Just to say "Hi" in case you're missing me! (1 Viewer)

[Minxy]

Evening all ... currently in Portugal at Peso da Regua parked up a the motorhome parking/aire with quite a few other motorhomes, weather mostly hot and sunny, in the 30s, today it's been cooler (thank goodness!) and should be getting hotter again tomorrow! We've found a few of the MH stops on the Northern Spanish coast are no longer there - apparently something to do with a 500m rule that came in making it illegal for MHs to park within 500m of the beach ... not heard about this though so not sure if it is correct or not, but certainly a couple of the ones we used last year are no longer accessible. We passed through St Jean de Luz and emptied the toilet at the 'aire' there but it's now €2 for 40L of water an they charge you to park up for the night - this was always free and to be honest is the last place I'd ever want to stop, sandwiched literally between a main dual carriage way and the railway line but was a good place to park for a potter into town, but not now!

Our neighbour baked us a lovely LARGE lemon drizzle cake (a reward for me working on her garden for her) on the morning we were leaving the UK so we couldn't freeze any of it as it was still hot! We've JUST finished it off tonight ... that's 8 days!!! It was lovely though! I did take a photo but it's on my phone so will have to bluetooth it over to my laptop so I can post a picture ... for the time being you'll just have to use your imaginations!

Off to bed now as a long day!

 

[Bart]

Sounds nice Mel , lucky you!! , its a pity that some of the Aires are gone , have a great time

 

[Carol]

Sounds good Mel, enjoy are you calling in on JJ.

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[Stealaway]

Who are you ? And stop bothering me!

 

[Anthea M]

Glad you are having a great holiday.

 

[Khizzie]

Who are you ? And stop bothering me!

And you are ??""??? Mel ? Mel who ? Haha lol...

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[Emmit]

Mel with a Lemon Drizzle Cake.???

Get back to TGBBO. Don't you know there's ructions here.

 

[DBK]

That's deepest Portugal where you are. Most envious!

 

[madgeD]

Good to hear from you Mel, I hope you have plans to walk that lemon drizzle cake off lol . Keep us up to date with your trip and enjoy .xx

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[Robert Clark]

30 degrees ?
You should get yourself a fan !

Enjoy your trip

 

[Minxy]

We are currently near Cascais on the Western coast not far from Lisbon (Lisboa) next to the beach having tried and failed to get to see Sintra ... it was manic to say the least! No where at all to park and a one-way system that's a blooming nightmare, gave up in the end which is unusual for us as we can usually find somewhere, and came to our current location instead and had a nice walk through the sand dunes on the board walks with the dogs then an 'illegal' potter on the small bit of beach near us after everyone had gone ... dogs not allowed but once we saw some locals doing it we though what the hell ... if it's 'bad' enough for them then it's bad enough for us!

I must make a confession though, since we scoffed the lovely lemon drizzle cake we've been missing our sweet treat each day and found out about the Portuguese speciality called 'pastel de nata' - its their take on an individual egg custard - puffed pastry case with egg custard in the middle instead of the short pastry we have in the UK. They're usually somewhere between €1 and €2,50 each but Lidl are doing them for 35c each! We got a couple yesterday just to see what they are like and OMG .... yummie just doesn't cover it ... we could eat a barrow load! Today we went and got some more ... only 4 though as we felt if we bought any more we'd scoff them all in one go!!! So far we've managed to resist and only eat 2 of them and are saving the others for tomorrow ... hopefully!

 

[Minxy]

Oh, forgot to say we also had some sour cherry brandy and that was VERY nice and I don't drink!!! Today we found some on offer for €2,99 a bottle so got one for us and a couple for pressies ... if they survive the rest of the holiday of course!

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[Jo662]

Lucky you!

Wish I was there!

 

[Langtoftlad]

Cascais... Another trip down memory lane, a few decades ago, last century... Cheap B&B, fresh sardines, Vino Verde, strawberries & cream to die for... Simple pleasures, long lost youth .

Lovin' it

 

[Cleve]

Enjoying your holiday Minxy Girl. Don't worry Langtoftlad, you will soon be able to grow down like me.

I got fed up of growing up and being sensible a while back and am now devoted to growing back down and being silly so that lost youth could be recaptured for you.

Just put my Abba vinyls away, if the diet goes well I could get back into my bell bottom trousers from '76 again, it's only a couple of inches, had hair over my shoulders, oh dear, nurse, nurse .....

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[Anthea M]

Sounds like you are having a great time and still finding the bargains!enjoy and safe travels!

 

[Bart]

Lucky you's having a great time Mel , long may it continue ^^

 

[Minxy]

Finally as promised a photo of the lovely lemon drizzle cake - it doesn't do it justice though as it was about 8 inches in diameter and 4 inches high when we started scoffing it!!!

This is the new sweets on the block" ... pastel de nata ... 2 were left for today and hubby scoffed his 2 hours ago ... I'm just about to dive into mine!!!

... and seeing as some of you love to see the photos of food being consumed on holiday, this is my own recipe Chinese sesame and chilli pork mince eaten in cos lettuce leaves, with packet savory rice and tinned sweetcorn ... if I do say so myself the pork was gorgeous!

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[Cat53]

Nandos do those little Natas, should the desire strike back in theUK.

 

[The Wino]

If you get into Lisbon try to get to belem the tarts there are famous (I mean the eating kind)

 

[jumartoo]

You'll have to ask for directions to find the building, it doesn't advertise itself too well. Unusual place, but interesting. You have to eat the tarts accompanied by Port, at least that's what our Portuguese friend made us do!

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[carolyn]

Still haven't got over you making a homemade cake last a week, that's not normal at all. I also like their queque which looks like a muffin but the texture is more like a proper madeira cake. You can get different ones but a plain one with coffee for breakfast is lovely. I find Portuguese coffee great but it is strong! Mind you I only really know Porto as I visited regularly when my daughter worked there. I feel it's about time she worked abroad again, children are so selfish sometimes, I loved visiting her there and in Madrid.

 

[Minxy]

No, I didn't make a cake ... my neighbour made it to take away with us. I'm not THAT domesticated!!!

Managed to resist going in Lidl today so no 'pastel de natas' for us at the moment ... saved ourselves for tea of fried chicken, sweetcorn and chips with a nice slice of bread to make a chip butty ... couldn't have eaten a chip butty AND a nata ... although hubby would certainly have tried if he'd had the chance!

Currently slobbing out at Barragem da Povoa e Meadas, 11km north-east of Castelo de Vide - we're sited about 10ft from the waters edge in a nice little clearing ... Tazzy's been bug/creature hunting in the undergrowth whilst the others had a swim ... Tazzy does NOT like to swim even though she's very good at it! Going to stop for a day or two to chill out and get the canoes out for a paddle round ... gonna be a hot weekend here, in the 30s so should be nice in the shade of the tree we're next to. Hoping we won't be invaded by hoards of locals tomorrow.

 

[Minxy]

Enjoyed yesterday at Povoa which was a lovely hot and sunny day with very little wind until late evening - got the canoes out late morning and had a nice paddle round for about 90 mins or so then a play with the dogs - Lily kept doing her usually jumping off my canoe and swimming to hubby's, climbing on board then jumping off again and coming back to me, then back to hubby again, as she couldn't make her mind up which one she wanted to be on! The fact that she kept totally submerging herself every time she jumped off, going under the water then bobbing up again, didn't bother her one jot! Romy had a little 'ride' but wasn't keen and Tazzy just sat there like lady muck enjoying the 'cruise'! A lazy afternoon sitting under the awning and letting the time just slowly go by was lovely then I took Tazzy out with me for a little paddle around while hubby cooked tea and she loved it.

Today we were 'invaded' by bicycles! Lots and lots of them ... some sort of kids and adults events, with races and proficiency tests ... managed to get out though by removing a couple of the tapes marking out the track whilst there was a gap in the racing much to the annoyance of a NL motorhomer who wanted us to go back and exit another way up a very steep and bumpy bit of track, even though we'd already got nearly out already ... and it would still have meant temporarily removing some tapes her way too ... tried to explain to her but just ignored her in the end ... I don't think she was happy that we hadn't done as she instructed us to (she wasn't anything to do with the event).

Unfortunately/fortunately .... depending on your point of view, we went to a Mini Preca supermarket for some bread and found they were selling the 'pastel de nata' pastries at .... half price ... just 17c each!!! Obviously our 'vow' to resist was sorely tempted ... so we gave in! Sooooooo ..... four duly bought, yes, just 4 ... we were 'fairly' good weren't we! They were still hot so we drove on our way for about half an hour then decided to stop for a cuppa, as you do ... and of course we just couldn't let the chance to sample a 'nata' when still warm go by could we ... so we scoffed one each there and then! Mmmmmmmm ... I'm really gonna miss them when we go into Spain ... how I wish I had a bigger freezer in the camper so I could 'smuggle' some into the UK!!!

Tonight we're at a lovely little village with a ruined castle and old church at Castelo Mendo, very unspoilt and better for it - it isn't hard to imaging it having looked much the same for a good few centuries!

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[Minxy]

This morning went for a potter round the 'field' for the picnic area we were parked in and found there were some very old mulberry trees ... fruit all over the floor ... picked some nice ones from the tree with the intention of freezing them to take home for my Mum who loves stuff like this! Memo to self ... next time when picking mulberries put some plastic bags over shoes so that the soles don't get caked in the fallen ones and wear rubber gloves so my hands don't end up looking like I've been doing a Hannibal Lectar with 'blood' dripping from them!

On our into Spain way towards Salamanca and stopped at Cuidid Rodrigo for a walk round the walls etc then this afternoon on to La Alberca (lovely place with half timbered houses and lots of little intriguing streets to potter down - well worth the detour especially as we found some large old pear trees in the car park, with the fruit just dropping on the floor ... managed to pick some nice ripe ones with the aid of a big stick! Also got a few brambles too!

On way to stop at Salamanca and passed a new service station doing diesel at 91.5c per litre!!! Could only get about 18 litres in but better than nothing! Now parked up near old bridge just across from the main town centre, surprisingly quiet for where it is ... right next to small kiddies play area ... with 2 slides ... guess what Tazzy was doing tonight after our walk once all the kiddies had gone home ... yup ... up the steps and down the slides ... she loves them!

 

[jumartoo]

You can get Pastels de Nata in some (if not all) Lidls in Spain!!!

 

[Minxy]

Had a brief foray into France over the Pyrenees and now in Spain again at Sant Joan de Las Abadesses having 'done' Andorra today:

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/andorra-is-it-worth-a-detour.139479/page-2#post-2044073

Its ruddy freezing though! Not been this cold since we came over, must be no more than 5 degrees outside, maybe less. Can't put the heating on as might 'cook' the booze ... no it's NOT hidden inside the pipes but is in close proximity to some!

Gonna have a nice hot cup of tea then off to bed to snuggle under the duvet ... my 'hot water bottles' are already there warming it up nicely for me ... 2 of our dogs!!! Its gonna be a b*gger to evict them though ...

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