Porto, Bom Jesus do Monte Pilgrimage Church, Northern Portugal to Dune du Pilat (08.06. - 17.06.19)

Contrary to the beautiful city of Aveiro, we were not quite as impressed with Porto. This was probably mainly due to the fact that we could not reach the center, including the old town, because of our distant parking space.

After crossing a highway bridge, we arrived at the supposed center. There, a small fair awaited us. We strolled through the streets for a while and then reached a café, where we treated ourselves to mango smoothies and coffee mocha.

After also inspecting the harbor, we continued to a parking space.

The next day, we visited the Bom Jesus do Monte Pilgrimage Church. After climbing 600 exhausting steps, we finally reached the church and thus had a great view of the surrounding villages and landscape.

Since the church was only a stopover, we then drove to our actual destination. A place at a lake in Northern Portugal. During the day, we went swimming in wetsuits and in the evenings, we made campfires. The impressive silence of the place made us stay there for two days.

Afterwards, we drove to a mountain range that strongly resembled the stories from Heidi. The endless grassy landscapes with the mountains in the background, the colorful butterflies, but also the many stacked hay bales right next to our camper contributed to the idyll. About 80 horses grazed on the large meadow. When we hiked to the nearby mountain, we saw something sitting on a rock from a distance. After a cautious approach, we found that the vulture we were observing did not seem to be afraid. On our further way, we saw about five more. What luck! After taking a few photos and enjoying the view, we turned back so as not to disturb the animals any further.

Our next stop was in Biscarosse. A city that is practically a paradise for surfers. But we also had a lot of fun with bodyboarding. We spent two nights there, and in the mornings, we always got croissants and baguettes from the baker in town. In the evenings, we were able to watch a beautiful sunset on the beach.

The next day, we continued with the beach, namely to the Dune du Pilat. After climbing the perceived 90° slope through the sand in blazing sun, we were greeted by a kilometer-long sand dune landscape. We surfed back with our bodyboards, which was a lot of fun but also brought a lot of sand all over our bodies :D

Back at the car, we decided on the beautiful Île de Ré as our next stop.