There is very little to talk about today. We spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and taking inventory. Ton wants to have a written inventory at home of what we have here so we do not pack things that are redundant. Because we had been gone so long we lost track of what we had here, and found several items we had brought over were not needed. Ton decided to make a list of what was here to take home so we can pack a little leaner next time.
The couple who manages the campground love Thailand and when they found out Ton was Thai they went out of their way to tell her how much they loved the country. They are planning their vacation there for latter this year and have already visited before. The manager told us that his dream job would be in tourism in Thailand.
The plan for today was to go to Auxerre. I picked it last night because it was the first city we had visited in France. The first time we visited we couldn’t get into the campground because it didn’t open until two days later, and ended up staying in a campground just out of town. Today we had a short drive on nice country roads until we were about 20 km’s from Auxerre when the dreaded Deviation (detour) sign appeared. This time the deviation took us an extra 35km’s out of our way, but eventually we arrived at the campground. But as we pulled up the place was a zoo with bicycles everywhere. We didn’t know but there is a big bicycle race in Auxerre today, and of course the campground is full. It looks like we are not meant to stay in Auxerre.
Cafe with Burgundy tiled roof in Megannes.
We had planned to move to Megannes tomorrow to work on cleaning up François before our departure. So after a quick look at our options we headed over a day early. Megannes is a small town along the Bourgogne canal. It has a nice dock for canal boats and looks like a popular spot for people to put in for the day.
Part of the canal port in Megannes. The boat in the left side was flying an American flag.
The town is a typical small town in France with a big church, a couple of nice looking cafes and a small grocery. But it does have a really large train station for some reason.
The canal of Bourgogne, now used almost exclusively for recreation.
As we were walking back from town the wind was dead calm and the air was suddenly full with tens of thousands of gnats. For the entire walk back we were in a cloud of gnats, fortunately they were not the biting kind, just the get in your mouth, eyes and nose kind.
We picked Bourges as it moved us in the right direction and had a UNESCO World Heritage Site we could visit. The drive over was easy and today we elected to go across country and avoid the autoroutes. I should say we elected to avoid paying for autoroutes as we spent about 1/3 of the drive on a free section of the autoroute. But today was spent mostly on national roads which are wide and generally bypass big cities so it was enjoyable.
Bourges had one of the nicest collections of timbered houses we have seen.
We checked into the campground which seemed nice before heading to the city center to check out the Romanesque Cathedral. Bourges is not on the typical tourist route and while the cathedral is quite beautiful it is a little rough around the edges. I think for that reason it charmed us and we spent more time than normal walking around checking it out.
The interior of the Romanesque Cathedral started in 1180 and finished around 1320.
Bourges has an interesting city center with a lot of half timbered houses, probably as many as any town we have visited, and you can see where attempts to build a tourism infrastructure have started. But for now it seems to be stalled, a lot of the storefronts are empty, and the ones that are open do not seem to be thriving. The locals seem to be heading to the newer part of town in the evening for fun, and there are not enough tourists to give the medieval town a sense of energy. We both thought Bourges has good bones for tourism and could quickly develop into a hot spot with just a little luck.
It was early but the cafes were not buzzing like in large tourist destinations.
When we arrived back at the campground a large group of about 30 people were gathered around a bunch of cabins near us. They had arrived while we were in town. It looked like a family reunion or a reunion of friends. They were a little noisy but it was early. Then about 8pm a concert started complete with a sound system cranked up to rock concert standards. Our Dutch neighbors and I walked over to see what was going on and there was a poster of a guy displayed on one of the cabins and apparently he was the one singing. Well quiet time in the campground was listed as starting at 10pm so we shrugged and headed back. The concert was over before 10pm, but unfortunately the party carried on until 4:30 am, so we did not get a good nights sleep.
Today we are in Bergerac France which is a beautiful little city on the Dodrogne River. It is linked to the famous story of Cyrano de Bergerac. The book Cyrano de Bergerac is loosely based on the life of a 17th century French soldier, but the actual connection to the city of Bergerac is a little tenuous because while his family was from Bergerac he was born in Paris. That hasn’t kept the city from using Cyrano for marketing.
The Dodrogne River in Bergerac. Ton is rightfully really proud of this picture.
It is also one of the lesser known wine regions in France, but unlike any other wine region in France it produces roughly 50% red wine and 50% white wine, the rest of the regions in France tend to specialize. We like to find these lesser known wine regions and see what we like so that was our primary motivator for swinging in here for the day.
The bridge over the Dodrogne as you cross into Bergerac from the campground.
One of the difficulties in traveling here is figuring out when the reception areas at the campgrounds are open. The French take their lunch seriously and all but the biggest businesses close down during lunch. The problem is figuring out when lunch is. Yesterdays campground was closed from noon to 2pm but fortunately we arrived at about 1:50 so we had a short wait. Today we arrived into town about 12:10 so I told Ton they are probably at lunch so lets go ahead and get gas and make our final shopping run. When we arrived at the campground about 1:15 they were closed as we expected, but when I went to the office to see when they opened it turns out their lunch was from 12:30 to 3:30, which is exceptional even by French standards. So if we had hustled over when we got here we would have gotten checked in before lunch. There was already a Dutch group that had arrived right in front of us, so the two of us found a place to park out of the way and settled in to wait. Ton took it in stride and decided to knock out supper, a delicious clam pasta with pesto sauce. By the time lunch was over another 5 RV’s had arrived for a total of 7 squeezed into a very small parking area and spilling out into the street. Everyone took it in stride, and the third arrival who was Italian took charge of the order for reception based on arrival, and we were all settled in pretty quickly.
Bergerac from near our campsite.
When I checked in the manager said I had never had a customer from the US before, and now I have had two in two days! We found the other American couple who rented a van in Spain and have been over for about the same time we have.
These half timbered buildings look charming but require a great deal of maintenance.
Bergerac is a charming town with possibly the best visitors center we have visited in Europe. Downstairs they have nice information on the region and local products. Upstairs they have a wine room featuring local wines, and daily a different local winery provides tastings. The winery today was very good and we enjoyed talking with the representative once she realized we were not part of the Spanish tour in the building, even though her and I were communicating pretty well in Spanish until I informed her I was American, whereupon she said can we speak English it is much easier for me!
Bergerac is part of another great little wine region we had never heard of before our visit.
There comes a point in every trip that marks the beginning of the end, and that is the day where the first priority in deciding where to go is moving us closer to the airport. That day was today for this trip. Todays destination was based on getting us about 300km’s closer to Paris, and hopefully finding somewhere interesting.
We are located close to Biarritz which is a famous seaside resort in southern France. We are only about 20km’s north of San Sebastian in Spain which is one of our favorite cities. We decided to check on the French side of the Basque country to see how France influenced Pinxtos which is one of our favorite foods.
The campground here had the most elaborate water play area we have ever seen. I expect you would need a platoon of lawyers to write the required waivers before you could use it in the US.
The only problem was Spain had spoiled us with perfect weather for so long that we didn’t check the weather forecast and about 100 km’s before we arrived it started raining heavily and didn’t let up. So our investigation of the influence of French cooking on Basque cuisine will have to wait.
We had a very simple plan today, visit a winery. The Ribera del Duoro area has enchanted us. The river valley with rolling hills is one of our favorite landscapes, and this is a very beautiful valley. On top of that we have not had a bad local wine here so this area is pretty close to our idea of heaven.
Part of the countryside around the Ribera del Duoro.
The winery we visited is Vina Pedrosa and came highly recommended. The drive thru the countryside was scenic and relaxing, and when we arrived we were surprised by the large scale of the winery, for being located in a very small village in the backcountry of Spain it was quite large. A lot of the time in Europe we visit wineries that have been in operation for generations, but in the case of Vina Pedrosa it has been in operation since 1980. In fact a lot of the wineries in the Ribera del Duero are very modern. The region was kind of rediscovered in the 1980’s as a winemaking area. Of course the locals have been making wine here for centuries.
The barrel storage at the winery. A very modern and impressive facility.
We were met by our host for the tour, and we were the only customers. We felt bad that she was taking an hour out of her day to give us a private tour, but she allayed our bad feelings right away, and treated us like a VIP on the tour. The winery only produces wine based on the Tempranillo grape which is one of the major grapes of Spain. They chose early on to specialize in only the grape that has been dominate here for centuries, and to work on producing the finest wine the region is capable of delivering.
A bottle of the official wine of the Vatican personally selected by Pope John Paul II.
The tour was very interesting, and we learned that for 7 years Vina Pedrosa was the official wine of the Vatican having been selected by Pope John Paul II in a blind tasting. During the Christmas mass each year the wine for the communion was Vina Pedrosa.
The wall of fame of celebrities who have enjoyed Vina Pedrosa.
We really enjoyed our tour of Vina Pedrosa and the drive out to the winery. It was a nice ending to our visit here in the Ribera del Duoro. The last stop of the day was to top François with Diesel and LP gas, because tomorrow we need to be heading north as we are running out of time for this trip.
We woke up to Dutch being spoken all around us. The campground here is a mini-Netherlands village. It is a relatively small campground with about 30 spots and 23 of them are occupied by folks from the Netherlands. Apparently it has been written up in a popular camping guide there and is now a must stop place in Spain for the Dutch. Penafiel is part of a wine region called the Riberate and is in the early stages of developing vinotourism. It is a series of small towns along the Duoro River in a lovely river valley.
The castle above Pinafiel in the center of the Riberate wine region. The Duoro River runs at the base of the hill the castle is sited on.
Our plan today was to walk into the town and explore so we stopped in the campground office and asked for some advice on a place to learn about the wines of the region. We were told to go to a wine store in town, they would allow us to taste some local wines and share some ideas. After poking around town and doing the obligatory visit to the church and the medieval tower we headed over to the wine store. When we walked in there were two charming ladies working there and they made us feel welcome. The challenge was that one spoke a spattering of English, and the other none at all. My Spanish can also be categorized as a spattering, and Ton doesn’t speak any so communication was going to be a challenge. It turned into one of the most memorable wine tastings we have been on. Between their minimal English, my minimal Spanish and Google translate we were able to get a feel for the wines and the region. Their passion was clear and in the end we walked out with two good bottles of wine and a wonderful memory.
Our wine tasting at Anagora Vinos. A fun place to practice Spanish.
This area is also known for a lamb dish called lechazo. We received a recommendation from the wine ladies on a good restaurant. The lamb is barbecued and we really enjoyed it. Our lamb for two could feed four, and Ton asked for a doggy bag as she wasn’t going to leave any behind.
Our lamb dish for two.
There were two other interesting sites in town that we enjoyed. The bull ring in town dates back to medieval times and is nothing more than an enclosed square in town with a ring in the middle. The mult-story homes surrounding the square are privately owned but the town has the right since the middle ages to sell the views from the windows in the homes when there is a bull fight.
Since the middle ages the city of Pinafiel owns the rights to sell the views from the windows in the private homes surrounding the bull ring in town.
There is a large castle overlooking the city, and the hill leading up to the castle are covered in what looks like giant barbecue pits. They are chimneys to let air into a large network of caves that run under the hill. Apparently the caves are really extensive. Today most of them are owned by the largest producer in town and are used as wine cellars.
One of the chimneys allowing air into the caves under the hill to the castle. Today they are used for wine storage.
We headed back to the campground thinking we had a pretty quiet day, but when I looked at the Fitbit we had covered over 9 miles wandering around Pinafiel and the vineyards outside of town. So when we got back I took a little nap.
We had been debating whether to try to go into Madrid. We even looked at hotels as camping wasn’t a good option. But ultimately we decided to pass. Instead we headed out into the country to a wine region.
Today we are in the Ribera del Duero wine region of Spain. The Duero River is the same river that runs thru Porto Portugal where it is known as the Duro. Where we are today we are close to the source of the river, and in Porto we were at the mouth. It is a pretty dry around here and reminds us of the Yakima Valley in Washington. You have wheat fields and vineyards mixed together. The one thing that Ribera del Duero has that Yakima does not is castles. There is a beautiful one a mile or so from our camp site.
We are staying inside the tree line on the left side of the photo.
We were almost caught out as I did not think we would have any trouble finding space but when we arrived the young woman at check in told us they were going to be full and it was a good thing we were early. It also helped that she had lived in El Paso Texas for a couple of years when her dad was on exchange with the US Army. The campground is indeed full and the occupants are about 70% Dutch.
The sun setting behind our favorite plant.
We ended up just relaxing for the afternoon and doing laundry. Tomorrow we are looking forward to trying some interesting wines.
Toledo is a beautiful city perched on a bluff above two rivers. It has been settled since pre-Roman times. It is a great city to defend if you are of a military mind and has been besieged three times in its history. The last time was during the Spanish civil war in 1936.
The view from the Alcazar looking out over the countryside surrounding Toledo.
Today it bills itself as the city of three cultures because during the early middle ages it was a multi-cultural city with thriving Christian, Moslem, and Jewish populations. This lasted a couple of hundred years until the Inquisition came along and the non-Christians either converted or moved on.
The mosque like all of the buildings has been converted to a church, but above Jesus you can see an Arab style painting that looks like it is being restored.
Today one of the mosques and two of the synagogues have been restored and are available to tour. So today we hit full tourist mode visiting seven historical sites and the cathedral. The only problem with our plan is that it involved a whole lot of walking and in Toledo the walking is either straight up hill or straight down hill. My Fitbit told us at the end of the day we had climbed the equivalent of 86 staircases and covered over 11 miles, so we are both a little sluggish as we prepare the entry for today.
There is no flat in Toledo, you are either walking up hill or down hill.
Our first stop for the day was a converted mosque. It was interesting because it was a neighborhood mosque dedicated to serve the population surrounding it and not the great mosque of the city. It was relatively small and for us an interesting contrast to all of the great mosques and cathedrals we tend to visit.
A collection of armor from the Alcazar.
Ton really wanted to visit the Alcazar for the city so unusually for us we sprung for the entrance fee. A castle has been on the site since Roman times as it is the highest point in the city and commands the countryside for miles. In recent history it has been an armory for production of artillery, and the infantry school for the Spanish army. Today it is a museum dedicated to the history of the Spanish army going back to the late 1600’s. For me it was pretty fascinating, but after a while I even became a little overwhelmed looking at the arms and uniforms of Spain for the past 400 years.
One of the restored facades of the Alcazar. It was extensively damaged during the Spanish Civil War.
It turns out the building was extensively destroyed during the civil war, when the local Nationalist forces (Franco’s army) held the building against the Republican forces for a couple of months until they were finally relieved by Franco in one of the first victories of the civil war. The most interesting exhibit was one that showed the office of the commander partly destroyed and with stray bullet holes. My guess is that it is more of a dramatic recreation than an accurate representation, but portrayed the extent of the damage the building received.
Part of the cathedral in Toledo.
After a slow menu of the day lunch to recuperate from the morning walk. We set off to finish our tour of the city stopping first at a city church that played the same role as the mosque we had visited earlier, not a grand building but a neighborhood church. It was pretty inside.
The gardens at the Franciscan Monastery.
We than visited the Jesuit church in town, and the Church of Santo Tome, which had an archeological dig going on in the back. The next stop was the prettiest of the afternoon. It was a Franciscan monastery that also had royal rooms in it. The church was ok, but the monastery and gardens were very beautiful.
The interior of the Synagogue, with the Islamic influences.
Our last stop in the afternoon was at the restored Sinagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca. It started as a synagogue paid for by the Christian King of Castille around 1180. He commissioned Moslem architects to build it, so it has the feel of a mosque. In 1391 during the inquisition it was converted to a Christian church. Today it is owned by the Catholic church which explains why a synagogue is named after a catholic saint. Of the buildings we visited the synagogue while simple had an elegance that we both appreciated.
The last Jewish reference left in the building is the Star of David in the plaster right below the arches.
At that point we had one more building we could visit with our wrist band, but it was 350 meters (yards for our American friends) uphill from where we were, and if we walked the other way we could walk down hill to the bridge we needed to take to go back to the campground. When I presented Ton with the options, she did not hesitate to pick the bridge to the campground so our day in Toledo ended.
Our last view of Toledo from the bridge. Toledo was also the adopted home of El Greco, one of the most famous Spanish artists. You can see why he loved painting landscapes here.
Today started with us continuing to chase Don Quixote in La Mancha. We headed to the town of Consuegra to check out their windmills to try to settle the fight between Consuegra and Campo de Criptana over who can claim to be the setting for the battle with the giants in Don Quixote.
Giants on the horizon from our faithful steed François.
There are a couple of more windmills at Consuegra and in between the windmills here is an old fort that goes back to the Roman era. This town was a frontier post during the wars between the Moors and the Christians over control of Spain, and never fell to the Moors because of the castle which was defended by the order of St. John. The view from the fort is impressive and it is easy to see why there has been a castle/fort here for a couple of thousand of years as the hill it is sited on controls the terrain for many miles in all directions.
Ton loved the light in this picture, the sky thru the hole, and the golden color of the grass.One of the views from the castle. The patchwork of colors is fantastic. In the foreground are the sheep which are responsible for the delicious Manchego cheese from this area.
Consuegra has the nicer of the windmills, but for me the town of Campo de Criptana feels a little more like the kind of town Don Quixote would end up in. So like many before us we punted on the idea that there was a right answer and just enjoyed the walk among the windmills.
The windmills at Consuegra with the crusader castle in the background.
Our final direction for the day was Toledo. It is a beautiful city in Spain and one of the tourism hot spots. Our initial plan was to get settled in the campground and then go for a quick exploration of the town before spending tomorrow there. Once we arrived to the campground it was pretty hot, and we both were feeling a little lazy so Toledo will have to wait for tomorrow.
Looking out over Consuegra from the castle. Beautiful town, not fun to drive a camper thru.
Today was our Cervantes day. Cervantes is the author of Don Quixote and this region is the setting for the book. It is one of the great books of the world and both Ton and I love the story of the slightly delusional knight on an adventure thru the countryside of La Mancha.
Ton loved the sky today. It really set off the windmills in Campo Criptano.
We started the day at Campo Criptano which is a pretty hilltop town famous for its windmills. As Don Quioxte is a work of fiction many towns are able to claim that they are the inspiration for a scene in the book. Windmills like those found in Campo Criptano are common in the area but since we visited here first we are giving them credit. In the book Don Quixote identifies the windmills as giants that must be slain to protect the locals. He engages one of the windmills in a joust which he rather spectacularly loses.
The giants from Don Quioxte.Our Rocinante preparing to joust with the windmills. If you are a Don Quioxte or John Steinbeck geek you will appreciate the reference.
We walked thru the town down to the square. La Mancha is a much less developed and peopled area of Spain. The towns tend to be small and sleepy. The roads are quiet and easy to drive on. We are enjoying driving thru the fields looking at the different crops. Right now it looks like they are bringing in the wheat crop, as well as garlic. We passed a couple of fields where the garlic is being picked and enjoyed the strong odor in the air as we went by.
A wheat field with poppies. The wheat is at its golden best and really beautiful.
The next stop on the drive was Puerto Lapice. In the book Don Quixote misidentifies a humble country inn as a great castle and asks the inn keeper to knight him so he can go about his quest to help the people of La Mancha. At the inn he also meets his lady Dulcinea who is a common women, but he sees as a women of beauty and virtue. Puerto Lapice claims that their inn is the inspiration for the inn in Don Quixote and since they are conveniently located on a freeway exit, it has driven a lot of tourist traffic for the town. The town itself is unimpressive, and for some reason mostly closed on Thursday.
The inn that Don Quioxte believed was a great castle.
Our last stop for the day was Almargo which does not make any claims to be the site of an event in Don Quixote. It does have a very nice and unusual town square, and in the 1500’s was one of the richest cities in Spain. We had a beer and a plate of ham for lunch in a bar on the square; remember Spanish lunches are from 1 to 3pm, we were closer to 3pm, before heading off to our campground for the night. When we checked into the campground the owner told me the restaurant would open for dinner at 8:30 pm, the Spanish have a really different concept of meal hours than we do.
The Plaza Major in Almargo. Famous for its green walls.
After our ridiculously early dinner by Spanish standards at 6:45 we went for a nice evening stroll thru the vineyards and wheat fields around the campground. It was a nice day to end our day in La Mancha.
Today we spent most of the day in Cordoba. Yesterday we bought tickets to visit the Mosque/Cathedral of Cordoba. The building is a World Heritage Site and we have been wanting to visit it since our first visit to Spain.
The bell tower of the Cathedral.
Last night was our first warm and muggy night, and because of our location in the city core we had François locked up pretty tight so we could not get as much air as we would have liked. But despite that we still got a pretty good nights sleep.
The streets were pretty quiet as we walked to the cathedral. This alley was one of Tons favorites.These nuns were on their way to the cathedral.
After a light breakfast and some coffee we headed over to the Mosque/Cathedral. There has been a religious structure on the site since Roman times. The original Christian church was still standing when the Moors conquered Cordoba. The Moslem ruler made a deal to allow the original church to have a duel function as a church and a mosque for 25 years. After that he purchased the church from the local town and tore it down and built a giant mosque on the site. The mosque was considered one of the greatest buildings in the Islamic world and served as a model for mosques in many lands. After the reconquest the mosque was converted to a Catholic Cathedral.
This side view of the columns is shot from one of the main entry ways of the Mosque/Cathedral.This couple was very patiently waiting for people to clear this row of columns. After watching them for about 5 minutes we came to the conclusion it would not happen. They are still probably there.
It is a very interesting combination. The main building retains the feel of a mosque, but the exterior walls are covered with Christian art and chapels. The center of the building has been converted to a typical Catholic church with an altar and seating area. The building retains the arches and open feel of the original Moslem design.
The arches give a real Islamic feeling interposed with Christian art everywhere.The mixed influence is very visible here. Note the Arabic writing on the lower wall.
There are hundreds of arches aligned in both directions in the main building and it makes the building feel giant, but somehow intimate. We spent about an hour and a half wandering thru the building which is much longer than we spend in most cathedrals.
This nave was added during the Renaissance era. The addition was quite controversial.
After we finished with the cathedral we went to visit the Alcazar (castle). It again served as the center of government for centuries under the Romans, Visigoths, Moors and the Spanish. It also retains architecture features from both the Moors and Spanish.
A Roman era mosaic discovered on the grounds of the Alcazar during a renovation.
For us the highlight of the Alcazar were the gardens. There are multiple distinct gardens spread out over a large area. We really enjoyed walking thru these gardens and spent another hour in the gardens before heading out to lunch.
A reflecting pool looking back towards the Alcazar.This women came to shoot photos of herself while I was visiting the bathroom. Ton was fascinated.
To honor Cordobas history we had a lunch of Arab food. The restaurant was run by a young Egyptian couple. The food was good, and the building in the old town was interesting.
The Roman bridge in Cordoba.
After lunch was done it was mid-afternoon and getting hot. We decided to shift to a new area of Spain for us, so tonight we are parked in a small town in the La Mancha region. Tomorrow we are going to follow the path of Don Quixote.
These bulls are standing next to highways thru out Spain. At one time the road department tried to get rid of them, but were over ruled by the courts. They originally were an advertisement for a brandy.This is the first time we saw a giant donkey by the road.
After 13 days in Portugal we headed back into Spain. While we enjoyed our time in Portugal and had some good experiences, some countries resonate with you and others don’t. Spain resonates with us more than Portugal so we feel almost at home now that we are back in Spain.
A museum dedicated to bullfighting in Cordoba.
On our first trip to Spain we had very reluctantly cut Cordoba out of the trip due to time constraints. When I was looking at the map last night Cordoba was an easy days drive away, so we were both excited to add it to the trip.
A statue dedicated to an Arab resident of the city during the period it was under Moslem rule.
The other good thing about going from the Algarve in Portugal to Cordoba is you pass thru Seville which has a Costco. We had visited the Costco in Seville last time we visited Spain so we stopped in again. The problem with Costco when you have a little camper is finding a place for everything we would have liked to buy. As we walked around we reluctantly left a few things on the shelf because we didn’t think they would fit. Despite that we still ran up the biggest grocery bill of the trip. But now we have a nice combination of favorite things from home and interesting Costco European items, and in the case of some of the dry goods enough for the rest of this trip and part of the next.
We were tempted to attend the Flamenco show, but we are going to have to adapt back to a Spanish clock. The dinner show did not start until 8:45 pm.
We arrived in Cordoba about 4pm and initially headed to a reasonably priced aire, but when we got there we realized it was way out of town, and the bus connections were sporadic. So we decided to bite the bullet and head to the aire in the city center. It is conveniently located 5 minutes from the old town, but is outrageously priced. On this trip this is the second most we have payed to stay somewhere and for the cost we get absolutely nothing but a parking spot, no electricity, no water, nothing but a good location.
Streets like these are why they can charge such an outlandish amount for a parking lot.
I told Ton we should head into the town for a quick look around and she somewhat reluctantly agreed to join me. But 5 minutes into the walk I new that Cordoba had hooked her. Every 5o yards she was off taking a photo of something. She was really in the zone and completely enjoying herself. It is a special town.
Part of the interior of the 14th century synagogue in Cordoba.
We spent a couple of hours just wandering alleys in the old town. We spent a lot of the time in the old Jewish quarter and visited the Synagogue which is from the 1300’s. In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain and for the next 450 years it was used for many other functions before being restored in the 1950’s. After a while we decided to head over to the UNESCO world heritage site Cathedral/Mosque to see where it is located. Tomorrow we have a ticket to visit the interior of the Cathedral/Mosque but it is very impressive from the outside.
You can see the Arab influence on the side walls of the Cathedral/Mosque. This door is unrestored.This recently restored door is adjacent to the one above.
While the streets of old town Cordoba are obviously catering primarily to tourists, they do it in a way that does not detract from the history and atmosphere of the city. The French and the Spanish seem to do this very well. We are really looking forward to continuing our visit tomorrow.
As I expected our days as beach bums came to a rapid end. While we are finding ourselves taking more days off on this trip than in the past, neither of us are capable of sitting still more than a couple of days before the itch to get moving takes hold.
The port in Tavira, a very charming town in the Algarve region.
We have shifted about 60km’s further east to a pretty coastal town called Tavira. The guidebooks all called it picturesque and they are right. It is the most beautiful small town we have visited in Portugal. We are staying on the new town side of the river near a bunch of salt flats that used to be a big driver of the local economy.
Ton liked the tile and wrought iron balconies on this building.The seven arch bridge in Tavira has been in place for a couple of thousand years.
The river front is dominated by a bridge that goes back to Roman times, though it was largely rebuilt in the 1700’s. It is one of the biggest attractions in the town. The old town winds up to the castle and cathedral on top of the hill. The castle was originally built by the Moors, and after the reconquest was maintained by the Portuguese until it became obsolete. The remnants now are part of a beautiful park that we really enjoyed. The gardens within the walls of the castle are really beautiful and all of the trees and plants are flowering so it was really colorful.
The gardens inside the old castle in Tavira. All of the plants were flowering and the colors were really vivid.
As we were walking towards the cathedral we saw a sign advertising a Fado concert daily. Fado is the national music of Portugal. The theme of the songs are mostly tragic, and somewhat melancholy, but sung with great passion. We have heard it here and there as we have moved around Portugal so we decided to take in the concert. Unfortunately when we went to buy tickets for the show we were told that the concerts were on hold because one of the singers has Covid. We might have to write a Fado about our missed opportunity to hear Fado.
Tavira from the top of the castle walls.
We spent a couple of hours exploring Tavira and really enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow we are heading into Spain, so this will be our last day in Portugal.
Another day being beach bums makes for a short post. After sleeping in late, having a nice coffee and breakfast we moved across the street in the afternoon to a food cart restaurant to watch the Monaco Grand Prix with Meow and Gerd who are big F1 fans. This is the second meal we have eaten at this humble little outside restaurant and Ton and I think it may be the best food we have eaten in Portugal. All of the dishes we have tried were fantastic.
In the evening we went to a local restaurant that specializes in suckling pigs. Meow and Gerd had eaten there a couple of days before we arrived and raved about it. It was quite delicious and the pig was cooked perfectly. When we arrived back at the campground we shared one more bottle of wine with our friends before turning in for the night.
Today we are trying to be beach bums. We are enjoying the sun and the company of good friends. In the evening we headed over to a local pub to watch the European Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. The crowd at the Portuguese pub was entirely routing for Liverpool including us. Unfortunately Liverpool lost so we all left disappointed.
Our plans today were to meet up with our new friends Meow and Gerd for the weekend at a camping aire near Falesia. The night before I checked the website for the aire and they have a neat feature that shows in real time how many sports are available. When I checked there were only 5 spots left out of a total of 120. Since they do not take reservations we had an early departure.
The trip down was uneventful and we arrived at the aire about 9:30 am. After we picked our spot I was just about to set out to find Meow and Gerds van when Gerd rode up on his bike. He was on his way out to buy some bread for breakfast.
Ton announced she could be a beach bum today. We are going to test that the next few days.
The rest of the day was spent taking care of chores around François and catching up with Meow and Gerd. Not an exciting day but a pleasant one.
Yesterday I spoke of our unhappiness with Portugal. Today was a day when Portugal was fantastic. When you take these trips you hope everyday is like today was.
Our ultimate destination in what turned out to be a pretty special day.
The day started out pretty routinely. As I mentioned last night we received a last minute invitation to visit and stay at Herdade do Rocim winery near Cuba. We were about to give up on the region and head back to the coast but instead went out to this winery for the day after they confirmed they could give us a place to stay for the night.
The church in Cuba. The big event in town was the grand opening of a supermarket.
After a quick final stop in Evora to give François a much needed bath we headed towards the winery. We had told them we would arrive around 2 pm but found ourselves at the winery around noon. Rather than arrive too early we decided to head into the nearby town of Cuba to see what we would see.
It turns out Cuba is a nice but very quiet country town of a few thousand people. But today was a big day for Cuba as a brand new Intermarche Supermarket was opening. When we first got to the town we noticed that all of the traffic and pedestrians were heading in one direction toward the Intermarche. So we followed, and joined the crowd there. While in the store we were approached by a group of high school students who hit us with a blast of Portuguese. When we explained we did not speak Portuguese the leader sent one of the students off to find another student who spoke English. She told us they were soliciting for a raffle to win a coffee maker to help pay for their class trip. The cost of a ticket was €1 so we donated a euro because we would not be around to collect our coffee maker if we won.
Herdade do Rocim is known for its Amphora wines. Wines made in clay jugs like the Romans did it.
Having contributed to the senior trip for the high school in Cuba we headed to the winery for our tour. When we arrived we were the only vehicle in the parking lot of a very beautiful winery.
The view from our parking spot for the night.
When we went inside we were introduced to Elena who was to be our guide for the day. As we went around the winery her knowledge of the Portuguese wine industry, and the local grapes and growing conditions was very impressive. She had detailed knowledge of climate, grapes, and details about farming that we assumed she had acquired over many years. One thing we noticed is we crossed paths with another young lady several times during the tour and they always spoke English with each other so I told Ton that the other girl must not be Portuguese.
Elena showing us how to open a wine bottle with a knife.
As we sat down for our tasting Elena told us they had some extra wine for us to taste as before we had arrived they had been practicing opening wine with a knife. The technique is to strike the top of the bottle with a knife just below the cork which if done right causes the top of the bottle to break cleanly. I asked her if this was a Portuguese thing, and she said no it is just cool. Later her colleague had her show us how it is done, which got us another glass of wine.
At this point I asked Elena where her colleague was from and she answered Portugal, so I asked why they were communicating in English, and her answer astonished me. Elena is Ukrainian and had just arrived in Portugal two months ago from Kiev because of the war. What an astonishing young lady, not only was she dealing with being displaced from her homeland, but in a couple of months she had learned so much about Portuguese wine and the region that I assumed she was a native. It turns out she was in the wine industry in the Ukraine and had a vast background about wines in general that she was able to apply to Portuguese wine. The winery is hosting her and her daughter and mother on site. Ton and I were blown away. Elena is hopeful to return home with her family after harvest this year and we really hope it comes to pass.
Elena and the owner of Herdade do Rocim.
The rest of the afternoon was a pleasure of tasting very good wines, and having great conversations with Elena and a Portuguese and American couple who are having there wedding here on Saturday.
As I am writing this we are sitting in the middle of a beautiful winery enjoying sunset after having met an incredible person who made us realize how very lucky we are. If you see a bottle of Rocim wine anywhere (we understand it is sold in 30 states) I highly recommend you buy it, as the wine is wonderful, and the people behind it deserve your support for taking in Elena and her family and giving her a chance to show her incredible knowledge of the wine industry while giving her family a safe place to live during these troubled times. We were humbled to meet her.
We are beginning to struggle a bit with Portugal. We had high expectations and many people told us we were going to love it. But so far all of our stops have been near misses. Nothing has been bad, but there is always a little hitch in our plans that throws us off. One example is that at most toll booths our credit cards are rejected until we press the help button and the invisible attendant intervenes. The attendants are always nice, and it only takes a minute or two for them to fix whatever is causing our card to be rejected and we are on our way, but it is annoying, and has never happened anywhere else in Europe.
Alentejo is known for its wine and olive production, as well as the biggest source of cork in Europe. These are olive trees near our hotel.
Today we have moved to a new region in Portugal called Alentejo. It is about 1/3 of the total land in Portugal but only has about 8% of the people. It is also a famous wine region. We were really excited about coming here as it is the kind of place we usually enjoy. Our plans were to visit a tourism office they have set up for their wine industry where their website claimed they would help you plan a trip thru the regions wineries.
We followed the medieval walls of the old town as we were walking to the wine tourism office.
So after our night of luxury in the posh hotel we were up early for the 20 minute drive to the campground in Evora to get checked in. When we arrived they asked how long we were planning to stay and I said a few days, and was told that we could only stay a maximum of 2 days. This is not their fault we didn’t book in advance, but it threw our plans off and is unusual in the shoulder season.
The gothic cathedral in Evora.
Our next stop was the wine route tourism office. We were there right when they reopened at 2pm, and followed a group of about 6 people in. The office website says that in addition to help you plan your route they will give you a tasting of two local wines. The building is quite nice, and they had an interesting display explaining the wines of the region. We looked around for about 15 minutes while a young guy ran around. He finally approached us looking a bit frazzled and said that he was truly sorry but he could not help us today. He said that in addition to the group in front of us, he had a group of 30 coming shortly and they were short handed. We told him our dilemma as we had counted on their assistance, he looked truly sorry, and spent a very rushed five minutes with us, handed us a map of the region and said he really had to go. We mentioned we were in a RV and he said that some of the wineries allowed RV’s to stay and they had an interactive map that would show us which ones. He then showed us how to use the interactive screen, told us to make sure we contacted them in advance of arrival and said he really had to go, and we did not see him again.
The Roman temple of Diana, one of the best preserved Roman sites in Portugal.
From the interactive screen we took pictures of the contact information for 5 wineries that said they would host RV’s. We then went down the street to a little coffee shop where I went on to the website for each winery, and using their email contact page sent them a request to visit tomorrow. We finished sending the emails by about 2:30 and then took a tour of Evora. As I am writing this it is almost 9pm and we have not heard back from anyone, so we are working on a plan b that involves going to the Algarve and meeting our new Thai-German friends. This has been typical of our Portugal experience, nothing bad, the people are nice, but other than the second day in Porto, nothing particularly memorable or interesting. A lot of missed opportunities.
This area is also famous for marble production, this marble statue was located near the temple of Diana.
By the way Evora is a lovely city with interesting architecture and a well preserved Roman temple. We did enjoy our afternoon stroll thru town.
Evora is a lovely city with whitewashed buildings to try to reflect the sun which is relentless in the summer.
Note: Right before I hit publish for the day one of the wineries reached out and said we could stay on site tomorrow, so plan A is back on.
Once or twice on each trip we take a night off from RV’ing and book ourselves into a hotel. Today we decided was the day so we headed to a nice resort using some leftover hotel points from my working days. It is a nice place, and we are enjoying the luxury of unlimited showers and nice restaurants.
