Our journey into Portugal

Ecopista do Tamega (Green cycle route)

If any of you have driven around Portugal you will know that the motorway toll system is somewhat complicated for the foreign tourist so after much deliberation we decided to keep with our tradition of touring toll-free enjoying the slower and quieter roads, it may take longer to get from A to B but it's always more interesting.

The Aire from Bragança castle

From Zamora in Spain we headed west into northern Portugal and the city of Bragança, a historic town with its old, walled citadel perched on top of the hill.

The municipality provided a great terraced Aire right below the castle making it easy to walk up the hill to the castle and then through the narrow cobbled streets into the town. We stayed long enough to explore the city before heading further south and inland to an area we visited five years ago, a town called Arco de Bauthe, we parked by the old station museum of a disused railway which is now a 25mile long tarmac cycle route through amazing countryside. We had a wonderful couple of days cycling along the route. We had the cheapest cup of coffee in a small town next to the track, it was only 65 cents (about 50p) and equally as good as Costa!
Our journey continued slowly west following the Duoro valley, along our route we found another great free Aire at Sauselo with water, electric, toilets and hot showers (first time ever for free hot showers!) but annoyingly it was quite noisy there and there was nothing to do in the vicinity, no walking or cycling trails and the walk into the local town was along the edge of a main road with no pavement. Such a shame, also the Aire was poorly designed for the larger Motorhomes with really awkward access especially to the service area.

On a more positive note I met an amazing lady who invited me to join her doing Pilates, she was an instructor and she gave me a lesson in which I learnt more than I have done in years! I also  got to star in her Pilates video on Instagram!
It really inspired me to get over my self consciousness, to get my mat out and do Pilates more often whilst we are away.
The Duoro valley route is one of the best and most scenic in Europe, the road (the N222) follows the gentle curves of the river as it winds its way through the hills covered in vineyards, if you're interested then just search for N222 on YouTube and you can see wonderful videos of other travellers journey along the valley, sadly none of my photos do it adequate justice.
So where to next? We decided to head to the West coast of Portugal, not sure what sort of weather we would encounter at this time of year (October), but we were not to be disappointed as we enjoyed a few days at Figuiera da Foz parked up right by the beach and seafront cycle path.

Beautiful sunshine reflected on the sea at Figuiera da Foz

Our journey through Spain to Portugal

The rugged coastline of Northern Spain 

Leaving France we headed into Spain following the winding up and down northern coast road heading west. This coastline is very hilly and very rugged so progress is slow, but at least it gives you time to admire the view - as a passenger that is, Keith is busy keeping an eye on the road!
Our first stop was in the car park of a Bird sanctuary with free water and waste facilities. Parked next to us was a lovely lady we got chatting to, she was travelling with her two young daughters who she was home schooling whilst they roamed all across Europe - what an experience for them!
We then headed along more narrow and winding roads into the Picos mountains where we stayed on a campsite for a change. The site was on the outskirts of the lovely traditional town of Potes which we explored on foot having decided to leave the bikes back at the campsite.

Medieval bridge in central Potes

We found a great place for a coffee overlooking the medieval bridge in the centre of town.
The scenery of the Picos mountains is spectacular, but my hiking in the hills days are over due to my dodgy knees, so we didn't stay in the area for long, after a couple of days we headed back out of the region on the narrow winding roads further south to a very Spanish town for another overnight stop - an Aire right on a Via Verde cycle trail! Sadly we discovered it was only 11 km long so it really wasn't worth taking the bikes off the back of the van. We did enjoy a walk around town and a cortardo coffee sitting in a cafe watching the world go by.

Zamora 

We had one more night in Spain in the large central Spanish town of Zamora where there is a large Aire for Motorhomes next to a park. In the evening all the families came down to the park with their children to let them play while they chatted, one of the pleasures of living in a warmer climate. We  discovered we were located right on the major EV1 cycle route from the north to southern Spain we pedalled out for a ride into the flat plains surrounding the city. On our ride we met a Belgian lady who was cycling solo from Biarritz all the way to South Africa, what a brave adventure for a single woman to undertake!

Zamora