Note on new posts!

We've just uploaded four entries in a go as we've struggled to get good wifi recently - the one from Julie about Buddha Eden is the starting point if you want to maintain continuity!

We're both pretty gutted and embarrassed about being British today - most of the other Europeans we've spoken to are bemused at best - what have those who voted to leave done?!

S&J :(

Coimbra

The trip to the famous university city of Coimbra was a short hop and we soon found ourselves in the municipal camping on the outskirts. Although not in our ACSI guide it did offer a 10% ACSI discount, which we gratefully accepted. Still opting to manage without mains hook-up, Parque Campsimo Coimbra cost us €15 a night – bargain, considering it had a bar/restaurant, free wifi, small shop, pool and gym – plus, a bus stop right outside the front gate to enable us to get into the old historic part of the city.

Campervans were just left to sort themselves out here – no demarcated pitches and as we arrived late on a Saturday evening, we were fortunate to find a place to squeeze in!

We caught the bus the next morning and entered the old historic centre via the Almedina gate – the proper start of the tourist route!

This lets on to a steep climb up to the centre of the old city, and as we puffed our way uphill we were serenaded by the sounds of Fado (apparently Coimbra is the birthplace of a particular style of Fado) from a nearby music store – and university students selling postcards to raise money for their end of year celebrations. We bought some off these two – as much in admiration that the student body is still content to wear the formal black gown (in the stifling heat in the city) as well as help fund the end of year bash!

Coimbra is stuffed with historical things to see (unsurprising given it was once Portugal’s mediaeval capital and built on Roman and Moorish settlements!) so we started at the Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro, which not only offers a well thought out and staged route across the millennia, starting with some amazing Roman ruins, but has fabulous views across the city and a good restaurant. The Roman cryptoporticos are in amazing condition and although partly restored, are very evocative of the scale of the original forum that would have been above them – helped no doubt by the clever lighting.

The rest of the museum is dedicated to a combination of sculptures, religious paintings and relics and a small oriental collection of artefacts. Suffice to say, that by the time we had looked around the roman cryptoporticos and later sculptures (including these amazing clay figures of the 12 disciples, restored from thousands of fragments) we were ready for a break and some lunch – with an amazing view of the city!

After lunch (which included some slabs of leitaõ – suckling pig – that I’d been after for a while – yum!) we finished off the rest of the museum, (not all of it as digestible as lunch!) before heading off to admire the ‘big’ items in the historic centre – the ‘old’ university and the two cathedrals. I can’t help but see these immense places of worship in the same way as I look at Greek or Roman temples – struck by the power of those that commissioned them and are often formally remembered, and the huge scale of labour required to build them – by the largely un-remembered.

The ‘old’ university was the much more impressive building for me – spread out as it is over a number of faculty buildings. The outside of the fabulously named ‘faculty of letters’ was fronted by a row of men (of course) of letters…

The winner though in scale and wow factor was the Patio des Escolas, set around three sides of an enormous square, itself overlooking the city. We were intending on visiting the amazing library here, but were put off by the large number of group tours lining up behind various flags and brollies…

After a walk back down the hill the old city is set on, we chanced across a craft market adjacent to the river Mondego. Packed with stalls from a range of small towns and villages in the Coimbra municipality, this particular one made me think of the UK advert for a Yorkshire based internet provider…

Had we left and caught the bus back then, we would have been spared the disappointment of the botanical gardens. They may have been impressive once, but after a very hot, indirect (and so a little testy!) route to find them, their charm had faded and much of what we saw was weed covered, closed, or given over to an aerial adventure high wire park, and we left wondering whether the steep climb back up the hill had been worth it. Still, we did get to see this example of a ‘república’ (student house) – the first one we’d seen not covered in graffiti – something Coimbra is apparently famed for but, having seen the quality of street art in Sesimbra, what we saw here looked a bit like the uninspiring urban scrawl gracing many a British street.

Being a Sunday, the bus service was limited, and we were very lucky to get the last bus back to the campsite the other side of the city. This gave us an unexpected insight to the rest of the city as the inbound 20 minute ride into the old centre was replaced by a 50 minute trip round a variety of housing estates and shopping malls. Still, it did give the visit a more authentic feel – a bit like visiting Oxford from a short distance outside, only to return via Blackbird Leys!

Next stop – more culture in Porto!

S

Conímbriga

Having decided to skip the famous Roman ruins at Mérida in Spain, (so we could spend more time in Portugal), I was really looking forward to a visit to what is described (at least in our guidebook) as Portugal’s most extensive and impressive remains from this period. The journey through the forest areas along the coast (and past one of our favourite surf spots with the kids all those years ago, Saõ Pedro de Moel) was really beautiful, with very little traffic and the wonderful smell of pine and eucalyptus. It may be taking us longer to get to places by taking these back roads, but the sights along the way are usually well worth it!

And so, after an interesting drive with the now expected cunning absence of signposts that led us at one point down a dead end and into a woodyard, we arrived at the small town of Condeixa a Velha, where the ruins were located.

Perhaps having seen so many impressive Roman/Greek ruins in Italy and Sicily last year, I should have thought about re-calibrating my expectations. OK, it’s a bit unfair and not comparing like with like, but the Portuguese clearly share a lot in common with the British, including mediaeval re-use of building materials taken from Roman towns and cities! So instead of massive colonnaded temples and enormous amphitheatres, Conímbriga delivered mainly low level outlines of buildings, some impressive mosaic floors, some enthusiastic ‘reconstructed’ fountains and, in scale at least, the impressive and intriguing ‘imperial wall’ that was thrown up in the 3^rd century AD to ward off invading Suevi, and in so doing dividing the town into two.

It’s worth visiting the on-site museum first, as it’s then a lot easier to appreciate what it is you are actually looking at when wandering around the ruins. The displays are in Portuguese and English, and quite cleverly use illustrations of real-life activities with the display items highlighted in use – so, for example, a blacksmith’s hammer is shown in an illustration of a smith using one on an anvil.

It’s a poignant visit, as the scale of the fear that led the inhabitants to throw up such a dramatic defence as a wall dividing the city in two is self evident – and which ultimately proved fruitless, as Coníbriga eventually fell to the Suevi with its inhabitants fleeing to what is now Coimbra.

The mosaics apparently show how settled and successful the town was, with many large and once sumptuous villas all around. This one was one of the more extensive…

…and this, one where more elaborate mosaics had been used…

The low level nature of most of the ruins is captured in this pic, which shows the ruins of a large villa and its once underground connecting archways…

There’s not much left of the amphitheatre either, but the wooden benches help recreate some of what it must have looked like…

The reconstructed fountains of a large villa (where some of the best mosaics are also housed) have the added bonus of a machine that sets the water spouting for 50c – which of course I just had to see in action…

The best part of the site for me though, was the large imperial wall – seen here with the remains of the town’s aqueduct. This impressed me as much for its scale, as the poignancy of the reasons for its construction and ultimate failure…

So, after a very informative couple of hours and a refreshing cuppa back at the van, we headed off to find our campsite on the outskirts of Coimbra. This was another venture into a non-ACSI municipal site and our first in a city, so we were filled with anticipation and curiosity as we set off…

S.

Saõ Martinho do Porto – and a different take on camping!

After the success of our discovery of a ‘proper’ Portuguese campsite at Camping Galé north of Sines i.e. not dominated by northern Europeans like us relying on what we have come to recognise as ‘ACSI comfort’!) we decided to do a bit of old-school exploration by reading the topography of the coast and looking for a beach-side campsite. And so we decided to give what looked like a perfect horseshoe-shaped cove at Saõ Martinho do Porto a go (north of the famous surf beaches of Peniche).

As we drove through the small town that stretched out along one end of the cove, it was clear that we had hit fiesta time, with a stage, loads of stalls and overhead street lights being set up. With mounting excitement, we continued along the beach, spotting loads of campervans in the distance at the other end of the cove – was this the campsite, or a bunch of free campers? In a couple of minutes all was revealed – the municipal site (Baía Azul) looked on first impressions like a combined refugee camp and traveller park, with masses of near identical plastic tented areas set up in rows, augmented by an assorted range of white vans and caravans parked in the car park area at the front, with washing strung between the lampposts. So we drove past and explored the row of campervans at the other end of the beach. Sure enough, this was where free camping happened and seemed to be tolerated even though it was only 500m or so from the campsite.

Deciding that we fancied giving the municipal site a more thorough look over, we walked back and asked for the rates and to look around. Our first impressions were soon overcome and although the site was indeed ‘varied’ in its appearance, there was a large grassed area where we could camp up with a view of the cove, a short walk to the beach, and good enough facilities – all for €11 plus €1 each for a hot shower (strangely, set to 10 minutes – more than enough!). The rows of plastic tents turned out to be generally well tended weekend homes for local Portuguese, and the ‘traveller camp’ at the front of the site, nothing more than a group of labourers from the nearby roadworks!

And so we found ourselves amongst an eclectic arrangement of campervans that included a very tasty 4x4 French overlander…

…with a Portuguese camper that had been on-site for a good while and had been converted into a more permanent home!

As the national holiday weekend arrived (Portugal Day on the Friday), so did many of the inhabitants of the ‘tent city’, giving the site a busy and more family oriented feeling. We never did quite figure out what had happened to the tent on the corner in this pic though – no sign of its inhabitants!

The cove itself delivered on our hopes of calm seas and a nearby sandy beach, with enough wind for one of our fellow campers to get out on his windsurfer, catching the small swells that rolled in from the Atlantic. (Any dog owners amongst you considering Portugal, note the new ‘no dogs’ on the beach sign – apparently, a new law passed into effect his year and catching out lots of peeps.)

As the sun set and we prepared for a trip into town to enjoy the fiesta, the wind picked up – and kept blowing through the night and the next day – a bit of a recurrent theme for this trip!

As the wind increased and the sound of English language cover versions of all your favourite cheesy songs drifted in on the wind from the town, we decided to skip the fiesta and explore the town the next day.

We discovered that Saõ Martinho has been a holiday destination for quite some time, with the small fishing village giving way to tourists as long ago as the early 1900s. And, at this time of year particularly, it’s very much a Portuguese destination. Unfortunately, the lovely but now derelict central park hotel has been replaced by modern low-rise developments – but still low key, with over ¾ of the beach still backing onto undeveloped dunes.

As we wandered further south along the beach, we stopped for lunch at a small bar/café overlooking the cove, offering the ever popular ‘caracois’ (snails – in various sizes and colours) and – a first for us – the equally popular ‘bifana’ – a flash-fried bit of marinated pork, covered in mustard/mayo and piri-piri sauce in a bread roll (yum!). With two of those, a Sagres beer and Portuguese sangria coming to €8, what’s not to love about eating out in Portugal!

Having spotted the free campers the day before, we thought we’d explore further to the other end of the cove. Here we found even more campervans, a municipal swimming pool, an unopened aire for camping cars, and a picturesque estuary that seemed to be as popular as the other end of the bay!

After a relaxing couple of days, we decided we were ready to gird our loins for more culture and an inland visit – this time to Coimbra with its famous university, and the nearby Roman ruins of Conímbriga. As we drove off the site we reflected on what a pleasant stay we’d had – OK the site looked a bit odd, but it had a great vibe and was a great example of not letting first appearances put us off – and of seeking out places that many Portuguese go to on holiday!

S.

Buddha Eden

 A sad day to be British - we went to bed on our lovely rural Spanish campsite as Europeans and woke up as Brits.  And yes, we voted to stay in Europe - organised proxy votes before we left.  Feel close to tears as I post this . . .

Note - we are about two weeks behind with the posts:

We were ambitious enough to hope to be able to reach Buddha Eden, near Óbidos the same afternoon, aided by a Google map tile downloaded the previous day.  This, it transpired was the best (and sometimes only) way to navigate the Portuguese non motorway road network as our map, an up-to-date Michelin, was sadly inadequate, a problem encountered by other travellers we spoke with, who had the same issues with their new AA map.  Further investigation revealed a country in which a third of the land is of unknown ownership, which may help explain our difficulties a little.

We arrived at the Buddha Eden park around 2pm, with four hours ahead of us to explore this fabulous tribute to the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, blown up by the Taliban in 2001.  The park consists of replica buddhas and a terracotta army (painted cobalt blue) alongside more modern sculptures and works of art from Europe and Africa, all set in marvellous parkland with lakes and ponds.

The park is the brainchild of a local wine producer, Bacalhóa, who funded and created the park.  For just €3 entry, you can happily while away the hours wandering past lakes, buddhas and modern art installations, through an African jungle populated by wonderful sculptures of men, women and beasts.

The hours flew by and by closing time we had just about walked the entire park but were left feeling that we could have happily spent an entire day.  Lunch here is also very good we’ve heard.  Even the pathway to the exit is beautiful, lined with tiled representations of the history of wine.

With our imaginations buzzing from all we’d seen, we exited through the gift shop, picking up four bottles of wine from the estate.

It had been a long day and we were tired, so we retired for a cuppa to a nearby picnic area or ‘parque de merenda’, Bom Jesus, that we’d passed on our way in.  Leafy eucalyptus sheltered us from the sun and the park was peaceful once the afternoon picnickers had gone, save for two amiable stray dogs who soon ambled off as well, and then it was just us, a small church, the twelve stations of the cross and a fabulous night’s sleep  . . . Even the chime of the church bells every 15 minutes didn’t wake us.

Next stop, somewhere on the beach!

J.

Sesimbra – a tale of tiles, graffiti and spectacles….

As we were planning our next steps north from the fabulous Troia peninsular, we mulled over having lunch in Setúbal (where we had feasted on an enormous platter of fried seafood with the kids 20+ years ago, or heading further west to the small town of Sesimbra, where we’d never been and which was famed for its seafood restaurants. So, bouyed by our success with dinner out in Cacela Velha, we pushed on to Sesimbra to explore the municipal site set on a hill overlooking the bay that it nestles in.

And what a find it was! For just under €12 we were treated to fine views through the tree-lined terraces on enormous pitches that would easily have fitted two camper vans and a tent to boot!

Situated next to an old Fortaleza and overlooking the port, the enthusiastic campsite staff told us it was a 25 minute walk to the centre if we wanted to eat out that evening – as the site restaurant (which itself had amazing views) might, or might not, be opening – ‘depende!’

As we had made good time (for Portugal) we decided to head off to the town to look around the sights in the late afternoon – after a by now customary coffee and pastele de nata. Our guidebook had outlined the key attractions as the old Fortaleza on the beach (once a summer home to the Portuguese royals); the many extravagantly tiled houses; and of course the seafood restaurants – which line both the promenade and the back streets.

The 17^th century Fortaleza Santiago was suitably impressive with newly restored museums and a swanky terraced bar. Keen to spend time in the backstreets and the tiled houses, we stayed long enough for a couple of proper tourist pics and then headed into the town.

Sure enough, the town was peppered with amazing houses covered in intricate exterior tiling – adding both decoration and functional waterproofing!

It soon became clear though, that as well as the tiled houses, there was a strong (and more recent) tradition of street art that at times blended with the faded grandeur of the old tiled houses…

…and also stood in its own right on doorways, which seemed to be a popular form of expression:

And to add to Sesimbra’s charms, as we wandered further into the backstreets we came across a fabulous display of local school children’s crochet skills, set out in a lovely shaded square and adorning the trunks of trees – including the most amazingly pruned bouganvillias I’ve ever seen, that had been intertwined to proved a lovely shaded area.

And so the time came to choose which of the many restaurants would deliver up a seafood treat – one on the front with a view, or one in the less busy side streets. Expecting the Portuguese to follow what we had come to know as more northern European eating times, we were surprised to see that by 7.30 none of them seemed to have any punters – and instead most peeps were lazily drinking beers and eating their way through mounds of caracais (snails) in the many snack bars. Determined to treat ourselves to a proper seafood extravaganza in one of the many charcoal fuelled eateries, we opted to find somewhere that was serving dinner rather than snacks – which we eventually found overlooking the bay. Coinciding with our choice, the wind decided to pick up and blow a proper hooley – so we gave up on the view and went inside to join the other diners. Now, those of you who wear specs will appreciate this – to my horror, as I went to swap from my sunglasses (fine outside but useless indoors) and I opened my case to take out my normal specs – I discovered the box was empty! I’d clearly left my ordinary specs back at the van – so I was now faced with an evening as Stevie Wonder, or one of scowling my way partly-sighted through the menu! Luckily Mrs B stepped in as menu reader, wine pourer and general guide to the less able…

The food, after all the hype was a mixed bag. Mrs B wisely opted for fresh sardines cooked right in front of her on the BBQ. Less wisely, I opted for chocos (cuttlefish) and chips – one of my favourites. Unfortunately, our chosen restaurant had opted for the ‘trick the tourist’ version of carefully machined bits of ‘poton’ – giant squid that are so huge they are machine processed in sheets and served to unsuspecting eaters. Much less sweet and much more chewy, I nonetheless ate the lot after all the expectation – washed down with a fab bottle of local wine that eased the disappointment.

And so, aided by Mrs B taking my arm as she led me back up the hill to the campsite, we settled in for what promised to be another peaceful night under the Portuguese stars.

So, after some sleep and waking to yet another sunny day, we set off for our next stop – Buddha Eden!

S.

Sagres to Setúbal

We turned right at Vila do Bispo with a small sigh of relief, leaving mass tourism and high rise behind for a picturesque drive past Carrapteira and Odeceixe, wild and windy surf spots of past visits but not on the itinerary this year.

We stopped off at Miróbriga en route, a small but perfectly formed Roman site.

We arrived in Comporta a windy - and windy, four hours later to a brand new covered car parking area and a campervan ban for any more than 8 hours.  The wind was howling and surf was up but the beach here is still as beautiful as ever, in spite of the serried ranks of parasols that seem to have replaced the colourful fishing boats, but the two restaurants we remember are still here, with a small cocktail bar addition selling trendy cocktails, and the feel has changed from undiscovered to smart hippy surf vibe.

It was interesting to see but not an option to stop, so we backtracked south, passing the inland village of Comporta with its storks’ nests, looking not so very different from its 1990s self.

Then past Carvahal (same parasols and car park) and decided to take a chance on a dead end road to a campsite, signed from the main road - and were very glad we did!

Camping Galé is an old school style campsite, just north of Fontainhas, with an impressive show of security (think combat trousers, truncheon, handcuffs and mace spray!) set in the pinewoods above one of the most spectacular beaches we have seen in a long time.  The site is home to mostly 'permanents'; caravans and cabins used by weekenders from the city and also a tented surf school – maybe the security is for potentially unruly young folk? Although the international surf school community seemed perfectly behaved to us.

Parking for campervans and caravans is restricted to a small area near the beach, and tents further up the hill.  Security aside, the whole place has a very relaxed feel and is nicely self-contained with a supermarket and even a fresh fish shop.

Day one - lounge on the beach, eat barbecued besugo (rose grey bream), get tipsy.  Day two, lounge on the beach, eat barbecued frango (that's chicken to you!) and drink lemon squash - ready for the drive to Setúbal the next day.  We felt very blessed to have enjoyed two fabulous beach days here and vowed to go ‘off ACSI’ again if we thought the destination looked good.  It’s very easy to get into a rhythm of hopping from one safety net to the next and probably means missing out on some of the more interesting options.

The drive to the ferry was an easy hop and we were soon on board and across the estuary from the Troía peninsula to Setúbal.   

We’d decided to go straight from there to Seisimbra, a short and as it turned out, very scenic hop along the coast through the Arrábida national park.

J.