Jane & Rog Plod to Portugal

[Jane And Rog]

Well, it wouldn’t be a Denby trip if something like this didn’t happen.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Good idea No doubt ACS sell the signs.!

Well, it wouldn’t be a Denby trip if something like this didn’t happen.

oh no, you do seem to have adventures. I hope you manage to sort it.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Today was a wash out on two counts.

• It’s pretty much rained all day
• As above, Denby developed a new leak

The first saw us more or less confined to quarters for most of the day. Jane has practiced drawing using the iPad. I have tried to fix Denby’s leak and read the whole of the internet cover to virtual cover.

Long term readers will remember the fun we’ve had with leaks. Following the water heater and complex plumbing that plagued us in Morocco, Denby’s plumbing is pretty much in ship of Theseus territory. Or so we thought. This is a new leak and - I think - more impactful. We are losing water from the fresh water tank so we can’t wash, flush the toilet or… make tea.

Whilst I was pretending to be able to do the plumbing, we did find a proper man who has offered to drive two hours to come and fix the leak. We’ll hopefully meet him tomorrow - in the meantime I’ve put silicone grease on the two dump valves which I think are to blame. Unfortunately, that seems to have worked so the Real Man® might not be able to diagnose the problem.

Clearly no longer leaking​

Whatever. I also took Flynn for a few walks in the rain. One was a repeat of yesterdays walk because I remembered passing a walnut tree and I wanted to return with a bag. I managed to get a good haul of walnuts and spent 30 minutes before dinner shelling them.

Nuts!​

Dinner itself was great. Once again we have a good restaurant on site. This maybe isn’t quite as good as the pork at Camping el Astral but it scored high on local. As Jane told you (pay attention at the back) there are wild boar in the hills above the campsite. Those hills are also heavily wooded with chestnut trees. After the salt cod fritters, Jane ate wild boar with chestnuts. I finished the meal with chestnut pudding. My main was “beef in the traditional style”. The local style appears to be “just grilled” but the beef in question was a massive filet steak. I don’t normally eat fillet but this was very good indeed.

Fillet front, pork rear. ​

Portions were massive so Flynn’s breakfast is particularly luxurious tomorrow.

 

[jockaneezer]

I had to look up "Ship of Thesus" could you just use the phrase "Trigger's Broom" in future, for those of us who didn't get a Classical education !

 

[CAB96]

Time for a quick map catch-up - this are all the stops except our first.

View attachment 960821

You're either going to have to change the name of the thread, or slow down a bit

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[Jane And Rog]

You're either going to have to change the name of the thread, or slow down a bit

Would you believe, when we were in Northern Spain, Rog told me we needed to speed up a bit or we’d not get to see much before we had to turn back for home!

But now we’ve put off the kitchen reflooring that was booked in for early Nov, so we can slow down. Once we stop having to escape the rain!

 

[Jane And Rog]

In my slightly dampened state I forgot to mention the main reason we came to this site. It’s not the walking or the weather, it’s the world’s biggest pocket knife. As displayed in the restaurant:

Is that a knife in your pocket or… etc.​

I think they’re somewhat pushing the definition of “pocket” knife. I’d more likely say it’s the worlds biggest folding knife.

 

[CAB96]

In my slightly dampened state I forgot to mention the main reason we came to this site. It’s not the walking or the weather, it’s the world’s biggest pocket knife. As displayed in the restaurant:

View attachment 961218

Is that a knife in your pocket or… etc.​

I think they’re somewhat pushing the definition of “pocket” knife. I’d more likely say it’s the worlds biggest folding knife.

They need to polish it up a bit, it looks well scratched.

 

[Neilh]

Okay for a Yorkshireman, you'd need deep pockets

 

[Jane And Rog]

A tale of three countries.

When we woke there was plenty of water outside the van (yes, it was still raining) but none inside the fresh water tank. Worse, Rog had had an email at midnight last night saying our Spanish mobile repair man couldn’t work in Portugal. They probably eat dinner too unfashionably early or something. He could help us if we drove 150km northwest to Ourense, in Spain. We didn’t have any other options except an Adria dealer in Portugal who certainly wouldn’t help us on a Sunday.

We arrived in Ourense to a disturbing lack of comms from the repair man, so sat down to lunch-time tapas to wait a while. The largest tapas I’ve ever seen - Flynn dined out on us again.

Then there was an email. We were to meet in the car park of the thermal baths. Only problem being there are several such car parks, one currently blocked off, so we looped the river once before finding another south of the river & arranging the rendezvous there.

Route 66, our repairman was brilliant. The larger of our two bungs was perished and loose, so he wrapped it in PTFE tape so it fitted tightly, and then added sealant to both. Should hold until we get back to the UK. He also very trustingly told us to go off to the petrol station and fill up with water to test it. Of course we returned to pay him - a bargain €65 for a next day Sunday call out. Highly recommend.

The terrible weather is still around and our plan is to leave the north for sunnier climes. But today we stopped just over the Portuguese border at the aire in Chaves, which the weather app Ventusky told us was just short of the massive rain storm which we’ll plough through tomorrow, but in fact turned out to be well within it. Yes, it’s raining again.

It continued raining hard, so we didn’t explore the town until dinner time. When we opened Denby’s slider to leave, a huge lake had appeared beneath and for several metres around our step, so we had to find a drier spot or plan on building an ark.

After a little wander across the river, swerving the wet stepping stones for the footbridge, and a drink in a friendly bar, we crossed the Roman bridge…

…and ate at the appropriately named Biclaque Trajano where we had a delicious and quite posh nosh at British pub prices. The oxtail sausage to start:

Followed by octopus rice for Rog and lobster & prawn risotto for me.

And a shared dessert called irasshaimase, which is a bit of a weird name for a dessert, as it’s usually shouted in welcome at a Japanese restaurant. Anyway, delicious, eggy custard frozen and deep-fried.

When we left the restaurant, IT HAD STOPPED RAINING.

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[Mikey RV]

Glad you got your leak sorted, hope the repair holds until you get back to U.K.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Good news the leak is resolved although what a faff for you. The repairer sounds very good.

 

[jumartoo]

Good news for your vans leak. I've saved the mechanics details jic we ever have a problem during our summer trips. Thanks.

 

[Lenny HB]

Just along the road from Chaves a great stopover Restaurant O Moinho on the N103, you can park buy the river behind the restaurant lovely spot, Herons fishing and if lucky you may see otters.
Basic good food no menu choice of meat or fish. Huge portions she puts what you don't eat in containers for you, saves cooking the next day.
Cycle path on other side of the river on dissuesed railway line.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Just along the road from Chaves a great stopover Restaurant O Moinho on the N103, you can park buy the river behind the restaurant lovely spot, Herons fishing and if lucky you may see otters.
Basic good food no menu choice of meat or fish. Huge portions she puts what you don't eat in containers for you, saves cooking the next day.
Cycle path on other side of the river on dissuesed railway line.

We had planned to overnight there but the weather was so awful we decided to push on.

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[Lenny HB]

We had planned to overnight there but the weather was so awful we decided to push on.

Won't be folling you or Rog anywhere, fires now rain, flipping heck.
Since we entered Spain 2 weeks ago all we have seen is wall to wall sunshine, coldest day was 23° but that was in the north the last week it's been constantly in the 30's.

 

[Lenny HB]

.

 

[Stoosal]

In my slightly dampened state I forgot to mention the main reason we came to this site. It’s not the walking or the weather, it’s the world’s biggest pocket knife. As displayed in the restaurant:

View attachment 961218

Is that a knife in your pocket or… etc.​

I think they’re somewhat pushing the definition of “pocket” knife. I’d more likely say it’s the worlds biggest folding knife.

We were there last year! I was sitting looking at that bloody penknife trying to remember where it was.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

.

Ha ha, let me know where you are headed next year and we’ll come and ruin it. We have also had volcanoes erupting, earthquakes and been evacuated due to a hurricane. You’ll enjoy the uncertainty

 

[Jane And Rog]

Won't be folling you or Rog anywhere, fires now rain, flipping heck.
Since we entered Spain 2 weeks ago all we have seen is wall to wall sunshine, coldest day was 23° but that was in the north the last week it's been constantly in the 30's.

Our problem was that this trip was delayed a month. And we really wanted to walk in the NW. Also we’re not the types to search out the sun over everything else. But endless rain is just miserable, so we’re hammering it south today.

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[Jane And Rog]

Ha ha, let me know where you are headed next year and we’ll come and ruin it. We have also had volcanoes erupting, earthquakes and been evacuated due to a hurricane. You’ll enjoy the fun of it

Tell me more!

Our best effort was being marooned on a ski lift in Japan for hours due to an earthquake. Once we finally got to the top of the mountain, we had to coax two very new beginners down a black run. Wide plough all the way.

Back at the station to Tokyo, the train was only 45minutes late. South Eastern would have been immobile for days.

 

[varaizian]

Just along the road from Chaves a great stopover Restaurant O Moinho on the N103, you can park buy the river behind the restaurant lovely spot, Herons fishing and if lucky you may see otters.
Basic good food no menu choice of meat or fish. Huge portions she puts what you don't eat in containers for you, saves cooking the next day.
Cycle path on other side of the river on dissuesed railway line.

Thanks Lenny. I had pencilled in the aire at Chaves for Jan or Feb on our way down the west coast but this looks much nicer. I have always hated wading through huge menus anyway!

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Tell me more!

Our best effort was being marooned on a ski lift in Japan for hours due to an earthquake. Once we finally got to the top of the mountain, we had to coax two very new beginners down a black run. Wide plough all the way.

Back at the station to Tokyo, the train was only 45minutes late. South Eastern would have been immobile for days.

Crikey that sounds very frightening and cold.

Well the earthquakes were in Greece many years ago, no real harm just disruption. The Hurricane was in Florida, we were at the Kennedy Space centre and they opened the toll roads and said leave now. We were a little way in from the coast and sat in our rented house and watch the TV stations go off air as it got closer. The next day a trailer park down the road was literally gone. Many killed etc. they had to put 800,000 in temporary shelter. We hadn’t realised after a hurricane it really rains for maybe 48 hours. On the plus side we couldn’t get home for 4 days while they repaired the airport.

The volcano was in Iceland this year. We even videoed the lava flow then the car broke down, we got fixed but found out the day where we were broken down was taken out by the lava.

We leave tonight so you should have no more problems from no on. Just to warn you we are thinking of going to Vietnam and Cambodia next year.

 

[Just smiffy]

Crikey that sounds very frightening and cold.

Well the earthquakes were in Greece many years ago, no real harm just disruption. The Hurricane was in Florida, we were at the Kennedy Space centre and they opened the toll roads and said leave now. We were a little way in from the coast and sat in our rented house and watch the TV stations go off air as it got closer. The next day a trailer park down the road was literally gone. Many killed etc. they had to put 800,000 in temporary shelter. We hadn’t realised after a hurricane it really rains for maybe 48 hours. On the plus side we couldn’t get home for 4 days while they repaired the airport.

The volcano was in Iceland this year. We even videoed the lava flow then the car broke down, we got fixed but found out the day where we were broken down was taken out by the lava.

We leave tonight so you should have no more problems from no on. Just to warn you we are thinking of going to Vietnam and Cambodia next year.

Can you please stay at home when I next go away ….

 

[Jane And Rog]

Thanks Lenny. I had pencilled in the aire at Chaves for Jan or Feb on our way down the west coast but this looks much nicer. I have always hated wading through huge menus anyway!

The mill did look good as we passed it (Rog was wrong, we stopped before it) but I wouldn’t miss Chaves - a lovely town with plenty to see (if it’s not a Monday) and loads of great bars and restaurants.

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[Jane And Rog]

Crikey that sounds very frightening and cold.

Well the earthquakes were in Greece many years ago, no real harm just disruption. The Hurricane was in Florida, we were at the Kennedy Space centre and they opened the toll roads and said leave now. We were a little way in from the coast and sat in our rented house and watch the TV stations go off air as it got closer. The next day a trailer park down the road was literally gone. Many killed etc. they had to put 800,000 in temporary shelter. We hadn’t realised after a hurricane it really rains for maybe 48 hours. On the plus side we couldn’t get home for 4 days while they repaired the airport.

The volcano was in Iceland this year. We even videoed the lava flow then the car broke down, we got fixed but found out the day where we were broken down was taken out by the lava.

We leave tonight so you should have no more problems from no on. Just to warn you we are thinking of going to Vietnam and Cambodia next year.

You’ll love Vietnam. We went for our honeymoon, 27 years ago.

 

[G-RMPS]

Rog - Halloween shirt?

 

[Jane And Rog]

Day 8. Or is it 9?

I love the way you lose track of time on these trips. It’s happened quite quickly this time. Being able to eat out on Sunday evening probably added to the perplexity.

When we woke up, the rain had stopped, the sun was trying to make an appearance and the huge lake that had replaced the site was in drought. Flynn and I walked around the park as dawn broke.

ǝƃpᴉɹq uɐɯoɹ ǝɥʇ​

The sun might have been making an appearance but the forecast said it wouldn’t be around for long. We were still on our way south, but first some touristing.

Chaves is a lovely city, it’s slightly scruffy but its tangled mess of renaissance townhouses on a medieval footprint were busy even early in the morning. We had two goals: local pastry and some real touristing in the shape of Igreja da Misericórdia - a church with a blue tiled interior - and the local Roman Baths. Sadly the church and the baths were closed and in a double whammy removed my blissful temporal ignorance.

Still, just walking round town was great. It’s the first time since France we’ve really felt to be on holiday.

Still the Roman bridge, just later on.​

A portugese man, walking somewhere.
​

When it comes to the other goal for the morning, things went much better. Jane put on her big girl pants and confidently strode into the pastelleria:

Not nervous.​

Minutes later she emerged with a single pasta del nata (second breakfast for me) and a couple of pastel del Chaves - a much prettier flaky pie filled with spiced mince veal (lunch for both of us).

Most impressive, she’d conducted the whole transaction in Portuguese including them not accepting cards. Both confections were delicious too.

First of many​

To be honest though, I’m a bit disappointed. We’ve been in Portugal for over 48 hours (sort of anyway) and I’ve only had one pastel del nata. I really need to concentrate on this.

The Patas del Chaves was quite a looker. If I wanted to nitpick it could have had more veal inside but, look at this; something that in the UK, we’d call a pastie.

Look out Greggs, Portugal in coming for you.
​

Chaves has some more tricks up its sleeve. Firstly a scale model of the solar system. We initially spotted Jupiter (fittingly) near the Roman Baths.

King of the gods.​

On the way back to the van, we passed Mercury, Venus and finally the Sun - all three on the modern foot bridge. That means we somehow walked right past Earth and Mars.

Better though, the have the first catechistic retail establishments we’ve seen this trip. We love a bit of Catholic madness and Chaves put in a strong first effort.

…and the archangel Raphael did appear before Tobias just as soon as he’d found somewhere to park his Vespa and a safe place for his helmet. Deuteronomy 5:15​

Santa Maria de la consumer survey.​

From there a quick drive 380km south, through the massive storm to Foz Do Arelho on the Atlantic coast (///partly.slated.circle). It’s fairly basic but we have a sea estuary view and Flynn got a walk up the beach.

A van with a view. No camping behaviour please.
​

Flynn got another quick walk before we scampered up the coast to Cais da Praia; a lovely shipping container cum beach bar for a sundowner (small ‘s’, the drinks were Negronis) followed by Pica Pau Porco (also Portugal’s top ranked Eurovision placing in 1974) and then octopus for Jane and Cod for me. We brought back another boxful of leftovers - Flynn will be growing used to human food for breakfast.

Sunset in Foz do Arelho.​

 

[Jane And Rog]

A Flynn pic as he loves the beach so much. More stick! More sea!

 

[Jane And Rog]

Rog - Halloween shirt?

Coincidence. I don’t even own a Christmas jumper.

Actually not quite coincidence, I do have an unusual amount of orange clothes to go with Denby.

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