The rain petered out during the night and we woke at a more reasonable hour to a bright beautiful day. No services here so after bacon and egg sarnis (it's Sunday!) we travelled a short distance south to a recognised parking place with services. We knew beforehand there was little chance of us being able to overnight there but at least the service point had been kept clear so we were able to carry out a full domestic service, chatting to a friendly Portuguese guy who gave us a hand.
Then, with fingers crossed we set off for Castro Daire (again) to rejoin the Rota Nacional 2. Once again we encountered places where the Rota diverted off the N2 and, although it showed us lots of nice things to see on at least two occasions the signs disappeared and we got lost! At one point we dropped onto the motorway for a short distance just to get ourselves back on track.
But it was all worth it and with Bertie running well we enjoyed a stunning run on the old road up to Vila Real. The only negative was that as it was the old road, replaced with a motorway, maintenance was pretty well non-existent and often we were down to less than 30 mph but still it was well worth it and is well-recommended. Of course the bright warm sunshine helped a great deal!
Shortly after Vila Real we stopped for a quick bite to eat, quick because we wanted to make the town of Chaves for our overnight rest, it being the last town in Portugal, and we weren't really sure what the situation would be despite several possibilities in our parking apps. We chose a likely looking spot in the town but, not entirely unexpectedly, it was absolutely chock full of cars. The Portuguese are the same as their Spanish neighbours when it comes to Sundays, which are family days out with a vengeance.
However we had notived a motorhome parking area as we entered the town but had discounted it as it was a commercial area and we really didn't need anything. But rather than traipse around the town we decided to just go for it so returned and joined another van, which turned out to be an English couple in a French registered motorhome who, as "reception" was closed, told us what to do. There were instructions anyway but it's nice when someone offers assistance. So we settled down to enjoy the last of the days sunshine, happy that our day had gone well and our problems appeared to have been successfully sorted.
There are full facilities here, including electric and showers, so we'll make full use of them before heading into Spain tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment