2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
PORTUGAL DAY 16
After yesterdays ‘how much can we fit in’ unplanned challenge… we make the decision to book an apartment a mere hour and half away to Porto crossing us into Portugal. Neither of us speak a word of Portuguese so we listen and repeat a YouTube tutorial of basic Portuguese on the journey! We are very giddy as we practise. I’m busting out a very curious accent but we are pumped and ready to ask where the bathroom is… Onde fica a casa de banho?! We stop at Miradouro Porto do Espírito Santo… and it’s a hellova view of the river with Spain one side and Portugal the other. On the map there’s a boundary line which runs through the river which must be a hard one to monitor! Amazing to see where 2 countries meet, with a backdrop of a piercing blue sky, but it’s chilly up high so we press on. Now when we get to Porto, we follow the instructions for our accomodation that they have sent us… What a mistake. We find ourselves up a no entry with the road set between houses with a gap of 1.5m and we are over 1.8! Yikes. We reverse and try and park elsewhere, however there are no spots so we are recommended to drive down a very thin pass way with table and chairs on one side and little restaurants with BBQ’s outside and giant sun umbrellas the other. As we go down it’s so small and feels so wrong! Then BAM, we don’t fit again! we have to then (and when I say we, I mean Stu) reverse down the entire cafe road, round the corner and keep going back through a car park. It’s about 25 degrees but Stu says it rises to about 40 during that Mammoth reverse! Then a self appointed car parking lady solves our problems by hollering and points to a space she is now holding for us, we tip her with much thanks as we are free to walk down roads without getting stuck!
We then see a car drive on to the tram line and has to reverse out of the way of it so at least we didn’t do that! We then return to the scene of the crime, to the cafes that were just shouting at us for kicking out fumes in everyone’s lunch and disturbing them, as it smells so good! We have BBQ’d fish and squid with a view of the river, sailing boats and gorgeous old worldy trams. I love the people who cook Fish, quick smoke break, repeat! Don’t get me wrong I don’t love smoking and food combined but this moment just feels right! We take a little walk along the front and Wilson has a new cold jacket that you wet and it keeps him cool, very effective as it is again HOT. We then try again to find the apartment and we have made a massive mountain out of a steep thin mole hill! It’s easy to get to!!!! The apartment has an absolutely INCREDIBLE terrace with an outstanding view of the river. It’s just incredible. So much so we chill and share a bottle of wine, Stu then makes a clam and prawn salad which we have on the terrace as the sun goes down, perfect. Into to town to taste the Port of Porto and then wander back and relax, tired on the terrace.
Spain on the right. Portugal on the left!
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 17
We wake up to the glorious sounds of someone practising ‘Take 5’ on the sax and have a cup of tea on the terrace with the seagulls freestyling over the morning jazz. We get ready to peruse Porto and realise a bottle of hot sauce has de-corked in one of baskets and got everything a little spicy, so it’s a quick hose down of a few items! We walk about an hour into the main sector and it’s beautiful. So many houses with colourful tiles, or painted in pastels shoulder to shoulder in close proximity! We head to ‘Noshi Coffee’ which is a healthy food shop but end up having a couple of pastel de nata’s, which, in my opinion is the mother of all pastry’s! We then head to, the self professed, Most Beautiful Bookshop in the World… The Livraria Lello! It’s rumoured that some scenes from Harry Potter MIGHT be inspired by the Lello Bookshop… bit of a weak link but I see why that rumour might have started. It’s turned into a huge tourist attraction with people having to book an €8 slot every half hour just to go in. However the design is remarkable, with intricate woodwork and an impressive spiral red staircase. Just very busy that you can’t really lose yourself looking at the books! We meander around before stopping for lunch. Traditional Portuguese lunch is basically meaty sandwiches… they are fine! After food we are just waiting to pay when someone’s door opens maybe 3 metres opposite where we are sat and what I can only describe as the hound of the Baskerville comes out! Massive and barking like a maniac, teeth bared heading straight for Wilson! The owner looks like he is jet skiing as he has 2 hands gripping on for dear life to his chain, in such a low squat trying to pull him back. Wilson takes it like a man and hides under the table until there’s an escape route. We calmly walk the 50 mins home in some seriously hot weather but Wilson’s cold coat seems to be doing the trick. We rest at home and have some prawns. A little walk down to the river provides a lovely pink blush sunset and then back to the terrace for the lonely planet quiz book… ‘there’s a grizzly bear and a polar bear but there’s a also a pizzly bear… true or false?’ I called nonsense on this but apparently there is a pizzly bear! So, You’re welcome. The terrace is perhaps the most tranquil place on planet Earth right now, the neighbouring turkey is mute, the seagulls are done hunting for chips and it seems everyone has shut their shutters as slumber calls. So it’s an early night as we will have much to pack after the hot sauce saga!
Most Beautiful Bookshop in the World… The Livraria Lello
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 18
We reconfigure the car to get everything back in order as it seems to have exploded internally! Once everything has found its rightful place we head south to Costa Nova. Mid journey I remember we hadn’t paid the city tax we were supposed to leave at the property… there’s pros and cons of no humans being involved in check in or out! Everywhere else there has been a human and city tax sorted at the beginning so we have to work out an IBAN international payment for €8!! Eyeroll. But then we arrive and Just wow. This would be a strong recommendation for anyone visiting the area. It’s idyllic. The sand looks pretend with a long 9 km beach, with ancient sand dunes framing it all. It’s so long that there’s plenty of room for everyone to feel like they have their own secluded secret spot. Beautiful wooden walkways crisscross you over the dunes and beach which is a wonderful playground for Wilson. His paw prints writing his own little story in the sand. We eat tremendous food here too. It’s a right upgrade on the sandwiches we had yesterday!! We wander round and admire the picture perfect striped houses that were once storage for fisherman’s nets. The fisherman’s brought their families back and started to make them into houses and now they are transformed into pristine rentals and are snapped away by tourists. We exit out of Nova and it is so pretty, with flamboyantly decorated bungalows outlining a really enjoyable drive to Figueira da Foz. We have a long narrow boiling balcony and a view of the beach. Wilson finds himself the hottest patch and decides he needs to sunbath. We google Portuguese meals and with the help of google translate I go and get all that is required for a piri piri chicken delight and dine as the sunsets from our balcony, a mighty impressive orange fireball dropping into the ocean and the clouds are wisps of smoke. The evening is rock and roll and im asleep by approxo 10.30pm!!!
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 19
It is so delightful when you get up and don’t have to immediately check out. So we walk to the sea, which feels like a Monty Python sketch… it just keeps getting further away the more we walk! Finally we make it and in we go. Unfortunately Wilson has no knowledge or understanding of tides and waves and is immediately pulled into the sea, proffered up upon the wave and smashed into the seabed! He’s not so keen to go in after that but does dig his most impressive hole to date! We then walk along the coast until we get to a little marina that was founded in 1984 like my travel partner. We have a coffee. we ask for A conta and realise it’s cash only which we don’t have! So Stu gets the short straw and has to walk the dog back for half hour, get some cash and the car to come back and pay while I rack up our bill with a lime calypo and watch the seagulls for 30 mins! I wait for Stu and after about 35 mins a Danish Couple offer to pay for my bill! They are very kind but I assure them the Cavalry is coming. They are about to experience their first river cruise to Spain and back so I hope they enjoy that! Ive been left as collateral but once the bill is payed it’s off for a sensational lunch on the balcony of left over piri piri chicken. In the afternoon it’s time to wash more clothes and much to Wilsons disgust, his stinking toys! Stu goes for another swim while I read and then I go for a wander whilst Wilson sleeps off all the digging he did earlier! For dinner it’s a restaurant on the beach just across from our apartment while the sunsets. Our most lavish meal with a restaurant Experience where you are Wooed, educated and courted! We start with oysters which for me feels like I am eating the sea whilst trying not to gag… perhaps not a connoisseur just yet! We had a 5 minute history lesson about oysters which was much easier to swallow! I’d love to share some of that knowledge but you’ll have to tip me! Home to discuss next steps but I loved this beautifully chilled day.
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 20
Check out in the morn and we are actually nearly almost out on time!! We are getting good! It’s a drive down south with the first stop a spontaneous ‘see a sensational lake and pull over’ stop. It was called ‘Lagos da Ervedeira,’ a nature site with a wooden walkway round it, collapsed jetty’s into the water, mini beaches and paddle borders serenely stood hovering on the water, until one slip and they disappear! It’s idyllic. There’s a bird viewing hut at the end and an absolute win of a stop.
Second stop is Nazarè. We head to the viewing point of the worlds largest waves in the world. Below the water is what they call a submarine canyon and this is what causes the monster waves. Though today It’s a completely calm
Flat day but still, you can see a bubbling line where the secret canyon lays. The viewing point is atop the cliffs at a lighthouse in an old fort. Made into a surf exhibition space about the wicked and wondrous waves that surfers have ridden and broken world records. The uppper town of Nazarè is rammed with nowhere to park which works out as we are forced down to the beachfront. A bustling beach where we luncheon and eat ice cream. There’s a stunning piece of art on someone’s house of a woman, half of her is her young and the other a mature version of her. It’s incredibly beautiful and I want to ring the doorbell to see if the lady lives there! We then drive to Peniche. After lots of sensational accommodations in a row, this hotel is more a hospital room vibe but ace all the same. It’s a crazy kinda ghost town with a very pretty tiny cemetery. On closer inspection it’s an actual pet cemetery so Wilson pays his respects and we move on. Theres a completely deserted square that would be perfect for a Wild West shoot out scene. We then go to the limestone cliff edges for sunset which are absolutely beautiful and petrifying in equal measure. There’s a viewing point where loads of young people have amassed with some music and are taking photos wildly close to the edge… it makes my heart irregular. I want to take control and say ‘right everyone have an immense amount of fun but at least a metre and and half away from the edge,’ I spray that football spray to form a line, dust my hands off knowing no harm will happen, not on my watch! Instead I climb down a kinda of swimming pool ladder for the view and find myself with about 9 teenagers listening to banging music and feel I’m in some inbetweeers sketch! I bid them adieu and wish them merry and it’s dinner time, we are starving. The first place we visit is a no dogs situation, the second is closing as we arrive and soon we are worrried its crisps and an onion for dinner! We drive to the actual town and then there’s options, phew. The first place we try has multiply signs saying no dogs allowed but Wilson sits in the door frame and they can’t resist him so we are in! Always the fear he then knocks over a table, barks at a waiter and steals a pizza but he was a very good lad. We get back to the hotel and the guy on reception says ‘we have kept a little something for Wilson’ as he puts 3 flavours of snack on the desk! Wilson pops his feet up and after some deliberation chooses Turkey! What a nice man. To bed.
‘right everyone have an immense amount of fun but at least a metre and and half away from the edge,’
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 21
We check out 15 minutes early… never before has this happened to us!! We use the time to go and explore the cliffs again with a piercing blue background. It really is a wonderful/dangerous playground! I could stay here all day climbing over rocks and viewing the impressive sheer jagged edges that eventually meet the water, but we are heading south. So we drive along the coast, resisting the urge to stop every metre and half, towards Vila Nova de Milfontes. After a couple of hours we stop at the smashing town of Alàcer do Sal. Very pretty place that sits on the edge of the river Sado. Little alley ways meander through the matching white houses and an old castle sits proud over looking proceedings. We have delicious tapas. Rabbit, mushrooms, prawns and a salad, then wander up and down the river until the air conditioned car beckons! We continue down to Vila Nova de Milfontes. We check in and it’s a lovely big apartment and it’s straight to the outside swimming pool. After a 3 hour drive (with stops) being weightless in water is wondrous. We cook at the apartment and as it’s cooking sneak out of a gap in our garden and up some sand dunes to catch the sun setting over the ocean. Some dins, a quiz and slumber calls.
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 22
We check out a bit late, back to our normal
style! But we are in no hurry as there are secret wonders to be had in Milfontes. After a short walk along the cliff tops we decide we need to get down there, eyeing a vague possibility of following a small track down to the empty beach. A perilous decent for a taste of paradise. A deserted cove with a shipwreck as the only company, and the gulls! Is the route a divvy one to take in sliders, with a big bag and a dog…? simple answer, yes. But we assure ourselves it will be easier on the way up. (Stu actually says this out loud) our decent wasn’t noteworthy apart from Wilson landing directly onto a rusty old door from the shipwreck that no doubt he’s contracted tetanus from. Nevertheless we are down and Into the water we go! Wilson has no idea about waves, as we discovered with the great wave munching of Figueira da Foz, and he also is completely clueless about approaching humans in water. With love and determination in his eyes he swims to me and proceeds to doggy paddle my thigh, slicing a sizeable cut! When I get out he licks the blood with an air of ‘oh you silly sausage you’ve cut yourself, let me sort it out for you’. After a heavenly bit of frolicking (and the sudden realisation the tide is coming in quite fast) we head back up the cliff. Now, Wilson would not go up the return route which was an interesting moment! A bit like the canal boat on day 1 of France or any style in the country side, if he thinks he can’t do it, he will not be moved!!! He wept a bit but like all kids that have a cry because they can’t do something, you shout, I mean ‘encourage’ them to do it and as soon it’s done they go ‘actually that was sooo easy!’ Once at the top we walk just a little further along and there’s a very quiet beach with a simple sand dune decent - of course much easier! We all have a lay down on the sand… Wilson under my towel for shade and enjoy some calm. Back up the dunes and we head off to the next hotel. On route we notice giant birds making nests on long pillars. I didn’t think they were real at first until they moved!! Then we pull over as 11 incredible white storks of the Alentejo glide and circle over our heads. We grab the binoculars and are in awe of these BIG birds. On arrival it’s time for a swim and read. Whilst stu was at the pool he looked up from his book to see a resplendent peacock strutting poolside. An unexpected bather indeed! We drive to the furthest south westerly point in Portugal/Europe. A viewing point in Sagres for sunset to mark the monumental moment! We then dine with a fish stew and Stu is annoyed we didn’t do a ‘wahoo’ photo for making it here, ironically he asks the waiter in the bar in Sagres adorned with Sagres Branding for a Sagres beer and they don’t serve it… he’s heartbroken. We buy some from Lidl and all is forgotten so WAHOOO!
WAHOO!
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 23
Where we are staying is such a tranquil quiet place. We Breakfast one by one as no dogs in the dining space and there’s no clanging of cutlery, just yourself, a book and pastries for 30 mins. We are about 9 minute drive from Praia da Luz, and it’s the first time we have arrived at a very English dominated beach! We have been so many places where there’s been very limited English spoken that Stu orders coffee in French or Spainish, I don’t think it was Portuguese to the extremely English waiter! It’s a right hubbub of holiday goers and you can see why. A stunning beach that segues into a rocky, prime snorkel location, palm trees and a promenade of cafes and bars. We head for the rocks but swiftly abort as Wilson’s kamikaze approach to a terrain with unexpected crevices could result in a broken leg! We then head to Ponta da Piedade… ok WOW. It’s everything you imagine the Algarve to be! It’s a postcard of aqua with arches in the cliffs you think a person has chiselled it out for their own pleasure, but no no, that’s natures beauty, no one else can claim it. Though every few minutes a boat arrives with some Tourists to go into the cliff cove and through said arch. It’s the only way to see it as it’s closed to get down there. Whether to preserve or because the edges have fallen away, either way I think it’s a good thing! Up high there are wooden walkways saving the flora and fauna from the thousand of feet that must pass through this picturesque paradise. It’s nice and breezy on the cliff tops but we head back to our apartment for a bit of down time and shade for the dog. It’s pool revitalisation time. Stu gets gunned down by a 5 year old with a water jet and when the kid is discovered and told off by his Gran, who he then also shoots, he returns to his house. Stu then swims another length and as his head bobs out of the water he notices the boy running to the swimming pool with a Sagres for him… he looks around and the Mum gives him a thumbs up from their apartment, a truce is made! Stu cooks in the shared kitchen with a view of the sunset over the apartment roof and we eat on the veranda. Wine and cheese to plot more of the route but mostly fall asleep with the plan… drive further along the Algarve. Details: vague!
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 24
I wake up and Stu has been for a swim, fed and taken the dog out, showered and is buzzing round the room… who is he and what has he done with normal Stu? I get a swim in, we break our fasts and we are out early again, but remember the buzzing? It was inevitable! We head to Benagil Cave. There is a low parking situation once more so we head back down the road until we see some camper vans parked in a lay-by… with an air of ‘you can’t tow us all’ we follow suit. We walk above the domed cave and over the cliffs. The rock is multi lined shades of ochre ( I had to google that colour to make sure I hadn’t made it up… I can confirm on a farrow and ball paint tin ‘Algarve rock’ would come under ochre!) we head down to the beach but it’s no dogs allowed. Stu wanted to surf on the west coast but missed his chance so we quickly sign him up for a kayak session to the sea cave that is only accessible by boat. After a light lunch I go to find a shady nook to finish my book, JOAN. It’s brilliantly written and I recommend. Stu however is in his own adventure book. First, battle the unsettled seas and find the entrance. Then, Enter the magical cave through the small archway. Finally, dispense kayak and wonder at the existence of such a place with a giant gap in the roof looking like a black hole into another dimension. At one point through the darkness of the cave the light outside presents an old wooden ship with skull and crossbones flag on the stern, it is straight out of the goonies!
In truth he was one of 5 on a tour with guide Miguel who does the 2+ hour tour up to 4 times in a row. Not an ounce of fat on the fellow! But nothing short of wondrous all the same. We regroup and head to Olhào. Must google how to say this place! The surf and turf on a skewer, cooked in a roof tile over a fire is a delight. A blazing pink sky lights the clouds as we walk the marina promenade. To the next hotel in Tavira. We are assigned our room and then we bring in Wilson and the receptionist gives him and stroke and then says actually there is a bigger room for no extra cost if you would like it? Come on Wilson let’s go!
2 divs e um cachorro - DAILY DIARY
Day 25
Travelling is educational and today class we learn about ‘freedom day’. The 25th of April is a National holiday day throughout Portugal celebrating the ‘Carnation revolution.’ A day to commemorate 50 years since there was a military coup over the authoritarian government. Seeing massive changes in Portugal and its overseas colonies. There were almost no shots fired and offerings of carnations were dished out and placed in the muzzle of guns, pinned on uniforms and the flower became the symbol of the revolution. A democratic portugal came into existence. What it means for us?… lovely stalls, entertainment and a jolly day of festivities! After seeing the lovely town of Tavira we walk along the salt marshes, that have an abundance of crabs and little wading birds, to the sea. Tavira has little islands reached by boat where there are protected wetlands which all sounds beautiful but Wilson would need to go in a carry case and that’s some heavy baggage so we turn round and head back to the town. After viewing some impeccable gardens, castle ruins and earwigging some ‘Fado’ (traditional Portuguese music) being beautifully sung from within the church, we had back for a rest and swim. In the evening we wonder if we should have booked somewhere being a big day of celebration but luckily it’s a little cooler so people don’t really wanna sit outside. So we nab a seat at a packed fish restaurant and within 5 mins there is not a spare table in the joint! To round off the evening we go the market that has been turned into a concert space for a trio and singer. They are excellent but Wilson is not too bothered and just lays down and sleeps! Over dinner we decided that though we fancied Seville we are going to change course due to parking, being able to drive into the centre and Accomodation. Nice to have the freedom to do that… After all, it is freedom day.