Thursday 2nd April

We stayed another day and night at Porto Covo, there was a closer beach which was bigger and busier but had more scantily clad ladies on it so it was worth staying for the extra day. The sunset wasn’t quiet as interesting but it was still lovely to sit with the front blinds open as the sun set.

We’ve ended up in Santiago de Cacem, not too far from Porto Covo but we need to head a little way inland to get around a big estuary between us and Lisbon. It’s a small town with 30,000 inhabitants and has been occupied since Celtic times. The Greeks and Romans have been here as have the Visigoths and Moors.

Just behind the aire (which is free and has free water and service facilities, is the Municipal swimming pool. When we arrived there were lots of activities for the children, go karts, zip wire, bouncy castle, trampolines, etc. The kids had a great time and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. Coming inland a little bit we’ve noticed that there is far less wind and it is far hotter than on the coast.

This was the view from the front of Frankie, a rather uninspiring block of flats with washing hanging off the balconies and women having loud discussions leaning over the balcony. This could have put many people off staying the night but this was one of the quietest places we have stayed over night.

A typical Portuguese building in the middle of town looking very smart.

Unfortunately many of the buildings need a good splash of paint. There was a sign on this road which said no access to motorhomes. The cobbles are very slippery and I think even Stella knows what I might do to her if she took me up here.

We climbed up to the top of the hill in Santiago de Cacem, there is an old castle at the top but in the distance, all along the top of the ridge, we could see the old windmills.

And here we are at the top of the hill and built into the castle walls is the ancient church of Santiago, unfortunately closed.

Part of the castle walls. The castle is almost rectangular in shape with 10 square towers and semicircular turrets. In the 19th century the insides of the castle were turned into a graveyard. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos inside but it seemed to be such a good use of the space. Castles have outlived their usefulness and the space inside would otherwise go to waste.

The views from the top were fantastic, as you would expect from a castle.

After the last blog I got a bollocking from my Mum – got told off for bunking off school and now I’ll get another one for bad language so the last few photos are just for my mum! Above we have a lovely bunch of Wisteria.

Poppies.

Daisy thingies.

Something else.

And this old thing. While I was trying to take a photo of this without Lucy’s head in the way she noticed the Orange blossom on the tree behind and went into raptures. A little voice says “take one, take one” and we see a little old guy (about my dad’s age) sitting in the shade of a Lemon tree. He gets up and picks a couple of oranges off the tree and hands us one each. I’m not fibbing to say it was one of the juiciest, tastiest oranges I have ever had, it was beautiful. It did mean that I couldn’t take a photo of the wild Lilies that were growing nearby because my hands were so sticky.

Am I forgiven yet mum?

More pretty streets, note the traditional satellite dish,

And a well painted Portuguese building, they really are very pretty when tidied up.