Hotel Feira Pedra Bela Santa Maria da Feira

... without the normal care and as we were going along we suddenly realized that the caravan had become detached. Fortunately the breakaway cable had worked. We reversed and reattached her, no harm having been done. We then had to do a 50 mile detour to get to the camp site. We spoke to other camper and caravaners who had had great ...

... any campsites around Porto. We ended up finding a great deal on a room in the Hotel Fenix in Porto. Once done with emails, we headed to bed - in the rain, of course.

The rain had also brought through a cold front - it was getting down below 50 at night. I was so glad to have my long underwear with me - to think I thought I wouldn't need them! It rained all night - the sound of rain hitting the tent made me feel like we were sleeping in a hyperactive child's maraca.

... a large lake we were currently circling and start again on the road again.  The first exit off the road was the first since we got on it and was 10 km away, and 15 km from the road's starting point.  That was when our suspicions the GPS coordinates in the camping book were wrong were confirmed.  

 By the time we got off the road Kevin's temper was as thin as I've ever seen it.  We had two camping books with directions to this campsite.  However, both were different and ...

... agora com a volta às aulas. A Universidade do Minho também foi uma boa surpresa. Não esperava um campus tão grande e nem tão bonito, para quem estuda na Unesp de Franca (sem nenhuma ofensa, eu ainda adoro o predinho velho) tudo é muito monumental. A vida na universidade tem uma dinâmica bastante peculiar, os alunos do último ano vestem uma roupa tradicional e por essa razão devem seguir uma série de rituais (mulheres não podem usar maquiagem quando usam o traje, não ...

... Carlos, also opened a couple of wonderful bottles of wine which he makes. It was wonderful, and very fun to chat with everyone from around the world. After dinner we were treated to some great Port Wine from the quinta (aged 20 years). It was also great. I stayed and talked with a few of the guests for some time, and then off to bed. The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast, and then the couple from Belgium (who were the most ...

... exploring Braga a bit and doing some research for Spain. Braga is a very pretty little town a nice place to stroll around, although its a shame about the massive mcdonalds right in the middle of the centre square. Tommorow we leave to go back to Lisbon for two nights before flying to madrid on Monday. Hope you are all well, please keep the messages coming. Lots of Love xxxx

... and around a lake, allowing us to see a section of the park, we only wish we had been able to do more hikes. Just camping in such a beautiful setting was great, we cooked our own food on our gas cooker, to the sound of wolves and birds and to the view of mountains. Now the lows. The weather seemed to be eternally against us. We only had one day where it didn't rain and at night in particular it was very cold, we both slept in about four layers. This ...

... decorated and has a wide, although expensive, menu. We chose some snack items, still being a bit full from lunch. On the way home we stopped off at the 'chicken and chips' café for another 50 cent glass of vinho verde. Very nice. Some last minute packing occupied our evening and some tummy upset kept us awake until late into the night. As I type this blog entry my daughter Jean sent me a text message to say that Heath Ledger died of a suspected drug overdose. What a waste.

Ab ins Hinterland, zum eigentlichen Zweck der Reise: Ettes und Orlandos Hochzeit! Essen, Rotwein, Schnäpsken, Pool, Rotwein, Essen... und Arnds handselektierte Hochzeitsmelodien: DIE FETTE ELKÖÖÖH!!! Außerdem gabs auschweifende Gelage und sonderbare Riesen-Insekten im Ferienhaus, eine Strandbar am Rio Lima, eine Klimaanlage(!!) und KEINE Taxirufnummern. Gibts da einfach nicht.

Northern Portugal A spectacular train ride along the banks of the Douro river took us to Regua and Amarante in Nothern Portugal where we spent a few days camping; Just sitting around, taking walks along the river and through the vinyards. A perfect break from visiting cities. This is the area where Port is produced; so, naturally we had to sample the local speciality. Not many tourist make it up here and it was refeshing to find people couldn´t ...