Travels in the Van 2024: Week Three

26/02/24

Clouds lift not long after leaving Santiago, as though making the decision has lifted a weight. We’re headed to Porto ripping up the itinerary, two weeks ahead of time. The drive is long, but feels like the right thing to do. 

Crossing into Portugal once again feels good, especially since we’re heading to a boutique little campsite outside Porto, where for the first time we’re camping alongside other people. The sun is shining and it’s port tasting evening. I have no idea of the history and the British connection of the port trade. The campsite owners are very knowledgeable. I think they’d worked in the trade and have a commitment to creating a community feel on their little campsite. They have a communal lounge and kitchen area even. It’s like stumbling across an oasis. 

A good friend has been to Porto recently and given us a list of bars and restaurants, and nice places to sit and people watch.

There are two distinct parts of Porto on eitherside of the Douro river. The Ribeira side and the Gaia side. The coastal cycle path from the campsite takes us to Gaia where all the Port companies are, both sides of the estuary are packed with bars and restaurants and tourists. The steep sides provide an excellent view of this busy city. There are two bridges both suitable for cycling and music fills the air from the buskers entertaining the crowds. It’s hilly though and I’m grateful for my E-bike. We spend the next couple of days exploring, cycling around the river sides, where the old fisherman congregate with their rods on the town walls. 

There’s a lovely park, well more of a nature reserve with a flock of wild cockerels and the odd sound of wild cheering on the wind. The source is elusive, but eventually we see a group of students dressed in gowns in the middle of a grassy plane. It’s not clear what they doing other than cheering. They’re not cheering when we find them, but the noise had to be coming from them. It doesn’t seem like a graduation ceremony, a bit more of a right of passage maybe. The following day we see another group of students in town, marching, laughing in their flowing gowns, but in a rebellious way.  And yes, it’s a thing! Praxe: a freshers initiation activity. Devised by older students to breakdown inhibition for new students, societal norms and to be a prank, I suppose. So taking them quite a way out of town into the middle of nature, reserve to cheer and shout would fit the bill. 

We eat freshly grilled fish in one of the many family-run restaurants in a little fishing village, just outside town on Gaia side. Another abiding memory will be drinking beer in the sun listening to a talented busker playing his guitar and singing some of my favourite favourite songs, with a couple of amusing mispronunciations that we decide on balance not to mention. Sitting there, looking at the movement of people, cars, trams, cable car, boats, it seems like an animated model village, full of life and colour. 

It’s hard to drag oneself away from a comfortable campsite, but the weather forecast dictates our next move. The best of a very wet picture looks like a move to Figueira da Foz. 

I’ve forgotten to say how windy it is, and of course we’re along the Atlantic coast. We make it there in time for an evening bike ride and find a bar that looks out over the sea to watch the sun go down and the waves crashing over the outer harbour walls. 

I

t’s one of the places that in season is probably very busy, but in late February, most places are closed. 

We find some good routes to ride and spend another day in the van waiting for the rain to stop, it does and the bonus is that I’ve finished my socks. Ta-da!

I’ve found a good author to read/listen to: Dolores Redondo. Particularly the Bastan trillogy. Her thing is Galician/Navarre Noir, a mix of crime and regional tradition and superstition. I’m impressed with her plots, characters and historical research. Just the thing for steep climbs and knitting.