A fantasy fulfilled

Mike has acquired the Leonard Cohen look with suntan and a fetching panama he blagged after we'd sampled some delicious port at Symingtons in Pinhao - Quinta Bomfim.  I hadn't appreciated brands like Warre, Dow, Graham and Cockburn all belonged to the one family which owns 27 estates! We deliberated about going on a tour and tasting as we'd done this in Porto many years ago, but persuaded ourselves this was different as it was actually at a Quinta.  

A reason for visiting this region has been to fulfil a fantasy Mike has had, ever since we didn't do it all those years ago - to go up the river Douro by train. We could have gone all the way starting from Porto, but the river from Peso da Regua to a tiny place, Pocinho, where it stops and turns round, hugs the river.  It is so close at times the train slows to crawling whilst it navigates a trellis bridge or runs a few feet from the water's edge.  It was worth it and we weren't disappointed, going through first a wider valley covered with vineyards to a much narrow and steep sided rocky part.  Port is also made from vines grown there, but is spicier because of the concentration summer temperatures of 50oC can produce.

We've left motor home city now on our way to Marvao near the Spanish border, an old town recommended by friends Pete and Joy.

Flower power

We're so enjoying Portugal where we've been since leaving Burgos last Sunday.  Our first stop was at a small town on a very strategic promontory overlooking a huge dam on the Douro, which forms the frontier between Spain and Portugal at this point.  Miranda do Douro was delightful and I enjoyed my first dish of bacalhau or dried cod.  A huge portion, easily enough for two, and very nice.

On from there down to Pinhao further down the Douro where we spotted a wonderful wild camp on the river front.  We chatted with some local people, one who sold us his 'home made' olive oil and honey, and another who ran a great little restaurant.  Her local red wine was a bargain!

The scenery has been incredible: rolling hills (up to and over 1,000m) and river valleys full of vines, olive and apricot trees.  Underscoring the vines and trees have been carpets of yellow hawk bit, such that your view is a range of greens interspersed with yellow.  What's really hit me are the wild flowers everywhere, and I've only recognised 25 species, but there are many more.  Road verges are covered with wild lupin, delphinium, vipers bugloss, cerise and yellow foxgloves, giant mullein, mallow, tall spires of blooming fennel as well as big clumps of lavender stoeca.  Autoroute banks, usually so uninteresting, have been carpeted with bushes of white cistus and broom.  A swathe of broom under-storied with clumps of bright blue lavender is a very pretty sight.

We're now a little further down the river valley at Peso da Regua where there are many more people (probably from the river cruises) but also motor homes - Gladys is definitely the smallest!

  

The Camino

 

Spent four very pleasant days in Burgos.  A truly European campsite with all nationalities coming and going - mostly on overnight stops - even from Ireland, Czechoslovakia and Finland, so they'd come a long way.  

We can cycle the 4kms into the city with its beautiful riverfront or get the bus.  We had to visit Burgos' famous Cathedral and Mike came across the brand new Museum of Human Evolution based on sensational recent discoveries of fossil remains of our very early European ancestors found in the Atupuerca mountains east of the city. 

We walked a very short way on the Camino that runs through Burgos and saw plenty of peregrinos with rucksack and staff.  Not many seemed to be smiling, perhaps because all they could think of was stopping for food and a rest at one of the many hostels.

We are up with our domestics, sitting out in very pleasant afternoon sun, ready to roll.  The Douro valley in Portugal next, but probably not all in one go.

First uncomfortable moments

 

They don't come singly, these moments!   First was when we turned up at a free aire in St Estephe that had been built up as something fabulous on the banks of the Gironde, which it was.  But.... it had been commandeered by a group of people with several tents and dogs that looked as tho they'd been there a while.  The service area for draining our toilet waste and picking up fresh water was, well, no other word for it, 'disgusting' with evidence of faeces around the drain.  Plus the toilets were unavailable.  We did stay but only after we'd moved right away and relied on our own facilities.   The 180 degree view was spectacular as was the display by swifts catching their evening meal just feet away.

We'd taken a short ferry trip across the Gironde to get to St Estephe, just as we'd done 41 years ago and after what turned out to be an uneventful night we set off down the Chateau route towards Margaux and other famous wine producers.  Angludet is a favourite of ours, hence the photo, and I managed to keep Mike away from making an appointment!  A first along this road was me driving a few kms, tho' I'm not sure how much I'll be doing...  Plenty of activity in the vineyards, we think they were tying in and weeding.  Some machinery being used, but there were horses among the Chateau Latour vines.

Another uncomfortable moment was after leaving a campsite in Les Landes when we discovered none of the electrics were working.  Did an about turn back to the campsite all set to phone for help only to find they had come on.  Lesson no. 1, the electrics don't work with the motor running!

Lots of good flat cycling in Les Landes but it was time to move on south.

La Venise Verte

       

Stumbled upon a part of France we've sped past many times, the Marais Poitevin - France's second largest wetland area after the Carmargue - crisscrossed with canals and cycle paths.  Ideal for the unfit like me and a wildlife paradise.  We've seen kingfishers, water vole, pied wagtails and a canoeist camper saw coypu.  The yellow irises are stupendous as are the pale blue ones, which seem most popular in people's gardens.

Coulon is the centre of the smaller area of La Venise Verte, and where we stayed 4 days thanks to a recommendation by Gary, a Netherstreet neighbour's son in law.  Many thanks Gary, and to you and Jane for a lovely lunch on Sat, it was great to meet you.

Also a big thank you to Gina and Rob who we'd not seen for 20 years but it felt like only last month. It was great to see you and a bit of your part of rural France.

Rain set in for a couple of days, it's warm but obviously time to move on..

PS - only just learnt to post photos so using this post as a bit of a catch up.  You can see the phantasmagorical rock formations on the pink granite coast, the coastline just down from our campsite on the Golfe de Morbihan and the island we went to on our boat trip mentioned in my first post.

Lunch with Ollie and his minders

Here we are after lunch in the Vendee with a lovely brindle boxer and his kind owners.  Jane's mum and dad live in Netherstreet and we invited ourselves over on our way further south.

Getting used to van living, which is much easier when it's dry and most of its contents can be kept outside, but it's great wandering about on a whim.

A couple of very cold days east of Roscoff pushed us down to the Golfe de Morbihan, although the pink granite coast had been worth seeing and the wildlife great to watch from our campsite.  Just had a good week near Sarzeau relaxing with a bit of cycling, coastal walking and bird watching.  Found a great creperie with award winning ciders.  So good we went twice.

Last night was at our first aire, which was free, but we didn't have mains electricity.  We shall use them again but we do need to charge our electronic equipment, and now my kindle whose battery has run out.