A Chilly Dickie

 A touch of colour on a grey morning

What a shocker to wake up to zero degrees this morning. I suppose that’s what comes from parking by a lake in the middle of nowhere. We’ve had days of sunshine parked up by a sparkly fairytale church

Sparkly church 

(where the fluffy one reversed into a tree), a pootling river, and a sanctuary of the virgin -

Sanctuary at Oliveira de Azeméis 

of course.

A Snuggly Dickie

A chilly lake

A place for water nymphs

We are in Bragança in the Trás-os-Montes area of Portugal today and the fog is well and truly coming down from the mountains. Last night we were alone by the Baragem (dam) Azibo. It was quiet and, not surprisingly, watery. When we arrived in Bragança today we were the first ones here. Now there are about a dozen other vans but we don’t care as we have had yet another of our most fabulous meals on the trip so far just inside the walls of the old city.

Castle walls

Supposedly Iron Age boar with 15th century pillory

If you ever find yourself here go to Tasca Do Ze Tuga for a traditional Portuguese meal of octopus, pork, or (as our French neighbours had) wild boar stew.

More dragon/octopus

Who knew olive pie could be so yummy

Tomorrow - back to Spain.

Mist and Monastery

Spooky Jesus

We fought off the urge to add to our glow-in-the-dark Virgin collection and drove on past Fatima to the UNESCO World Heritage Monastery at Batalha. The monastery is worthy of a gasp and a ‘wow’ as it comes into view and it doesn’t disappoint when you get inside. The stone pillars are covered in cute faces and leaves and the archways of the ‘incomplete chapel’ are intricately carved. I was tempted by a Virgin in a snow globe but at 10 euros I decided to go for a cock on a post card instead for 75 cents.

Now that’s what I call a hand basin

Teeny leaf

Teeny face

Massive monastery

If you’re ever in this town you must have a meal at El Burro Velho. It’s by far the best meal we’ve had on our trip so far. I even liked the Marcelo, or. ‘Blood sausage’ which has never been on my radar before. The fluffy one ate what seemed like an a entire octopus while I chowed down on garlic prawns followed by seafood spaghetti. More prawns!

No, it’s not a dragon

You CAN come the raw prawn with me

The weather has been fabulous despite a little fog in the morning at the lake but today the clouds are coming in so we’re heading north to make our way home over the next four weeks. Sigh.

Tippy toe

Early morning mist

Space Again

I’m sitting by a Portuguese baragem (lake/dam) listening to the Fado singer Marisa on the radio. The fluffy one is finally feeling well enough to go for a walk and is currently in search of some dolmen that we found on the map. Hugo is asleep on the driver’s seat, soaking up the sun. There are no other vans around us, they're all up in the official Aire, packed in like fish.

Baragem de Povoa

We had enough of sardine central in Badajoz. Our juggling neighbour had parked a small berlingo style van in the space next to his motorhome. Great, we thought! No one else will be able to fit in here. HA! How wrong we were. We were sitting comfortably watching a particularly fabulous Aussie DVD (The Dish, if you’re interested) when we felt the rumble of a camping car as it attempted to park in the minuscule space between Dickie and Juggle Central. It was so close we could barely open the door to get out and kindly suggest the driver bugger off.
‘Yes, it is a bit tight isn’t it,’ they appeared to be saying. Thankfully another neighbour could speak Spanish and English and we managed to get juggling boy to move his little van so that the new neighbours could move over. It all ended with many smiles, handshakes and ‘Feliz años’ but the event gave new meaning to the Aussie expression ‘tight as a nun’s nasty’.
After being woken by yet more tinny music, this time from the festival in the park next to the Aire, we decided it was time to move on before Mr Fluffy turned inside out with despair so we headed over the border to Marvao in Portugal. It’s a stunning hilltop village with views for days.

Space!!

Checking out the scenery

Hike to the fortress

Love a box hedge

Evening visitors

Our only problem there was a van full of mastiff-style dogs that parked next to us last night. The dogs were allowed to roam free with no leads so we felt trapped in Dickie until they left. What wimps we are.
We may stay here by the baragem for a couple of days and work on the tan.
Feliz Ano Novo to all.

From Boar to Moor

The sound of tinny Spanish music is belting out from the juggler’s van next door, several dogs are barking, children are throwing fireworks on the ground and Hugo is about to turn himself inside out with terror. Other than that it’s lovely. We’re in Badajoz, an interesting city on the Portuguese border with a strong moorish history.

Senora del Dolores 

It’s a bit of a change for us as we’ve been in smallish towns and villages for the last two days. In Palma del Rio we also ‘enjoyed’ a plethora of firework fans but it made up for it with a church full of terribly sad Madonnas, a scary baby Jesus, a weird ‘priest with child’ in a glass box,  and, excitement upon excitement, an unexpected Black Madonna.

More sadness

Love a Black Madonna

Make of this what you will

Scary baby Jesus

Yesterday we entered Extremadura and spent the day and night outside a small town called Berlanga. We were excited to find two restaurants, a lake, and weirdly, a zoo. Hugo enjoyed meeting the wild boar in particular but was a bit confused by the ostrich.

Never seen an ostrich before

Lakeside view

Good greetings Miss Boar

We had lunch at one of the restaurants and to say they have not embraced the idea of ‘nouvelle cuisine’ would be an understatement. The photo below shows the vast extent of our starters. This was followed by calamari and a custard desert.

This is the starter

Tomorrow Portugal.

Fuente Found

The best decision we made today was to ignore the arrow suggesting we turn right for the Fuente de las Pilas and keep going straight ahead.

Ignore this arrow

Mr Fluffy pretty much skipped up the steep climb in a carefree manner as I struggled to keep up, panting and limping due to my dodgy knee. Eventually, at the top of the hill, our fuente was found, complete with a wasps nest and a fox poo for Hugo to roll in.

Tempted to throw him in to clean off the fox poo but I didn’t

Wasp nest cleverly hidden

Continues his carefree skipping

Needless to say Hugo had a shower on our return which is no easy task in the van but he now smells divine until the next time.

A couple of hours drive through, yes, even more olive groves, and we’ve arrived at Palma del Rio. The Aire is right next to a children’s playground that has a cafe with WiFi. Hoorah! We might be able to catch up on the Christmas Strictly Special tonight - Mr Fluffy will be so pleased.

Tomorrow we head closer to the Portuguese border.

Oh No, It’s Not A Rhino!

I realised my mistake as soon as I ejaculated the words, ‘look, there’s a rhinoceros!’ Mr Fluffy looked out the window to see a HIPPOPOTAMUS leisurely munching on some straw. He, or she, was surrounded by some bumpy horses otherwise known as camels. The Circus had come to Ubeda and it looked like they had a rather diverse range of animals at their disposal. Sadly we were driving out of town so we won’t be able to enjoy whatever tricks the comfy hippo had up its wrinkly sleeve.

A touch of oil anyone?

We’ve driven through vast groves of olives to our current destination, Doña Mencia, where we partook of our festive Christmas lunch: a pork and salad sandwich for me and blood sausages on a stick for the fluffy one.

Sausages on a stick

Thrilling pork sanger 

After this vast feast we took a stroll through an adjacent grove in search of the Fuentes de las Pilas but it did not want to be found so we took a few shots of the trees instead. These trees here feel ancient and I’m sure house the odd elf or two in their gnarled trunks. Graham swears he met one called Oliver but I think that festive Coca Cola he had with lunch may have gone to his head.

Strolling through the grove

Oliver’s house

Feliz Navidad readers :)

Olives and Nutcrackers

View from the city walls

The city of Úbeda in the mountains east of Cordóba is one of our favourites so far. Olive groves surround the city and, like Cazorla, it is famous for its fine quality olive oil. It obviously once was, and still is, a wealthy city. There are more churches than it needs, all with elaborately carved facades, winding streets and renaissance architecture is dotted around the old UNESCO World Heritage city. There are even a couple of donkeys hanging around outside the Parador.

A hint of decoration

Flat hair

I must commend the pharmacist here as she recommended even stronger medications in the vain hope that the fluffy one will, one day, recover from his man flu. He’ll seem to be getting better one minute then he slips back to hideousness the next. Poor sausage.
Something to cheer him up is the tinny sound of The Nutcracker Suite coming from the iPhone of our Spanish neighbours who, despite the parking area being huge and empty, have parked within a foot or two from Dickie with their side door flung wide open. Mr Fluffy is enjoying it immensely; I can tell by the strained smile on his face when he looks over at them to say ‘Hola’.
Twenty five degrees today. A sunny Christmas Day beckons. Feliz Navidad to you all.