Yesterday was clean-up day, something we have to do to stop
the van becoming a tip! Bren also managed to do 4 loads of washing and drying
which proved quite expensive. Our problem is not so much the washing, which we
can usually do with no problem, but trying to dry and air it when the weather
is unreliable is a nightmare. We’re going to have to find a solution for our
next long trip.
Anyway, today is move-on time and much as we have enjoyed
Lisbon we must start progressing north. There is still plenty to see so we don’t
have to rush, but we don’t want to have to spend the last couple of days hammering
up the motorways. The next logical place on our route was Coimbra, a largish
university town that once was the capital of Portugal and there is a
conveniently placed aire so we decided to take a look.
Getting out of Lisbon was straightforward enough but the
urbanisation seemed to go on for ever and the main IC2 road just seemed to be a
procession of small towns and villages, interspersed with car and truck sales
and breakers, garden and landscaping centres, roadside cafes etc. with little
sign of countryside. We stopped for lunch just south of Coimbra then set the
satnav which took us straight to the aire. Unfortunately it was in a popular
weekend park near a swimming pool and it was packed, and not just the motorhome
parking. What we could see of the city itself was quite attractive but not as
close as we were led to believe so we decided to give it a miss and press on.
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| Bathalha |
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| Stone sheep! |
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| Storks nesting - a common sight |
As a backup we’d checked out a couple of aires near Aveiro
and one at Bestida caught our eye. It turned out to be a car-park right next to a tiny
fishing port and looking out over a lagoon and was quite empty. Normally we
would be a little hesitant about being by ourselves but there was an active bar
and café across the road and we did not feel uncomfortable so decided to stay.
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| Fishing boats of Bestida |
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