This morning dawned with clear blue skies, but a strong and cold wind. This combined with us finding that we had to pay €3 just to empty our toilet on our aire in Ayamonte, meant that we decided to call off our trip by ferry and instead drive to Portugal and the border town of Vila Real de Santo Antonio.
We had an hour to play with this morning because Portugal is one hour behind everyone else in Europe, except Britain. The journey was another short hop of only 11 miles and we crossed into Portugal on a rather spectacular bridge over the River Guadiana. No sooner had we crossed the bridge than we were following signs for “foreigners” into a toll booth. We had to register our credit car so any tolls we incur on Portuguese roads can be automatically deducted via number plate recognition. How we know where and when we have incurred a toll I have no idea! We will find out when the credit card bill arrives.
In Vila Real we drove up to the enormous aire and were faced by a barrier. Pressing a green button achieved nothing and so I went over to the pay booth, which turned out to be locked. There then ensued 20 minutes where motorhomers of several nationalities tried to help us get through the barrier. Some telling us that we needed to pay at the booth first, others that normally pressing the green button raised the gate. Eventually the attendant at the pay booth returned from, what we were told was, her coffee break and she informed me that we had to pay a €1 tourist tax before we could enter. With my €1 paid the green button suddenly raised the barrier and we were into an aire which costs €5 a night and its free to empty our toilet! (37.199500, -7.414748)
Vila Real actually has two aires adjacent to each other. The first is full of what we have been told are about 30 long termers and out aire, which is nearly full, probably has another 40. Personally I don’t understand the mentality of people who spend several weeks, or even months, on what is a large dusty car park, but each to their own. At least the rules are relaxed here and people have their chairs out, which normally is a no no except on camp sites.
Vila Real turned out to be a lovely little tourist town. Noticeably wealthier and much better kept than Ayamonte. The tourist season seems well and truly under way here. All the restaurants are open, although not yet full.
There is nothing really of particular interest in the town, but it is one of the earliest examples of grid town planning in Europe. Most of the Portuguese coastal towns were decimated by an enormous earthquake and tsunami in 1755. Lisbon, which is nearly 200 miles north, was completely destroyed with 30,000 deaths and so buildings more than 200 years old on the Portuguese coast are unusual.
Sarah and I wandered around the two or three main streets and the beautiful central square and walked into the outskirts to see the town’s lighthouse.
Eventually we ended up back in the centre and chose one of the dozens of restaurants at random for lunch. It turned out to be an excellent choice with a young chef cooking a small, freshly made, menu.
Our first taste of the Algarve has been a notch up on much of what we have seen of the Spanish coastal towns and so as we intend to make three or four more stops in the Algarve I hope it continues.
