Monday 23 March 2015

Most of the French moved out early today and there was just us and one other when we had breakfast. We later learned that many of them had started to return home for Easter – goody, more room for us! With no facilities to service the van, we were quickly on our way via, you've guessed, Aldi this time. Needing to empty the waste tanks we checked out a couple of aires but they all wanted a night’s stay, which we didn’t so carried on.

A couple of years ago we stayed on a large aire at Portimao (see 2013 Blog ->), a large town with its own port and marina. We’d heard that it had been taken over and improved so thought that perhaps one night there would be okay. TomTom took us straight there to find a much tidier place – it’s actually quite large with room for well over 100 units – and still only €2.50, good value although water was an extra €2/100 litres from a machine. But they've got free Wi-Fi.

After doing the necessary we found a nice pitch, close to another Brit “Bertie” and had a nice chat before lunch. Afterward, thinking we’d turn the van round to get a bit more level, we spotted a familiar face and there, refilling their water, were old friends Katherine & Malcolm from last year in Morocco.  It also turned out that Kath & John (Champers) were here too so we followed them back to their parking spot and found another close by for a lovely reunion.

It turned out it was Malcolm & Katherine’s wedding anniversary and we were invited to join them for a meal out, which we were delighted to accept. So later, we joined them all for pre-pre-dinner drinks, then walked a way to a favourite café/bar for pre-dinner drinks and then onto the highlight of the evening. A supermarket café!

Now don’t laugh; this turned out to be a real treat. The food was cooked right in front of us, it was excellent quality, plenty of it and CHEAP. You can’t beat €11 for the two of us, including drinks, even if we were sitting at a cafeteria table! Then after much merriment, we took a slow walk back to the van, Bren having rushed about a bit too much and suffering slightly.

But what a super day it turned out to be, and quite by accident too!