Jeff: North Portugal

The next day we wanted a low key day given the cycle the day before so we headed to a town in the West of Portugal called Aveiro which is described at the Venice of Portugal. We found some parking and walked into the town for breakfast (can you guess what Rich had!) and then walked around the town, which true to its descriptions had a range of canals with boats giving people tours. Some of the differences were the boats, which used to be seaweed collecting boats were all electric and the canals looked a little cleaner than Venice. After a good walk around the town we headed out to the salt plains as apparently you can do a mud bath treatment there. However once we got there it looked completely abandoned and no longer in use so onwards we continued around the town and then to the local supermarket before heading onto the beach side of the town. This part of the town has really pretty beach hut like houses, think candy colour stripes on the two and three story houses. After a walk on the beach and a stroll looking at all the nice houses we parked the van at the beach and spent the night there

The next morning we went for a run around this side of town and down past the large lakes, enjoying the bird spotting as we went before heading onto Porto, well the camper stop just outside the town. The camperstop we chose is a biological park with animals, including deer who were very close and just the other side of the fence. There was a really strange noise and it took us a few minutes to work out it was the bucks call and that they were really chatty. Next we had to make the decision, get on the bikes and cycle the 10km into the city or get an Uber (10euros). It was a hard decision to make as there were a lot of factors, one was we really didn’t fancy getting back on the bikes yet but also it was 11am already and we wanted to get going but we didn’t know if Porto would be like Lisbon where we used the bikes to get from one area to another and meaning we could explore it all in one afternoon/evening. We decided to get on the bikes and head in but within 5 min (all uphill climb) we realised this was the wrong choice but we were committed. Not long and we got to the view point opposite the town and went to take some nice pictures (only to realise that Rich had taken the battery out of the camera to charge and not put it back!). We took some pictures on the phone and carried on over the bridge into the city. We ended up at a church where it seemed that there was either a wedding or christening happening and the attendees would not have looked out of place on the channel four show my big fat gypsy wedding. We then continued on up hill towards the famous bookshop here, Livraria Lello which is considered the most beautiful bookshop in the world and is reputed to be a source of inspiration for J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter books as she taught in Porto for a couple of years. There was a large queue to get in and as we had the bikes we decided to carry on with them then come back. We found a bike rack (as rare in Porto as in Lisbon) and quickly booked timed tickets for the bookshop and went back and managed to avoid most of the queue. We then had a little bit of time before we the next place we were due to visit so we went and grabbed some vegan pancakes from a popular pancake place called O Diplomate before heading to a tower called Clerigos Torre.

As we got there a little early we walked around the church which was at the base and then went to the tower which had museums to visit as you ascended the tower. The first showed lots of different versions of Jesus on the cross with the next one which included a display where children were asked what colour they thought cancer was. It was very interesting and then we continued up the tower, via the shrinking spiral staircase which by the top was a little claustrophobic, especially when there were people both coming up and going down and trying to squeeze past each other. The views from the top were good, although in comparison to other towers we have seen in other cities this was really small (only 75 meters which is smaller than Big Ben – 96 meters). We then went to visit the train station Sao Bento, which is supposed to be very pretty and it had the azulejos frescos which were very nice but then, after being offered something we believe to be drugs at the exit, we hastily made our way away from the train station and around the city in the hunt for the many murals around the town created by Portugal’s version of Banksy We managed to find quite a few on the walk around the town and ended up down by the river front before walking up the hill, with the help of some outdoor escalators (Porto like Lisbon is a hilly town!) and then popping in to the Portuguese centre of photography (which was underwhelming) before deciding it was beer o’clock so we headed for a cozy pub for some beer and cocktails before finding a vegan buffet restaurant for dinner. Now we had the cycle back and luckily it wasn’t raining so we headed back over the bridge and up the hills to the camper stop where the deer continued to chat to us and we settled in for the evening.

The next day we got up and headed for a walk around the park, as this was included in the cost of the stay for the evening. Was the park a zoo or nature reserve I’m not sure but it does state that the animals were all rescued and if they can be released they would be. After the walk around the park we headed north towards Braga and stopped at the Bom Jesus Do Monte which is a Portuguese sanctuary/pilgrim site at the top of a hill which is climbed via an ornate staircase or elevator/funicular (if you are feeling lazy – which we were not). We climbed the 577 stairs to the top and had a walk around the gardens and took in the views of Braga. It then appears there is a weather front coming in so we quickly (as quickly as you can down 577 stairs) retreated to Jeff and drove on to our stop for the night to wait out the rain.

The next day we headed into Braga and we walked around the old town looking at the old buildings including the cathedral, the theatre and the Arco da Porta Nova before Rich got too cold (he was wearing shorts and flip flops and it appears that autumn is drawing in on us so it was probably their last outing for this trip) and we headed back to Jeff to drive north to the boarder with Spain in Valenca. It was on the walk back to Jeff that we noticed that this was the town of small people and even I was tall against people here (all 5foot 3inc of me) and once we noticed this, you couldn’t un-notice it. Everywhere we looked there were short people and not just older short people, even the younger crowd looked short for their age, so if you ever want to feel tall (and are over 4foot), then come to Braga!

In Valenca we parked up under the city walls and walked over the bridge into Spain and back again (without our passports – whoops) and watched a kids boat race where Rich totally bet on the wrong kid (she ended up in the river!) to win. Sadly once back at the van we decided we had to book the ferry back to the UK as we have decided to come straight from Spain rather than drive to France and given that it’s a 31 hour crossing we didn’t want to miss out on a cabin as the alternative option is a reclining chair and we have decided we are both too old for that!