Our campground here in Evora is about a 20 walk from the walls surrounding the city, is run by some wonderfully helpful people, is clean, reasonable, and close to a major supermarket…what else could we ask for. It is off season, so there were only 3 of us here last night, and tonight 5 others have come in. I would guess that this campground would hold 150. There is a restaurant, bar, grocery store, large swimming pool, and larger play area here also, but right now they are all closed until next spring. We woke this morning to find that we were the only one out and about… We hadn’t noticed that we had come into a new time zone… That turned out to our advantage, we had first choice at the wash machine to wash our clothes. With the sun out and the day nice and warm (the first warm day we have had in a long time), it didn’t take long for the clothes to start to dry. About 1, we pulled out the camera, donned our dark glasses, and headed out on a walk to the medieval walled city of Évora. We tried to see as much as possible, as we will be on our way in the morning. A walk around Évora shows that it has grown throughout centuries, with the monumental churches, historic squares, whitewashed houses, and the medieval streets (very narrow and coming at all angles, up hill and down, and fortunately all “one-way”). It seems that Évora sits right in the middle of the “Historic” route, and the Sao Mamede and Guadiana wine areas. We are about a 2 hour drive to Lisbon, so we saw a number of tour groups in town today. Seeing as it is the “off season”, most of those groups are from the Asian countries. We even noticed that same thing last year in Greece. Our walk took us to see the “Aqueduto da Agua da Prata” (an aqueduct that was built in 1532 and carried water for over 18km (about 12 miles) and brought water into the cities 2 major fountains. Next was the Arca Romano da Ria D, Isabel (this was one of the temples of the Roman city that once stood here in 2 BC). Capela dos Ossos, one of the curiosities that come by once in awhile…the church naves are covered with human bones and skulls. As we walked through the entrance, the words above our heads translated out to be: “We bones that are here, wait for yours…”. Then of course we had to see the cathedral. The Catedral de Santa Maria was built in 1283. This is a beautiful cathedral, with tall columns, arched ceilings, 16 different chapels, and some wonderful sculptures and art. Of course it sets on the very top of the hill and right next to the Roman temple from the 2 century BC…what a contrast… We have already started to enjoy some of the local delicacies, but as of now, not any of the wines…maybe tomorrow.
30 November ’05, Wednesday.
Our campground here in Evora is about a 20 walk from the walls surrounding the city, is run by some wonderfully helpful people, is clean, reasonable, and close to a major supermarket…what else could we ask for. It is off season, so there were only 3 of us here last night, and tonight 5 others have come in. I would guess that this campground would hold 150. There is a restaurant, bar, grocery store, large swimming pool, and larger play area here also, but right now they are all closed until next spring. We woke this morning to find that we were the only one out and about… We hadn’t noticed that we had come into a new time zone… That turned out to our advantage, we had first choice at the wash machine to wash our clothes. With the sun out and the day nice and warm (the first warm day we have had in a long time), it didn’t take long for the clothes to start to dry. About 1, we pulled out the camera, donned our dark glasses, and headed out on a walk to the medieval walled city of Évora. We tried to see as much as possible, as we will be on our way in the morning. A walk around Évora shows that it has grown throughout centuries, with the monumental churches, historic squares, whitewashed houses, and the medieval streets (very narrow and coming at all angles, up hill and down, and fortunately all “one-way”). It seems that Évora sits right in the middle of the “Historic” route, and the Sao Mamede and Guadiana wine areas. We are about a 2 hour drive to Lisbon, so we saw a number of tour groups in town today. Seeing as it is the “off season”, most of those groups are from the Asian countries. We even noticed that same thing last year in Greece. Our walk took us to see the “Aqueduto da Agua da Prata” (an aqueduct that was built in 1532 and carried water for over 18km (about 12 miles) and brought water into the cities 2 major fountains. Next was the Arca Romano da Ria D, Isabel (this was one of the temples of the Roman city that once stood here in 2 BC). Capela dos Ossos, one of the curiosities that come by once in awhile…the church naves are covered with human bones and skulls. As we walked through the entrance, the words above our heads translated out to be: “We bones that are here, wait for yours…”. Then of course we had to see the cathedral. The Catedral de Santa Maria was built in 1283. This is a beautiful cathedral, with tall columns, arched ceilings, 16 different chapels, and some wonderful sculptures and art. Of course it sets on the very top of the hill and right next to the Roman temple from the 2 century BC…what a contrast… We have already started to enjoy some of the local delicacies, but as of now, not any of the wines…maybe tomorrow.
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29 November ’05, Tuesday. We picked a good day to leave Madrid and head onto Portugal. While driving through Madrid and the surrounding area, we had our first fog for the year. Fortunately, the fog was short lived for the sun came out strong and gave us a great day for driving. We were driving through the rolling hills that were spectacular with color from the orchard and grape vines. Some of the vines were completely void of leaves, and then others were full of colors from a dark burgundy, red, orange, and yellow. Also along the route we encountered forests “cork” oak trees. It seems that Portugal produces enough bark from the cork oak tree to supply over 30 million corks for the wine industry to cork their bottles of wine each day. That is a heck of a figure, seeing as it takes 25 years before a cork oak tree can be “barked” the first time and then it takes an additional 10 years between each harvest. Crossing from Spain into Portugal was almost like going from gray to white… Don’t get me wrong, but Spain was full of color, pretty clean throughout, wonderful people, good food, and well worth visiting. The moment we crossed the border we were driving on roads that looked new, the rolling hills seemed manicured from the roadside to the snow capped mountains 50-60 km away. All the little hill-towns with their high fortress walls, the little white homes that surround the castle at the top…not one, but just about every 30-40 km or so. Now it’s another language, different road signs, menu items at the restaurants, and different prices for gas again… Spain was less expensive for gas than France, and Portugal it seems, is more than expensive than Spain and less than France. In US dollars, we have paid as high as $9.25 a US Gallon in Turkey, about $5.00 in Spain, and about $7.+ in Great Britain. I would like to say that we have been getting great “gas mileage”, but I can’t. Ole “Bumble Bee” does OK, but it is far from getting good mileage. That’s OK, because we knew ahead that this journey wasn’t going to be done on low gas prices and low consumption. Now that we are in winter, we have to look ahead to our next campground…is it open “all year” long? This is going to be a challenge in some areas, but as we have looked at the coast of Portugal and Spain, it looks like we will be good for awhile. Most likely, the toughest will be as we head back to the Netherlands from Spain in January. Today we had 3 different campgrounds to choose from as we drove through the first leg of Portugal, but each of them was about 100 to120km away from each other. Fortunately, we had time to make it to our first choice…Évora. 28 November ’05, Monday. Nobody said that every day of this “journey” was going to be wonderful. The unfortunate thing for me is my being impatient. I know we have had it pretty good overall, but when we are sat down with car problems, like we are now, I get very anxious to get on the road again. Living out of a hotel room is starting to take it toll as well. Like not being able to control the heat, like eating out at restaurants for every meal, like watching too much TV and the same programs on the 2 channels are playing the same news over and over and over… Saturday and Sunday we took advantage of still being in Madrid to see some more of the city. Now we feel like we have seen pretty much all that is worth seeing. Yesterday we saw the Egyptian Temple Debod. This temple was given to Spain for their help in moving a very large area of ruins (Abŭ Simbel) from an area around Aswan. This area is now completely under water because of the Aswan High Dam. Fact is, when we were there in Aswan, we visited Abŭ Simbel to see the rebuilt ruins and then took a sailing fluka boat across the area where it once was. I don’t remember just how many countries helped with this Egyptian project, but all that did received such a gift. We just got our phone call from our mechanic…”Your Van is ready to pick up”… Well, tonight we will stay here in the hotel and then in the morning we are finally off to Portugal. By the way, when "Bumble Bee" went by way of the tow truck, I found a web site that I found interesting and helpful. They indicated that if I was to email them with my problem, they may be able to help me with an answer or a fix. I received a return email the next morning and I went to the mechanic with it... Their email saved me a longer diagnosis and helped in getting the van out of the garage faster...Thanks Ken @ www.vanagain.com 25 November ’05, Friday. Well, I was bowled over this morning…I went to the mechanic that is doing the work on “Bumble Bee” and he told me it would be Monday noon or possibly even later before he would have the work completed. Sooo, we went to the front desk of the hotel and set up our accommodations through the weekend. Yesterday we left with a days clothing change and today we went back to pick up what we needed for a weekend. We also picked up the videos and some very important “snacks” that will be so important while watching those videos. Now don’t get the wrong idea, we will get out of the room…at least to replenish the snacks. Just kidding…we were already out for an hour and a half walk and I’m sure we will be doing a lot more of that tomorrow. 24 November ’05, Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving !!! We hope that everyone is there enjoying the turkey and all the other goodies that make up this favorite menu. For Louise and me, we had one of those days that you just didn’t want to happen…”Bumble Bee” broke down again… We had just finished packing the van and getting ready to pull out, when I put my foot down on the clutch peddle and found nothing there. It was just like pushing on a soft spring, there was no resistance as normal. Thinking it may not be too bad, I walked over to a VW dealership and found them not to be of any help what so ever… I then called a tow truck, found another shop that would “possibly” find time to look at it if, it could be taken in. About noon, the tow truck showed up and I gave him the address of the place I had talked to…”I wouldn’t go there, they charge too much and may not get too it for days”… “I have a 24 hour place that will be able to get right to it”…(me) “How far ???” (him) “About 10 KM”… “OK, but call first…” (Supposedly) “we can get right on it and most likely have you done today”… 50 km later, we pull up to this shop (which it seems is WAY OUT in the toolies), and find that it is now closed until 3:30 (siesta time). Now, I’ve got to say something good about the tow truck driver…he stuck around, fact is, he stuck around for at least another hour and ended up taking Louise and I to find a hotel. Yes, to find a hotel…once the “heffe” got there, there was no way they could or would look at our poor van until the next day…that’s why the hotel… Now here we are, 99% of what we have in the van, will have to stay in the van…way out in the toolies. We did pack a partial suitcase, grabbed the computer, camera, coats and hat, and left the rest behind. They did tell us that they would “park the van inside, and they are open for 24 hours”… Well, what do you do…we don’t speak the language (maybe a word here and there…), and we have to put trust in what they say and will be doing, that’s all we can do now… Tomorrow… ??? 23 November ’05, Wednesday. Yesterday was a light travel day. We had the oil changed in Toledo before heading North up to Madrid. It was only about 60 miles, so we had plenty of time to get there. The campground in Madrid was easy to find, although it is old and not really in the “best” neighborhood. It is located right next to one of the many freeways and it seems like the only one that the big trucks use. To say its quiet is not quite telling the whole story, although we haven’t had any trouble sleeping. Wake up time was just after 8am, so after a shower we headed over to the main road to catch a bus that would take us to the metro. Between the traffic and ALL the construction, the bus ride took us about 45 minutes instead of the prescribed 20. I know, why would we (I) be watching a clock??? Force of habit… We rode the bus to the end of the line and then went across one of the many streets and with a little luck, we found the metro. Madrid has many parks and plazas, but the only one we had interest in this morning was “Puerta del Sol”. Fortunately it was easy. The Puerta del Sol has a plaque in the street that indicates the starting point for all the kilometer (mileage) markers throughout the country. All roads start here… Our first stop was to find breakfast…a “Madrid” breakfast…a cup of THICK Hot Chocolate and a serving of Churros. After the chocolate “high”, we headed out to see the sites. First the Plaza Mayor, a large plaza that is surrounded with a 3 story building from the 1600’s. I’m sure it is normally very nice, but right now, there is a large building project going on taking up the whole plaza. We think it has something to do with Christmas, but right now it’s an eyesore. Our next stop, the Palacio Real. The books tell us that this is one of the 3 most beautiful Palaces in Europe. Construction started in the early 1700’s, and took over 25 years to build. It is large… As we didn’t have a formal invitation, we just wondered up to the door and knocked…”sorry, today we are not seeing commoners, we are having a “private royal party and your invitation got lost””. OK, we’ll take our time elsewhere. Across town (30 minute walk) is Madrid’s version of Louver, and we were ready to spend the rest of the day there. We did enjoy the “Prado” and all it’s wonderful collections, although I must admit, after a full day of looking at all this art I’m not too sure I am ready to spend another 10 minutes doing the same for a while. This morning we purchased a 10 ride ticket for the bus/metro that would give us about a 50% discount on these rides. Going back to the campground, we were told about a secondary option to get back. This would be a train ride for about 15 minutes and then a bus ride right to the front door of the campground. Well, because we were closer to the train station from the Prado, we headed off to catch our train. When we went to go through the turnstiles, we had a little difficulty, but finally it worked…we were on our way. A funny thing happened after we arrived at our destination…we had to put our ticket through the gates again to get out, but the machine wouldn’t take it… Finally a lady a few years our senior, came up and motioned to us to sneak through with her on her ticket…it was tight, but all three of us made it chuckling all the way. As it turned out, our bargain tickets were for the bus and metro system in the “city” only… Well, live and learn, just so we stay out of jail. 21 November ’05, Monday. Yesterday we traveled through the rice paddies, orange orchards and the grape and raisin vineyards from Valencia to Toledo, from the sea shore, then through the mountains and across the plateaus. The weather was overcast, but there were areas in the fields that looked like the sun was shining directly on them and their colors were absolutely beautiful. The soil was mostly a deep red, the leaves from the grape vines multi-colors, and the new crops showing the many colors of green. We had a wonderful show to travel through. I wasn’t looking forward to this crossing, but as all this passed by us, my attitude changed and what looked like more than a day’s drive only took us 6 hours. Fact is, after we set up camp in Toledo, we decided to take a walk into the “Old Town” and do a little exploring. The walk from the campground to the “Town Walls” took us 20 minutes at the most, and then it was the climb up the steep roads and steps into the town. Once we were there, the climb was all worth it. Toledo is another hill top town, but in this case, one that is larger than most…67,000 people with some of the largest calf muscles you have seen. They build these because of the hills and steps that they have to climb every day. This morning we put our walking shoes on again, and headed to the town one more time. We have heard and read so much about the Cathedral of Toledo (1226-1493), that we made this our first stop. Ric Steves was right when he said that this cathedral is “shoe-horned” into the town. It is very large, but as you look at it from the exterior, you are so close to it you lose the full scale of the structure. It’s when you move inside that you really get that “WOW” feeling. It’s not only the building that gives you that inspiring “wow”, it’s also the collections of paintings from the “masters” (Greco, Goya, Titian, Rubens, Velazquez, Michelangelo, and Bellini), the elaborate wrought iron work, wonderful wood carvings, and the stained glass windows from over 500 years ago. We walked into the cathedral about 10:30 and left just before 4…it was worth it to say the least. One other stop to see some awe inspiring art, and we were off to do some shopping. We walked across town to the Santo Tome chapel. Inside is Greco’s masterpiece…The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. I know, I had no idea what Greco had painted prior to coming on this trip, but this has really opened up a new appreciation for me. I’d heard of Michelangelo, Greco, Goya, and a few others, but I had only heard of them. At most, I had possibly had a chance to see one of their paintings or sculptures in pictures of magazines…now I’ve had a chance to even touch some of the originals (sculptures not paintings), let alone sit and study them for as much time as it takes. The “Walled City of Toledo” is one that we won’t forget. We had a ball, but now we head off to Madrid 19 November ’05, Saturday. By 9:30 this morning, we were on the bus to Valencia. It’s kind of nice to feel comfortable in catching the bus, tram, train, or what ever mode of transportation it takes to get around these different cities in the different countries. Although after saying that, this one was really easy and cheap. In about 30 minutes we were off the bus and looking for the Information booth at the train station. It’s hard to comprehend that Valencia was established as a city in 138 BC…Seattle, 1851 AD. Just a couple of years difference… Our first thought was to catch the “Hop-on and Hop-off” bus, so after finding out were they stopped, we were off. Seeing as how we are into the “off season”, there was a lot of room available on the bus. As most of the other tourists, we headed up to the open top of the bus, dug out our “woolies” and settled in for a couple of hours. We were glad we had the clothing we had and wished for more…it was cooolll. As the other bus tours, we did see and learn a lot. After getting back, we headed to the first latte we could find. The one we did find was just large enough to get maybe 6 standing at a small bar, and that was all. Very good coffee, tight quarters for us and the rest of the customers, but just what we were looking for. Across from the small plaza from where we were, was a church. There was a group of people coming out, and it was evident that these were a part of a wedding. We thought we would stop and watch the bride and groom come out. As we stood there, we noticed a “rope” lying on the pavers. It was about 50-60 feet long and was strung out to form a large “U”. About every 2 feet it looked like it had something tied into it. It turned out to be a rope tied onto large fire crackers. Also there was a 1’ square X 2’ high canister on the ground. When they lit the “rope” they also lit the canister. I’m glad there wasn’t anyone standing close to the rope, because when it took off blasting the fire works, it REALLY took off. And the canister…it EXPLODED into about 10 shorts of confetti that blew into the air about 50 feet and spread over an area of about 30 feet. Now that was a celebration and we were right in the middle of it !!! We did find a couple of great churches to go into and admire, and then it was off to see the Mercado Central. This one is one of the largest in Europe. It was built in 1928 in an “Art Nouveau” style. Inside there are at least 1000 stalls filled with all the goodies you could possible want. Across the street from the market, we found this little sidewalk restaurant that serves up “tapas”, and I had wanted to try them since we got into Spain. Our lunch was good, but I was still a little disappointed. I’ve got to keep trying. The bus ride gave us a lot of areas we wanted to revisit, so after lunch we went in search of those of highest interest to us. It wasn’t only the sites we wanted to see, but the small stores, restaurants, bars, and the people all along the way. We had a real good afternoon, and still made it back to the campground before dark. Neither one of us was hungry for a “dinner”, so we opted to watch a movie that Ann had brought with her when she came. Danzel Washington in “Man on Fire”…Powerful !!! Tomorrow…Madrid 18 November ’05, Friday. We made our rounds saying goodbye this morning, and by 10:30 we were on our way heading south to Valencia. The weather was sunny, which gave us a good day to travel. Our choice today was to keep off the autostrase and stay close to the coast. This wasn’t going to be a long day on the road, so we just kind of took our time. If I got over 90km, it was because a truck was coming down on us and making me feel like he just may run us over. We did see a very bad truck accident, and I hope there wasn’t a car under him as he went over the hill. We had heard so bad things about this road, but for our ride today it was the right one. We got into Valencia about 1, and headed out to find the campground that we had thought we would like to stay at. It wasn’t hard to find, but when we pulled into it, we came to the realization that it was a long way from nowhere and then, when I ask about the charges, I couldn’t get back out on the road fast enough. We had just spent 10 days camping, and it cost us $8.90 a night…this one wanted $27.80 per night, and all the services were closed. Besides, it was about 3 miles from ANYTHING… We did find another campground with out any trouble, but it wasn’t what I wanted to pay either. We ended up paying $23.00, which still is highway robbery for the services and the time of year. Overall, Spain has been consistently more expensive to camp. We’ll keep looking for the best deals, and hope we can find them. The campground restaurant here is also closed, so we walked the ½ mile into the little village for lunch. The only businesses open, were 2 of the restaurants. They both had lots of people in them, so we opted for the first one. When we were seated, the waiter gave us menus and then walked away. He wasn’t gone but a minute and he came back asking “would you like “English” menus? Me? “No Gracias, no necesidad”…I said with a smile. With a smile he walked away. It wasn’t 2 minutes, and I tried discreetly to ask another waiter to translate a certain meal option for me. He said he would get me an “English menu” and walked away…well I was trying to crawl under the table when the original waiter came by with this huge grin on his face, saying “did you order this “English Menu ?” I thought I was being so smart. As it was, we both ordered the item that I couldn’t translate, and the “fish” plate was great. Now I want you to know it wasn’t “pescado”, it was something else !!! The area we are in now is south of Valencia about 15 km, and is called El Saler. It’s about a 20 minute bus ride into Valencia. We will be on this bus first thing in the morning to explore… Valencia 17 November ’05, Thursday. I wasn’t even out of my pajamas and I was heading out to the campground office. The sun was out, and it looked like a perfect day to wash the sheets. One of the problems, was I had to run to the office to get a token for the machine. By the time I had gone the 50 yards both ways, someone had beaten me to the washer…damn, now I’ve got to wait another hour. As it was, we did get the sheets into, out of, and hung before 10:30. Now we have time to head off to Peñíscola. On the way to Peñíscola we drove right by a farmers market in Vinaros. The booths were filled with all the goodies, and the crowds were big, but the parking space for “Bumble Bee” was missing… we just had to drive on and miss out on all the fun. About 10 miles down the coast is Peñíscola, and high up on the rocky promontory, surrounded by water on 3 sides, and held captive inside of it’s own high walls, sits the Castell del Papa Luna. This castle is in wonderful condition and is great for a days outing. There are lots of areas for those who want to hold a picnic or just roam through a lot of history. The foundations of this castle go back to the Arab times, but the castle as we see it now, was built by the Knights Templar in the 13th century. It was also the residence of Pope Benedict XIII while he was being protected from those who wanted to dispose of him. He was known as the “False Pope” to some in the Catholic Church back then. Another recognition for this castle…it was used in the 1961 movie “El Cid”. As we drove into the beach area of Peñíscola, we were knocked over by the condos that lined the beaches and the surrounding hills…Miami all over again. The beach is long, wide, and filled with great sand. Parallel with the beach is a wide brick and cement boardwalk that is lined on one side with a million little sidewalk restaurants. Now that we are in the winter, the crowds are gone and the sidewalk restaurants are closed. We could just see the mass of people and traffic that summer brings here…incredible. I think I mentioned our next door neighbors…the ones that have the 1985 yellow VW campervan. This is the young man (he says he’s 80, but no one believes it…) came over when we started putting up our tent…if we needed help, he was there to pitch right in. Anyway, his name is Theunis Snel, and his wife is Nellie. They have been a joy living right next to us the last 9 days. You just can’t believe the smiles that are constantly on their faces. They will be here until March, and then they head back to The Netherlands. We will miss them when we leave in the morning. Tomorrow…Valencia |
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