31st May 2009

We left fairly early and headed further north to find another campsite.  It was a drive of about 250 miles so it would be late afternoon by the time we got there.  We kept a look out for a supermarket so we could top up our provisions but the only one we found was shut, not surprising on a Sunday.  It was now lunch time and we were pretty hungry, so we were looking for a roadside restaurant, something nice to eat as we are missing English food.   Our history of stopping for lunch isn’t good. We nearly always end up not being able to find anything until it's too late, and today looked the same, but then we spotted a large hotel/restaurant at the side of the road, which had a couple of coaches parked outside but room enough for the van.  We think it was the Hotel El Rocio near Luarca in Asturias.

Hotel Restaurant El Rocio

It was absolutely heaving with people in the bar entrance, obviously everyone out for Sunday lunch, but Paul managed to attract the attention of a Spanish lady behind the bar who looked like the owner.  He explained (somehow) that we would like a table for lunch and she said wait there, quite rudely we thought, and then rushed off somewhere behind a huge door into another room that we couldn't see.  After about ten minutes just as we were giving up all hope of getting lunch, she burst out of this other room and beckoned us to follow her which we did, into this vast restaurant with about 200 people sitting down at long tables. The noise was deafening, Spanish families, many older people all chatting away ten to the dozen.  She sat us down at a free table and gave us two menus and a carafe of water and then called the one and only waiter to take our order.  He was an older man, probably in his sixties, and he was sweating like mad and rushing about everywhere.  He signalled us to wait a moment and continued to take the order from a table of about twenty people.  As far as we could work out, it was a set menu, either chicken or fish and so it didn't take him long to sort them all out.  In the meantime, we worked our way through the menu which naturally was in Spanish and which we couldn't understand most of, and then Paul spotted Huevos, con Jamon y Patatas Fritas.  "That's ham egg and chips", he said, couldn't get more English than that. "What do you think?"  "Sounds good to me", I said so when the waiter finally arrived at our table, panting and sweating, we asked for two portions and some bread, Oh and a glass of wine. We sat back watching the commotion of all these people having Sunday lunch, thinking that our food would take ages to arrive but after about twenty minutes, back came the waiter with our food. Oh boy, what food it was too!  It was served in a metal dish a bit like a Balti dish, and there were chips piled up, with crispy bacon on top of that and topped off with two beautifully cooked fried eggs.  It was so good, even I didn't mind that the eggs were soft.  We've never enjoyed food so much mmmm!

After lunch we pressed on and found the campsite, which was near a small coastal town called Ribadesella, which is really nice. We pitched next to another English couple in a caravan, Vince and Sandra.  They were very friendly and had similar views to us on animals and religion so we spent most the afternoon and evening talking and drinking wine with them.  Vince helped Paul set up the satellite dish to see if we could get any English TV as he said that he was receiving the signal well enough with his 65 cm dish, so we ought to be able to as well. Magic! We got a signal and watched a documentary on The Mamas and Papas which was really interesting.  All in all a much better day, saved by good food as usual!

Camping Ribasadella

The showers at Ribasadella

30th May 2009

We got up really early and packed the van then went to reception to complain about the music.  Paul told them he didn't want to pay as we’d been kept awake all night and asked why nobody told us about the concert when we checked in.  We felt that they’d deliberately avoided telling us just so they could take our money.  He was furious.  The girl went off to find the manager and after about ten minutes came back and said "Okay, you don't pay, but you must sign this form".  So he did and we left and headed for the next campsite.  We did worry that two miles up the road the police would stop us and arrest us for failing to pay, but nothing happened.
I must say I'm feeling very fed up with everything at the moment.  I'm sick of eating nothing but cold meat, cheese and salad or BBQ hot dogs and burgers, we've got no TV to watch and haven't seen any for weeks. We crossed the border back into Spain and reached the next campsite, Camping Playa Paxarina.

Camping Playa Paxarina

It's in a nice location right on the beach but it's very busy, a bit too crowded actually. It's too hot and there are loads of really attractive girls in bikinis wandering about. I went and laid down in the van and had a sleep whilst Paul sat outside and read. (Well he would wouldn't he!).  In the evening it cooled down a bit so I went and sat outside.  We had no food in, so Paul wandered up to the hotel, which was situated at the entrance to the campsite, to see what the restaurant menu looked like.  Guess what? It's closed so no dinner for us tonight.  I might have expected it the way our luck seems to have run the last few days. I had a quick check to make sure our guardian angel was still in place!

29th May 2009

We left Costa Caparica after a couple of days, the heat was too much, and we thought we’d find somewhere further north, away from the city.  We want to head into Green Spain as it will be cooler there and Pauls' not been there before.  It would be a long journey and we didn't think we’d get there in one day, so we looked for a campsite we could stay in for one more night in Portugal. Bloody hell, we got totally lost coming out of Lisbon in an attempt to avoid toll motorways.  In the end, after about an hour, we gave up and took the motorway north towards Oporto and we had to pay about €20 in tolls. Phew, glad we're out of Lisbon now, but so disappointed as we were trying to do this whole trip without paying tolls and now that's ruined. Things got even worse when we realised we were heading in the wrong direction and needed to get across the river so we then had to pay an additional toll for the bridge!  Grrr!
We eventually arrived at the new campsite which was about 100 miles north of Lisbon- another Orbitur one called Gala Parque de Campismo.

Orbitur Gala Parque de Campismo

They told as at reception that in the park next door there was an event on this weekend, so it was quite busy and we had a job to find a good pitch.  The site was very sandy and all the pitches were hemmed in behind small hedges.  As the van is quite large, it was difficult to slot in somewhere.  Nevertheless we finally managed it but had some problems trying to get levelled off. We had a nice barbecue and Paul sat out playing guitar.  He realised that he had been eaten alive by mossies when he came to bed.  Oh dear!

It was a hot night and we drifted off to sleep eventually, only to be woken at about midnight by the loudest music you have ever heard and it was mainly bass and drums !  We couldn't believe it.  I actually got up and walked to reception to complain but as you'd expect there was nobody about except a security guard who told me the music would go on for about four hours.  Apparently there was a music festival in the park next door.  Pity the stupid receptionist hadn't told us that when we checked in, we could have decided not to stay.  Other campers didn't seem too disturbed, but for us it was a nightmare.  Although it was very warm we had to shut all the windows and the roof and everything to try and deaden the sound.  It didn't work!  I finally got up and sat at the computer sorting out photos.  We both got about two hours sleep were thoroughly pissed off. This was the worst night we’d had on our trip so far.  I hope it doesn't get any worse!

28th May 2009

Paul: Got up and had breakfast and showered, the showers are actually quite good on this site.  You do have to keep pushing a button for the water, but it is nice and hot and is a powerful spray which isn't always the case. We are going into Lisbon, or Lisboa as the natives call it, today to do some site seeing, so we walked to the bus stop and waited for a bus.  After a 30 minute ride we were dropped in the middle of God knows where, somewhere in Lisbon! We realised that to get anywhere, we first had to know where we were!  We spotted an open top tourist bus going past and thought that maybe we should do one of those tours.  We couldn't see where they stopped so we asked a policeman who was most helpful and told us where to catch one.  We waited at the bus stop for about 10 minutes for a tour bus to arrive.  They apparently go all round the city and you can get off and on wherever you like.  Ruddy hell, it was expensive though- €15 each!  We could use the ticket over two days if we wanted so I guess that's not so bad if you're staying for a couple of days.

It was soooo hot, about 37 degrees, and so we didn't get on and off the bus as planned but just stayed on and sat in the breeze.  We did stop at a huge marina on the shorefront and got off and bought some post cards and had some lunch in a restaurant.  It was a salad bar and not very good.  Tina left most of hers!  I have to say that eating out in Portugal is not a good idea so far. After a long tour round the city, we finally ended up back were we’d originally got on, but nowhere near the place we needed to be to catch the bus back to the camps site.  That was across the other side of the huge square, and we had only a few minutes to get there or we’d miss our bus back.  Luckily, Tina managed to persuade the driver to go round the square and drop us right next to the place we needed.  Cheeky of her but a good idea as our bus was about to leave.  We got back to the campsite and then collapsed on the bed and cooled off.  We now understand why people tend not to do touristy things when on a campsite, it's just too damn hot.  So I guess from now on we'll just relax around the van and Tina can make cards while I can read and sunbathe. We can save the touristy things for September when we’ll hopefully go to Italy and it will be a bit cooler.

Christ's statue

Beautiful Lilac Trees in Bloom

The Palace

Paul at the memorial for the first Atalantic Flight

Lisbon Marina

The Palace again

Palace Guards

Tina: Whilst I was lying down, Paul saw a Stag beetle in the sand and when I came out he showed me where it had burrowed in the sand, probably to go to sleep for the night.  I found a small stick and prodded it.  He caught hold of my stick with his pincers, glad it wasn't my fingers.  It's funny, I'm not scared of them like I am spiders, but they are bigger, look really evil and can probably give you a nasty bite too!  I was then rather naughty and blocked up the hole he’d made in the sand.  All was quiet for a while and then we saw him pop up a little bit further away.  He then made his way back to the hole and started digging all over again.  We then noticed that there was another stag beetle further in the original hole and thought maybe it had sent out a signal for help and the other one had come back to dig it out.  It was fascinating watching them both.  How marvellous nature is, the insects look after each other and if one needs help the other comes to assist.

Our friends the Stag beatles - She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah

The new beetle has small spots on its back and is a bit bigger than the first.   I took some photos and we continued watching them for ages.  We later found out that the one with spots was a female and we had most likely interrupted their mating.  No wonder the male came running back, he hadn't finished ha ha !

27th May 2009

We got up early, Paul showered but I didn't bother. He said the showers were full of dead spiders and stuff, yuck!  So I filled in one of their suggestion forms and said in addition to providing hot water in the dishwashing area they should also clean the showers more often to get rid of the spiders!
We left and drove to the outskirts of Lisbon and another Orbitur campsite on the Costa Caparica.  It sounded good and it was within a short bus ride of Lisbon. It was a very long drive and the temperature was about 35 degrees.  Phew, even with air conditioning it was still very warm.  I think this is the hottest weather I've ever experienced.  It may have been as hot in Singapore when I lived there with Mum and Dad but I can't remember as I was only young.  We stopped by the side of the road in the shade and had a lunch of cold meat, cheese and salad and then pushed on to Lisbon.  God it's so hot! We found the campsite and it's quite nice. We’ve just spoken to a couple who said the showers are a bit rubbish - water not very hot - but it's convenient for the bus to the city so it's okay.  We chose a pitch with some shade but there was a car parked on it, so we found the owner - a Dutch caravanner and asked him to move.  We may stay here for a few days.  I'm off to make a chilli for dinner now - a strange thing to have in this heat - but apparently it does cool you down eating hot chilli.

I had a nice glass of wine whilst writing up the journal, and we sat in a shady spot so it wasn’t too bad. I forgot to mention that on the way up to Lisbon, we saw some more Storks/Cranes in the nests so took some more pictures. Hopefully at least one will come out okay.

A baby Stork on a lamp post!

Outskirts of Lisbon

Camping Costa Caparica - right in the town

Flipping cats again!!

26th May 2009

We woke up and decided to move on today.  We were going to stay until Thursday and go back to the market but we've been here long enough now.  That's the great thing - if you're bored, or don't like your neighbours, or even if the weather is better somewhere else, you can just pack the van up in about 20 minutes and you're off.  You can't do that with a caravan, and as we do get bored easily, I think we made the right decision in buying the Motorhome.  We're aiming to go along the coast further to Lagos or thereabouts and see what it's like. As we were going back past the shopping mall, we stopped off and had a MacDonald's for lunch - surprisingly it was nice too - then stocked up on wine and a few bits from Continentale before driving to the next campsite which is another Orbitur one.

Camping Orbitur Valverde

We didn't like it very much, a bit soulless and it was really windy.  So windy in fact we had to take the awning down almost as soon as we'd put it up.  Also the single guy on the pitch opposite had a large dog that kept barking. Shame, if it had been nice we intended to get the bus into Lagos the next day as we'd heard that it was an interesting town.  We decided we’d only stay one night and push on up north tomorrow and see if we could make it to Lisbon. We didn't even sit outside in the evening; it was too blowy so I played AC before going to bed.

25th May 2009

Maureen and Howard didn't come for a drink so I took her over a glass of Vino Verde to try and she quite liked it. It's a lovely citrusy wine and good value at €1.99 a bottle. We walked up to the cafe and Paul called 3 to try and sort out the dongle contract.  He was talking to them for ages and eventually some guy named Baljeet agreed to cancel our contract. He promised to send an email confirming it, but just in case we contacted the bank and stopped the direct debit.
We walked into town to try and buy a sun lounger but no luck. We walked right into the centre of the old town which was much further than we’d walked before, but found a scrummy ice cream shop.  I had a scoop of chocolate and Paul had chocolate and sweet rice. They were lovely! We walked back to the campsite and as it was cooler, we didn't sit out for long.  We went inside and watched a DVD that Howard gave us called "Australia" with Nicole Kidman.  It is set in Australia in 1939 and was really good.