Porto

Ellie and Oli are coming out on the 13th July and I'm picking them up from Porto airport, I need to find a suitable campsite. It is just an hour from Viana but I take the slow lane and find myself going through some really intense market gardening, stalls all along the road and everything on sale. I'm now looking for somewhere to stop for lunch and seem to spot each place just too late to stop safely, am I going that fast? Finally I see a cafe with a couple sitting outside and I pull over just down the street. Walking in I find the place is heaving but the busy staff find me a table. The set menu offers three courses, soup, fish/pasta, dessert and I settle for the fish. Dourada, caught locally and served with boiled potatoes, very tasty. The desert is a homemade creamy thing, coffee and I'm offered a liqueur. A conta por favor - that's Eur 8. What? that's amazing value! Beira-Mar Restaurante, Esmoriz

So back on the road and I stop to pick up a hitchhiker. Turns out to be someone on holiday visiting a local beach and unsure of the bus times, or if there is a bus at all, and wanting to get back to Porto. His take on where to camp is to cross the river and turn right to head out to the Atlantic coast where there are lots of sites. After a couple of circuits of Porto we get on the right track and I drop him off before taking the bridge. Turning right to run along the riverbank I find the street closed with bars and restaurants so I have to turn up the hill. And some hill it is, quite steep, narrow and cobbled goes on for an age. Finally I find a route back down and clear of the bars and continue along the coast road getting to the first campsite around 9:00pm, sorry full! I try the next and the next, all full. After much manoeuvring with the trailer, in and out, back and forth, Around 11:00pm I find a campsite with space. I'm asked to pull up and face a wall, not very nice spot but I'm tired and just want to get my head down. In the morning I find I'm camped with a load of red-necks with their souped up cars, I'm not comfortable and move on.

I know Ellie wants to be in reach of Porto but the local sites were heaving and I didn't like the vibe, so I'm thinking an hour's drive is not that bad. Looking at my kiting destinations I thought I might try the next on the list, Murtosa, so that's where I went.

Murtosa is really very rural with no campsite, so I head over the bridge to Torreira and find a site

This is how I existed at Torreira, my kites in the trailer and just a table and chair with gas burner outside, no awning. The water tower in the background can be seen from miles around, very handy when lost and phone dead!

It took around an hour to drive into Porto and we found an underground carpark just round the corner from the AirB&B.

Who would have guessed this would be a good place to eat, the restaurant is on the 4th floor, take the lift. Well we didn't guess, Oli was 'in the know' and we had a very good lunch.

Sadly it seemed I hadn't got over my food poisoning and didn't get much time to enjoy the food.

Attempts to view the library were frustrated by the que, but we tried. I can't remember when I had to retire again but hopefully Oli and Ellie enjoyed their time in Porto.