PORTUGAL 16 August - 19 August (Lagos, Lagoa)

Hola!

While we were in Lagos we did a boat tour through the Grottos (Caves). We really enjoyed looking through these and our driver didn’t speak a word of English so we had a great time translating what he was yelling at us about lol! Apparantly Camel and Chamel are the same thing but they sound TOTALLY different lol!! We left Lagos after a couple of nights free camping at the marina (well, we got moved on by the parking police which made us feel like freeloaders haha) and kept moving along the coast to Lagoa. We stayed the night at a secluded beach, the vans had some serious four-wheel driving action here lol! We found out that Lagoa had a big water park so we spent the next day here and had a ball pushing all the kids out of way to get to the biggest and best water slides J After spending a night in a van park near Lagoa we left Portugal and drove to Seville in Spain.  After a quick discussion (while utilising McDonalds internet ONCE again lol) we decided we would go to Morocco! After deciding we drove straight to Tarifa right down on the southern point of Spain and caught the 9pm ferry to Tanger (Morocco)!!

Adios!

 Panoramic of Lagos

 Lagos Beach

 Castle in Lagos

 View from our van :)

 One of the delicious meals produced in our van hehe

 Grottos (Caves)

 Tiny hole we went through!

 Four wheel driving at Lagoa!

 Slide and Splash water park :)

 Building in Seville SPAIN

Cool Graffiti in Seville, SPAIN

Adios!!

EJnRHE xx

PORTUGAL 09 August - 12 August 2011 (Cascais, Lisbon, Sines, Sagres)

Bom Dia!

Cascais was a lovely little town just west of Lisbon, we camped ‘properly’ here and took advantage of the parks massive swimming pool and laundry facilities lol! The next day we headed into Lisbon and stopped for a look around the city and some lunch at a nice restaurant. We couldn’t’ find anywhere to camp around here so we headed further south to Sines where we were very lucky to find the best camp we have had yet! We were perched on top of a cliff with full view of the beach below and the vast Atlantic. The beach was only a 2 minute walk and we got some great photos of the sunset J

Next day and we headed to Sagres, the most south-western point of Europe! We went out to the old fort situated on the very point and had a good look around. With coast on both sides of the point it made for some great photos and we wish we could share them all!!  We managed to score a great free camp here too right above the beach. We are really enjoying our chilled out beach holiday, it’s lovely and warm during the day and cool at night with a constant cool breeze! The vans are doing great and we couldn’t be happier!

 Cascais

 Cascais

 Lisbon

 Lisbon

 Our camp at Sines, amazing view!

 Sunset at Sines

 Panoramic of Sines

 Canon on the Fort at Sagres

 On the most South-Western point of Europe (Sagres)

 Cliff at Sagres

 Panoramic at the Fort (Sagres)

 On the beach at Sagres, enjoying cold beers, just like home :)

Sagres

Bom Dia!
EJnRHE xx

PORTUGAL 07 August - 09 August 2011 (Porto, Figueira da Foz, Nazare,)

Bom Dia!

Porto was a fantastic city. As we drove in we could see a massive marina and the fish/mussel farms set up just off the coast. We stayed at Campismo Marisol on the beach and it was a beautiful day. We went for a pushie ride along the esplanade and at the end they had a big Portugese Festival where they were singing and dancing in their traditional outfits.

We had some drinks and ended up at a Latin Dance Club lol! We had another drink here and EJ got talking to the DJ that was playing. After a little sweet-talking by the husband, he agreed to give me a little lesson in Salsa, which I jumped at lol! We had a little dance and I later found out that this guy ‘Ricardo’ is under no. 10 Latin Dancer in the world and the party was full of women and men that follow him to all of his parties in the hope that they will get a chance to dance with him. They were all very jealous haha

The next day we keep cruising down to Figueira da Foz, another beautiful sea side city. We have been very lucky to love every place we have come across. Portugal reminds us a lot of home with their massive sandy beaches and down to earth, happy-to-help people. After a long push bike ride (we are finally starting to burn off all of food we ate in Serbia haha) we went for a walk down on the beach. It was so windy we nearly got blown away and had to retreat as we were being stung so badly by the sand, so we went to the pub instead lol. Later that night, after our siesta, we went to check out the nightlife. We are loving the food and drinks here, fresh seafood everywhere and EJ especially likes their Sagres Cerveja which is a Portugese beer !

Next morning we drove to Nazare, which is renowned to be very ‘touristy’. We had a coffee on the beach and kept heading south!

Porto, Traditional Portugese Festival

 Singers/Dancers

 Drunk... Not very attractive haha

 Bike Riding at Figueira da Foz

 Figueira da Foz

 Nazare

 Nazare

 Dried Fish, flies everywhere!!

Until later..
EJ n RHE xx

SPAIN 7 August - 8 August 2011 (Santiago de Compostela, Vigo)

Hola!

When arriving in Santiago we could tell that this place was steeped in history. The dramatic hillside city was covered in ancient buildings, massive parks and statues of significant people on nearly every corner. We drove until we found a safe carpark to stay the night and then ventured out of our pushies. We rode all through the city and stopped to take in the Saint James Cathedral where it is said he was buried. This cathedral was the biggest and most stunning we have ever encountered. The size of it was incredible and we even got to walk down to see the crypt. We kept riding and then went back to the van for some dinner, on the way having a slight altercation with dog excrement which had us all in stitchesl!

Vigo was our next destination and we gave the pushies a good work out here, cruising around the look outs and having some ‘ensaladilla’ for lunch, which was not as we expected lol. It came out as a tuna, potato, carrot and mayonnaise mash, nothing like the ‘mexican enchilada we had been hoping for haha! It was still delicious though, the Spainish sure do know how to whip up a great meal! We didn’t stay the night here but drove south past the Portugese border (still not stamps L) and into Porto.

 St James Cathedral

 St James

 St James

 Cruising on the Pushies..

 In Vigo..

 Vigo Lookout

Panoramic of Vigo

Adios Amigos!
EJnRHE xx

SPAIN 4 August - 7 August 2011 (San Sebastian, Zarautz, Gijon)

Hola!

After a couple of nights in a van park at Anglet we drove south through the ‘border’ to Spain (we didn’t even realise we were in Spain until we saw the language on the buildings change haha) and onto San Sebastian. We did a little bit of mountain climbing in the van trying to find a van park that ‘Tom Tom’ thought we needed to be at and we found a beach at the bottom of the other side of the mountain! Unfortunately, Thundie and Whitie’s clutch started slipping trying to get back up the mountain so we had to go another way around lol! It may be all of the food that EJ has been carrying in the van lol!

We were very delighted to find this vibrant city had both gorgeous parks and shops but also one of the loveliest beaches we have ever seen! We ventured up the mountain to see the famous monuments and had a swim in the crystal clear ocean. The boys had a perve at all the topless sunbakers lol! We spent two nights here at ‘Camping Oliden’ and got some much needed washing done too! We left San Sebastian and started heading west along the Spanish North Coast. The landscape in this area was stunning. Massive mountains with quaint hillside crops met rugged sea cliffs and every few kms we would catch another glimpse of the seemingly never ending Altanic.

We had a coffee along the way at Zarautz on the beach and continued our drive until we found a free camping spot at a beach with a massive inlet. We camped here for the night and EJ and Tom tried to catch the big fish in the inlet with baked beans, musli and salami haha! Unsurprisingly, we didn’t have fish for dinner that night! The next day we drove to Gijon and had a coffee at a lovely sea side café. We are finding it very difficult to live like this haha!!

 View from a mountain in San Sebastian

 View of San Sebastian

 Marina - San Sebastian

 Panoramic

 Gorgeous beach at San Sebastian

 View from Mountain Top!

Castle on top of the mountain :) (San Sebastian)

 Beach at Zarautz

 Zarautz

 Free Camp at an Ocean Inlet

 Panoramic

Adios!
EJnRHE xx

FRANCE 26 July - 02 August 2011

Bonjour!

We drove from Calais to Paris where we stayed a few nights in campsites and had a good look around the city and surrounding areas. We saw the major attractions and went on a big bus tour to see everything we could. We are really enjoying travelling with Tomo and Kate, it's lovely to be able to share this experience with such great friends! We have been sampling the local cuisine, eating frog legs, snails and plenty of bread and croissants haha!!

From there we headed south along the coast to the La Rochelle. This was a gorgeous little coastal town and we saw our first French beach here lol! We spent a night there and then made our way to Bordeaux, the world renowned wine region. We went on a couple of wine tasting tours and bought a few bottles to continue sampling in the van lol!!
This area was covered in rows after row of vines, as far as the eye could see. We stopped at a little seaside town called Anglet on our way to Spain and had a night there. Here we had delicious fresh seafood and spent some time at the beach. We also found a great Aussie Restaurant, owned by a fellow from Sydney and his French wife. They were lovely and we went back for brunch the next day before heading further south to SPAIN!!

We have been free-camping in towns if we feel safe so we are saving a lot of money there, we also bought some flash push bikes so they are getting a work out on all of the boulevards along the coast!

 Calais

 Traffic Shenanagans haha

Camping Spot at Rambouillet near Paris

Arc de Triomphe (mad!)

 Top of the Eiffel Tower where we had our first kiss and fell in love hahahaha

More piccys to come :) EJnRHE xx