🇵🇹 Porto

Stage 11 Paxariñas —> Vila Chã 201 KM (Total 2903 KM)

Goodbye Spain, welcome Portugal! We say goodbye to Spain and leisurely drive to our next destination. The route is not that long so we can take our time.

On the highway, we don't notice the infamous Portuguese roads yet, but that changes as we exit towards our destination. The last 5 KM of the road is made up of roughly hewn cobblestones - as a result, the maximum speed is around 30 KM/h 👍. We are afraid that if we go any faster, our camper inventory will turn into splinters 🥴. The line of cars behind us keeps growing, but we don't care - as long as we arrive in one piece.

At the campsite, we get a large sandy pitch and are greeted by the apparently residing annoying fly-town. The flies live in peaceful symbiosis with the adjacent animal shelter - we suddenly have the certainty that we won't grow old here 😂😂.

We explore the beautiful beaches and the remains of the small fishing village with our 🚲. In the evening, we think it's raining, but it's actually the high humidity that collects in the pine trees and then drips down.

The next day, we plan to ride our 🚲 to Porto, which is only 23 KM away. With the e-bikes, it should be a piece of cake, but we didn't account for the Portuguese roads. After 4 KM of cobblestone track, we are so shaken up that we give up 😌 and drive to Porto by car.

We park relatively centrally in the "Casa da Musica" and walk to the city center. In a side street, we spontaneously visit a small restaurant frequented only by locals. We feel a bit like aliens - tourists don't seem to be that common here. The owner is super friendly - we have very delicious cappuccino, we order 2 glasses of wine, and she immediately puts 2 unlabeled bottles on the table 😁. We also order the daily special: Mama's stew - it's super delicious and it contains a colorful selection of animals ... - but we're not picky 😂.

Afterwards, we visit the Livraria Lello bookstore, which is considered one of the most beautiful bookstores in Europe and the world. It is said to have influenced the author of Harry Potter, who lived in Porto for some time. The interest of the visitors is accordingly high - you can only enter with a pre-purchased €5 ticket, which is offset against a possible book purchase. However, the book prices are so high that you end up not saving anything at all. Overall, the bookstore is quite worth seeing.

On the way back to the car, we find a very nice restaurant and end the evening with seafood 😊.

We briefly visit the outlet center located on the way to the campsite, but only for scientific reasons 🧐. We wanted to research if there are any differences between European outlet centers. Conclusion: There are none, and we bought something 😂😂😂.

In the evening, the band Sol Caribe plays at our campsite and their Latin American music captivates all visitors (including us) - there is a lot of dancing and it gets late 😴.

Tomorrow we will be back on the road towards Lisbon.