Some Photos from Yesterday

Something to get your teeth into

Before the sun (or Rachel) had risen, Brian set off for an early morning stroll. He was welcomed to the centre of the village by a pack of 5 barking dogs. It takes more than a few dogs to put Brian out of his stride, so our intrepid hero (?) continued towards the dogs, probably to the dismay of all the residents who were still in the land of nod. Unfortunately for Brian the leader of the pack was El Gnasher, the local nutter/hardcase who hadn't seen a tasty bone like Brian's leg since he was last chased out of the butchers. Let's say there was a 'bit' of an altercation, which El Gnasher won. Needless to say the walk route was revised, but it was only a small nibble. Hopefully our less than friendly dog isn't rabid or Brian will be behaving even stranger than usual! The things he does to keep the blog readers interested.

On a brighter note-

We've Arrived!

In Search of Some Winter Sun? We found it! What a beautiful day in the most typical Algarve environment. When Rachel's wearing shorts AND sitting in the shade and Brian's out in the sea (getting battered by the waves) it's definitely a summer's day!

Some Photos You May Not Have Seen

The (iso) bars are packed in Sagres!

In other words, it's blowing a gale as we arrive in the Algarve at Portugal's most south westerly point. Still a very pleasant 20c though and no rain, at the moment, but certainly not the weather for swimming in the Atlantic!

What was supposed to be a 90 mile drive to an aire, ended up being 150 miles to a campsite near the Atlantic coast. The aire just didn't do it for us, so we decided to use our last remaining camping cheque for a free night, once we could locate this rather strange campsite. 

As we descended from the hillier parts of the Alentejo region the temperature rose to a pleasantly mild 20c. Warm enough for us to get the deckchairs out and treat ourselves to afternoon tea and Xmas cake in the sunshine.

En route to warmer climes

This sunny but cool morning we leave Monsaraz and head about 100 miles southwest to recharge the batteries (of the van) and get closer to the Algarve. 

Free Internet is not as available to us now we're in Portugal but we will update the blog properly once we get decent wifi.

You will be pleased to know that Rachel did an awesome job making a proper Xmas dinner for us both yesterday!

Merry Christmas from us in Monsaraz

Monsaraz

Brian finally finds somebody who will listen to him.

1888-1999 (miles that is)

Wednesday saw us searching to get out of the fog which seems to have enveloped most of Spain and central Portugal! So we ended up 100 miles further south,  and although we haven't rediscovered the blue sky of earlier, we ARE at an amazing place where we will stay for Xmas. It now means Harry has nearly 2,000 miles on the clock in 2 weeks.

Monsaraz, a medieval hilltop town overlooking the largest reservoir in Europe has a particular attraction for us at this time of year. We came here 2 years ago in early December and said it would be great to come at Christmas. When or if the weather picks up you will hopefully see why.

On a different note, as we don't get free calls and data whilst in Portugal we need wifi, so Brian called in at the tourist office here and asked "is there wifi in the town"? The nice young lady said "Yes" and directed him to the wine shop! Draw your own conclusions.

Welcome to Portugal!

A 70 mile drive through fog, west into Portugal where the sun always seem to greet our arrival! The hilltop village of Marvao was our destination, just 8 miles over the border. The pictures tell the story.

Coffee stop in Spain

Welcome to Portugal!

Our aire at Marvao

Marvao

The freezing fog we woke to this morning was the signal to head south, rather than west into Portugal. So it was another 200 mile drive to an old haunt at Caceres, where we shared a couple of nights with Neil & Kath 2 years ago. A mostly sunny drive on a quiet motorway through pleasant countryside, which was a refreshing change from yesterday! 

I know the clocks here are an hour on from home, but to have daylight at 6pm on the shortest day is rather nice :-)

Caceres update: We got lost walking around the old quarter & had to ring Gretna (Neil & Kath) to get us back to Harry! Old people aren't safe out on their own!

Photo: Salamanca

Photo: Carceres 

Early Night, Early Morning

These 200+ miles a day are starting to get a bit tiring for old people, so we had an early night in prep for an early start for yet another 200+ mile drive today (Sunday).

Quite a pleasant drive through the hilly bits but thereafter we seemed to be driving through the worst Spain has to offer. Industrial landscapes where scrap yards featured prominently.

We arrived at lunchtime at a CAMPSITE! Yes, a real campsite with facilities, running water and electricity! Such luxury.  We only broke from our usual WILD camping so we could Skype home to see all the family enjoying their early Xmas together.

Photo: Early doors tagging on to 2 Brit campervanners.

Photo: It's just bull.

Photo. Tordesillas, Sunday's stopover.

You can tell it's getting warm when.......

You can tell it's getting warm when Rachel puts the air con on in the van and declares it's time to shed the thermals! 

As we headed south from Bordeaux the temperature kept rising until Brian declared it 'official t shirt and shorts weather'. I think it's due to rain tomorrow.

We are 'overnighting' at a free aire at Tolosa, about 30 miles into Spain. It should be a charged aire, all of 1€ but, not surprisingly for Spain, the machine is broken.

Photo: Lunch stop N10 south western France - 24c

As each day passes so we are getting into this more. A leisurely day today, but still managed to cram in a walk around St Jean d'Angely followed by numerous shop visits and a 100 mile drive to  a small village south of Bordeaux, where we arrived whilst the sun was still shining :-)

As the temperature sneaked up to 17c it's the first time we've felt over dressed in jeans and shoes! Long may it continue :-)

Spain tomorrow.

Photo:St Jean d'Angely

Photo: Sunshine and 17 degrees!

Thursday

Our first rain free day and the temperature slowly creeps up to 15c as we continue south towards Bordeaux. 

The not so new looking Harry now sporting over 1,000 miles of road dirt on what was, only a week ago, a shiny new coat! 

Today's mission (should we choose to accept it) find Rachel a replacement robe to replace the one lost in the fire. Success after only 2 stores and 20 miles!

Photo: Harry parked outside the well known sports superstore, the name of which escapes me.

Wednesday 16th

One of the great things about travel is experiencing different cultures. 

Today one local gent(?) took urinating in a public place to a new level, for us anyway. Whilst having lunch in Harry Hymer, who I had parked across 4 bays of a Leclerc supermarket car park, the aforementioned gent parked right in front of us, got out of his driving seat, shut the door, then proceeded to pee against it! Fortunately he was a short man and was on the far side of his car looking right at us! Rachel & I decided to break with local tradition and use the supermarket toilet.

This bizarre occurrence happened in Evreux, the town where Amy & Yann met, obviously there is no suggestion of a connection between the 2 events!

France

We've arrived! Managed to get an earlier train so we are now at our usual aire on the coast just outside Calais. We managed to make it to France without the need to refuel and our usual refill place came up trumps again with diesel at 75p per litre! 😊 The only time it wasn't raining today was when we were in the tunnel!

Surprising Fact of the Day

The first day's 300 mile, 8 hour drive to Richard's in deepest Suffolk taught us a surprising fact about town twinning. Due to a 2 hour hold up on the M1, we dug out ye olde paper mappe and plotted a route east across the Leicestershire countryside. Had it not been dark (& raining) we would have seen some pretty English villages, but the surprising fact we encountered was when we entered the village of Whitwell and saw it was twinned with Paris!

In 1980, regulars from the pub, the Noel Arms wrote to the then Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac proposing the link and with a tight deadline for a response. As no answer arrived from the Mayor's office by the set date, the village unilaterally declared itself to be twinned and erected road signs to that effect.^[4][5] The original wooden signs were later replaced in metal by Rutland County Council.

It's on again!

Great news, the blog is being fired up again!

We said goodbye to Rapi 3 weeks ago and got paid out so spent last week searching for his replacement and found Harry Hymer :-) We collected him yesterday (Thursday 10th) so will attempt to depart from home on Monday morning. The plan is to take the tunnel to France at 8pm Tuesday and drive down to the Algarve. Watch this space.....

Harry en route home to Carlisle

Trip Cancelled!

As we were packing up to depart this morning the fridge caught fire and put an end to this trip. We are both ok but Brian's phone is temporarily out of action.