Raining, Cats & Dogs

We have come to our last stop in Northern Spain before we head down into Portugal, we had one more stop in Spain. We haven’t visited the Spanish Atlantic West coast and we heard they have some lovely beaches.

We hit Sanxenxo (pronounced San–shen-show ) a popular resort in the summer months and as it had a nice Aire right next to the beach that was open, that had electricity and a much-needed washing machine! It also had a crazy black resident cat that would follow you around – we had to keep George well away!

Bob was in his element as he got the time to metal detect on the big white sandy beach and I was too, taking George on a lovely long walk around the cap through woodlands and up over rocks to the next inlet in some glorious warmth and sunshine.  

We have noticed that the Spanish like walking too – they have clean, level wide pavements made for walking or cycling, even next to main roads so you can easily walk into town. They have marked trails for you to follow and we often see couples of all ages and singles out walking for exercise. The Galician Spanish are a proud race and seem to take care of themselves and their property. They dress smartly and the majority look healthy and not overweight. This is despite the food seeming  quite greasy – a lot of meat, fish and fried foods. But I am guessing it is part of the Mediterranean diet with plenty of olive oil!

We tend to eat one main meal at day after a latish breakfast, we eat lunch around 3 and then perhaps a snack in the evening – this suits us both and those extra pounds that I put on in the UK are slowly coming off. We’ve banned crisps and snack on olives and pickles only with our Spanish wine or beer.

We spent 3 nights in Sanxenxo – it was nice being stationary for a while. Catching up on washing, blogging, cleaning, family and chilling.

After Sanxenxo it was time to head into Portugal unfortunately the weather took a bad turn and we have had a week of some heavy rainfall. Mild temperatures but a lot of rain, Lisbon and Faro have been in the news with terrible flooding, we have been lucky not to experience that but the rain has been consistent and it has meant quite a lot of time spent in the van waiting or driving to better weather.

Our first stop in Portugal was literally over the border into a Fortress town called Valenca. Spain and Portugal have a natural river border in this area. The Minho River with Tui on the Spanish side and Valenca on the Portuguese side. They have built a walkway between the two so that both sides can take advantage of what each city has to offer. Due to the heavy rain, we didn’t stay very long and only visited the fortress as it literally poured with rain the whole time. The Fortress dates to medieval times and contains a walled city with houses shops and cafes within. The Shops all seem to sell various towels and linen and there are hundreds of them – interspersed was the odd wine shop or other souvenirs. It was an odd place to visit, it kind of reminded us slightly of Mont St Michel in France without the French charm! Cars and trucks were able to drive through the narrow streets and under the archways – it was amusing to watch a truck squeezing though one entrance by inches!

We spent long enough to have our first Portuguese lunch in a café in the square where they were playing very loud Christmas music. The rain was so heavy walking back to the van we had to take refuge several times.

We took a diversion inland for a few miles to reach an Aire in the mountains in a large town called Parades de Couca. Not somewhere very pleasant as it turned out but a free Aire with free electricity. It was an old car park by the looks of things, run by the municipality who provided free Wi-Fi and it came recommended. I think it was a popular stop in August when they have a huge Rock festival in the town. But again it was raining most of the time which made  the town looked very dreary. We walked around in the evening, but the shops were closing and Christmas music was blaring from Speakers on every street. I did get my first taste of Portuguese supermarkets – prices are looking very cheap here.

Reality check – we are experiencing some issues having George with us. Once again, we are limited where we can take him – with such wet weather we can’t go inside anywhere with George so have to always sit outside. There appears to be quite a few stray dogs roaming the streets and many households have guard dogs that bark a lot quite aggressively when we walk past their properties with George, not all of them are tied up. In this town I had 3 dogs try to approach me and George as we walked past a property snapping and growling and then 3 stray dogs followed us keeping their distance for quite a while through the town. If I am honest this has put me on edge slightly when I am walking George. Usually, I love our morning walks, but I have cut them short a few times if we are in a town or in places with lot of guard dogs. Similarly, there are lots of stray cats everywhere  – not so much of a problem but George goes berserk if he sees one!

 I am hoping as we move further south, the weather will be warmer to enable us to eat outside and perhaps they are more dog friendly. You don’t see that many dogs being walked by owners – and if you do, they are small ones. Dogs are not allowed on buses, trains or in taxis and not in restaurants or cafes unless there is outside seating. Some people might say  – you should have left George at home but that was never going to happen – he has been such a good dog so far, never barks or fights with other dogs, it was always part of the plan to bring him and you just have to make adjustments and do things differently. We have met plenty of other motor homers who have brought dogs so it is not that unusual.

The rain continued for our next stop too – we went to Braga city municipal campsite as we had been told that Braga was a lovely city to visit and the campsite was cheap and you could access the old town from here. It rained again the whole day we were there – we were going to spend 2 nights but after a night of raining thundering down on the van we left sharp the next morning.

But not before we walked into the old city and spent a couple of hours walking around, ate lunch in a busy cafe outside but undercover as it rained! We didn’t get much chance to see the city part from the walking through the narrow pedestrian area where once again they played loud Christmas music this is becoming a theme in Portugal!

Braga is regarded as the religious centre of Portugal, it has the greatest number of religious buildings throughout the municipality, we didn’t see any within the city itself but we did manage to visit the most spectacular the next day AND it only rained once whilst we were inside.

So, as  we left rainy Braga, we took the road up to visit the religious retreat and monument known as Bom Jesus Do Monte. Parked at the bottom we climbed the numerous flights of steps up to the top. You can take a water propelled funicular, but you know that is not my style. We climbed probably 1000 steps to get to the top. The steps were shallow and each flight gave you something else to look at so it wasn’t as hard as it sounds. On some of the zig zag turns there were chapels with depictions of the Passion of Christ and on some there were water features with the theme of the five senses.

The views of the city from the top were breath-taking as were the views upwards of the church at the top. It was a quiet day and walking around the statues and gardens as well as inside the church was a very peaceful experience – we both really enjoyed the visit.

This site has a long history that goes back to 13^th century with a chapel built dedicated to the Holy Cross but it has been rebuilt and updated several times. It is quite spectacular and well worth a visit as you will have seen nothing like it before.  

Well done for getting to the end of this blog… it was a particularly long one but I always seem to have to much I want to share…