Heading south out of Porto, we had heard that the town of Aveiro was a nice place to visit. Because of its many canals, people call it the “Venice of Portugal”. Like many towns in Portugal, parking is a problem, and in this case, we couldn’t have found a spot if we had been driving […]
We wanted to explore a little further north of Porto. The first interesting beach we came to that evening was a small resort town called Ofir. The sun was setting over the ocean and we stopped in an empty parking lot near the “praia” (beach). Everything was fine until about 2AM when the parties began. […]
In the afternoon we did have a chance to visit the cellars of the Cockburn’s winery, one of the many producers of the famous Port Wines that this country is famous for. After an interesting tour we were allowed to taste a few. We now have a better idea of where this unique wine comes […]
Arriving in Porto, we followed the narrow backstreets that our trusted Garmin GPS seems to prefer and found our way to a dusty dirt bag of a campground in an eucalyptus grove. Its sole redeeming point was its proximity to a bus stop that would take us into the center of the city. Apparently training […]
Finally, we were in Portugal and ready to experience a new culture. Our Spanish was allowing us to get by. Since one of the famous things in Portugal is Port wine, which comes from the Douro Valley and takes its name from the Douro River, it was recommended that we follow the scenic secondary road […]
Still following windy secondary roads over the mountains and passing through small villages, we finally came to the Portuguese border. The old Customs House was abandoned so we stopped for a picture and continued on to Bragança. Again it seems strange to cross these international borders without even slowing down. Gary keeps waiting and hoping […]
After surviving Pájaro Pass, we continued southwest to the Medieval town of Puebla de Santabria near the northeastern Portuguese border. Well known as one of the oldest settlements in the province of Zamora, its roots have been documented around 509 where it appears in a record from the Council of Lugo. In case you haven’t […]
Leaving the beautiful Playa Merón, we headed south, following our GPS and several maps of Spain. The route we chose looked like a perfectly good secondary road. It was a hot day and we soon found ourselves climbing up 13% and 15% grades in 3rd or even 2nd gear to get around hairpin corners, with […]
As some of you may recall, when we were camped at Playa Merón, we mentioned the wonderful market in Santander. It might be one of the largest and most fascinating in Spain. The whole lower section is devoted to seafood, everything from fresh squid, barnacles, and whole bunches of strange critters we know would be […]
According to the notes on our 1997 Spanish map, it was 16 years ago that we had explored the many beautiful beaches along the Costa Verde of northern Spain. Perhaps our favorite was one called Playa Merón. Parking was free and the long, clean deserted beach was a short walk away. We remembered it had […]
