We finally arrived in Aveiro which has become a beautiful city. The frontage of the old railway station is covered in azulejos, the blue and white ceramic tiles on the outside of buildings telling stories
Along the canal are the brightly painted moliceiro boats which used to transport seaweed but now take tourists on trips.
The salinas produce the flôr de sal sold in the shops and the restaurants serve delicious fresh fish and seafood along the waterways all go to make Aveiro know as Little Venice.
Wall of sardine tins
Shop entrance
By the canal
And then of course being with all the family.
Playing Rummikub with cousins
CamperStop
There is now a fantastic new Camperstop behind the railway station in the carpark. There are 20 good size pitches and all the facilities you need except electric. The area is planted with shrubs and flowers and also has seats and some tables. A supermarket is just 5 minutes away.
We eventually reached the campsite just outside the Monfragüe National Park where we came a few years ago. Lovely relaxed campsite with good facilities and a restaurant. On our first day we went for a walk in the national park alongside the beautiful river Tajo.
Monfrague River Tajo
Beautiful bridge
Strawberry tree
Dehesa
The countryside in Extremadura is known as the “dehesa “. It makes very good pasture for sheep, goats and cows. Its main trees are holm oaks and cork trees.
Transhumance
Part of our walk in the Monfragüe National Park was along a “cañada” (drovers’ trail). These drovers’ trails criss-cross parts of Spain and date back to the time when “ Transhumancia” (Transhumance)” was common. This is the practice of driving herds of cattle many hundreds of miles from their winter pastures to their summer pastures and back again. For more information about transhumance and how it is being adopted again, see this BBC article https://www.jamon.com/pig-raising.html
Cycling
Monfrague via verde
Spain has 126 via verdes spread throughout the country. Cycle paths, mainly on old railway lines and the campsite is just next door to one. We went off on it the following day, but rather than follow the route we turned off to the nearby town of Malpartida de Plascencia and there we discovered the town square just right for coffee, and in addition various sculptures.
Town square
Covid memorial
Recognising house work
The cycle path sometimes followed alongside the railway line (we never saw a train)
Donkey along the way
Valerie’s adventure to Monfragüe Station
Monfrague station dance
After Judy and I finished cycling along the via verde from Malpartida de Plasencia, I decided to continue on to Monfragüe station since I had read online that there were some interesting buildings to see there. When I got there I did see quite a few big buildings which all seemed empty, then I heard talking and laughter and wondered if there was a café so I wheeled my bike round the corner and found a whole group of people sitting at a long table, drinking coffee and eating cakes.
As I like practising my Spanish, I said hello and asked if it was someone’s birthday. They said it was and I was immediately invited to join them for a coffee. They sat me down next to the birthday boy, Antonio, and brought me a wonderful cream cake to eat with my coffee.
Antonio told me that he had been born there 22 years previously (I think there was a bit of poetic licence here – possibly add a further 50). It turned out that they were all cousins and they had all been born there. In its heyday Monfragüe station was an entire village of about 1000 people who all worked for the Spanish railway company, RENFE, because Monfragüe was a major hub. The trains from Salamanca to Cáceres and from Madrid to Cáceres went through there. It had its own church, school and doctor, all paid for by RENFE. However now only a very few trains go through there. With the demise of the steam train, and a new railway line was built.
Some of the cousins still live in the area, but many now live in other parts of Spain or even further afield – Antonio lives in San Diego, California, and another of the cousins lives in Miami. Whenever they can, they all meet up at the station for a family reunion. They were sitting outside what was the village school and inside on the walls they had put up lots of black and white photographs of family members over the past 50 years, including lots of class photos of the school children.
As I made my goodbyes they had just put on some music and two of the cousins were singing into microphones while others started dancing. It looked like the party was going to go on for quite a while still.
Second day in Spain and something went wrong with the Webasto boiler. It gave off error messages about no combustion.
After phoning Webasto in Madrid we found an authorised dealer in Valladolid with a skilled engineer named Cesar who could fix it. But of course it needed a new part which had to be ordered.
Evidently if you’re only using the water heater (as we tend to do over the summer) carbon builds up around the burner and eventually it stops working. Evidently these boilers need to be set to very high heat every so often to prevent this build up.
The workshop was in an industrial estate just outside of the city but as this was Spain there was a very good bar/restaurant where all the workers from the surrounding businesses went for lunch. It took three excellent ‘menus’ at €10 each before we were on the road again.
Valladolid was our first stop. There’s a great camper stop in a car park near the city centre for €5 per night (see park4nite).
To get to the centre you have to cross over the river Pisuerga and the town have made great walks along the river bank, bringing in sand to make a beach for bathing.
We went out for something to eat and just happened upon a Tapas bar called Jero. There was a queue outside of people waiting to get in before it had even opened at about 8pm. So we were lucky and able to get a table.
We finally made it to the ferry although the day before it had been touch and go as on Friday afternoon we discovered that the water pump was leaking (so that’s what that funny noise meant). A quick dash down to Murvi managed to resolve the issue and we got to Portsmouth late evening, parking on the sea front.
In the ferry queue
Grey and blustery
The crossing was fine although a bit blowy as you can see. But we had a delicious evening meal in the restaurant.
As Brittany Ferries are a French company French Covid rules applied so masks had to be worn at all times except when sitting down and we were pleased to see that the staff really applied the rules. Fresh air was being pumped into all areas including cabins, so it felt pretty safe.
We had read that we couldn’t take any meat, dairy or fresh fruit and vegetables into the EU and we had cleared our fridge having been told numerous tales of fridge searches but then, going through the checks at Bilbao the only question we were asked was whether we had any pets. Oh well … off to the supermarket to restock.
We’re breaking out of Covid ridden, fuel strapped Britain and getting the ferry down to Bilbao. Hurrah … at last!! Visiting Spain and Portugal, walking, cycling and seeing cousins in Portugal.
