I am really glad that we have followed the recommendation
and we drove Route N222! It really is spectacular! The road traverses the Douro
region, where Port comes from (yes, the alcoholic drink).
The grapes are grown
high up on the mountain sides, which are terraced. And I don’t mean there are
a few terraces, I mean the whole mountain is terraced top to bottom, back and
front and as far as the eye can see. A very impressive sight. I cannot quite
imagine the amount of work that was required to create the terraces. Some of
the terraces are wide enough for a small tractor, but mostly not.
We stopped in
the little town of
Pinhão for lunch and to look at the tiles on the railway
station building, which was quite interesting. Even thought this is out of
season, the sun was out and music was blearing from the speakers at the
station.
We stopped for the night at Alem de ponte by the river and right next
to a little bar. Not bad.
We have decided to skip Porto, and went to Costa Nova
instead. A nice little town, where apparently stripy is the in thing for a
house. I liked the older part of the town too and found it interesting to see
the old houses. We saw a local lady with a large bucket of squid. Walking
around town, it was also quite apparent hat people are not shy about hanging
their washing out (knickers and all) – on the streets. Lol.
We moved up the road for the following night and stayed in a
carpark at Praia do Areão by the beach. There was hardly anybody there. We
walked into town the following morning and found coffee provided by the local
general store, along with kitchen towel (which I have bought) and a small Buddha
statue (which I did not) and everything else in between.
We moved on for the night to Praia de Tocha, where they have
the nicest beach with lovely white sand. Not much else thought.
We have stopped in Figueia de Foz and walked around the old
fort, which nowadays is a bar/ice-cream terrace and went to see the bullring,
which was actually closed. Interestingly the town is built a bit of a distance
away from the sea, with loads of wooden walkways to the sea.
We did not want to pay for the parking in Figueia de Foz and decided to go onto
Montemor-o-Velho and parked by the river for free instead. We saw loads of storks on the trees,
and heard their chattering until late into the night.
We walked up to the
old castle the following morning. Actually they have open air escalators going up
from the town. Harley was not very keen on the escalators, so Hamish went with
him on the steps.
The castle was a very important one in Portugal history, where many battles
were fought. Now only its ruins remain but it is still beautiful.
We then moved onto Coimbra, the old capital. Took it really
easy for the rest of the day; just had a coffee and sit down by the river bank then
strolled over a bridge and back on another before settling down for the night.
Today we went walkabout in town. We could see that this town could be really
something if only some more effort was made to upkeep it. There is a large university here and of
course some very old buildings, including the king’s palace, library, and
cathedral etc. All can be visited for a fairly steep entrance fee. (We decided
to skip it.) Really liked the little narrow
streets in the old-town and we saw the largest meringues ever in the cake
shops.
We are now in Tomar, in an old campsite. Planning to walk up
to the castle tomorrow. Hopefully the forecast of rain is all wrong…
