We were up early today, and at the moho service centre for opening time. Ninety minutes later and the van’s as good as new! It’s been really frustrating these past couple of months not being able to charge up phones, tablets and kindles unless we’ve been on electric hook up, especially when we’ve had a … Read more
We wanted to stay in Porto for three nights, but the options for parking the van were limited to a private aire with services outside of the city centre, or a public car park with no services within walking distance of town. Our preference was the aire, even though it cost €15 per night and … Read more
The Route Leaving Cáceres we took the road north towards Salamanca, and then turned west into Portugal to follow the River Douro to Porto. The route was planned using searchforsites.co.uk, an excellent resource where motorhomers can add stopovers and post reviews and photos of sites – a bit like TripAdvisor. The places we picked were … Read more
When writing last night’s update, we were parked up in the main square at Estremoz, waiting for the Eurovision music to be switched off. Well they did switch it off, but not long afterwards a band started playing in a hall near the square – we’re not sure whether it was a concert or some … Read more
We didn’t get a great night’s sleep last night thanks to the three (or more?) guard dogs in the factory unit opposite the aire, which decided to start barking away at 3:30AM. They disturbed the cockrels which then started crowing. It’s a residential area and I’m just glad I don’t live there! This morning we … Read more
In Zambujeira there’s a big billboard advertising an Intermarché supermarket in the next village, just 3 km away it says, so we thought we’d stop there on our way out to buy some groceries. It was more like double the distance away, and the signage was poor. At the final roundabout it wasn’t clear which … Read more
For the past couple of days we’ve been on a campsite in Zambujeira do Mar, which is a 10 minute walk from the village, with its restaurants and the beach. We’ve walked to the beach and back a couple of times each day. It was warm and sunny when we first arrived, but since then … Read more
Yesterday’s windy weather was supposed to blow itself out overnight, but how wrong the forecasts were – it just kept on blowing a gale all through the night and, with the van parked on an exposed area of the coastline, it was like trying to sleep through turbulence on a transatlantic flight. Neither of us … Read more
This morning we had a shocker of a drive. I’m going to need some new trainers before we get home, and there’s apparently a Sports Direct in Portimão, not far from Alvor. (I try to avoid shopping in Sports Direct, but they seem to be the only outlet that sells the trainers I like back … Read more