Adventures in Daisy van

 A brilliant experience with Portugal Easycamp Staying on vineyards and enjoying the vines by the bottle! I first learnt about Portugal Easycamp from a link whilst doing research and contacted the owners for advice about how we signed up, how to become a member and to see if we could be cheeky and get a sticker for Daisy. The response was immediate and very welcoming. Teresa it seemed, was going to be a great contact to have on our trip. We didn’t know which host or hosts we would use, but we knew this adventure had to include at least one stay on a vineyard, maybe two as the idea of being amongst the vines, and possibly alone, was really exciting. Almost wild camping but a bit more reassuring. We ended up staying in three different Quintas and the experience was something we will remember for a long time and I urge anyone coming to Portugal to do it. The only thing you really need is a toilet and a bed for the night of course! Vineyards high up in the Douro Valley The process is s...

Porto versus Lisbon - which one did we like the best? This is going to be a long one… Whilst the next stage in the journey was to arrive at Porto, I think it seems a good idea to compare the largest and second largest cities in Portugal. We enjoyed them both but which did we enjoy the most? Some ground rules need to be set before a fair comparison can be made, so we need to rule out that it was beautifully sunny in Porto, on the second day at least, and not in Lisbon, Porto was easier to get to as we stayed in the city, although the train journey into Lisbon was part of the experience, more of that later. Porto was more compact and therefore more accessible and Lisbon was competing with two lunchtime margaritas… So how do they fare?  Livraria Lello bookshop One of the reason’s for getting to Porto was to visit Livraria Lello , one of the oldest bookshops in Portugal, known for its beautiful wood panelling and staircase and unfortunately linked to Harry Potter, which is why when we ...

 Braga, Bom Jesus and Citania de Briteros There are a few mishaps to report so far, some could have been serious and some minor in the grand scheme of things. Thankfully Pete falling out of the hammock and scraping his arm quite badly has been the worst of it. Bits have fallen off Daisy’s awning because of the bone shaking roads, but the most inconvenient was breaking the corkscrew in a bottle of wine and being in wine country! Our vineyard home for tonight has either given us a corkscrew or wants it back, we are not sure and google translate is not being so helpful in this situation…so we are waiting to see what happens in the morning…  To catch up with events and travels though I have to go back a ‘short while’ to leaving the National Park and heading to our first metropolis, Braga; this was a gentle introduction to civilisation and having other people around. A quick mention of another huge religious site in the mountains that we just happened across as we drove to Braga. T...