01/08/18 -02/08/18 – Vila Nova de Cerveira
It suddenly seemed to creep up on us – this was it, our last night in Portugal 🙁
We chose to visit this place based on an image of colourful umbrellas strung up between buildings we had seen by chance when researching other destinations around Aveiro. (See image right) That was enough to grab our attention to put it on our itinerary if only to get a colourful image!
Our place for the night was another carpark on the outskirts of town, next to the railway station. It had full motorhome services for free, and from what we had read in the reviews, it seemed a good location to explore the town. (GPS 41.93772,-8.7472219)
To date, we had been relatively lucky with the weather in Portugal for Marleys sake. However, today that luck ran out as it 41 degrees inside and 40 outside of the Moho, so rather than slowly roast inside, we made a bee-line for the riverside to hopefully catch some shade under a tree.
As luck would have it, this was the perfect place to escape the ferocity of the afternoon sun. in some shade with the gentle breeze coming from the water. We laid out the blanket and spent as much time as we could under the willow trees until we got restless. The riverside is a very green and peaceful place to hang out, and approximately 400 metres across the river you could see Spain’s mainland.
There we loads of activities you could do down there including cycling along the excellent bike paths, hiring paddle boards etc. There was even a wet playground with sprinklers and water jets that looked particularly fun – we didn’t try it as we would have looked odd not having children with us, plus Marley wasn’t allowed in.
Back to the van then to shower and change – it felt hotter than before and Marley was really showing signs of struggling with the heat so we hatched a plan to find somewhere cooler. We searched the weather app and everywhere within the immediate vicinity was showing no signs of being cooler for the next few days. The nearest coolest place we could see was a 3.5-4 hour drive away on the north coast of Spain – A Coruña . A comparatively chilly 27 degrees (Compared to the 38 shown everywhere else.) It meant that we would miss seeing much of the Galacia region, but Marleys health was way more important, so that would be our next destination.
After a refreshing cold shower, we headed out to explore the town. Cerveira means stag in Portuguese and on top of the mountain, there is a large sculpture of one overlooking the town.
For a small town it has a big art reputation for the area, holding a biennial arts festival where the town becomes full of exhibitions spilling out around the streets of the historic centre. When we visited this years theme was crocheting or large scale weaving as the town was full of various examples including a giant Lorraine (Well we thought it looked like her) a crocheted house and motorbike plus lots of small pieces strung up between the buildings.
After following the crochet trail, around the historic town centre (It takes no more than an hours to explore) we had a beer on the main square and watched a parade that looked like it was being filmed for advertising or some other similar purpose as they kept stopping, going back to the start and doing the same thing.
The fair was in town (it seems to be the season – see our Guimares post here) so we took a stroll back through the various stalls selling mainly food and drinks (no rides at this one) before heading back for an uncomfortable hot and sticky night – not in a good way 😉
The next morning after doing our laundry at Intermarche supermarket (we are going to miss these in Spain!) We headed over the river Minho and before we knew it, we were back in Spain.
So, just over 5 weeks in Portugal. It was the first time for us both and we were both really pleasantly surprised. I dont know what we were expecting, naively perhaps a small scale Spain, but we couldn’t have been further from the mark. Portugal most definitely has its own identity and comparing it to Spain, I’m sure would offend both the Portuguese and the Spanish. This relatively small country has a big personality through its people and places and it will always have a special place in our hearts.
We felt like we covered enough of the country to get a good overall first impression but still know there is so much more to explore. We saw tiny villages, big cities, coastlines and mountain and lots in between. So to the people of Portugal we say thank you for your hospitality, your kindness and your relaxed approach to life, something we could all do with learning from.
We will be back. X
