Perusing Portugal

 Oh, the weather outside is frightful

But the van

Inside’s delightful … etc, etc

Wish we had this decal on our van

We crossed into Portugal yesterday and haven’t seen a whole lot yet as the fog has been so thick it’s difficult to see anything.

Even Hugo’s bored

The morning was spent doing one of the most boring things on earth when you’re travelling in a van - the washing. A couple of hours dragged by outside a Carrefour Extra in Nigrán (a lovely town by the beach not far from the border)as I watched the laundry tumble around seemingly endlessly and I almost lost the will to live. Eventually it ended and now the van smells fresh and clean instead of fusty and damp. (The towels were beginning to grow a beard …) 

Welcome to Portugal

We headed off along the coast and as the ‘Portugal’ sign came into view the fog seemed to get thicker. Weirdly, the temperature has stayed pretty high - around 17 degrees C. A large storm is supposed to be coming in tomorrow so that should be interesting.

Mannequin art 

Church in the clouds

Jesus

We stopped overnight in the village of Vila Nova de Cerveira, a place famous for art with a square full of restaurants, a church, and a medieval castle. Graham felt like a change from seafood and ordered the house specialty of what we thought was lamb and vegetables. Once it arrived I thought it would be a good idea to translate the dish as my Portuguese is a tad rubbish. We discovered it was actually kid goat and it was very good.

More art by the river

Clouds we drove through today

Hugo enjoyed the leftovers but we’ve decided he’ll never be allowed to eat it again as, later that evening, his buttocks emitted the worst goaty aromas ever smelt in the history of doggy farts. The van was thrust back into smelling atrocious for a short time until all windows were flung open in an attempt to breathe fresh air and flush out the offending smell. Thank heavens it’s warm.

Not much of a beach view

We’re now parked behind a bus station in Esposende. We tried the beach down the road but couldn’t see anything so we’ve come into town in the hope of finding an open restaurant. No luck so far but I spent a good hour perusing the aisles of Aldi instead. Town is probably the best place to be in case we do get the predicted storm. Despite the weird weather we are enjoying Portugal so far - the sun should be returning at the end of the week.