me and it is difficult to remain on ones feet. So here we are settled well into the farming life with cats, chickens, donkeys, Guinea pigs and birds first thing in the morning and the same in the evening plus the dogs and collecting the egg’s and watering the garden.
During the day our time is our own and we have visited a few places recommended by Julie, one was a Mediterranean garden which has been cut out in the side of the mountain. We arrived at lunch time and walked steeply uphill from the car park to a minute bistro with 4 tables, 1 chair either side in the street balanced precariously on a piece of decking. After a very pleasant meal and a carafe of chilled rose wine we set off again almost vertically up until we arrived at the entrance to the garden. To our surprise the lady who had been sitting next to Joan in the restaurant was waiting to sell us a ticket. Later we found out we could have come on a slightly easier route but it was much longer, we know because we came down that way. The garden itself is like all these things, a work in progress, but even if you were not interested in the garden, for the €5 entrance fee it was more than worth it for the incredible views in both directions along the river.
On Sunday we went to Narbonne market where we managed to buy four pairs of shoes, some underwear and a pair of sunglasses, none of which sadly fit me but Joan bless her has said she will wear them, what a trooper! We then went to Narbonne beach for an hour which we thought was a couple of miles from Narbonne but is actually 10 miles away? With the temperatures up in the 30’s we tend to spend our other time either sitting under the trees in the garden, staying inside which is nice and cool or out driving, thank God Julies car is air conditioned. Well that’s about all for now, it’s good to see Reena has put a nice meat curry on her recipe blog, it will go nicely with all this hot weather we are having at the moment.
Oh, and welcome home to Pam & Colin, hope the holiday was as good as it sounded on the phone.
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan
XXXX
Friday, 19 June 2009
A Dutch kilometre is very much like a country mile!
12th – 19th June
When we arrived at the campsite at Salamanca we were at loggerheads, guess why? Yep you got it, the bloomin sat-nav had just had us driving around a local SMALL housing estate! It didn’t help that I was very tired I suppose but the final straw was when the small one admitted she had overruled the sat-nav some way back!!!!! It is of course impossible to be annoyed for very long as it takes too much energy so by the time we were all set up and sipping our beer/shandy we were friends again. Our neighbours were mostly Dutch people but as usual most of them spoke pretty good English. We enquired about getting into town and were assured it was a matter of but a few kilometres along a nice riverside track, more or less flat all the way, just like Holland, trust me. Ha! It was great for about ½ a mile then it became this very narrow almost none existent track through stinging nettles along which Joan refused point blank to ride.
I must admit it was pretty scary and in places there appeared nothing to stop you falling into the river so we pushed the bikes until such time as it widened a little. After a while a tremulous voice said, look this is not fun, when do we get to that road he mentioned? I of course immediately whipped out my crystal ball.....no actually I replied that pushing the bikes made it seem far longer and we would probably get there very soon. Eventually we did of course and to our delight found ourselves in the middle of a market where we were able to buy not one but two pairs of leather sandals, whoopee! With our spirits restored we of course instantly went the wrong way into town and finally made it to the Cathedral where of course the tourist info was. Now unlike lots of tourist info places we have been to where they are amazed (a) that anybody found them they are so well hidden and (b) that you actually want to know about their town etc. In Salamanca as soon as we entered, they whipped out an info sheet with details of hotels, sights, eateries (is that a word Carole?)etc.
What I am going to tell you now will appal you and we certainly did not ask the lady because we were looking for ssh (Mc Donald’s ) only because they have free wi-fi, honest. Our campsite wanted to charge us £4 for an hour and it seemed really excessive. Why is it that whenever we are looking for somewhere in a town or city, that particular road is the one they are digging up or just about to renew the sign? We saw the sign which said it was 300 metres and gave the actual Plaza it was in, but when we eventually found the place, no sign of (Mc Donald’s). We did find it eventually but decided it was far too far to come back to later. After all as we told our Dutch Friend 11½ miles is not our idea of a simple couple of kilometres. We had though returned by the road which was mostly downhill freewheeling once we had found the right one.
The next day was spent recovering and a visit to the pool helped. We also saw our Dutch friend who had the most horrendous swollen foot from a bite he must have got going along by the river. On seeing this I was informed we would be leaving in the morning. Frankly if we had not seen so many wonderful sights along the way we may have been more impressed by Salamanca but we had seen it and felt it was time to move on. Having driven for 170 odd miles we were pleased to pull straight into our campsite at Riaza. According to the book it is only 2 star but it was really super and appears to be brand new. This meant all the facilities were spotless and it was a shame we would only stay one night but I wanted to go to the seaside!
Joan who is concerned for my welfare had planned the next stop at a place called Caspi about 235 miles from Riaza leaving a shorter trip the following day. When I looked at the map it seemed daft to detour there and then drive the next day so as I was feeling pretty good I elected to drive the 328 miles straight through to Cambrils so as to be by the sea in the morning. Suffice to say I was totally knackered the next day and the one after, not entirely my fault as we were on a single track trunk road most of the way and huge tracts of it were dug up which didn’t help at all. We had long delays and there were hundreds of lorries as far as the eye could see in both directions, so not an easy drive. Finally, totally fed up and worried because they were all driving like nutters to make up time. Joan plotted a route to the toll road for the last 30 miles, a fiver well spent we both agreed.
All of you will recognise the words “I told you so!” The married men will and of course, all the women will remember that particular lesson at secondary school where they had to do it over and over out loud to get the right tone!! Joan got an ‘A’plus
I had NOT been looking forward to getting to this site as we had heard it had some low trees. What they didn’t say was the main entrance was only 3.2metres high,(we are 3.1!). They lied, it only had low trees and with my track record, plus having driven all that way, I was hyperventilating within seconds of driving in. Fortunately the small one rises to occasions like this without too many adverse comments, and we now know it is possible to drive our van at 1 inch per minute leaving plenty of time to check heights/ widths etc. What the people who told us about this place didn’t lie about was how nice it was and how nice the beach and promenade are.
Since then we have been cycling along the prom, swimming in the sea etc as you do when the sea is the only place to cool down a bit and the temperatures are in the high 30’s.
Another example of the road up business, we were told there is an amazing place for fruit and veg run as a co-op by the local growers. Armed with a map from the office we set off to find it and of course did so, IN THE END. Why? Because the road we should have gone down is being dug up, ho hum.
So that’s yer lot dear friends, we have another 3 nights here and then we set off for Julies, back in France at last!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Happy Birthday to Joseph, we hope that new bicycle goes very fast! X.
When we arrived at the campsite at Salamanca we were at loggerheads, guess why? Yep you got it, the bloomin sat-nav had just had us driving around a local SMALL housing estate! It didn’t help that I was very tired I suppose but the final straw was when the small one admitted she had overruled the sat-nav some way back!!!!! It is of course impossible to be annoyed for very long as it takes too much energy so by the time we were all set up and sipping our beer/shandy we were friends again. Our neighbours were mostly Dutch people but as usual most of them spoke pretty good English. We enquired about getting into town and were assured it was a matter of but a few kilometres along a nice riverside track, more or less flat all the way, just like Holland, trust me. Ha! It was great for about ½ a mile then it became this very narrow almost none existent track through stinging nettles along which Joan refused point blank to ride.
I must admit it was pretty scary and in places there appeared nothing to stop you falling into the river so we pushed the bikes until such time as it widened a little. After a while a tremulous voice said, look this is not fun, when do we get to that road he mentioned? I of course immediately whipped out my crystal ball.....no actually I replied that pushing the bikes made it seem far longer and we would probably get there very soon. Eventually we did of course and to our delight found ourselves in the middle of a market where we were able to buy not one but two pairs of leather sandals, whoopee! With our spirits restored we of course instantly went the wrong way into town and finally made it to the Cathedral where of course the tourist info was. Now unlike lots of tourist info places we have been to where they are amazed (a) that anybody found them they are so well hidden and (b) that you actually want to know about their town etc. In Salamanca as soon as we entered, they whipped out an info sheet with details of hotels, sights, eateries (is that a word Carole?)etc.
What I am going to tell you now will appal you and we certainly did not ask the lady because we were looking for ssh (Mc Donald’s ) only because they have free wi-fi, honest. Our campsite wanted to charge us £4 for an hour and it seemed really excessive. Why is it that whenever we are looking for somewhere in a town or city, that particular road is the one they are digging up or just about to renew the sign? We saw the sign which said it was 300 metres and gave the actual Plaza it was in, but when we eventually found the place, no sign of (Mc Donald’s). We did find it eventually but decided it was far too far to come back to later. After all as we told our Dutch Friend 11½ miles is not our idea of a simple couple of kilometres. We had though returned by the road which was mostly downhill freewheeling once we had found the right one.
The next day was spent recovering and a visit to the pool helped. We also saw our Dutch friend who had the most horrendous swollen foot from a bite he must have got going along by the river. On seeing this I was informed we would be leaving in the morning. Frankly if we had not seen so many wonderful sights along the way we may have been more impressed by Salamanca but we had seen it and felt it was time to move on. Having driven for 170 odd miles we were pleased to pull straight into our campsite at Riaza. According to the book it is only 2 star but it was really super and appears to be brand new. This meant all the facilities were spotless and it was a shame we would only stay one night but I wanted to go to the seaside!
Joan who is concerned for my welfare had planned the next stop at a place called Caspi about 235 miles from Riaza leaving a shorter trip the following day. When I looked at the map it seemed daft to detour there and then drive the next day so as I was feeling pretty good I elected to drive the 328 miles straight through to Cambrils so as to be by the sea in the morning. Suffice to say I was totally knackered the next day and the one after, not entirely my fault as we were on a single track trunk road most of the way and huge tracts of it were dug up which didn’t help at all. We had long delays and there were hundreds of lorries as far as the eye could see in both directions, so not an easy drive. Finally, totally fed up and worried because they were all driving like nutters to make up time. Joan plotted a route to the toll road for the last 30 miles, a fiver well spent we both agreed.
All of you will recognise the words “I told you so!” The married men will and of course, all the women will remember that particular lesson at secondary school where they had to do it over and over out loud to get the right tone!! Joan got an ‘A’plus
I had NOT been looking forward to getting to this site as we had heard it had some low trees. What they didn’t say was the main entrance was only 3.2metres high,(we are 3.1!). They lied, it only had low trees and with my track record, plus having driven all that way, I was hyperventilating within seconds of driving in. Fortunately the small one rises to occasions like this without too many adverse comments, and we now know it is possible to drive our van at 1 inch per minute leaving plenty of time to check heights/ widths etc. What the people who told us about this place didn’t lie about was how nice it was and how nice the beach and promenade are.
Since then we have been cycling along the prom, swimming in the sea etc as you do when the sea is the only place to cool down a bit and the temperatures are in the high 30’s.
Another example of the road up business, we were told there is an amazing place for fruit and veg run as a co-op by the local growers. Armed with a map from the office we set off to find it and of course did so, IN THE END. Why? Because the road we should have gone down is being dug up, ho hum.
So that’s yer lot dear friends, we have another 3 nights here and then we set off for Julies, back in France at last!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Happy Birthday to Joseph, we hope that new bicycle goes very fast! X.
Friday, 12 June 2009
A Portuguese marathon
I have titled this a marathon, so for those with limited time to spare I will précis. We stayed at a site to visit Lisbon from, it had a nice beach after a long walk. The maps they give you for seeing Lisbon are NOT to scale and we walked a lot. It rained a lot. When we went to the beach we got very wet! (see picture) At Fatima Joan took part in a candlelight procession. Also at Fatima we witnessed some incredible sights at the children’s festival. Somebody’s van lock was damaged. We left. It rained, we left Portugal and it got very, very hot in Spain, the end. J&B X
6th – 11th June
Costa de Caparica had certainly started well, and by the time we had relaxed and been to reception for details about getting the bus to Lisbon we thought a trip to the beach was in order. This turned out to be a very long walk but when we got there it was well worth it. What we saw was a huge expanse of sand with breakwaters and real breakers thundering in, as far as we could see in both directions, there was a promenade and we wished we had brought the bikes. It being a beautiful evening we continued to wander along and went back to the town to find the bus stop we would need in the morning. Having located it we returned at a reasonable speed so we would know how long it would take tomorrow, (20 mins). Finally as we walked into the site Joan insisted we buy an ice cream, life is hard at times.
Oh dear, I was awakened Saturday morning by the rain pounding on the roof at 6.30am and had visions of the small one being not too happy and wanting to move on. However by the time we awoke properly and got up, so had the sun, great. We got the bus on time and all seemed well until suddenly the bus driver had his wipers on and when we got off it was hoying it down! NOT happy. By the time we had put our coats on and located the brolly in my pack we were standing there alone. Our intention had been to walk into the tourist info at the bus station and get all the directions of various things to see. As it was, all we could see through the rain was a dodgy looking market where it soon became obvious nobody spoke a word of English, and worse did not give toss unless you wanted to buy something. So using our brains we set off towards what looked like a big hotel. It was, and more importantly the chap at the desk was so helpful and as if he was approached on a daily basis by a couple of drowned rats, produced a map and book which told us all we needed to know. He also directed us to their metro which was very good indeed. Buying a ticket seemed to require a degree as even the locals seemed to be struggling. It could have done with the instructions being in some other languages or perhaps pictures! Joining the queue of people at the help window we eventually got the woman inside to come out and give us all tickets, magic. By the time we came out of the metro at the centre the sun was shining and apart from one other little short burst of rain it stayed out. Our first and most important job was to post Joe’s birthday card. Then it was lunch time and we had an excellent meal in the square watching the world go by. Apparently when you eat here one of your more serious needs is a pair of sunglasses, and we spent quite a lot of our time showing the many looky looky men that Joan already had a pair, ON! After that we wandered around the older part of the city and did the tourist thing.
At this point I think I should point out that the maps they give you are definitely NOT to scale. So when we decided we would return, I suggested that as we would have a 20 minute walk from the bus stop back to the campsite we should carry on down the hill and over a bit to where the ferry port was and get the ferry back then catch the bus from the ferry which stops very near the campsite. Joan agreed this seemed like a plan and off we went. Two hours later having at one point jumped on a bus for a few stops, we finally saw the ferry in the distance, with a ferry approaching. I will not tell you what the small one replied when I said hurry pet or we will miss it, suffice to say we caught it and she did eventually forgive me.
Although the next day started not too brightly it was quite warm and by mid morning and the sun was out so we headed for the beach. The waves were a bit rough and the only people in the sea were several groups of surfers. As we could not see any sort of a flag we approached the edge of the water with a view to possibly chancing a little wave jumping. Hopefully after this is published I will be able to put the picture in that tells the story of what happened next. The observant amongst you will see a very wet Bryan whose trousers and shirt are absolutely soaked and Joan’s shorts on a rock drying out! We realised it was far too rough for us, the small one remarked that even holding Pam’s hand it would be very dodgy indeed. So we settled for just sitting and watching the world go by as being a Sunday it seemed the entire population was walking along the promenade. That night it started raining and became quite cold so we decided that enough is enough and next morning left for Fatima.
For those who don’t know, this is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and we had intended dropping in when we got this far. Our intention was to check out the free Aire and if it was nice stay overnight. What actually happened was incredible. On arrival we had a bit of a job finding the place for campers and being used to the campervan places being stuck out of the way, imagine our surprise to find it was right next to the church. It was spotlessly clean and had hot showers and toilets provided, all free. As we arrived we parked in a large dedicated motorhome space with our own stone table and benches next to a couple of Dutch women on one side and a really dinky little caravan on the other side which was owned by a very friendly Portuguese couple, again each in their dedicated spaces. Having checked with the others we were ok to stay, and that it was really free, we went to see the church and chapel.
It is a huge amazing place all very modern and polished marble, with a service going on either at the chapel or the church, or at times both, from 7am until 11pm. It is all very well run and we were able to get information about the services in English for Joan, plus apparently there was a candlelight procession every evening. As a mass was about to begin in the church I left Joan to enjoy it and returned to the van, where there were a few more vans setting up, it is supposed to hold ten. By the time Joan returned it appeared there were at least 30 and all the car parks (there are several huge ones), seemed to be filling up. That night Joan and I attended the candlelight procession, me as a camera man and her to walk around with her candle. I thought it was quite impressive 300 odd people walking around with candles led by a huge cross and half way along a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers carried by 4 priests. The end of a nice day, and so to bed.
The next morning cars full of people and children kept arriving. They parked on every space and then put up tents and in some cases just tarpaulins on rope strung between trees. That night as we went across for the candlelight procession all the pavements and areas between the trees had tents etc. By 2am when we went to sleep we could not believe anybody else could possibly get in, but they did! The Dutch couple told us it was a special service for children tomorrow. We felt really guilty as we were taking up a fair bit of space but we had no idea what to expect.
When we awoke cars etc were still arriving and I told a car load they were welcome to park in our space behind us and shortly after they were joined by a van. The cheeky buggers nicked our stone table. What happened next was incredible, more and more cars, vans and caravans kept arriving and finding places to park. It is difficult to describe fully but even the pathway to the toilets had cars parked on it, they just drove down the path, parked and went off to the square. All the stone tables had tablecloths on them, these we discovered acted like towels on a sun bed, amazing. With all this going on we never saw one bit of bad feeling in fact it was all done in a carnival atmosphere and absolutely free. Just imagine if this happened in Britain what all the police/council officials /parking wardens etc would do?
As I said everybody was making for the main area which when we got there was pretty spectacular. It was basically one huge outdoor mass for children to celebrate their first holy communion. There were hundreds of children dressed with different coloured baseball hats for each separate group. Some of the little ones had rope they were all holding on to so nobody got lost, and even although there were thousands of people there nobody minded if you sort of pushed through, so it was moving all the time. At the appointed time in the service for people to receive the host a long line of priests and lay people spread out from the dais and were accompanied by someone holding a large white umbrella. All one had to do was attract their attention and they came over to you. This was especially good for some of the old people who had been brought in and sat on seats to enjoy the spectacle. When it was all over everybody returned to their table /car boot/ picnic hamper and consumed vast quantities of food and drink, mostly we discovered, iced tea but some wine and beer. Then people started to leave and it began to clear.
Then we discovered that a couple of motorhomes locks had been tampered with. The Dutch ladies next door and a chap further along. As far as we could discover nobody lost anything, but it was a bit upsetting. I decided we should leave right away as it was mid afternoon and we could get to a campsite near the coast by around 7pm. It was a shame really but I knew the small one would not rest and would probably spend the night sitting by the door with my mallet at the ready. This would result in a very tired and grumpy person next day, so we left. (I can be soo masterful at times!).
Hopefully some of the spectacle will be apparent to you if I can upload a couple of the photos we took on the still camera.
The camp site at Praia de Mira was to be our last stop-over in Portugal, it was not spectacular, in fact it was pretty one star. The first thing that happened was we were warned to be careful where we parked as some of the pitches were all soft sand and we would sink right in. Then we went to find the beach and it was approached by a very dodgy track plus a climb over a sort of rickety wooden stairway over the dunes. Couple that with the fact that several young people turned up about 9pm and put some tents up just as it started to rain and sat outside chatting in the rain.......................... until 2am !
We left at 9.30 and set off for Salamanca in Spain. As we crossed the border the sun came out and it got hotter and hotter, it was incredible and by the time we reached the campsite the temperature was in the high 30’s at 6pm.
That must be enough for now as I have writer’s cramp!!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
6th – 11th June
Costa de Caparica had certainly started well, and by the time we had relaxed and been to reception for details about getting the bus to Lisbon we thought a trip to the beach was in order. This turned out to be a very long walk but when we got there it was well worth it. What we saw was a huge expanse of sand with breakwaters and real breakers thundering in, as far as we could see in both directions, there was a promenade and we wished we had brought the bikes. It being a beautiful evening we continued to wander along and went back to the town to find the bus stop we would need in the morning. Having located it we returned at a reasonable speed so we would know how long it would take tomorrow, (20 mins). Finally as we walked into the site Joan insisted we buy an ice cream, life is hard at times.
Oh dear, I was awakened Saturday morning by the rain pounding on the roof at 6.30am and had visions of the small one being not too happy and wanting to move on. However by the time we awoke properly and got up, so had the sun, great. We got the bus on time and all seemed well until suddenly the bus driver had his wipers on and when we got off it was hoying it down! NOT happy. By the time we had put our coats on and located the brolly in my pack we were standing there alone. Our intention had been to walk into the tourist info at the bus station and get all the directions of various things to see. As it was, all we could see through the rain was a dodgy looking market where it soon became obvious nobody spoke a word of English, and worse did not give toss unless you wanted to buy something. So using our brains we set off towards what looked like a big hotel. It was, and more importantly the chap at the desk was so helpful and as if he was approached on a daily basis by a couple of drowned rats, produced a map and book which told us all we needed to know. He also directed us to their metro which was very good indeed. Buying a ticket seemed to require a degree as even the locals seemed to be struggling. It could have done with the instructions being in some other languages or perhaps pictures! Joining the queue of people at the help window we eventually got the woman inside to come out and give us all tickets, magic. By the time we came out of the metro at the centre the sun was shining and apart from one other little short burst of rain it stayed out. Our first and most important job was to post Joe’s birthday card. Then it was lunch time and we had an excellent meal in the square watching the world go by. Apparently when you eat here one of your more serious needs is a pair of sunglasses, and we spent quite a lot of our time showing the many looky looky men that Joan already had a pair, ON! After that we wandered around the older part of the city and did the tourist thing.
At this point I think I should point out that the maps they give you are definitely NOT to scale. So when we decided we would return, I suggested that as we would have a 20 minute walk from the bus stop back to the campsite we should carry on down the hill and over a bit to where the ferry port was and get the ferry back then catch the bus from the ferry which stops very near the campsite. Joan agreed this seemed like a plan and off we went. Two hours later having at one point jumped on a bus for a few stops, we finally saw the ferry in the distance, with a ferry approaching. I will not tell you what the small one replied when I said hurry pet or we will miss it, suffice to say we caught it and she did eventually forgive me.
Although the next day started not too brightly it was quite warm and by mid morning and the sun was out so we headed for the beach. The waves were a bit rough and the only people in the sea were several groups of surfers. As we could not see any sort of a flag we approached the edge of the water with a view to possibly chancing a little wave jumping. Hopefully after this is published I will be able to put the picture in that tells the story of what happened next. The observant amongst you will see a very wet Bryan whose trousers and shirt are absolutely soaked and Joan’s shorts on a rock drying out! We realised it was far too rough for us, the small one remarked that even holding Pam’s hand it would be very dodgy indeed. So we settled for just sitting and watching the world go by as being a Sunday it seemed the entire population was walking along the promenade. That night it started raining and became quite cold so we decided that enough is enough and next morning left for Fatima.
For those who don’t know, this is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and we had intended dropping in when we got this far. Our intention was to check out the free Aire and if it was nice stay overnight. What actually happened was incredible. On arrival we had a bit of a job finding the place for campers and being used to the campervan places being stuck out of the way, imagine our surprise to find it was right next to the church. It was spotlessly clean and had hot showers and toilets provided, all free. As we arrived we parked in a large dedicated motorhome space with our own stone table and benches next to a couple of Dutch women on one side and a really dinky little caravan on the other side which was owned by a very friendly Portuguese couple, again each in their dedicated spaces. Having checked with the others we were ok to stay, and that it was really free, we went to see the church and chapel.
It is a huge amazing place all very modern and polished marble, with a service going on either at the chapel or the church, or at times both, from 7am until 11pm. It is all very well run and we were able to get information about the services in English for Joan, plus apparently there was a candlelight procession every evening. As a mass was about to begin in the church I left Joan to enjoy it and returned to the van, where there were a few more vans setting up, it is supposed to hold ten. By the time Joan returned it appeared there were at least 30 and all the car parks (there are several huge ones), seemed to be filling up. That night Joan and I attended the candlelight procession, me as a camera man and her to walk around with her candle. I thought it was quite impressive 300 odd people walking around with candles led by a huge cross and half way along a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers carried by 4 priests. The end of a nice day, and so to bed.
The next morning cars full of people and children kept arriving. They parked on every space and then put up tents and in some cases just tarpaulins on rope strung between trees. That night as we went across for the candlelight procession all the pavements and areas between the trees had tents etc. By 2am when we went to sleep we could not believe anybody else could possibly get in, but they did! The Dutch couple told us it was a special service for children tomorrow. We felt really guilty as we were taking up a fair bit of space but we had no idea what to expect.
When we awoke cars etc were still arriving and I told a car load they were welcome to park in our space behind us and shortly after they were joined by a van. The cheeky buggers nicked our stone table. What happened next was incredible, more and more cars, vans and caravans kept arriving and finding places to park. It is difficult to describe fully but even the pathway to the toilets had cars parked on it, they just drove down the path, parked and went off to the square. All the stone tables had tablecloths on them, these we discovered acted like towels on a sun bed, amazing. With all this going on we never saw one bit of bad feeling in fact it was all done in a carnival atmosphere and absolutely free. Just imagine if this happened in Britain what all the police/council officials /parking wardens etc would do?
As I said everybody was making for the main area which when we got there was pretty spectacular. It was basically one huge outdoor mass for children to celebrate their first holy communion. There were hundreds of children dressed with different coloured baseball hats for each separate group. Some of the little ones had rope they were all holding on to so nobody got lost, and even although there were thousands of people there nobody minded if you sort of pushed through, so it was moving all the time. At the appointed time in the service for people to receive the host a long line of priests and lay people spread out from the dais and were accompanied by someone holding a large white umbrella. All one had to do was attract their attention and they came over to you. This was especially good for some of the old people who had been brought in and sat on seats to enjoy the spectacle. When it was all over everybody returned to their table /car boot/ picnic hamper and consumed vast quantities of food and drink, mostly we discovered, iced tea but some wine and beer. Then people started to leave and it began to clear.
Then we discovered that a couple of motorhomes locks had been tampered with. The Dutch ladies next door and a chap further along. As far as we could discover nobody lost anything, but it was a bit upsetting. I decided we should leave right away as it was mid afternoon and we could get to a campsite near the coast by around 7pm. It was a shame really but I knew the small one would not rest and would probably spend the night sitting by the door with my mallet at the ready. This would result in a very tired and grumpy person next day, so we left. (I can be soo masterful at times!).
Hopefully some of the spectacle will be apparent to you if I can upload a couple of the photos we took on the still camera.
The camp site at Praia de Mira was to be our last stop-over in Portugal, it was not spectacular, in fact it was pretty one star. The first thing that happened was we were warned to be careful where we parked as some of the pitches were all soft sand and we would sink right in. Then we went to find the beach and it was approached by a very dodgy track plus a climb over a sort of rickety wooden stairway over the dunes. Couple that with the fact that several young people turned up about 9pm and put some tents up just as it started to rain and sat outside chatting in the rain.......................... until 2am !
We left at 9.30 and set off for Salamanca in Spain. As we crossed the border the sun came out and it got hotter and hotter, it was incredible and by the time we reached the campsite the temperature was in the high 30’s at 6pm.
That must be enough for now as I have writer’s cramp!!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
A Portuguese marathon
I have titled this a marathon, so for those with limited time to spare I will précis. We stayed at a site to visit Lisbon from, it had a nice beach after a long walk. The maps they give you for seeing Lisbon are NOT to scale and we walked a lot. It rained a lot. When we went to the beach we got very wet! (see picture) At Fatima Joan took part in a candlelight procession. Also at Fatima we witnessed some incredible sights at the children’s festival. Somebody’s van lock was damaged. We left. It rained, we left Portugal and it got very, very hot in Spain, the end. J&B X
6th – 11th June
Costa de Caparica had certainly started well, and by the time we had relaxed and been to reception for details about getting the bus to Lisbon we thought a trip to the beach was in order. This turned out to be a very long walk but when we got there it was well worth it. What we saw was a huge expanse of sand with breakwaters and real breakers thundering in, as far as we could see in both directions, there was a promenade and we wished we had brought the bikes. It being a beautiful evening we continued to wander along and went back to the town to find the bus stop we would need in the morning. Having located it we returned at a reasonable speed so we would know how long it would take tomorrow, (20 mins). Finally as we walked into the site Joan insisted we buy an ice cream, life is hard at times.
Oh dear, I was awakened Saturday morning by the rain pounding on the roof at 6.30am and had visions of the small one being not too happy and wanting to move on. However by the time we awoke properly and got up, so had the sun, great. We got the bus on time and all seemed well until suddenly the bus driver had his wipers on and when we got off it was hoying it down! NOT happy. By the time we had put our coats on and located the brolly in my pack we were standing there alone. Our intention had been to walk into the tourist info at the bus station and get all the directions of various things to see. As it was, all we could see through the rain was a dodgy looking market where it soon became obvious nobody spoke a word of English, and worse did not give toss unless you wanted to buy something. So using our brains we set off towards what looked like a big hotel. It was, and more importantly the chap at the desk was so helpful and as if he was approached on a daily basis by a couple of drowned rats, produced a map and book which told us all we needed to know. He also directed us to their metro which was very good indeed. Buying a ticket seemed to require a degree as even the locals seemed to be struggling. It could have done with the instructions being in some other languages or perhaps pictures! Joining the queue of people at the help window we eventually got the woman inside to come out and give us all tickets, magic. By the time we came out of the metro at the centre the sun was shining and apart from one other little short burst of rain it stayed out. Our first and most important job was to post Joe’s birthday card. Then it was lunch time and we had an excellent meal in the square watching the world go by. Apparently when you eat here one of your more serious needs is a pair of sunglasses, and we spent quite a lot of our time showing the many looky looky men that Joan already had a pair, ON! After that we wandered around the older part of the city and did the tourist thing.
At this point I think I should point out that the maps they give you are definitely NOT to scale. So when we decided we would return, I suggested that as we would have a 20 minute walk from the bus stop back to the campsite we should carry on down the hill and over a bit to where the ferry port was and get the ferry back then catch the bus from the ferry which stops very near the campsite. Joan agreed this seemed like a plan and off we went. Two hours later having at one point jumped on a bus for a few stops, we finally saw the ferry in the distance, with a ferry approaching. I will not tell you what the small one replied when I said hurry pet or we will miss it, suffice to say we caught it and she did eventually forgive me.
Although the next day started not too brightly it was quite warm and by mid morning and the sun was out so we headed for the beach. The waves were a bit rough and the only people in the sea were several groups of surfers. As we could not see any sort of a flag we approached the edge of the water with a view to possibly chancing a little wave jumping. Hopefully after this is published I will be able to put the picture in that tells the story of what happened next. The observant amongst you will see a very wet Bryan whose trousers and shirt are absolutely soaked and Joan’s shorts on a rock drying out! We realised it was far too rough for us, the small one remarked that even holding Pam’s hand it would be very dodgy indeed. So we settled for just sitting and watching the world go by as being a Sunday it seemed the entire population was walking along the promenade. That night it started raining and became quite cold so we decided that enough is enough and next morning left for Fatima.
For those who don’t know, this is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and we had intended dropping in when we got this far. Our intention was to check out the free Aire and if it was nice stay overnight. What actually happened was incredible. On arrival we had a bit of a job finding the place for campers and being used to the campervan places being stuck out of the way, imagine our surprise to find it was right next to the church. It was spotlessly clean and had hot showers and toilets provided, all free. As we arrived we parked in a large dedicated motorhome space with our own stone table and benches next to a couple of Dutch women on one side and a really dinky little caravan on the other side which was owned by a very friendly Portuguese couple, again each in their dedicated spaces. Having checked with the others we were ok to stay, and that it was really free, we went to see the church and chapel.
It is a huge amazing place all very modern and polished marble, with a service going on either at the chapel or the church, or at times both, from 7am until 11pm. It is all very well run and we were able to get information about the services in English for Joan, plus apparently there was a candlelight procession every evening. As a mass was about to begin in the church I left Joan to enjoy it and returned to the van, where there were a few more vans setting up, it is supposed to hold ten. By the time Joan returned it appeared there were at least 30 and all the car parks (there are several huge ones), seemed to be filling up. That night Joan and I attended the candlelight procession, me as a camera man and her to walk around with her candle. I thought it was quite impressive 300 odd people walking around with candles led by a huge cross and half way along a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers carried by 4 priests. The end of a nice day, and so to bed.
The next morning cars full of people and children kept arriving. They parked on every space and then put up tents and in some cases just tarpaulins on rope strung between trees. That night as we went across for the candlelight procession all the pavements and areas between the trees had tents etc. By 2am when we went to sleep we could not believe anybody else could possibly get in, but they did! The Dutch couple told us it was a special service for children tomorrow. We felt really guilty as we were taking up a fair bit of space but we had no idea what to expect.
When we awoke cars etc were still arriving and I told a car load they were welcome to park in our space behind us and shortly after they were joined by a van. The cheeky buggers nicked our stone table. What happened next was incredible, more and more cars, vans and caravans kept arriving and finding places to park. It is difficult to describe fully but even the pathway to the toilets had cars parked on it, they just drove down the path, parked and went off to the square. All the stone tables had tablecloths on them, these we discovered acted like towels on a sun bed, amazing. With all this going on we never saw one bit of bad feeling in fact it was all done in a carnival atmosphere and absolutely free. Just imagine if this happened in Britain what all the police/council officials /parking wardens etc would do?
As I said everybody was making for the main area which when we got there was pretty spectacular. It was basically one huge outdoor mass for children to celebrate their first holy communion. There were hundreds of children dressed with different coloured baseball hats for each separate group. Some of the little ones had rope they were all holding on to so nobody got lost, and even although there were thousands of people there nobody minded if you sort of pushed through, so it was moving all the time. At the appointed time in the service for people to receive the host a long line of priests and lay people spread out from the dais and were accompanied by someone holding a large white umbrella. All one had to do was attract their attention and they came over to you. This was especially good for some of the old people who had been brought in and sat on seats to enjoy the spectacle. When it was all over everybody returned to their table /car boot/ picnic hamper and consumed vast quantities of food and drink, mostly we discovered, iced tea but some wine and beer. Then people started to leave and it began to clear.
Then we discovered that a couple of motorhomes locks had been tampered with. The Dutch ladies next door and a chap further along. As far as we could discover nobody lost anything, but it was a bit upsetting. I decided we should leave right away as it was mid afternoon and we could get to a campsite near the coast by around 7pm. It was a shame really but I knew the small one would not rest and would probably spend the night sitting by the door with my mallet at the ready. This would result in a very tired and grumpy person next day, so we left. (I can be soo masterful at times!).
Hopefully some of the spectacle will be apparent to you if I can upload a couple of the photos we took on the still camera.
The camp site at Praia de Mira was to be our last stop-over in Portugal, it was not spectacular, in fact it was pretty one star. The first thing that happened was we were warned to be careful where we parked as some of the pitches were all soft sand and we would sink right in. Then we went to find the beach and it was approached by a very dodgy track plus a climb over a sort of rickety wooden stairway over the dunes. Couple that with the fact that several young people turned up about 9pm and put some tents up just as it started to rain and sat outside chatting in the rain.......................... until 2am !
We left at 9.30 and set off for Salamanca in Spain. As we crossed the border the sun came out and it got hotter and hotter, it was incredible and by the time we reached the campsite the temperature was in the high 30’s at 6pm.
That must be enough for now as I have writer’s cramp!!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
6th – 11th June
Costa de Caparica had certainly started well, and by the time we had relaxed and been to reception for details about getting the bus to Lisbon we thought a trip to the beach was in order. This turned out to be a very long walk but when we got there it was well worth it. What we saw was a huge expanse of sand with breakwaters and real breakers thundering in, as far as we could see in both directions, there was a promenade and we wished we had brought the bikes. It being a beautiful evening we continued to wander along and went back to the town to find the bus stop we would need in the morning. Having located it we returned at a reasonable speed so we would know how long it would take tomorrow, (20 mins). Finally as we walked into the site Joan insisted we buy an ice cream, life is hard at times.
Oh dear, I was awakened Saturday morning by the rain pounding on the roof at 6.30am and had visions of the small one being not too happy and wanting to move on. However by the time we awoke properly and got up, so had the sun, great. We got the bus on time and all seemed well until suddenly the bus driver had his wipers on and when we got off it was hoying it down! NOT happy. By the time we had put our coats on and located the brolly in my pack we were standing there alone. Our intention had been to walk into the tourist info at the bus station and get all the directions of various things to see. As it was, all we could see through the rain was a dodgy looking market where it soon became obvious nobody spoke a word of English, and worse did not give toss unless you wanted to buy something. So using our brains we set off towards what looked like a big hotel. It was, and more importantly the chap at the desk was so helpful and as if he was approached on a daily basis by a couple of drowned rats, produced a map and book which told us all we needed to know. He also directed us to their metro which was very good indeed. Buying a ticket seemed to require a degree as even the locals seemed to be struggling. It could have done with the instructions being in some other languages or perhaps pictures! Joining the queue of people at the help window we eventually got the woman inside to come out and give us all tickets, magic. By the time we came out of the metro at the centre the sun was shining and apart from one other little short burst of rain it stayed out. Our first and most important job was to post Joe’s birthday card. Then it was lunch time and we had an excellent meal in the square watching the world go by. Apparently when you eat here one of your more serious needs is a pair of sunglasses, and we spent quite a lot of our time showing the many looky looky men that Joan already had a pair, ON! After that we wandered around the older part of the city and did the tourist thing.
At this point I think I should point out that the maps they give you are definitely NOT to scale. So when we decided we would return, I suggested that as we would have a 20 minute walk from the bus stop back to the campsite we should carry on down the hill and over a bit to where the ferry port was and get the ferry back then catch the bus from the ferry which stops very near the campsite. Joan agreed this seemed like a plan and off we went. Two hours later having at one point jumped on a bus for a few stops, we finally saw the ferry in the distance, with a ferry approaching. I will not tell you what the small one replied when I said hurry pet or we will miss it, suffice to say we caught it and she did eventually forgive me.
Although the next day started not too brightly it was quite warm and by mid morning and the sun was out so we headed for the beach. The waves were a bit rough and the only people in the sea were several groups of surfers. As we could not see any sort of a flag we approached the edge of the water with a view to possibly chancing a little wave jumping. Hopefully after this is published I will be able to put the picture in that tells the story of what happened next. The observant amongst you will see a very wet Bryan whose trousers and shirt are absolutely soaked and Joan’s shorts on a rock drying out! We realised it was far too rough for us, the small one remarked that even holding Pam’s hand it would be very dodgy indeed. So we settled for just sitting and watching the world go by as being a Sunday it seemed the entire population was walking along the promenade. That night it started raining and became quite cold so we decided that enough is enough and next morning left for Fatima.
For those who don’t know, this is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and we had intended dropping in when we got this far. Our intention was to check out the free Aire and if it was nice stay overnight. What actually happened was incredible. On arrival we had a bit of a job finding the place for campers and being used to the campervan places being stuck out of the way, imagine our surprise to find it was right next to the church. It was spotlessly clean and had hot showers and toilets provided, all free. As we arrived we parked in a large dedicated motorhome space with our own stone table and benches next to a couple of Dutch women on one side and a really dinky little caravan on the other side which was owned by a very friendly Portuguese couple, again each in their dedicated spaces. Having checked with the others we were ok to stay, and that it was really free, we went to see the church and chapel.
It is a huge amazing place all very modern and polished marble, with a service going on either at the chapel or the church, or at times both, from 7am until 11pm. It is all very well run and we were able to get information about the services in English for Joan, plus apparently there was a candlelight procession every evening. As a mass was about to begin in the church I left Joan to enjoy it and returned to the van, where there were a few more vans setting up, it is supposed to hold ten. By the time Joan returned it appeared there were at least 30 and all the car parks (there are several huge ones), seemed to be filling up. That night Joan and I attended the candlelight procession, me as a camera man and her to walk around with her candle. I thought it was quite impressive 300 odd people walking around with candles led by a huge cross and half way along a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers carried by 4 priests. The end of a nice day, and so to bed.
The next morning cars full of people and children kept arriving. They parked on every space and then put up tents and in some cases just tarpaulins on rope strung between trees. That night as we went across for the candlelight procession all the pavements and areas between the trees had tents etc. By 2am when we went to sleep we could not believe anybody else could possibly get in, but they did! The Dutch couple told us it was a special service for children tomorrow. We felt really guilty as we were taking up a fair bit of space but we had no idea what to expect.
When we awoke cars etc were still arriving and I told a car load they were welcome to park in our space behind us and shortly after they were joined by a van. The cheeky buggers nicked our stone table. What happened next was incredible, more and more cars, vans and caravans kept arriving and finding places to park. It is difficult to describe fully but even the pathway to the toilets had cars parked on it, they just drove down the path, parked and went off to the square. All the stone tables had tablecloths on them, these we discovered acted like towels on a sun bed, amazing. With all this going on we never saw one bit of bad feeling in fact it was all done in a carnival atmosphere and absolutely free. Just imagine if this happened in Britain what all the police/council officials /parking wardens etc would do?
As I said everybody was making for the main area which when we got there was pretty spectacular. It was basically one huge outdoor mass for children to celebrate their first holy communion. There were hundreds of children dressed with different coloured baseball hats for each separate group. Some of the little ones had rope they were all holding on to so nobody got lost, and even although there were thousands of people there nobody minded if you sort of pushed through, so it was moving all the time. At the appointed time in the service for people to receive the host a long line of priests and lay people spread out from the dais and were accompanied by someone holding a large white umbrella. All one had to do was attract their attention and they came over to you. This was especially good for some of the old people who had been brought in and sat on seats to enjoy the spectacle. When it was all over everybody returned to their table /car boot/ picnic hamper and consumed vast quantities of food and drink, mostly we discovered, iced tea but some wine and beer. Then people started to leave and it began to clear.
Then we discovered that a couple of motorhomes locks had been tampered with. The Dutch ladies next door and a chap further along. As far as we could discover nobody lost anything, but it was a bit upsetting. I decided we should leave right away as it was mid afternoon and we could get to a campsite near the coast by around 7pm. It was a shame really but I knew the small one would not rest and would probably spend the night sitting by the door with my mallet at the ready. This would result in a very tired and grumpy person next day, so we left. (I can be soo masterful at times!).
Hopefully some of the spectacle will be apparent to you if I can upload a couple of the photos we took on the still camera.
The camp site at Praia de Mira was to be our last stop-over in Portugal, it was not spectacular, in fact it was pretty one star. The first thing that happened was we were warned to be careful where we parked as some of the pitches were all soft sand and we would sink right in. Then we went to find the beach and it was approached by a very dodgy track plus a climb over a sort of rickety wooden stairway over the dunes. Couple that with the fact that several young people turned up about 9pm and put some tents up just as it started to rain and sat outside chatting in the rain.......................... until 2am !
We left at 9.30 and set off for Salamanca in Spain. As we crossed the border the sun came out and it got hotter and hotter, it was incredible and by the time we reached the campsite the temperature was in the high 30’s at 6pm.
That must be enough for now as I have writer’s cramp!!
Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Wind and rain were definitely NOT in her plans!
1st to 5th June
Today we decided to cycle to town for a paper (doesn’t arrive till Tuesday!), and a couple of minor supplies and then come straight back to spend some time on the beach. However with all this fresh fish around it seemed silly not to buy some. Having cycled all the way to the port and found the shop, we were just inside the door when Joan decided we should not cook fish in the van as it will stink for days! Then she saw the prawns, oh lets have those for lunch she said. So we bought a kilo of giant prawns for €3.50 (honest). I always thought that if they were pink they were ready to eat but when we got them home to the van and opened the bag they were definitely pink but still did not look right. My local fish expert announced that they would need cooking further but decided to peel them first. This took absolutely ages but when they were done she immersed them in boiling water and almost immediately they became a little pinker and were pronounced edible. This was a good thing as by now our backs were breaking, our legs ached and we were starving! About half way through we realised there were far too many and so tomorrows lunch was sorted.
Next after a brief rest it was time for the beach and a dip in the sea, lovely stuff. However our time there was cut short as it was becoming very windy and so it was back to the van where we could sit in the sun with a little shelter from the wind and of course enjoy a beer.
Tuesday arrived like an early March day except of course it was sunny but quite cold, the small one was not amused and who could blame her, we were ninety odd miles from bloomin Africa and it was cold! If in fact you got out of the wind the sun was pretty hot so as this was our last day here we were determined to enjoy it. Another quick trip for a paper, this time successful and then off to the beach only to be driven back by the wind which was threatening to sand blast us it was so strong. Being English of course we attempted to hunker down in the dunes but it was really hurting us so reluctantly we returned, had lunch and went to the swimming pool on the camp site. This proved a really good move, we got our swim after all as the water was really warm, and as it was a little sheltered we were able to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
That evening we returned to the pool as it is possible to see the sunset over the wildlife area behind the site. This is one of those rituals that we do and for the life of me I cannot see why, although the sunsets can and do on occasion look really nice. I still remember when we drove all the way down to Key West in Florida and at the appointed hour gathered together with all the other people at the farthest point to witness it. Just before it happened a bloody great cloud covered it and we all went home disappointed. Fortunately we were there another couple of days and did get to see it but those who were only there for a day were gutted. Oh well I digress.
We left fairly early Wednesday for Portugal and with only 96 miles to do, arrived nice and early at Praia da Luz near Lagos on the Algarve. We had a nice lunch in their restaurant and were about to check out the pool but the wind really got up and was just blasting through, so we retreated to our van, and planned the next day. Ever since we arrived at the south coast of Spain from Gibraltar along to here, the wind really gets up especially in the afternoon and although it keeps us cool it’s not very pleasant. It’s very hilly round here which means we can’t use the bikes so today we got the hourly bus into Lagos and had a really good day wandering around the marina, the beach and the old town where we had lunch in a lovely square and watched the world go by, smashing.
On our return we made our plans to spend the next day on the beach nearby and then to set off for the most south westerly point of Europe, Sagres. All of this would depend on the weather improving slightly because it was quite cold as we prepared for bed. When we awoke it was cold and grey, then it started to rain! That’s it we are leaving right away, just get us unplugged and I will go and pay, said the small one raising herself up to her full 5ft1½inches, I am NOT putting up with this, it’s warmer at home. This of course was a slight exaggeration but it was a bit depressing to have come all this way for cold wet weather so we packed up and left without seeing Sagres in the rain. We drove the 186 miles to Lisbon along a motorway that cost us €32 but we did it in just over 3 hours and were at our new campsite and all set up sitting outside in the sun by 3.30pm.
I was just a little traumatised as this site is full of twisted gnarled trees with huge low boughs and branches so with my track record I was petrified. As we drove in we passed some pitches near a road and hadn’t gone there in case of noise. We tried to negotiate a couple of places and I actually managed to get into one with a lot of help from Joan but then when we got out and looked, we realised that if somebody parked opposite us we would not be able to leave! So we carefully extracted the van from that pitch and returned to a very nice one near the road but sans trees, phew.
Tomorrow we will wish Eleanor a very happy 4th birthday then take a bus to Lisbon for the day. Hopefully the weather will be nice to us.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan XXXX
Today we decided to cycle to town for a paper (doesn’t arrive till Tuesday!), and a couple of minor supplies and then come straight back to spend some time on the beach. However with all this fresh fish around it seemed silly not to buy some. Having cycled all the way to the port and found the shop, we were just inside the door when Joan decided we should not cook fish in the van as it will stink for days! Then she saw the prawns, oh lets have those for lunch she said. So we bought a kilo of giant prawns for €3.50 (honest). I always thought that if they were pink they were ready to eat but when we got them home to the van and opened the bag they were definitely pink but still did not look right. My local fish expert announced that they would need cooking further but decided to peel them first. This took absolutely ages but when they were done she immersed them in boiling water and almost immediately they became a little pinker and were pronounced edible. This was a good thing as by now our backs were breaking, our legs ached and we were starving! About half way through we realised there were far too many and so tomorrows lunch was sorted.
Next after a brief rest it was time for the beach and a dip in the sea, lovely stuff. However our time there was cut short as it was becoming very windy and so it was back to the van where we could sit in the sun with a little shelter from the wind and of course enjoy a beer.
Tuesday arrived like an early March day except of course it was sunny but quite cold, the small one was not amused and who could blame her, we were ninety odd miles from bloomin Africa and it was cold! If in fact you got out of the wind the sun was pretty hot so as this was our last day here we were determined to enjoy it. Another quick trip for a paper, this time successful and then off to the beach only to be driven back by the wind which was threatening to sand blast us it was so strong. Being English of course we attempted to hunker down in the dunes but it was really hurting us so reluctantly we returned, had lunch and went to the swimming pool on the camp site. This proved a really good move, we got our swim after all as the water was really warm, and as it was a little sheltered we were able to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
That evening we returned to the pool as it is possible to see the sunset over the wildlife area behind the site. This is one of those rituals that we do and for the life of me I cannot see why, although the sunsets can and do on occasion look really nice. I still remember when we drove all the way down to Key West in Florida and at the appointed hour gathered together with all the other people at the farthest point to witness it. Just before it happened a bloody great cloud covered it and we all went home disappointed. Fortunately we were there another couple of days and did get to see it but those who were only there for a day were gutted. Oh well I digress.
We left fairly early Wednesday for Portugal and with only 96 miles to do, arrived nice and early at Praia da Luz near Lagos on the Algarve. We had a nice lunch in their restaurant and were about to check out the pool but the wind really got up and was just blasting through, so we retreated to our van, and planned the next day. Ever since we arrived at the south coast of Spain from Gibraltar along to here, the wind really gets up especially in the afternoon and although it keeps us cool it’s not very pleasant. It’s very hilly round here which means we can’t use the bikes so today we got the hourly bus into Lagos and had a really good day wandering around the marina, the beach and the old town where we had lunch in a lovely square and watched the world go by, smashing.
On our return we made our plans to spend the next day on the beach nearby and then to set off for the most south westerly point of Europe, Sagres. All of this would depend on the weather improving slightly because it was quite cold as we prepared for bed. When we awoke it was cold and grey, then it started to rain! That’s it we are leaving right away, just get us unplugged and I will go and pay, said the small one raising herself up to her full 5ft1½inches, I am NOT putting up with this, it’s warmer at home. This of course was a slight exaggeration but it was a bit depressing to have come all this way for cold wet weather so we packed up and left without seeing Sagres in the rain. We drove the 186 miles to Lisbon along a motorway that cost us €32 but we did it in just over 3 hours and were at our new campsite and all set up sitting outside in the sun by 3.30pm.
I was just a little traumatised as this site is full of twisted gnarled trees with huge low boughs and branches so with my track record I was petrified. As we drove in we passed some pitches near a road and hadn’t gone there in case of noise. We tried to negotiate a couple of places and I actually managed to get into one with a lot of help from Joan but then when we got out and looked, we realised that if somebody parked opposite us we would not be able to leave! So we carefully extracted the van from that pitch and returned to a very nice one near the road but sans trees, phew.
Tomorrow we will wish Eleanor a very happy 4th birthday then take a bus to Lisbon for the day. Hopefully the weather will be nice to us.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan XXXX
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
A fishy tale and a ferret?
31st May to 1st June
Just been reading Reena’s new web site of lovely recipes and cannot wait to try a couple but we may struggle to find the ingredients here. If you fancy having a look it’s = http://coconutraita.blogspot.com/
As we are staying here until at least Wednesday because the beach is so good and the whole atmosphere totally relaxing, I thought I would just mention a few other things that have happened. As some of you may know Joan is somewhat partial to fish which is apparently due to being a Piscean. Isla Cristina is the second biggest fishing port in Spain so it should certainly be fresh, how fresh we were to find out! We are convinced the locals will be dining out on our visits to their restaurants for some time to come. I should point out that our Spanish does not improve and this is one of the few places where they speak no English.
I am firmly convinced that if you want to know what’s good you should ask the locals in the office and look out for places that are packed with locals - not rocket science. The second part rather falls down as they do not eat until about 10pm and remember we are cycling there and back. The young lady in reception said, well it’s not pretty but there is a traditional bar down near the port where the fish has just been landed and I eat there all the time, and she drew us a route on our local map. At the same time fortunately she showed us where a more traditional restaurant was situated where she also goes and the food is good.
Off we went about 6.30pm cycling all around the back streets of the port. Being so narrow they are all one ways which made it more difficult, it all looked very dark and dodgy. There was not a soul about but like a horror film there would be a sudden noise, a crash or a shout then nothing. When eventually we found the bar it was firmly closed and did not inspire the small one who said could we please go to a street with lights and just a few people?
I of course pretended to be all brave but agreed and we got out to the main road asap. So now we had a problem, we were hungry! Worse, Joan had been promised a wonderful fish meal and it was so far not in sight. Time for plan ‘b,’ the restaurant. This actually did not prove quite as difficult to locate although it was again up a side street, there were lots of people around though. Sadly it was firmly closed but some of the windows were open and when I enquired if it would open soon, a lady sitting on a step in the street said octo something which I seem to remember meant 8pm. So we nipped off to take a look at the beach and get a soft drink to return after eight. What a transformation, all the windows were open now and blinds down over the road with tables and chairs outside in the road. There were no other customers though which was probably a good thing as we took up all the waitresses time. Although it was a glorious night with the sun still shining brightly they were amazed that we wanted to eat outside. Secondly the waitress proudly produced a menu and stood beaming expectantly, she was soo very patient and tried to go through it with us. As far as we could ascertain there was a huge selection of fish but we could not understand how it was priced. She said ah you see, and pointed to her eyes, then when Joan went to follow her she said no and motioned that she would bring it to us. Then we heard lots of shouting in the kitchen and she returned with a selection of fish on a huge tray for Joan to pick from.
Now I know nothing about fish but it looked as though it had been swimming 10 minutes earlier, and the small one was delighted, but as far as we could tell she had to buy all of whichever fish she picked. Well some of them were frankly enormous and would have given her enough food for a couple of days at least. What they had not yet grasped was that we were not going to share it. People often wonder why I go to a fish restaurant, they don’t realise I am strange. Finally she picked a medium sized fish and the girl now whipped the tray away inside and returned to me with a friendly but resigned look on her face.
The only thing on the menu I could attempt were prawns which apparently come cooked several ways. She nipped back inside and returned with a tray of six giant prawns and engaged me in a very complicated conversation of which I swear I did not understand a word! However with all her experience and possibly psychic abilities she left nodding and smiling, while we sat in nervous anticipation. Next she reappeared all smiles with a small plate each, a bowl of olives, some bread and the six huge prawns. Is it your meal or your starter or our starter wondered Joan. Anyway she had one I ate the rest, then suddenly Joan’s fish was served with salad and chips followed by another plate of 10 very large prawns cooked another way apparently for me! Having said all that the small one is still talking about how good the fish was and the prawns were delicious. By the time the poor girl had managed to get our order the restaurant had several customers and judging by the laughter when she went inside I think we were good value, plus we gave her a tip and asked the lady on the campsite to thank her next time they visit.
The next afternoon/evening we decided to spend a bit of time on the beach when the sun had lost a bit of its heat. So we saunter down and as we get onto the sand, as I am sure everybody does, your eyes sweep around to take it in and pick a spot to go to. What happened could only happen to us I swear, directly in front of me is a one legged man so I quickly move my eyes to see a woman getting undressed. Shifting my gaze rapidly I next see a man take off his trunks and finally having given up but found a place to sit, a young lad and his girlfriend appear with a ferret on a lead!
I SWEAR THIS IS TRUE.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan
XXXX
Just been reading Reena’s new web site of lovely recipes and cannot wait to try a couple but we may struggle to find the ingredients here. If you fancy having a look it’s = http://coconutraita.blogspot.com/
As we are staying here until at least Wednesday because the beach is so good and the whole atmosphere totally relaxing, I thought I would just mention a few other things that have happened. As some of you may know Joan is somewhat partial to fish which is apparently due to being a Piscean. Isla Cristina is the second biggest fishing port in Spain so it should certainly be fresh, how fresh we were to find out! We are convinced the locals will be dining out on our visits to their restaurants for some time to come. I should point out that our Spanish does not improve and this is one of the few places where they speak no English.
I am firmly convinced that if you want to know what’s good you should ask the locals in the office and look out for places that are packed with locals - not rocket science. The second part rather falls down as they do not eat until about 10pm and remember we are cycling there and back. The young lady in reception said, well it’s not pretty but there is a traditional bar down near the port where the fish has just been landed and I eat there all the time, and she drew us a route on our local map. At the same time fortunately she showed us where a more traditional restaurant was situated where she also goes and the food is good.
Off we went about 6.30pm cycling all around the back streets of the port. Being so narrow they are all one ways which made it more difficult, it all looked very dark and dodgy. There was not a soul about but like a horror film there would be a sudden noise, a crash or a shout then nothing. When eventually we found the bar it was firmly closed and did not inspire the small one who said could we please go to a street with lights and just a few people?
I of course pretended to be all brave but agreed and we got out to the main road asap. So now we had a problem, we were hungry! Worse, Joan had been promised a wonderful fish meal and it was so far not in sight. Time for plan ‘b,’ the restaurant. This actually did not prove quite as difficult to locate although it was again up a side street, there were lots of people around though. Sadly it was firmly closed but some of the windows were open and when I enquired if it would open soon, a lady sitting on a step in the street said octo something which I seem to remember meant 8pm. So we nipped off to take a look at the beach and get a soft drink to return after eight. What a transformation, all the windows were open now and blinds down over the road with tables and chairs outside in the road. There were no other customers though which was probably a good thing as we took up all the waitresses time. Although it was a glorious night with the sun still shining brightly they were amazed that we wanted to eat outside. Secondly the waitress proudly produced a menu and stood beaming expectantly, she was soo very patient and tried to go through it with us. As far as we could ascertain there was a huge selection of fish but we could not understand how it was priced. She said ah you see, and pointed to her eyes, then when Joan went to follow her she said no and motioned that she would bring it to us. Then we heard lots of shouting in the kitchen and she returned with a selection of fish on a huge tray for Joan to pick from.
Now I know nothing about fish but it looked as though it had been swimming 10 minutes earlier, and the small one was delighted, but as far as we could tell she had to buy all of whichever fish she picked. Well some of them were frankly enormous and would have given her enough food for a couple of days at least. What they had not yet grasped was that we were not going to share it. People often wonder why I go to a fish restaurant, they don’t realise I am strange. Finally she picked a medium sized fish and the girl now whipped the tray away inside and returned to me with a friendly but resigned look on her face.
The only thing on the menu I could attempt were prawns which apparently come cooked several ways. She nipped back inside and returned with a tray of six giant prawns and engaged me in a very complicated conversation of which I swear I did not understand a word! However with all her experience and possibly psychic abilities she left nodding and smiling, while we sat in nervous anticipation. Next she reappeared all smiles with a small plate each, a bowl of olives, some bread and the six huge prawns. Is it your meal or your starter or our starter wondered Joan. Anyway she had one I ate the rest, then suddenly Joan’s fish was served with salad and chips followed by another plate of 10 very large prawns cooked another way apparently for me! Having said all that the small one is still talking about how good the fish was and the prawns were delicious. By the time the poor girl had managed to get our order the restaurant had several customers and judging by the laughter when she went inside I think we were good value, plus we gave her a tip and asked the lady on the campsite to thank her next time they visit.
The next afternoon/evening we decided to spend a bit of time on the beach when the sun had lost a bit of its heat. So we saunter down and as we get onto the sand, as I am sure everybody does, your eyes sweep around to take it in and pick a spot to go to. What happened could only happen to us I swear, directly in front of me is a one legged man so I quickly move my eyes to see a woman getting undressed. Shifting my gaze rapidly I next see a man take off his trunks and finally having given up but found a place to sit, a young lad and his girlfriend appear with a ferret on a lead!
I SWEAR THIS IS TRUE.
Lots of love
Bryan & Joan
XXXX
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