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| Familiar scene behind the restaurant! |
Once again, the sea fog closed in as we left town. After
collecting a few supplies at the supermarket, our first stop was to head south
on the motorway to the Easy Toll booth and register our credit card. Followed
the instructions, registered the card and then received a receipt, but just as
we were preparing to drive off I checked it out and it had not been able to
read our number plate and an error sign showed. Luckily there was an attendant
at the booth who spoke English. He checked it out then called a number and had
our correct number plate recorded. Hopefully it will all work. We drove on a
few km’s, before returning on the toll road for a shot distance before it
became a free way and we were on our way.
We headed East through some busy roads around Braga then got
on the N103 for the rest of the trip. Initially we travelled through a number
of small towns before climbing up into the hills with rocky mountain outcrops.
There were tiled houses, some very grand homes with double staircases and all
with terracotta tiled roofs. Have seen many immaculately pruned and shaped
trees in gardens, nurseries sell very large trees as well and these are treated
the same. The road kept climbing, and winding and soon we were looking down
onto a huge reservoir with houses and marinas dotted around the shores. No
chance of photos as we were on the other side of the road, and there was just nowhere
to pull over.
We are learning about Portuguese drivers, they park
anywhere, have seen them parked on the edge of a round a bout, double parked in
the road as they go into a shop and they tail very close, often you can only
see them when you go around a corner!
Everywhere the hills are rocky with small areas of soil that
have been planted with grapes. We thoroughly enjoyed the drive, and there
wasn’t a lot of traffic so Ian was able to amble along and enjoy the scenery.
Found a nice spot under a shady tree for a lunch break, noticing that it is
much warmer inland and today we were in the high 20’s.
Our overnight spot tonight is behind a restaurant where they
have free parking for campers beside a river with an old mill. Enjoyed our
evening at the restaurant, a real family business and the son spoke English so
he was able to help us out with lots of answers to our questions. We had some
traditional Portuguese food, I had a salad of marinated cod, onions and olives
which I enjoyed. The onions were grown locally and were just so sweet. Ian had veal
steak with roasted potatoes and a green vegetable like spinach mixed with black
eyed beans. Along with some good local vino branco (white wine!) All very good.
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| Drive by shots of a few local houses |
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| See lots of these old structures, think they are maize cribs. |
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| Impressive landscape |
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| The old mill pond |
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