We left Portugal for the last time bright and early yesterday morning. Our destination was an aire on the edge of a small town called Boiro, north of Vigo on the Atlantic coast. We were 50:50 as to whether to go to Vigo, and in the end decided against it due to the lack of a nearby aire. It’s also an industrial fishing port, so there’s probably not a huge amount to see and do.
On the way we stopped at a Repsol garage to fill up with diesel. I have one of their loyalty card which gets you cheaper diesel and LPG at the odd garage, but I’ve been using it even when the fuel isn’t cheaper just to get points, even though I probably won’t accumulate enough points to use given that we’ll only be in Spain for another couple of weeks. This particular garage wasn’t offering discounted fuel so I nearly didn’t bother using the card but I’m glad I did, as when the lady put it through the till she told me that I’d won a €80 gift card from the ubiquitous El Corte Inglés. Yay! The challenge now though is to get hold of the gift card in the next couple of weeks.
After all that excitement, we carried on our way to Boiro. The aire has a small hard standing area with an overflow on the field behind, and we were early enough to bag a spot on the concrete overlooking the beach. It really is a pretty place, and it definitely doesn’t have the feel of a tourist resort, though the beaches do apparently get very busy in the Summer.
The weather forecast had predicted cloud and showers, but they got that wrong as it was lovely and sunny, with temperatures into the mid 20’s. After a walk into town we spent the afternoon sat in the shade reading.
Today we had planned that Carol would go for a walk whilst I went for a ride on my bike, but overnight the heavens opened, and it was grey and miserable this morning, threatening to rain some more, so we knocked that on the head. Instead we found a launderette and cleared our backlog of laundry, then spent the afternoon chilling out.
Tomorrow we will be going to Santiago de Compostela, the end point of the popular Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. We’re cheating by driving there, but we’ve probably walked the equivalent distance or more since we’ve been away.
Mike