Leonardo da Vinci
We finally made it home, and we knew we were back in the UK as we encountered...
Foggy conditions.
Overcast skies.
Gloomy outlook
We also were back into traffic jams and closed motorways, making our journey home interesting, to say the least.
Enough of the moans, so let's get back to the trip. We had two lovely days in Porto, doing all the tourist things, including doing a Lindemans Port tour. Evidently port is made by adding alcohol to the fermenting grapes after only a couple of days fermentation. Alcohol is increased to 20% killing the yeast, but because a lot of sugar is left the result is a sweet wine. The boat is one of the Port manufacturers boats which were used to bring in liquor from the vinyards further up river. On our second day we had a lovely bike ride from our camp site at Madalena along a coastal cycle path which eventually brought us back to Porto. It's lovely to be out in the sun. The only bad point is that we've both been badly bitten by mosquitos. Kath has about 20 bites and I have 30. Didn't expect them at this time of year so have no repellent.
From Porto we drove up the coast of Portugal to Viano do Castelo, a working coastal town, but again with loads of history. Apart from seeing the tourist sites we had two little adventures here. One night Kath decided she wanted to see the sun go down from the beach. Our campsite had a gate out onto the beach which was supposed to be closed at 9.00pm, so off we went. On our return, in the dark, just after 7.30pm, the gates were closed. Camp sites are secure places so there was no way in. We had to walk back to the beach then all the way to the local village and back to the camp by the roads, rather extending our evening. The other incident happened as we were cycling into Viana. There is a very long narrow iron road bridge to cross and there was a strong cross wind. For safety we decided to ride along the footpath to the side, which was also very narrow. To one side was a safety fence and to the other side steel posts to stop people falling into the road. The outcome was that there was very little spare room and my handle bars clipped the safety barrier, bringing me down in a heap. No damage to the bike, but I sufferred a sprained thumb and a dent to my pride. Needless to say when we returned we stayed on the road.
From Viana, we decided to head east to Bilbao as we wanted to see the Guggenheim museum. We had a leisurely drive through the mountains and overnighted at Cubillas da Santa Marta, near Valladolid, before driving into Bilbao on Monday morning. The good thing about travelling in early spring is that there are relatively few tourists about, and we were able to park the motorhome in the street close to the museum. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but we were able to view this fantastic building from the outside. It really is worth seeing. We weren't too bothered about seeing inside as opinion is that the building is far more interesting than it's exhibits. We then moved on to Urrugne for the night, just over the border into France. We spent the night here before going to have a look at Biarritz. We had heard so much about Biarritz being France's premier seaside resort, but what a disappointment. First of all it is small, about the size of Scarborough. We expected a seafront with old gracious hotels, but there were only a couple, with a lot of modernish concrete hotels. There was no esplanade and little beach to speak of. In fact we just didn't see the appeal of the place. After a few hours we decided we didn't want to stay and so rolled north to a place called Pons, where we stayed at a delightful campsite called Moulins de la Auvergne. Like so many places in France Pons has a history going back to Roman times and beyond. We had a very pleasant morning sightseeing, and vowed to come back and spend a week in the area.
From Pons we headed up to Amboise and spent the night on a municipal camp site. Next morning, the last day of our holiday, we went to Le Clos Luce, the house where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life. Leonardo wasn't particularly appreciated in Italy and was invited by the French king Francois Ist to live at Amboise, in return for his company. Francois just wanted to hear Leonardo talk, and listen to his views. It was really quite moving to visit the actual rooms where Leonardo da Vinci lived, and to see his manuscripts. He really was the most amazing human being, who could turn his hand to anything.
So, to go back to the beginning, we left Amboise late in the afternoon, boarded the ferry at Le Havre in the evening and drove home on Friday morning. Another great holiday.
