Tuesday 1 May 2012  - Bom Dia Portugal

Day 18 and 139 to go.

A lay in and a decent night’s sleep behind us and we are feeling a little more regenerated.  We were able to get back on the Internet this morning and phone home which was good.

We cleaned up the van before leaving our park at 10.30 and heading towards Lisbon.

Portugal is a pretty place. It is different to Spain in many ways. While people still live in small houses in town there is a lot more people living on larger size properties with good size yards and vege gardens. Paul and I agree that Portugal would be more to our liking as a place to live.

While Lisbon was only a short distance away we had the ring road option to avoid the tolls and as such was a slower journey but still enjoyable. We crossed a bridge over to the Lisbon side and then travelled through a small waterfront town with cobbled streets. We had to contend with a road-block and the GPS telling us to turn around but once through we were on the main highway it was fairly smooth.

We passed a car club of MG’s and Porsche as well as a classic bike and scooter group. Today is a public holiday in Portugal. It is probably a good thing for us as the roads are not as busy as you would expect for a capital city. 

The campground was well signposted on the highway and after passing the Benfica football stadium we were pulling into the very large campground and signing up for 2 days.

With the usual unpack and set up done we had lunch and enjoyed a custard tart. YUM. 

We then returned to reception and with a map and bus instructions we got on the local bus to Oriente about 45min away, to the rejuvenated Parque das Nacoes, the site of the 1998 expo North East of Lisbon. This is a vibrant waterfront docklands with a long walk and gardens. We wandered in one direction where we could see the Vasco Da Gama Bridge. It was so long I couldn’t see where it ended. 

We then caught a cable car back over where we had walked and a little further on. We alighted and wandered aimlessly back towards the bus station, taking in all the interesting buildings and public art. The area was well used by not only tourists but also locals, with lots of interactive spaces. It was a lot of fun. 

We wandered back through a massive shopping complex, a bit like Morley or Karrinyup. This was crawling with people. We found the bus station again and didn’t have to wait long before the bus arrived and we were returned to the campground for a well-earned drink and a rest.

After dinner I found the wifi and was able to upload lots of bits, as it was a lot faster than Evora. Yeah. After a couple of hours I had caught up on half of it and decided to do the rest tomorrow.

Paul and I returned to the van at 930pm to call it a night.

View Larger Map