Portugal Archives - Sandals N Socks

Sunset & Sunrise

Grant Williams — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 21:40:44 +0000

You can’t spend time travelling without seeing countless sunsets & rises, here are a selection.

Sunset over Conwy river estuary

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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.

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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.

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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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Peniche

Grant Williams — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 14:46:47 +0000

So far today I’ve travelled under 20 miles to somewhere I thought would be nice for the weekend if the weather’s ok, last night’s sunset promises so, but I did have a glorious sunrise in Peniche to start the day.

Peniche is where I spent most of yesterday, exploring and chiling, it’s another really nice place with a fort, harbour and narrow winding streets. Parking was by the old quayside from where it’s a 2 minute stroll into the old town, nothing overly exciting as the main attraction: the fort: is closed for renovation, but the town is nice enough.

The main event of the day came at sunset:

I’m now here: Praia da Santa Cruz:

Not a bad view?

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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:

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Aveiro

Grant Williams — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 09:27:11 +0000

Came across Aveiro a bit by accident, I was looking for somewhere to overnight and this looked interesting, one bit was true, the interesting bit. The place is full of colour and life, the buildings are a great mix of old and new but there are loads of art nouveau examples, I’ll just let you look at some pictures.

There was some good street art which I’ve put on the street art page.

The parking I thought may be noisy, it was close to a main road and railway line and as it isn’t the only option in the area, I moved on, back to a beach close to Ilhavo.

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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!

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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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Esposende

Grant Williams — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 08:49:23 +0000

Esposende

Supplies secured, the necessary emptied and rubbish thrown, I was off (not till about 9:30) intending to get a bit closer to Portugal, my main itinerary for this part of the trip.

Leaving Ferrol was absolutely spectacular, there was a bank of low cloud following the river (very wide and long if you’ve not been) and as the road was slightly higher it gave a view like being in an aeroplane. The high-rise buildings and tall dock cranes were silhouetted against the cloud making it look almost dream-like, as if they were floating on a sea of cloud. The cloud stayed for the next hour or so with valley after valley seeming to have a cotton wool filling.

I actually got a bit carried away driving I was enjoying it that much and ended up so close to TUI (on the Portuguese border) I though I may as well fill up with diesel there, hoping it was as cheap as I remember, well it was, 1.23 most places had been 1.39!

The pic on the right is the sunrise, obviously!

Having got this far I though I may as well press on into Portugal, especially as the aire I was looking at was only an hour away. Well that aire was a bit pants so on to the next, another 25 minutes, well that was in a supermarket with no views and possibly a bit noisy so another 15 minutes and I was in Esposende in a nice car park right on the beach. My extra effort in getting here was rewarded with a great sunset.

It is now the morning of Nov 14th, the sun’s up, not a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze gently shaking the trees: a good day for an explore I think

Part 2 >>>>

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