Tours Archives - Sandals N Socks

Estepona

Grant Williams — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 09:05:24 +0000

Parking in Estepona is at the marina, great spot, even did some more fishing. The town itself is realy nice, a long promenade lined with restaurants, cafes and bars. There’s a great older part with the usual narrow streets that lead to squares with more cafes, all very relaxing.

One very noticeable thing is the street art, well they’re more like deliberate murals, I can only imagine the town has paid to have these done, and in fact have a look at www.andalucia.com where you’ll see a list of them all, their locations and what it’s all about.

And some othere I found on the way:

The post Estepona appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Lagos to Sagres

Grant Williams — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 16:46:04 +0000

After having visited the top of the world: well it seemed like it driving there: I zoomed back to the coast, it was getting late so I headed for a paid for parking place in Lagos, only 3 euro but I knew there’d be space. Parking is at a sports stadium with showers and laundry, so a good choice. Lagos itself is a great place to visit, plenty of shops, a marina and public spaces. It’s quite a touristy town, which means plenty of restaurants etc and boat trips taking you along the coast, and everywhere you look around here there’s a stork sitting on a nest!

After a night of r&r I pushed on further West along the coast, aiming for Sagres, not sure what I was going to find but I’d read it was an area worth visiting, turns out it was everything I’d hoped for and more.

Rugged coastline, sandy beaches, surfers everywhere, a lighthouse and an old fort, so plenty to see and do, in fact I spent 2 nights here, really I just wanted to see another sunset like this one.

An old library van from …. Wales

Click here for a video of the blow-hole

This weird looking thing is a kind of spiral building sitting on top of a blow-hole that leads down to the sea, and every time a wave comes the sound is amplified, you can go and stand on the grate above the hole, it was a calm day when I visited and I can only imagine what it’d be like on a rough day!

Look closely and you can see 2 blokes fishing from the rock face, and this must be called boot rock, or shoe island!

The difference between street art and graffiti, some idiot graffitied on this street art

A catch these fishermen are about 100ft up on top of a cliff, there were loads of them all along the coast, one slip and they would have been fish food themselves. Oh the wave, they were making rainbows as they broke.

Some fishing spots were a bit safer.

The post Lagos to Sagres appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Top of the world

Grant Williams — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 10:04:46 +0000

The rain had passed over and it looked like it was going to be a nice day. I met John, he has the same make mh as me, the only other one I’d seen, so I went over to say hello. While chatting I mention one of my gas bottles was empty so John pointed me in the direction of the nearest garage where I could fill up, so off I set, not far and on the route I was planning.

After the fill stop the next break was in Porto Covo, a very nice little place on the coast between Sines and Vila Nova, there is an aire here but it was only early so pushed on a bit to Vila Nova.

After trying a couple of parking places I finally found a great spot across the river from the main town, right on the beach. Another night of heavy rain gave way to a glorious sunrise and after being cooped up for days and driving so much a stroll was in order.

I followed the cliff path south for a couple of hours, hidden cove often hidden cove, dramatic cliffs and rocky outcrops, all of which you could only really get to by boat, but it was certainly worth the effort. I did manage to get down to one cove but the tide was rushing in so I couldn’t stay long.

Walk over and I was back at the van before 2 so though a couple of hours driving would get me to the Algarve and hopefully some better weather. Looking at the route I saw it was quite close to Alto da Foia, an observatory overlooking the Algarve from an altitude of 882m, so I thought why not, the book said a casual country drive.

FMR they must have taken a different road from the white knuckle ride I took, it was something like an extreme driving tv show, but I suppose I can now say I went there!

I was very windy, cold and grey when I reached the top so after some quick pics I set off back down, aiming for Lagos on the west coast, didn’t take long and by 5:30 I was parked up having some dinner, I’ll explore tomorrow.

The post Top of the world appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Coimbra

Grant Williams — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 09:44:18 +0000

The next day started with a beautiful sunrise on the beach at Ilhavo, can’t believe how calm it looked after the storm in the night, in fact there has been a storm passing over for days with bouts of glorious sunshine mixed with some horrendous rain with thunder and lightning.

After a bit of a walk I set off for Coimbra, heard it was a nice place

The parking was just over the river from the main city which was once the capital of Portugal, now its a real tourist mecca and wondering around you can see why. Walking up through the medieval old town brings you to the top of the hill on which the town’s built, right up to the universities, some grand buildings and loads of statues, unfortunately it started to rain, and I mean rain, the streets turned to rivers and every doorway was packed with people trying to shelter, I just wandered back down the hill while the streets were empty!

University buildings:

Narrow streets:

The post Coimbra appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Povoa de Varzim

Grant Williams — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 12:14:56 +0000

Povoa de Varzim is a fairly large town, could be a small city? Driving here the surrounding countryside is all agriculture, loads of polytunnels and farm plots, but here in Povoa it all about the sea! Fishing boats and lobster pots line the quay side, and in their time off everyone seems to go fishing off the beach or breakwater, there’s even a big church, where I saw possibly 100’s of people leaving earlier today (Sunday), that’s in the shape of a boat.

We’ve all heard of the Atlantic rollers ….. The waves that is not the hair curlers! Well this morning they were certainly rolling.

Oh! and thes were taken about 100m from my parking spot!

The post Povoa de Varzim appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Esposende 2

Grant Williams — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 09:21:48 +0000

Esposende 2

The sun was up, the waves roaring and the surfers getting ready to have some fun, so it seemed a good time to set off for a bit of a walk.

I headed south through the town, following the coast. It’s a nice place and I imagine that it gets very busy in the summer but this time of year it seems to just be local residents, but on saying that the prom was full of people walking and cycling.

About 5km along the coast I came to another surf school and from that point on decided to walk along the beach.

Not a lot to describe: golden sand, Atlantic waves and no people for quite a while but a bit of coastal errosion. Cellar with a view!

The destination was a little ‘seaside’ town called Areia, again I imagine very busy in the season but at the moment most cafes etc were closed, but still plenty of people doing all sorts of things.

I’m sure I saw this Gull in Llandudno last week.

All in all a good, non-eventful day.

I spent a very pleasant evening sharing a bottle of wine and chatting with my neighbour Marion, we first met in the supermarket I decided not to stay in, as did Marion and we both ended up here. It hadn’t been a good few days for my new friend, her van had broken down three times in as many days and in some not good places, but we laughed as the story unfolded and Marion found the more humorous side of the ‘adventures’. I’m sure we’ll meet again and look forward to it.

The post Esposende 2 appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Madrid

willis — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 10:08:59 +0000

Madrid

Because Dom wanted to catch an early coach to Benidorm we set off for Madrid from Segovia around 8am, apparently Dom didn’t realise there was an 8 in the morning as well! Not the fastest train but we were soon there, we just needed to find the coach station now! It turned out not to be a problem, the main route through the city would take us there, unfortunately it was on the other side of the city, oops!

We decided to walk and take in the sights on the way.

It probably wont surprise you to find out it’s a really busy city and not just around the attractions, there are cars and people everywhere, but surprisingly not in the parks and gardens, and there’s plenty of green space.

There are the obvious places to visit, museums etc, but there are little things to find all over the place; most roundabouts (and there are lots) seem to have a statue or fountain on, winding back streets lead to small squares full of people sitting outside the bars and cafes chatting and generally watching the world go by.

Some of the sculptures are a bit bewildering, but there seemed to something new at every turn.

I’m not sure if this poor lady had drunk too much wine or had forgotten where she’d parked!

Why? this has got to be one of the strangest ones I saw, and this is the polite angle!

Even the buildings have a style of their own.

Cat wanted to get in on the action

They’ve even got a football team, who knew?

There are loads more things to see and do, if I told you everything we got up to it’d get boring,!

The post Madrid appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Portugal, Vila Nova De Cerveira

willis — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 14:45:25 +0000

Portugal, Vila Nova De Cerveira

A quick drive from Tui and we were over the border exploring Portugal and ended up in Vila Nova De Cerveira. It’s a really pretty little town right on the river Minho, which creates part of the border with Spain.

There’s a nice town square with a couple of bars and a medieval castle to explore.

You can’t quite see in the picture above that the wall was covered in giant spiders, luckily for Dom they weren’t real, but they did have an even bigger mother

The town lies at the foot of some hills, and on the ridge of one there’s a ‘statue’ of a stag, closer inspection needed! Around 5k, all uphill reaching 200m in the beautiful Portuguese sun and we were there, worth every step just for the view.

Not a long walk, but a knackering one, I’m sure it’s hotter on this side of the border! The views were mostly of Spain, just a stones throw across the river, well if you’re good at throwing stones that is.

The post Portugal, Vila Nova De Cerveira appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Tui

willis — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 10:54:39 +0000

Tui

Until I saw it on the map I never realised there was a place called Tui, I just thought it was a travel firm! It turns out to be a very old and important city at one of the crossing points into Portugal. The main city is the usual collection of modern and old buildings, a couple of squares and was full of life. The old town lies around the cathedral, which itself sits on a hill.

As with most of our adventures there was no plan to visit the cathedral, but we did anyway, and we were very glad we did.

It was consecrated in 1225 AD during the monarchy of King Alfonso, although building work actually started over a century earlier. It was surrounded by a protective wall, offering a safe haven should the city be under threat.

Once your up close you can’t really see the size of the cathedral as it’s surrounded by other buildings, but the main entrance is still quite impressive, and once inside you start to appreciate the beauty of, not only the interior decoration but also the actual building itself.

Ornately carved alters, a stunning pipe organ and artworks all add to the splendour, and luckily the admission ticket (4 euro) includes an audio tour so you can really appreciate what you’re seeing.

The next best thing in Tui was a great bakery we found, Panadaria Progreso https://www.facebook.com/PanaderiaCafeteriaOProgreso/ Cakes to die for and with each beer a slice of homemade pizza. You’ve got to love Spain, beer in a cake shop!

The post Tui appeared first on Sandals N Socks.

Monte De Facho

willis — Sat, 28 Oct 2017 09:30:10 +0000

Monte De Facho

With no particular destination in mind we went exploring the coast road around the peninsula between the estuary’s of Ria De Pontevedra and Ria De Vigo. Dom was in charge of navigation and decided we’d visit a lighthouse, well t was something to do.

30 minutes of great, scenic roads later we arrived at a parking area, right on a headland overlooking the Illas Cies (Cies islands) what a view, the drive was worth it just for that. On a notice board in the car park there was something (in Spanish) about some archaeological site and it seemed silly not to investigate.

The walk wasn’t long but the path was really uneven, made up of large boulders, and was uphill! my favourite!!

It turned out to be a really cool dig site exploring an iron age village, although no excavations had been done for a few years it was still a work in progress.

Plenty to explore here, they’ve even recreated what one of the ‘houses’ would have looked like.

The post Monte De Facho appeared first on Sandals N Socks.