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Our Spain/Portugal holiday

Druk

Gone but not forgotten - RIP
Joined
May 28, 2004
Messages
5,300
Location
Not far from Edinburgh.
Car
2011 S212 E350CDi. 1981 R107 300TurboDiesel.
After overwhelming requests (well: *** at any rate) here is the write-up of the recent Spain/ Portugal road-run. (with apologies to those who also use the Owners-Club forum and have read it already).

Prologue...

Leaving home on 7th aug and an overnight in the PremierLodge at Bromsgrove we caught the Plymouth to Santander ferry arriving on Monday 9th to hot and humid but overcast skies. A three hour trip along the north coast of Spain saw us overnighting in Ribadeo. Tuesday on the road early and using mainly N roads took us over the hills to near VillaGarcia and the nice hotel Pazo O Rial Pazo O Rial - Vilagarca - Pontevedra

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Tearing myself away from the pool long enough to take another...

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A couple of relaxing days here and some exploring of the local coastline..

Mussel farming on an industrial scale

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landed by converted trawlers. 12tons at a time.

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While the locals utilize low tide to gather whelks and razor shells

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Heading south again this is part of the huge fortifications at Valenca just across the border into Portugal

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And pushing on we reached Porto. This, the view from our hotel balcony

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And the mirror image shot of the hotel from the bridge. Handy phone box..

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The same scene at night. (note to self...stop getting over romantic)

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Good perspective shot of the tramlines atop the bridge

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And of the riverfront with me hanging on for grim death. Not good at heights.

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No visit to Porto is complete without a small degustation

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And a mandatory visit to a shoeshop. Bumped into this strangly familiar figure

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Onwards and upwards. Back into Spain and across country to Salamanca.
Beautiful university city with this loverly central square.

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And Cathedral

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With an altar reputed to have 600kg of gold decoration

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Where did you get that hat?

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Further east again and these are part of the complete circle of walls at Avila where we stopped for a looksee and some lunch.
Now it had started to get really hot.....

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A typical Spanish countryside/motorway scene. Desert soil with olive and stunted pine trees. Banguptodate motorway network courtesy of EU funding.

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Pushing on we arrive in Segovia with it's famous Roman aqueduct

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and the pic you've seen before. Of me holding up the traffic

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Castle built by Henry iv. Just a tad before Walt took the Mickey

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Southwest now over the Gredos mountains to our next stop in an English owned farmhouse B&B near Candeleda. POSADA RINCON DE ALARDOS: Turismo rural en Gredos (El Raso - Candeleda) y La Vera del Tiétar / Your country hotel B&B in Spain

The car at the top of the Puerta del Pico

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With the view down the other side to Arenas and twisting alongside over the mountains the extraordinary Roman road. Cobbled and drained and in as good a condition as the day it was laid.

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Towards our last stop now and northwards with an overnight in Palencia. Notable for it's large population of storks.

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Approaching the southern foothills of the Picos you see in the distance what appears to be a bank of fog. Turns out to be bare limestone mountains

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And another stop for food (getting this Steve?) in Riano has us mesmerized by this beautiful lake

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And it's bridge, on the road to Leon

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Turns out to be a reservoir built by Franco against strong local opposition since the old town of Riano is submerged somewhere beneath the waters.
 
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Arriving at our last booked hotel Hotel Posada del Valle - Welcome to Asturias, North Spain, and The Picos de Europa
we were tired and hungry (what, again?) and asked for lunch. Looking now at the meat I think *** got there first.

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And after a half bottle of the local cidre I try to communicate with the local breed of headless chickens

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The 'to die for' view from our room

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Some of the peaks of the Picos in the distance

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A run in the car took us to the Desfiladero de la Hermida. A 10km drop down a narrow overhanging ravine which the pics don't do justice to.

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But at the bottom there's always the chance of a paddle

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That's the end of our booked travel. Leaving on the Sat we drove east to Biarritz and into France for a night at Pau

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Before Limoges, St Omer, Calais, Dover and home Tues night late.

Weary but happy.

Howzat?
 
Thank you for this Derek.

Its got me inspired to go over next year.

Top right up of a top trip.

And aye, the food looks like its suitable for me!!!
 
+1 Great write-up! I want to do that trip - superb.
 
Great photos. I wanted to go to Porto this year, but was convinced by my other half to explore the Algarve in the end- def will go next year.

I was quite surprised by the lack of any border checks. It´s funny how you can be queuing for a hour to go in and out of Gibraltar, but a much larger country such as Portugal has no border at all.

Also, I experienced the most thorough car wash ever at a Portuguese BP. A man with a pipe and brush, then the normal carwash, then a guy carefully drying it off at the other end!!!
 
I was quite surprised by the lack of any border checks. It´s funny how you can be queuing for a hour to go in and out of Gibraltar, but a much larger country such as Portugal has no border at all.

Also, I experienced the most thorough car wash ever at a Portuguese BP. A man with a pipe and brush, then the normal carwash, then a guy carefully drying it off at the other end!!!

Gibraltar is UK territory, so we treat it like the UK mainland which has extensive controls at the Ferry ports.
 
Cheers Derek.....some that I had not seen in there.....:thumb:
 
Great pictures and write up as usual Derek, do you do any post production on your photo's or are they straight from camera to hosting site?
Your pictures always look so clear and sharp :thumb:.
 
Gibraltar is UK territory, so we treat it like the UK mainland which has extensive controls at the Ferry ports.


Yeah I know. But Portugal is obviously a totally different state to Spain as well, and there are no border checks.

I suppose the duty is preety much the same in both countries, the drug line is going north, so is the line of economic migrants.

There isn´t a tax, migrant, or potentially criminal reason to check people.
 
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Thanks for the kind words. :)

Pics are all taken using a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 set to 'Idiot' mode. Other than the night shot where I manually set the exposure to a 1/2sec. I tend to take lots of shots then edit out the chaff. All I do to them before photobucket is to reduce them to 25% X 25% of original in Paint.

Tried a new trick as well for me which was to compose the complete post in a Word doc then copy and paste into the box. Saved my bacon cos the forum software refused the first edition as having too many pics. Was able to go back and split it up to two postings without losing anything. :D



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It is because both Portugal and Spain are Schengen countries, hence no border passport control.

Map of Schengen countries - The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC


Yeah I know. But Portugal is obviously a totally different state to Spain as well, and there are no border checks.

I suppose the duty is preety much the same in both countries, the drug line is going north, so is the line of economic migrants.

There isn´t a tax, migrant, or potentially criminal reason to check people.
 
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Hell's teeth, man...

:ban:

Indeed. :D. The pic was actually taken as a parody on a weel kent figure in the Owners Club. But it never hurts to have a laff at ones' own expense. :rock:
 
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Great photos and write up. An inspiration to go and see some of these sights.
 
Looked like a great trip Druk:)

How did you rate the ferry and crossing to Santander? Did you have a cabin?

Ive recently booked a villa in Paredes de Coura,Northern Portugal, for May and was thinking of getting the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander or Bilbao rather than driving all the way through France.

Marty

Oh and happy birthday :)
 
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Looked like a great trip Druk:)

How did you rate the ferry and crossing to Santander? Did you have a cabin?

Ive recently booked a villa in Paredes de Coura,Northern Portugal, for May and was thinking of getting the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander or Bilbao rather than driving all the way through France.

Marty

Oh and happy birthday :)

Marty.

Thanks for the wishes. Ferry was first class. We upgraded one step to a Club cabin. Telly and other minor things but a bigger window which suits me cos I'm slightly claustrophobic. Actually a 4 berth but you only pay for two and you get a ground level bunk rather than one where one of you have to climb. Bummer if you're 61:D. If you want a meal get to the desk early. Booking opens at 1600hrs (IIRC) and I went at quarter to and there was no-one there...then went back at five past and the queue was 20mins and we lost the chance of a window seat. SWIMBO miffed.
There is a card and route map supplied in the cabin cos there is a new motorway link/tunnel opened which gives better access out of Santander. Nice attention to detail. The only thing you can't predict is the weather. We had it flat calm but, as they say, "it's in the lap of the gods".
The drive along the north coast and across to Gallicia is an eye opener cos of the road construction that's in progress.

ps. I think the Bilbao ferry is closing for business at the end of this season.



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Thanks, Ive been on the ferry site already but I cant see the crossing times or prices as Mays too far away...I did notice that the Bilbao ferry was not running after Sept but wasnt sure if it always shuts down out of season.

The wife wants to fly as we will have a 9 month old baby and get a hire car....but thats boring,I hate rubber band powered hire cars.

Thanks for the input.

Marty
 

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