Birds, beer and BBQs...in Spain and Portugal

[jumartoo]

Had a couple of days at the wonderful Octant Douro hotel where, as my wife kept pointing out, the bathroom was bigger than the floorspace of our van. The views were pretty good too. It's the first time we've booked a hotel during a van trip and it seemed like a great success - until we drove nearly three hours to the coast of Galicia yesterday. As we pulled up at the reception of the excellent Monte Cabo campsite (fantastic views of the Atlantic coast) I realised we had left our passports in the safe in our hotel room! We weren't used to removing them from the van I guess, at least that's the kindest explanation I can come up with. After some frantic communication with the hotel we gave up on the idea of having them posting our couriered as no-one could guarantee a delivery date. So tomorrow morning we retrace our steps back to deepest Portugal. These things happen.

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At least we've had a couple of very nice days in a beautiful part of Galicia, where we managed to arrive just as the weather warmed up apparently. It's a bit like parts of the Scottish coastline, but with sunshine.

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What a shame about the passports. Take care driving back.

 

[Podney]

Great thread,thankyou.
I guess youre back now?

 

[Gonestravaiging]

Great thread,thankyou.
I guess youre back now?

Thanks for that. Yes, back home now. The thread disappeared for a week and reappeared today! I'll add a few more posts to complete it.

 

[Grianan]

I’m not sure how I missed most of your posts. Just caught up now and really enjoyed it. You saw some fabulous places.

 

[Gonestravaiging]

I just wanted to update the thread as it disappeared from view for a week after I asked if there was any way to delete a couple of photos. I assume there isn't, which is unfortunate. Anyway today it reappeared for some reason.
So - the drive back to the Douro valley was not a highlight of the trip, and neither were the difficult roads in and out of the valley. After the return journey we picked up the passports and set off for another three hours or so, staying overnight at a very quiet aire in the nondescript town of Macedo de Cavaleiros, which does however have the distinction of being the centre of a major olive oil producing area. The hills were covered in olive groves and we left with some of the local product.
The next day we drove on to Zamora and one of the busiest, and biggest, aires of the trip. Full of people in transit.
The historic part of the city was extremely quiet, but it was an interesting place for a stopover.

Jumping back a bit, a relatively rare photo of birds - from the beach in Galicia - in a thread claiming to be about "Birds, beer etc"! We were joined for an hour or so by this very tame flock of waders. Sanderlings I think.

I particularly like their shadows and reflections.

I also like the fact that if farmers in this area leave any part of a field uncultivated it turns into a sea of poppies.

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[Gonestravaiging]

I’m not sure how I missed most of your posts. Just caught up now and really enjoyed it. You saw some fabulous places.

Thanks, we had a great trip. Now wondering when the next one will be.