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Ireland, Portugal and Spain

Oktober - November 2018
We are travelling for six weeks, starting in Dublin and ending in Barcelona. Baca lagi
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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 29

    A wet day in Tavira

    31 Oktober 2018, Portugal ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    After four weeks of almost faultless weather we finally had a day of rain - all day. Given the size of our apartment that presented a bit of a problem, because there is so little room to do anything other than read (or play Scrabble).

    Nevertheless, we did manage to get out twice, once for coffee and the second to buy supplies for dinner for the next two nights.

    On our first foray we could hear music, band music. Naturally I headed in that direction and we found that the Police Concert Band was playing in the big covered area on the river promenade. I don’t know whether it was a state-based band or more local, but they were very good. They were playing mainly to a lot of primary school children. For the past two days we have seen an increased police presence, with cars, vans, taped off areas, and personnel, so I assume that they were on a big PR exercise.

    We finished the day with toasted sandwiches, wine and Scrabble.    Baca lagi

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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 30

    Thursday in Tavira

    1 November 2018, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After yesterday’s rain and generally overcast weather we woke up to bright sunshine, a good day for a drive.

    We picked up our car from the public car park where it had been parked for the last four days and headed north to Faro. This is the capital of the region and has a long history, as does everywhere here I might add.

    After parking the car out of town we headed in to the Old Town. We had been alerted by Carla that today was a public holiday. She said it was a Bank Holiday, but we think it was more to do with All Saints' Day, an important day in the Catholic calendar. Whatever, every church we went to was closed, and the main museum in Faro was also closed.

    We walked around, looked at was to be seen, had a coffee and then headed out of the Old Town to the more modern area. One thing we wanted to see was Igreja do Carmo / Capela dos Ossos, or the Carmo Church / Chapel of Bones. It was closed because of All Saints' Day. While we could hear an organist rehearsing we were told that there would be nothing on until 9pm on Friday evening, so sadly we didn’t get to see all the bones of the old monks.

    After leaving the Chapel of Bones, we meandered around to the local cemetery. What was really, really interesting was (a) the number of people there, and (b) the recent headstones. It appears that they “recycle” their grave sites, because we saw a whole section in this old cemetery with headstones from 2013 to 2017. Their family mausoleums were interesting too. We saw one that was open, being tendered to by an older couple. We could see four normal sized coffins and two little ones. How sad! It seems that on All Saints' Day, people go to cemeteries to put flowers on their loved ones' graves, clean the headstones, etc. We saw this at two other places as well.

    Then it was back to Tavira where we didn’t do a great deal until we went out for a drink before dinner. The bar was almost empty but those who were there were from England. There is something funny about being in a Portuguese bar listening to Elton John and Poms!    Baca lagi

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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 31

    Our last day in Tavira

    2 November 2018, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We are sad that we are to leave Tavira tomorrow, but we have done pretty well everything we would like to do here. Walking around the town, walking in the countryside and wandering around the bars, cafes, restaurants and shops have filled our time in.

    Today was one for a big walk, and we did over 13kms, mainly on rural gravel roads where things were very quiet.

    Yesterday Robyn had seen a poster that caught her eye. It was part of a series of doors in and around Tavira, capturing their beauty and uniqueness. I suggested that we try and find some and photo them and see if we could replicate them, but this afternoon we walked and took photos but could not do as well. This is pretty natural, given that the person who took the photos Robyn saw knew what she was doing. We ended up buying one and have it in a tube and hope it will get home okay.

    We had decided some days ago that Friday evening would be the night we go out to dinner, after days of self-catering. It was to a plain cafe that we went, where we had already had a few coffees. It was really nice and quiet and we had a nice meal. The young lass serving us knew very little English so there was a mixup in wine orders. Anyway, after a chat to the main waiter we ended up with a memorable evening.    Baca lagi

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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 32

    Going to Spain

    3 November 2018, Sepanyol ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Being very organised people, we were on the road at 9.40 am, heading for a town called Valdepeñas which happens to be about 200 kms from Madrid. Rather than do a 600 km drive to Madrid in one go we thought it made sense to break the back of the journey, have a restful night, and then drive in to Madrid. There we had to hand in our car and catch the AVE, or high speed train, to Segovia from Madrid’s Chamartin station.

    Booking.com found a reasonably priced hotel just out of Valdepeñas which was very easy to find, being at the 194km turnoff from the A4. Only thing is, there is more than one Valdepeñas in Spain and our GPS, although heading us in the right direction to start with, then told us to turn off the A4 and go onto a regional backroad. After 6kms we just knew that this was not right. After a look at Google maps, and whatever we had to hand, we backtracked and hit the A4 again. Just as well we did, because the Valdepeñas we had been going to was nowhere near where we wanted to go. A loss of 12 kms is neither here nor there in the greater scheme of things, and so we kept going toward the REAL Valdepeñas.

    The thing that was most noticeable during our drive was the huge number of olive trees. We saw millions of them, and probably another million or so of fresh plantings. We wonder just how much olive oil and olives the planet needs!

    The hotel near Valdepeñas is one of those places that would have been built 30 years ago, and was at the time a pretty good show. The rooms were huge, everything was as good as you could ask for, and the staff were so very helpful.

    Robyn had not slept well the last few nights so she had a kip while I went for a 4km walk up through vineyards. It was dark when I returned, but so peaceful.

    The restaurant was very, very quiet, although we were eating early for them, but we enjoyed our meal, and the helpful staff. Local wine, local olive oil, local bread, and local menu added up to a nice experience.    Baca lagi

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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 33

    Welcome to Segovia

    4 November 2018, Sepanyol ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Today was one we had been dreading, because handing back the car with damage can cost quite a bit of money, with no comeback. We had 1400 Euro excess and the damage I found on the left back panel just after we had picked it up could easily cost quite a bit, if they hadn’t picked it up beforehand. Then I found that I had actually done a little damage on the right back door when I turned too sharply in a lane in Tavira, PLUS there was a small bumper scratch that I had not seen before, no doubt inflicted in a car park while we had it parked there for a few days.

    At least we had a hearty breakfast waiting for us. We were the only customers who had booked breakfast as part of their package, and there on a table was our room number reservation. Quite quaint really! It was the usual sort of European continental breakfast, with toast, ham, other meats, cheese, yoghurt, fruit, etc, with juice, tea and coffee. By the time we had finished we were really ready for the road.

    We had 200 kms to go to Madrid and all went well until Robyn misunderstood the GPS and sent me, urgently, up the wrong street. It took about 15 minutes to get back and around, and then ... when we arrived at Chamartin station there was a group of signs for hire car - Avis, Sixt, Thrifty etc. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, was there an arrow pointing to their drop off points. We drove through the station, and ended up going away from it. A good old traditional Aussie U-turn and we were back at the station, but still with absolutely no idea where to go. I “parked” while Robyn went looking and asking. Ages later she came back and pointed to the area we had to go to. We had drive past it, but it was tucked away before the aforementioned signs! Another U-turn and we were illegally parked in front of the Avis office. After only a few minutes the chap I was dealing with came out, asked how we liked the car, walked around it, and hopped in and checked the fuel and mileage. He then gave me the key and pointed to an area in the paid parking lot and asked me to take it over there and bring the key back. I left Robyn with all our luggage in the office and did so. When I came back he told me we would get our fuel money back and that was all there was to it, handing me back my contract. Whew! I am still not sure we will get away with it, but if our luck holds as well as it has so far, we should be right.

    We lined up for tickets at the office and asked for two tickets to Segovia on the AVE, or high speed train. The lady said she couldn’t understand why so many people were going to Segovia for the weekend, but the next two trains were full. We would have to wait until 3.40pm, a 2.5 hour wait. Even on the slower trains there were so few spare seats that we would have been in different carriages. We waited as we had no choice, and eventually, at 3.41 pm the train pulled out. We did hit 250 kph at one stage during the half hour journey, and while it was much better than anything Australia has to offer, it was not up to the Japanese standard.

    On arrival we took a taxi to our accommodation, Hotel La Casa Mudejar. What a pleasant surprise it was! It was in a really old building but was lovingly renovated and of quite a high standard. We went for a brief walk before dark and then headed out for something to eat and drink. The Hotel restaurant opens at 8.30 pm, much too late for us under the circumstances, so we had tapas and wine in one small place, and then more drinks in another one just around the corner. Nice way to finish the day.    Baca lagi

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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 34

    Rain in Segovia City

    5 November 2018, Sepanyol ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    The weather forecast was quite certain for Segovia and district. It was to rain on Monday with light showers on Wednesday. So far it has been 100% correct. We had quite a bit of rain during the night, but it had virtually stopped by the time we were up.

    Breakfast made yesterday’s look parsimonious, and that’s saying something. The selection of meats and sweets was huge, with cereals, bread, fruit and cheese in abundance. This style of breakfast is daunting if you are a tea and toast sort of person, or cereal and tea, which we are. Nevertheless we did our best, and managed to work our way through many of the things presented.

    Just after we headed out the door it started to rain again, so we had to look for umbrellas AND raincoats. We have known for weeks that we would need raincoats, probably for Ireland, and definitely for Spain, but had never quite got around to finding any. Raincoats are not always easy to find, but nevertheless we now have to have them as the forecast is for rain on Wednesday and possibly some light rain on Tuesday.

    Umbrellas were fairly easy to find, but then the search began for raincoats. We found one for me at the Visitor Information Centre at the base of the aqueduct but Robyn wanted something more stylish. We saw quite a few but of course they were not available in Small, so in desperation we looked in children's clothing shops. Strangely, there were as many good clothes for boys and for girls, and many of the girls' coats were in stylish colours, not pink, or pink, or pink. We ended up buying a boy’s coat which is not quite waterproof but is knee length and will do the trick.

    Using our guidebook from the walking group, we started walking around Segovia. Trying to follow the detailed instructions and match them to the VIC map proved time consuming, so we ended up just walking around a bit more and then checking out the Cathedral. What a magnificent structure it is.

    Heading back towards the castle, or Alcazar fortress, we stopped to look across the valley at the village of Zamarramala. Why not walk across there we thought? We headed off and found ourselves there in no time. It looked a long way off, across the valley, but in reality was not so far. While we were walking around it started to rain. By the time we had returned to our hotel we were fairly wet, but it was good fun anyway. At least we did a decent hour of walking.

    One problem we will continue to have in Spain is their late dinner times. At home we often don’t eat until after 9 pm, because there are always so many things to do. Here the restaurants don’t open until 8.30 pm and before that you can get a drink and some finger food, but that leaves us with quite a bit of spare time.

    Our first port of all was a little place just around the corner from the hotel where we had a drink and small finger food. The food was not warm enough and we didn’t feel like staying there so we went walking out of the main plaza, down towards the aqueduct and chanced upon a little shop that is part deli, part cafe, part bar. That was good enough for us. We enjoyed a small meal there of toast with tomato and meat and a plate of goats cheese, washed down with local wine.    Baca lagi

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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 35

    San Ildefonso, Segovia

    6 November 2018, Sepanyol ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    We were up bright and early so we could have breakfast and be packed up, ready to be picked up at 9.30 am by Jorge from Senderos y Pueblos, the company that is organising our trip around Segovia.

    It was a great relief when Jorge arrived, right on time. He packed us into his station wagon and we headed out to San Ildefonso where we are to be based for the next two days. It is not a busy time here so we were able to check straight in to the Hotel Roma.

    Then it was off for our first walk. Jorge gave us a GPS which makes it easier to follow the track. A map is nice, a written description is nice, but the GPS stops you from wandering far off the intended track. It really makes it foolproof.

    Our first walk was to the village of Valsain. From there we had the option of returning via a different track, giving us a total of about 10 kms, OR we could continue and end up doing 17.3 kms. Naturally we opted for the latter, notwithstanding the rain we encountered. It was raining when we left San Ildefonso but stopped after about 1 km. We thought we might get away with it from then on, but just after halfway it started drizzling again, and it continued most of the way home. Notwithstanding the weather we had a great time, and saw some lovely countryside.

    Dinner was a problem again, finding some place open early enough for us. First up was a drink and some nibblies at the Half Moon, where there was a documentary on northern Australia! It was a bit loud there so we then found the Miami which had a nice menu and there we stayed. It was a lovely place, quiet with a most attentive, and interesting, man behind the counter. The highlight for me was the Russian salad, whilst Robyn really enjoyed her lamb cutlets. All in all, a good day.    Baca lagi

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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 36

    El Chorro Waterfalls

    7 November 2018, Sepanyol ⋅ 🌧 3 °C

    We had been expecting rain today as it had been forecast, but why did it have to rain up until we finished our walk?

    Today’s goal was to do a circular walk up to El Chorro Waterfall, a 10 km trip. There was some pretty hard climbing as we approached the bottom of the falls, and in the rain and mist we took what was a pretty silly decision to press on. After a while, about 350 m into the final 550 m we actually became lost, not a nice situation. Robyn slipped on a huge granite boulder and thought she was going to slide a long way down, and the GPS was not lighting up the screen enough to see clearly. We backtracked, found our place, and headed up again. This time we were successful, but the fog or misty rain was too thick to really see the falls. We did, however, see the remnants of the snow fall from last weekend, so it was pretty cold.

    The trip back was okay, but the mist made it impossible to see the views over the town and the Palace and Gardens. This was a great pity because it was easy to imagine how good the view would have been on a fine day. Part of our track took us along two walls of the Palace estate. We were amazed at just how big the estate was, being approximately 1 square kilometre. That’s a lot of garden and forest to enjoy.

    As Hotel Roma is not opening the restaurant at this time of year, except on weekends, we were once again forced to look elsewhere. However, before that we enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and a game of Scrabble in the bar of the hotel, where we enjoyed the company and interest of the barman /concierge / owner(?). He was very helpful with advice, we enjoyed discussing such things as speed limits and police cars, cycling and the weather. He suggested three different restaurants for us to consider.

    The first one was closed, the second one was not doing meals that night, the third one was not yet ready for dinner, and we were hungry. Any port in a storm, and it just so happened that there was a pizzeria ready, willing and able to help us. It wasn’t too bad, and it was nice being in a place frequented by the locals.

    To finish the night we had more wine back at the Hotel Roma bar, this time sitting in front of the fire. The barman had nobody else to look after at that time, so we talked a little more. He is in the middle of reading a book by Catherine McCulloch, and was quite knowledgeable about her writing. You just never know where a little bit of Australia is going to pop up.    Baca lagi

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  • PengembaraIreland, Portugal and Spain
    Hari 37

    Pradena to Gallegos

    8 November 2018, Sepanyol ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    Day three of our Segovia walking tour and it isn’t raining! Jamie, the owner of Senderos y Pueblos, picked us up from our hotel right on 9.30 am. It seems that his company has a policy of being on time.

    During the drive to Prádena he told us about his company and how it was started. It was an interesting story, and he is obviously passionate about the environment. He trained as a biologist in Edinburgh and took to the wild parts of northern Scotland. After marrying a local lady and having a couple of children he persuaded her to move to Spain, his home country, to commence a business that has now grown, after 12 years, into a successful operation. It runs walking, cycling, donkey and family tours, and only operates around the region of Segovia.

    Anyway, as planned, he dropped us off at the edge of Prádena and pointed us south. I am fairly sure he thought that we were underprepared, with only two small backpacks, but wished us well.

    It was very cold and windy to start with, so we were rugged up. The rain held off all day and in fact it was almost sunny when we finished. We were following the foothills, so there was a bit of ascending and descending, but we were on a pretty straight run. At one stage we were heading uphill towards the spoils of a former mining site and the wind was so strong that it almost blew Robyn backwards! Thereafter it settled down a little, to just strong. Whenever we crested a hill, or had a paddock on our left that was unprotected, the wind picked up. We watched the clouds whip over the mountains towards us, but never quite reaching us.

    The track was actually quite easy and following our notes, and occasionally the GPS, meant that we were never in trouble. The highest part of the path was around 1310 m and it was 15.8 kms in total. We felt pleased with our achievement and it was nice to end up ringing the bell at our hotel, Posada De Gallegos, the best and only hotel in Gallegos.

    Posada De Gallegos is a very nicely restored house, well set up as a guest house. They have obviously spent a great deal of time, thought and money into making it a very comfortable place. The sitting room and dining room were well set up, and our room was quite comfortable, with UNDERFLOOR heating! They also had a lift, ensuring that mobility challenged people can enjoy their hospitality. The only question we have is how, out in the sticks, they attract enough custom to make it worthwhile.

    After settling in and generally finding our way around, we took a stroll around the village. There are some quite nicely restored places, and some new ones, of course, but it it is not a bustling metropolis. We found two bars, which was the point of our strolling, and there ordered a coffee and a beer. They had absolutely no English and we ended up with two coffees, one short and strong and the other with more milk. This made sense when you consider how Robyn tried to order her coffee, but where my beer went is anybody’s guess. It was soon sorted out, with more hot milk to weaken Robyn’s strong coffee and a nice cold beer for me.

    We were the only guests at the hotel this evening. Later we found out that we were the last walkers for the season for Senderos y Pueblos. They advertise walking trips up to the end of October but when I enquired about early November they replied that would be fine. Nobody else bothered it would seem, and given the weather, fair enough!

    This left us in the peculiar situation of having the restaurant to ourselves. They were very friendly, with, I think Theresa’s husband being the front of house while she ran the kitchen. What do you order when they provide you with a Menu of the Day plus an a la carte option? It was not a difficult decision to take the Menu of the Day, because the two options for the entree and main gave us enough choice. Robyn had a very nice creamy zucchini and bacon soup, while I had a salad with walnuts and goats cheese. For the main we both chose the roast piglet and potato, and dessert was no option but very nice. The local Verdejo was again very drinkable and we finished our second bottle in front of the fire in the sitting room.    Baca lagi

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