Route : Faro – Lisbon – Porto – Santander
Kms : 1,560
Summary of event :
a) Clutch cable snapped at last
b) My 40th
c) Enjoying fish in Portugal
30th October – 1st November Faro – Sabine drove this time and took the “tourists” to Punta Da Piedade (similar to the 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road in Oz). The difference is ..here, you can take a 30 minutes boat ride (15E pp) and have a closer experience with these large boulders/grottos. For dinner we went to a local restaurant close to Sabine’s home and I could hear the patrons speaking English! They are from England.. all of them.. I choose the grilled fish for dinner and for 9E the portion is huge.. Sabine shouted us dinner.. After dinner, I booked the ferry from Santander to Portsmouth and it was 400E! Not cheap .. 24 hours on the ferry and to have a cabin is an extra 100E so we (more like I) decided to just get the seats instead. The next day, Sabine took Marie to Seville for her flight back to Paris. We stayed back to clean up Nana and pack. In this trip, we have packed so many times. You can be an organised person (like me), but you cannot avoid to repack every time you have a place to do so… We also swam in the pool which was nice… Udhaya cooked dinner (3 course meal) and we had dinner when Sabine got back. I was booking transport from Southampton when we leave our car, to London at our friend’s Anthony place where we will be putting up.. Trains was 40 GBP pp vs bus of 6 GBP pp!!! The next day, we went to the markets at Olhao to buy some fresh fish for lunch and fresh beef for dinner. We went to Faro city and it was a city and there was a church.. We were out in 15mins… We stopped to have coffee and the famous egg tarts and had it costs 6E for 3 of us!!! Today we were relaxed and cooked the entire day ..not me, but Udhaya.. He loves to cook….
2nd Nov Faro – Lisbon (380 kms) Time to leave from the comforts of Sabine and her home.. We were driving to Lisbon to meet Jose whom was introduced to us by Lucas in Madrid.. They are all connected .. the VW community… We left at 6am and arrived there close to 10.30am.. We met in a garage and Jose brought 2 VW friends whom are brothers. We went for lunch where the locals ate and starter was fresh cheese eaten with salt and pepper. We had fish is a pot with rice and it was indeed a large pot with sauce, fish and rice inside.. It was extremely yummy.. The rest of Europe do not have much gravy of sauce and this was a nice change as the flavours were mind blowing.. They paid for lunch. We then convoyed to the city, cathedral and Belem tower. Belem tower is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the significant role it played in the Portuguese maritime discoveries where they ventured to conquer the world. We met a few other VW friends along the convoy and we headed to Cabo Da Rosa, where the land ends and the sea begins.. Most easterly point of the continent… Never knew about this until today.. Well, the Chinese tourist busses are way ahead of me…. We then went for dinner and had the same cheese starter and had fish.. I love fish and making up for lost fish.. The Malaysians guests were not allowed to pay.. We met Fernando who asked us to stay over at his place! He built a studio in the attic and we had the whole place to ourselves.. This is for when his daughter comes with 2 of her kids for visit. We met his wife who was told very last minute that he invited us over.. It rained most of the time. They wanted it to rain as it has not raised since May!!!Well, it could have waiting until we left Lisbon right??
3rd Nov Lisbon – Porto (450kms) We got up and Fernando and wife was taking us for breakfast.. We packed and both drove to this cafe in the centre of town.. We had coffee, egg tart and sandwiches.. The bill came up to 11E!!! I am loving Portugal… We then left to see Jose at his garage and spend a bit of time with him.. Pastel de Nata is the term used for the egg tart. It originates from Belem and he bought us these.. It was simply yummy…. I ate this for breakfast and lunch.. We left 2 hours later and headed to Porto.. Jose was so adamant in getting us a VW contact in Porto that speaks English, and after 2 days, he found Augostino! He does roadtrips and has time to show us around.. We arrived Porto close to 7pm and met Augostino up a steep hill where you get the views of the city and there is a cathedral on the hill too. Took some photos and then we went to have dinner at a local joint of his town.. He lives 5mins from the centre and we had fish… It was yummy and he insisted on paying. He then made us an offer. He is renovating his apartment and its all full of things and furnitures around, but we can sleep in the hall there is a pull out bed and he has 4 dogs and 3 cats.. We accepted the offer.. He made plans with his son, Pedro who lives 500mtrs away for us to park Nana in the garage.. We then went to the centre as some VW club members were having a small get together and we met Jose who drives an orange Bay window pick up. Unfortunately he didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Portuguese as there is so much to talk to him about… He gave us presents and stickers… It was a small meeting of 10 cars…
4th November – Porto.. Its my 40th birthday.. Never imagined that I would be in this adventure and in Porto! I never heard of Porto until we were touring in Europe.. Was suppose to run a marathon on my 40th.. guess this didn’t happen… Augostino prepared a big spread at breakfast. He bought fresh bread and made freshly squeezed orange juice… WOW!!!! We then planned to tour the city to take photos with the cars. He is a collector and has beetles and busses. Today, we told him to take is convertible yellow beetle which he has not started for 6 months.. Of course the car started at first attempt.. We took off all the boxes from Nana as the roads in Porto centre are mostly cobblestone.. After taking photos at a castle, when we left, the clutch gave way and we were stuck at this castle with lots of tourist.. Maybe I would have jinxed it as I took a photo with Nana and the other beetle side by side with my hand gesture showing ” which one ? “.. Augostino made some calls to see who can fix Nana and he also had an appointment to take his wife to the hairdresser. We were also suppose to see some VW club members in the afternoon… He finally found Fernando that was in the meeting the night before.. Augostino drove Nana with the clutch cable not working and we drove the convertible.. Thank God for him as would have probably towed the car instead.. This was on a Saturday and the get mechanics was a challenge.. Fernando came and we gave him our new clutch cable from the stock of spare parts that we had.. Unfortunately, it was a handbrake clutch and you can see that tis different.. Augostino then was calling around for the part and after 20mins, Fernando took us in his fast modern car to get the part 20mins away.. It was a friend of Fernando who ha a garage and sells VW parts.. We got there, took the part (Augostino didn’t want us to pay for it) and drove back.. Fernando was really nice to ferry us around.. He took longer than expected as this is a right hand drive car and its different.. He apologised for this… I was fretting when all of this was happening esp when we had the wrong part as our ferry out from Santander (700kms north) was 2 days away and 1 full day of driving).. Luckily this happened when we were here in Porto and not on the highway to Santander.. Everything was fixed by 8pm and Fernando asked for 30E.. We gave him 50E instead (which is nothing compared to what he has done for us). We then went for a nice dinner with Augostino and his wife in his town.. We had good steak (the boys) and fish (the girls). Luckily I sneaked to the “bathroom” as I wanted to pay the bill.. At the end of the meal, he asked for the bill and insisted on paying.. Little did he know… It was E90 for 4 of us and he packed dinner for his daughter who was such at home.. After all that he has done for us esp spending his precious time, this is the very least we could do as a thank you… We got home and his wife organised a cake and bubbles and everyone (except Udhaya) sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese.. Unforgettable moment indeed…
5th November Porto – Santander (730kms) Today we got up at 8am and had the big spread of breakfast.. We then said goodbye to his family and we were heading to town as there was a VW meeting in the city centre.. We met many familiar faces and after talking to everyone and taking photos, we said goodbye and drove off with Augostino.. He dropped us off at the main highway and we honked goodbye… We will miss him… Such a great person… I was driving and Udhaya was busy helping me to reply to all my birthday wishes on Facebook. This rarely happens as I don’t have FB but since we started this trip with his birthday; 9 days after the start of our journey) and mine 3 days before sending Nana off at the shipyard.. We arrived pretty late at 10pm and from the app Park for Night, we found a parking 2kms from the centre with many camper vans and parked there.
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