Trips Archives - Sandals N Socks

Tarifa

Grant Williams — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 08:30:56 +0000

After my city break in Cadiz I was in the need of a bit of beach time, I’d seen a place called Bolonia beach so off I went. The drive was great, nice roads that ended in a drive over a small mountain and dropping down into the village of Bolonia.

I can imagine when there’s some wind or waves this would be a surfer of kite paradise, parking is as close to being on the beach as you can get and the beach is fantastic, clean golden sand.

Just off the sand there’s a Roman archaeological site with buildings, roads and squares and the pis de resistance, an amphitheater, not quite good as Side in Turkey, but certainly a fantastic site.

On the headland is the quarry where the Romans got the stone to build their town.

After a couple of days exploring in Bolonia I moved a couple of miles along the coast to another great beach, again parking right on the beach. Spent a couple of days here, even did some fishing! There was even some beach art.

Tarifa town itself was quite busy, good place to do shopping, laundry, empty the necessary and get some water, all the above done I carried on to Estepona.

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Comporta and all points West

Grant Williams — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 09:29:46 +0000

Leaving the great beach at Santa Cruz I headed west along the coast, no real aim but that night I thought I might park in Comporta, which is just south of Lisboa, and on the way I intended to visit Cabo Roca, the most westerly point on mainland europe.

The coastal road, passing through a world surfing reserve:

As you can imagine, driving to a remote lighthouse on the western coast of portugal took me along some quite narrow winding roads, but when I saw the size of the coaches ferrying tourists to the lighthouse I wasn’t worried.

Having visited Cabo Fisterre, the most westerly point in Spain, I had an idea of what to expect, and to be honest it was very similar, certainly just as windy What can I say about it? It’s a lighthouse on the edge of europe, still worth a visit so I can say I’ve been.

Next was getting through Lisboa, I had intended to stop and visit but the forecast was for heavy rain so thought I’d save it for another day. As it turned out it was a breeze getting through, the motorway just cuts through the city and crosses the Tagus via the Ponte 25 de Abril, It’s a 2km long bridge, with three narrow lanes in each direction, certainly an experience.

Next stop: Sesimbra castle, and although there was overnight parking, again due to the impending rain I visited the castle and pressed on.

The castle itself was really good, well maintained, fantastic views. It dates back to 1201 and was a very important castle in it’s day bringing law and order to the area.

So a bit more driving and I was at Comporta, the base for the night, fantastic roads through nature reserves, scenery to die for, so different to the sprawl that was Lisboa.

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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.

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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,!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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Road Trip Sound Track

willis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:09:10 +0000

Road Trip Sound Track

Well we’re a month in and have done well over 1,000 miles, but still loads to go. A part of being on a road trip like this is the lack of distractions like tv. We’ve watched all of Game Of Thrones, only because I hadn’t seen any of it and was feeling a bit left out, a few movies but not much else.

One of the best things is having the time to revisit all that music you’ve not heard for years, but still think is great. As I write this we’re listening to ‘Hotter Than July’ not played it since the late 80’s, it’s even better than I remember!!

Artists on our play list range from Dire Straits and the Eagles through absolutely everyone from the 80’s right to Hendrix and the Beatles, we’ve even got Christine and the Queens amongst other up to date stuff. Dom seems to be enjoying listening to artists he’s never even heard of, even if they’re not quite up his street.

So remember if you’re planning a long road trip take plenty of music, including stuff you don’t know.

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Arcade

willis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 14:16:24 +0000

Arcade

Our journey South, towards Portugal, has brought us to the town of Arcade. It’s not a huge place, but it’s very picturesque and very Spanish.

The aire is right on the waterfront, next to a little park with children’s play areas, skate park and small football pitch. During the day the area is a haven for the more senior members of the community, walking, jogging (mostly going just a bit faster than the walkers) and generally relaxing, but in the early evening it attracts the families, with all generations joining in with the fun and games.

It’s great to watch this part of Spanish life as the community comes together to relax. A couple of minutes walk into the town and we found another square buzzing with life, the sound of laughter and chat being far preferable to music being pumped from bars as you tend to get in the more tourist areas.

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Santiago De Compostela

willis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 14:03:00 +0000

Santiago De Compostela

Santiago De Compostela is the main destination for pilgrims walking the way of St. James (Camino De Santiago).

There are 2 main routes, one starting in Lisbon, Portugal and the other in the french town of St. Jean Pied De Port (620k and 800k) but to qualify for a certificate modern day pilgrims only need to walk the last couple of hundred k.

The pilgrimage to visit the relics of St. James in the cathedral of Santiago De Compostela is undertaken by 1,000’s of pilgrims each year and has been followed since early christian times.

Santiago De Compostela itself is a city of 2 halves, the old and the new. The old town is a warren of narrow streets weaving their way to the cathedral at the heart of the town, all lined with shops selling every conceivable item that it’s possible to print some reference to the pilgrimage on. The new town on the other hand has wide avenues, long pedestrian shopping streets and seemingly no mention of the pilgrimage that brings most people here.

After spending time in A Coruna we were a little disappointed with Santiago, it just seemed a little ‘flat’, perhaps because most pilgrims are in groups that stick together. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of life in the city, loads of bars etc, but there wasn’t that ‘spanish’ feel we’re becoming used to, but do visit and decide for yourself.

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