Boiro

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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 … Read more

Vila Nova de Cerveira

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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

Porto

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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

From Cáceres to Porto

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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

Cáceres

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We arrived in Cáceres on the bank holiday Monday, and drove through the town centre on our way to the campsite. As expected everywhere was closed, so we decided that we’d stay on the site for the rest of the day, and catch the bus into town the next morning. The campsite was well laid … Read more

Mérida

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Mérida sits around 60km to the east of Badajoz, upstream on the River Guadiana, the river which forms the southern part of the Spain-Portugal border. It took about an hour to drive across, under dirty grey skies and through the accompanying rain, but luckily for us the rain had subsidised by the time we parked … Read more

Badajoz

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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

Estremoz

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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

Lousal

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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

Zambujeira do Mar

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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