{"id":438,"date":"2018-10-09T09:30:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T09:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=438"},"modified":"2026-08-18T17:01:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:01:32","slug":"euro-travellers-2018-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=438","title":{"rendered":"EURO-TRAVELLERS 2018. 09"},"content":{"rendered":"

9\u00a0 BAD BACKS AND WALL LIZARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m trying to put together last week’s news.\u00a0 Somewhat abbreviated\u00a0 ….\u00a0 “Hurrah!” I hear.<\/p>\n

The reason why I’d been able to catch up was that I hurt my back really badly and ended up horizontal for nearly three days.\u00a0 We drove into Chave Grande camp site at Casfreires, plugged in the electrics – all 50 metres of our cable and dashed off to join the pizza evening.<\/p>\n

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Later, in the gathering gloom of nightfall we returned to pitch the caravan properly.\u00a0 We found the English family we had parked next to had been on our first site out of Santander three weeks or so earlier.\u00a0 That was James, Zoe and Elliot.\u00a0 I promised them a mention.\u00a0 So, there you have it.\u00a0 Mentioned!<\/p>\n

Anyway, having got the van level and sorted I found I could hardly move.\u00a0 For two days I just laid flat out being fed tablets by nurse Glenda.\u00a0 I think she was just off-loading her excess sea-sickness medications on me!\u00a0 \u00a0We considered changing our route home to leave from Santander a mere two days drive away compared to maybe six days to Roscoff.<\/p>\n

We shared our place with lots of jays and occasional hoopoes.\u00a0 Cuckoos were calling in the woods on the opposite side of the valley by day and owls by night.\u00a0 There were great big lizardy jobs running along the walls.\u00a0 Iberian Ocellated Wall Lizards – up to half a metre in length.\u00a0 I think they lived in holes in the ground – but they were very timid.<\/span><\/p>\n

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By the Friday, we were up and running again.\u00a0 Well, up and walking, anyway!\u00a0 Glenda was released from “water duties” and we were able to go exploring.\u00a0 We found a delightful little village – Seg\u00f5es – a few miles to the north.\u00a0 It was like stepping back in time maybe 100 years (in the nicest possible way).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Long gone are the terraces of white-painted joined-up bungalows with their tall wedge-shaped chimneys, typical of South and central Portugal.\u00a0 Here, in more northerly Portugal, the houses are built of massive granite blocks – some more than two metres long.\u00a0 They must have weighed tons.\u00a0 Heaven knows how they were lifted into place.\u00a0 The ground floor of each house was (presumably) where the animals were kept.\u00a0 These dark, dank spaces had old doors hanging off in all directions.\u00a0 It really was an old looking place.\u00a0 But there were lots of people living in the village and tending their small plots of onions or lettuce or potatoes or cannabis – whatever.\u00a0 Some of the places were marked “Se vende” – but we weren’t tempted.<\/p>\n

The new part of town was a total contrast with a number of mansion-like dwellings.\u00a0 Probably there’s city money involved here.<\/p>\n

On Saturday (I think) there was a market in Vila Nova de Paiva.\u00a0 Largely full of kitchen utensils and Italian clothing which had probably been made in Vietnam and “re-badged” in Italy.\u00a0 There was great excitement when one of the chicken BBQ stalls caught fire.\u00a0 Smoke everywhere.\u00a0 Luckily the fire station was a mere 20 metres away so things were brought under control very speedily.\u00a0 The shoppers continued unperturbed about their business which largely involved inspecting the latest Italio-Vietnamese fashions.\u00a0 And NOT buying them!\u00a0 Roast chickens remained on sale for \u20ac5 – or \u20ac2 for overcooked ones!<\/p>\n

We saw two snakes that day.\u00a0 One harmless, flat one (harmless BECAUSE it was flat) in the centre of old town Vila Nova (which itself sounds like a contradiction of terminology).\u00a0 I think it was a Ladder Snake – it certainly had two lines down it’s back joined at intervals by a series of diamond shapes.\u00a0 Looked just like a ladder!\u00a0 The second one was very much alive and viper-looking.\u00a0 This one was on a gravel track across the high moorland.\u00a0 Fortunately it was more frightened of us than we were of him (apart from Glenda, that is!).\u00a0 Loud noises in the undergrowth very nearby and talk of wolves and wild boar and snakes in the area caused us to hoof it back to the car and on home!\u00a0 So that’s up to date for last Saturday (16th June).<\/p>\n

On Sunday, we went to the pilgrim village of Lapa.\u00a0 The main building is the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lapa.\u00a0 This was established as the HQ of the Society of Jesus and has apparently got sister establishments in India and Brazil.\u00a0 It’s a church, but like no other we have ever seen.\u00a0 To start with it’s built on a granite outcrop.\u00a0 It also CONTAINS three enormous granite boulders.\u00a0 And by enormous, I mean REALLY big.\u00a0 One of them almost fills one of the rooms leading off the rear of the alter area.\u00a0 I suppose if you are building a room around a 1000 ton rock you are going to make it snug to keep the cost down.\u00a0 It’s not going to be used for much apart from storing granite!\u00a0 Other buildings around the church were built to give overnight accommodation to the pilgrims.\u00a0 At it’s peak it could house 100 travellers.\u00a0 It really was quite something.<\/p>\n

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Four views of Lapa Church.<\/p>\n

As it was Sunday, bus loads of tourists were in town.\u00a0 Maybe for a religious service or two.\u00a0 But they seemed more intent on having their pre-packed picnic lunches in the adjacent park while street sellers were doing their very best to off-load plastic hats (very tasteful in green or yellow!), woven baskets, cheeses, meats and ice-creams.\u00a0 They were largely unsuccessful – apart, possibly, from the ice-cream man!<\/p>\n

We took the scenic route home but, to be fair, most routes around here are magnificently scenic.\u00a0 Anyway, we found a couple of nice walks alongside a lake (with the snappy and memorable name of Albufeira Barragem do Vilar).<\/p>\n

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The second walk ended up with us barging into the backyard of an olive-cherry-cannabis (?) farm which was being seriously re-vamped.\u00a0 Fortunately, only the cherries and olives had been planted so there were no armed guards.\u00a0 We just slunk (spookily, auto-correct gave me “skunk” at that point!) away quietly the way we had come.<\/p>\n

On to the Hotel Rural Convento Nostra.Seniora do Carmo in Freixinho.\u00a0 They have such great names for their hotels.\u00a0 Not like the Nag’s Head or the King’s Arms back home!\u00a0 They do a fabulous Sunday buffet for \u20ac12.50 – we really must book next time we are in the area!\u00a0 You have to understand that the Portuguese go out en masse (well, by the coach-load) for Sunday lunch.\u00a0 Places are hard to get into on a casual basis.<\/p>\n

But our failure to crash the Lapa picnic scene and there being no space in Freixinho was OK.\u00a0 We had our evening meal and music evening booked in Lamas just down the road from the campsite.\u00a0 We had an interesting meal of local fare accompanied by the compulsory chips AND rice.\u00a0 The other accompaniment was provided by three lads on guitars and a number of quite respectable singers.\u00a0 One lady seemed almost to be in Fado mode.<\/p>\n

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As predicted, we didn’t understand a word of what was going on but quickly found the wine bottle refill service.\u00a0 We also formed a British clique – six of us campers on one table and there were a couple of Dutch tables behind us.\u00a0 They seemed about as adrift as we were.\u00a0 But we all had a good evening.<\/p>\n

On the Monday we set off for Penalva do Castelo but got distracted by another Hotel Rural.\u00a0 Stopped for a coffee and possibly a Pastel de Nata at the Quinta do Reival.\u00a0 The dining room looked like it could be busy later – so we booked a table for lunch.\u00a0 Who wants to go to Penalva in 30+ degrees anyway?<\/p>\n

A bit further down the road we came to a collection of three villages by the name of Casal.\u00a0 There was C. de Fundo, C. de Meio and C. de Cima.\u00a0 We walked from the bottom (Fundo) via the middle (Meio) almost ending up in the cemetery (Cima?) because walking up hill in these temperatures is silly – and potentially dangerous!\u00a0 “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” come to mind!<\/p>\n

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Anyway, we decided this was, collectively, a one-dog, one-cat, one-postman, one-frog and one-old-lady sort of place.\u00a0 Lunch after was delightful in air-conditioned surroundings.\u00a0 We stayed for hours!<\/p>\n

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The sole resident of the\u00a0Casal villages<\/span>!<\/span><\/p>\n

We did get to Penalva eventually but never found the castle.\u00a0 It was just too hot for anything outdoors so we visited the church and then beat a hasty retreat.<\/p>\n

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Penalva Main square and church.<\/p>\n

…and that fills in the gap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9\u00a0 BAD BACKS AND WALL LIZARDS Now I\u2019m trying to put together last week’s news.\u00a0 Somewhat abbreviated\u00a0 ….\u00a0 “Hurrah!” I hear. The reason why I’d been able to catch up was that I hurt my back really badly and ended… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-portugal-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8110,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions\/8110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}