Day three - journey to Estoril and arrival

After our night’s sleep in the huge bed, we had an excellent breakfast and then packed up. Gabrielle navigated the car out of the underground car park - tight squeeze - and then we hit the road, pausing only to fill up with fuel. It was still freezing temperatures in Salamanca so the car wash was not possible - our motor is still filthy from the lanes of Bishops Offley.

Day Two - to Salamanca

 It was an early start as we left the boat (bear in mind, Spanish time is one hour ahead so a 6.30am getup is early!), but after a breakfast on board, we went down to the car and disembarked after some complex manoeuvres to get around the hold. The road was unfamiliar as we have never landed in Bilbao before so we eventually hit the motorway south and began the drive towards Portugal. However, our first target is Salamanca. The road climbs steeply onto the heights of the Spanish sierra and we were soon well above 800 metres up where the weather is as cold as the UK. The climb up there takes one through some amazing tunnels and over stunning viaducts as the engineers tackled the challenges of the mountainous terrain.

Here we go again - Le Départ

 Leaving for a two months long holiday after entertaining over the Christmas period is not optimal. All your focus is on guests, meals and merriment and, when you need to get kitted out to leave for foreign climes, then time runs out quickly and the leisurely pack and go turns into a dump and dash.

Hence why Gabrielle spent the largest part of our journey to Portsmouth agonising over all the things she had forgotten to pack: eye cream, trainers, running kit, etc. Add to that stress, the fact that the entire nation had decided to leave for home after visiting rellies and you'll understand why we were stressed and tired on our arrival in Portsmouth, albeit we were in plenty of time. Still, a meal at Zizi followed by an action-free transfer onto the Cap Finisterre meant that the leisurely glass of champagne as the boat set sail was very pleasant indeed. 

Journey home part three

Leaving Carcassonne, we headed off to the motorway in the direction of Clermont Ferrand. During the motorway stretch, we came suddenly upon the Millau Viaduct, an incredible feat of engineering, designed by Norman Foster. It spans the valley that is home to the village of Millau and it was designed to reduce the impact of holiday traffic on the village's narrow streets. It boasts the highest road deck above the valley floor in the world - some 800 feet!

Journey home part two

We left San Carles de la Rapita and headed out on the motorway once again, this time heading towards the delightful city of Carcassonne and here things went a little wobbly, to say the least. Our apartment that we had found on AirBnB was low cost, shall we say. However, it turned out to be low rent. We should have realised that things were not quite as we might expect when we were asked whether we had our own bedding. In fact we did, so no problem there. Then we had to pay €10 for towels.

Journey home part one

To get from Praia da Luz to Bishops Offley by car is a lengthy process - but still better than flying! Our trip covers a lot of miles and takes in four countries, so off we set from our lovely house that has been our home for the past eight weeks. Destination, Andujar in Spain.

This is a lovely town with a mediaeval centre and our hotel was slap bang in the middle of it - the Palacio Sirventes da Mieres. The journey was around five hours and it was easy going, up to and through the Spanish border, waving at Castro Marim where our friends Rupert and Andrew have their wonderful guest house - Casa Rosada.

Coming to the end ...

It's been a dream but, like all good things, this jaunt in Praia da Luz must come to an end. On Friday we shall head off for the long drive back, taking a week and visiting places and friends on the way.

Whether the weather ...

Portuguese winter weather is variable, but gently so. It's never bitingly cold, but often cool, but when the sun shines, be prepared to strip off those layers! It's actually very amusing to observe the sight of Portuguese people, bundled up in winter coats and clothes while, at the same time, Brits are striding around in shorts and t-shirts.

Architecture, avenues and opportunities

The Portuguese way with buildings is simple and unpretentious although their use of paint and materials in their building can be interesting. A standard home in Portugal will be built of concrete floats for flooring with breezeblock walls, all rendered with a cement finish that is painted white.

Waiting in Godot's

One of the strange things about Luz is that although there are plenty of restaurants and pubs, there are few real bars open at this time of year. However, we discovered one that spoke to our needs at the time - Godot's. It's a bar that's just a stone's throw from the beach and it's owned by a couple of folk who have their roots quite evidently in music.

Over the cliffs to Lagos

Like any other coastal scene, the Algarve coastline features cliff-top walks that allow the rambler to visit all of the bays and beaches that line this beautiful strip of land. The crumbling sandstone cliffs near Luz are striped in multicoloured layers that delineate where the different ages of sediment were laid down over the millennia. And even these vary as you walk relatively short distances, so that on the trek from Luz to Lagos for example, the bright orange sandstone is capped with a rusty red stone that also forms the dusty pathways across the headlands.

Salema, Sagres and on to the Westernmost point in Europe

This Algarve coast is just sensational and trudging the coastal paths is a joy. Going further afield needs a car though and sticking to the back roads, hugging the coast and missing out the main routes is what it's about.


Our jaunt today took us westwards to the pretty seaside village of Salema which hugs the cliffs with houses seeming to hang precipitously over each other. Like much of the rest of Portugal, Salema was largely shut, although we found a beachside restaurant that was willing to serve us a coffee while we gazed at the sparkling sea. The road to Salema from Luz, through Burgau, is super - windy and precipitous in places, particularly where it dips down from one steep hillside to a creek which is crossed by a cobbled causeway. The new road that winds down the hillside is worth the whole drive. Then, once across the causeway, up steeply again to gain height before plunging down into Salema.

Understanding the Euro's value

The problem for any traveller from the UK in large tracts of Europe is that the Euro isn't ... well, it isn't the Pound. And we should be very thankful for that. Particularly, we should thank Gordon Brown who kept us out of the Euro, despite pressure from that nice Mr Blair and others to get us in there. How Brown must now look back with satisfaction at the battle won!

Heading out West

The gentle Algarve coast lends itself to calm holidays in the sun, sipping G&T, not forgetting the lemon, and watching the sun go down on a peaceful seascape. Head out west though and it's a slightly different matter.

The West coast is a wild and woolly place. Wild because of the wind - it blows constantly, straight off the Atlantic and unhindered by any land mass. Consequently, the waves are high, the trees bend in a prevailing wind stream and the locals huddle behind windbreaks.

Lemons for free

It's a simple thing, but lemons are soooo useful.  We put them in our drinks, we squeeze them for zing in our cooking, we beautify and detoxify ourselves with them ... and, in Portugal, they're practically free!

When there's a lemon tree outside your home you just help yourself. Better still, if it's in the car park, everyone can help themselves. And they just keep on producing, lemon after lemon after lemon. The only downside is that the ones on the lower branches get picked quickly because they are easier to reach.

Portugal's motorway tolls and how to master them

Travelling to Portugal by car or renting one when you get there? You need to know about the motorway tolls!

Tourists and travellers from the UK in Portugal were shocked to realise that the Portuguese government was levying a toll on all motorways in order to boost their coffers. Since all of the non-toll motorways had been built without toll plazas, the only way to collect money was through image recognition technology that reads number plates.