The Aussie Nomads Motorhome Adventures: PORTUGAL UPPER -AVEIRO TO PORTO AND BEYOND

From Coimbra we took the road to Viseu then before heading to Porto I was reading a pamphlet which mentioned Aveiro as the little Venice of the north. So we changed direction and took the Toll Motorway for the first time since arriving in Portugal. There wasn’t a ticket machine as we entered the motorway so we thought we would be paying at the end of the route.

The motorway had some very steep ascents with signs we liked as it showed a fast lane, one with the minimum of 70 and a slow lane for plodders, not that we let Harry know he is a plodder.

The descent signs were mostly in Portuguese.

But a bit worrying when we started to see them in English as well.

Then we were into arrestor bed signs

Also on the way down we started seeing these signs and thought that we must add these together to pay at the end.

The storks are very happy with their new nesting platforms when they come to visit.

AVEIRO

As we came into Aveiro I also saw some cameras and thought “No problem with us we never reach the maximum speed”.

Then it was time to leave the motorway to find our camping spot for the night. Funny we thought, we cant see any toll booths to pay our fees.

After a bit of wandering around streets we followed another motorhome into the Motorhome area of a park alongside a canal. As we pulled in we saw the police pull up the motorhome in front of us and wondered what they had done. Was it speeding? Were they getting a ticket? We waited behind patiently and next thing they came down to us.

“You have been on the Toll Route without paying” they said and very quickly we said “Yes we have but there was no where to pay”. “Don’t you know that Portugal has an electronic system and it is all prepaid” said they.

The end of all this was we paid 20 euro for a three day pass and our number plate would be recognised as we passed the cameras, and if we needed more after that we would need to find the shops that had a ticket machine for casual use. I didn’t read that in the guide book!!! No wonder we haven’t used motorways. And I thought they were being nice when we had our photo taken on the Toll Route.

This is our lovely overnighter alongside the canal.

While we were getting ready to go for a walk along came this lovely painted boat taking people for a cruise of the canals.

We walked into the town along another canal

Later on our walk through the town we passed these typical Portuguese tiled houses.

This church had lovely tiles.

In the centre of town found the canal with all the tourist boats. They remind us of the Gondolas in Venice.

We found a small restaurant in the town which had set menu 3 courses for 10 euro. Amazingly one of the waiters who spoke very good English went to live in Sydney when he was 9 years and returned to

Portugal

to live a few years back. He told us the boats were traditionally used on the canals to bring seaweed into town to trade. A tiled picture on the wall depicted this.

PORTO

As we now paid to use the Toll Motorways we decided to drive straight to Porto which is the second largest City in Portugal. It was a good feeling when we saw this sign to know we had parted with 20 euro.

We found a caravan park on the outskirts with a local bus about 500 metres away which went into Porto from early morning to 11.30 at night.

Porto is built along the banks of the Douro River which flows through the port vinyards and into the Atlantic from the Porto Harbour. The town is built on several levels rising up from the river with the old warehouses now housing the many restaurants with seating along the harbour on the right bank.

The Port Cellars and restaurants and many of the old Port Barrel boats are on the on the left bank of the river which is crossed by the many bridges.

Arthur and Diana had been to Porto some years ago and said the station had the most beautiful tiling. When we got off of the bus we went into the station and it was truly amazing.

We spent some time looking around town and had lunch down by the river.

While having lunch we saw people walking along the very top bridge which we had thought was just for trains. You may be able to see tiny figures on the left near the pinkish building.

As we are very nosy and cant miss out on anything we took the funicular up to that level of the town and went to find the bridge.

And here we are starting our next adventure, a walk across the bridge.

Looking down onto the buildings it was amazing to see they all had a covering of morning glory. It reminded me of our outside toilets when we were kids.

The view from the top to the Port warehouse side.

After getting down to street level which wasn’t easy for old knees we started to enjoy the port tasting.

At Calem we found we could do a tour of the warehouse then a tasting with Fado singers thrown in for the same price so we moseyed around until it was time to go in.

The tour was very interesting and informative by the end we were a full bottle on different types of Port

The port tasting was very generous and the Fado great, I liked the 12 string guitar.

After a very full day it was time to catch the last bus home after thoroughly enjoying Porto.

GUIMARAES

After Porto we visited Guimaraes which is said to be the cradle of

Portugal

and the birthplace of the country’s first King. The town is famous for it granite block buildings. We parked Harry on the edge of town and wandered in past this lovely old area where most of the building were made of the stone block.

This tiny church was sitting in the middle of two small streets.It is so fragile it is only opened once a year for a special celebration.

Just past it we came across an antique shop with an amazing treasure trove of antiques and collectibles. There was a wooden picture of the church made of hundreds of strips of various woods.

The corner shop still thrives here. This shop selling loquats. We both remembered them from our childhood and bought a few to taste. We didn’t like them then much and still don’t but someone must buy them as we have seen them being sold in a lot of places in

Portugal

In the main square I thought it must be mens’ day out. Not another woman was in sight.

Here are some photos when we went shopping.
We have seen the legs of ham hanging in many shops. They must be really cured as they are always in the open.

The sausages look interesting but we didn't try them. I thought of our friend Nicky who loves black pudding.

I guess these fish are used in soups or fish stew.

In our travels in Portugal we have seen many versions of the charging stations for electric cars but have not seen any being charged.

THE DOURO
While in Porto we had seen pictures of where the port grapes are grown on terraces so steep they are mostly handpicked and decided to head that way before we left Portugal. So it was back into the mountains back up the River Douro.