A (very) Late Winter Post

We set off in Bertie, seeking winter sunshine, the sea and colour - the winters are so grey and dull in the UK and Burgundy.

Our journey through Spain was more leisurely this year and we took the opportunity to visit Valencia - a lovely city. 

Then to catch up with friends:- 

David and Pamela who had rented a flat in Torrevieja for the winter and then on to see Keith and Glen who we hadn’t seen for many years, high up in the hills in their amazing cave house. 

Keith & Glen and...

their two Spanish pooches

Next stop was to stay with Helen and Steve who were holidaying in an apartment on a golfing complex near Cartagena. 

Six enjoy Sunday lunch

Then on through Spain towards Portugal...

Almerimar, one of our stopovers in Spain

But the weather the next day...! we moved on

Eventually we arrived in the Algarve. 

You can see why we like it!

And we love travelling in the motorhome. Being able to visit towns and cities, wild camp on cliff tops and walk along deserted beaches and stay in aires and small campsites wherever takes our fancy. 

Bertie in Faro

Faro tile restorer's workshop

View from our door wild camping 

The scenery is beautiful, the people welcoming and the colours of the water, the skies and the lush countryside are joyous. The warmth of the sun soon disperses any winter blues.

Obviously many other silver-haired northern Europeans feel the same way; visits to garden centres have been traded in for morning coffee at the local bar in the sunshine and an early evening glass of wine catching up with friends!

Soon we met up with Nigel and Maggie and their two dogs, Dash and Belle. Really good to spend some time with them and also to keep in touch during our stay updating each other of good sites to park and where to get a good English breakfast….

Beautiful Belle in her PJs

The best Fat Boy's breakfast

Fish 'n chips Portuguese style

Once again it was lovely to catch up with John and Alli and to enjoy a long, slow fish lunch with them in Alvor. It passed too quickly, so we’ll just have to do it again!  And this year Les and Jude and Ellie joined us in their motorhome “Bettie”. So good to explore and share adventures with them for a few weeks - just like our camping under canvas days many years ago. 

The Church Alvor

Les, Jude, Ellie and...?

Monchique fire engine

Hard to resist this

Alvor sunset

Our return trip was up the west coast - a visit to Lisbon - crazy city but great fun. A stay at Batalha and visiting the UNESCO world heritage site - the monastery, was a joy. Then into Spain - Pete wanted to see the Rias, which were rather lovely. We had planned to travel along the north coast and onto Biarritz, but the weather forecast was not good for that area so decided to drop down and travel parallel across the plain through Leon, Burgos, Zaragoza, and into Catalonia. It was a brilliant road trip, which gave us a very different view of Spain and yet more places to revisit. 

Lisbon

Batalha

The weather in Saint Jean de Losne when we returned was beautiful - bright sunshine and spring in full bloom. So we cracked on with de-winterising and preparing Slo-Mo for cruising. We were able to catch up with everyone after our time away and enjoyed some good social events with all our friends there.

We made a few new friends in Spain and Portugal too...