Portugal on the whole is a lovely country. We last left you in Guarda, in the Serra da Estrela national park, which was beautiful. Great scenery and staggering cliff climbs in the van and steep drops on the passenger side (Max could tell from the mini screams from me as we wound our way to the highest peak in Portugal - 1993m). You can see from the pictures just how lovely it was.

After the heat of inland Portugal we headed further west to Coimbra, the birth and burial place of Portugal's first king. It was nice but nothing as amazing as Porto and after having a little walk around the old town, buying an English newspaper and finding a book shop that sold the Lonely Planet Western Europe guide in English, we headed for lunch and a little walk to the Botanical gardens. We have been searching for the Lonely Planet book since Bordeaux so we were very excited! We then headed further west to the coast (we hadn't seen the sea for a few days and we were getting withdrawals!) First stop was Nazare where we stayed in a lovely campsite 2 km from the centre of town. Nazare is a beautiful resort with great beaches and a sweet town centre. It is also very weird because 1) old ladies sit at the side of the road holding up signs for 'rooms to let' in 4 different languages. They must be 70 year old and when they need a pee, they give the sign to their husbands and 2) they sell all kinds of rubbish for tourists at the beach - from nuts and dried fruit to fake sunglasses - all very bizarre to see, especially when it got a little chilly of an evening and they shrouded themselves in a shawl so you could only see their eyes! We felt sorry for them (but didn't rent a room nor buy any nuts- we are on a budget!)

We spent the day on the beach and it was pretty deserted so lovely and relaxing....We then ventured further south to Obidos, a beautiful walled city. We had some nice walks along the ramparts and city wall before bumping in to a girl I know from Manchester, Claudia, who now lives in Lisbon and was visiting for the day - very random thing to happen! We then headed back to the coast for a couple of nights in Ericeira, supposedly great for surfing BUT like other 'great resorts' it was a myth and was flat so the wetsuit stayed dry and we had a nice day sunbathing instead. Two interesting facts about the Atlantic Coast is that it's windy (so you can look like a sand sculpture in seconds) and the sea is choppy so not great for a little swim! We also had a quick visit to Mafra, which has a large national palace but not much else so went back to the campsite had pizza, watched rugby and surfed the net.

Our next stop was Sintra, which is a beautiful hilltop town. It has stunning palaces and a manor surrounded by countryside and is where the royal family retreat during the summer. We went to see the Castelo dos Mouros which was at the top of the town and a nice place to visit and then headed to Guincho Beach, another 'ideal place to surf'...so, I bet you can guess the rest of the story there. We spent time on the beach and guess what?? You were wrong! Max even had a surf!!! Not ideal waves but good enough....what a relief..let's hope Australia is truer to the hype! After the day at the coast, we headed to Lisbon, a place I have also wanted to visit but oh what a huge disappointment. The city has no charm or distinguishing features and is not a patch on Porto. We took another open top bus and saw nothing. It was like getting on the 110bus from Wakefield to Leeds but paying 15€ for the privilege! The second disappointment was we couldn't find the way out of the city so spent hours trying to find the right exit. After managing and then trying to find a campsite and finding one inthe middle of nowhere that had no facilities, we decided this had been a rubbish day.....and we haven't had another one since!

The next few days were spent driving the rest of the west coast until we hit the most southwesterly point of Europe being a place called Sagres. We got a lovely spot at a nice campsite and spent the day on a beach where again, Max could surf! The next day before leaving we went to see the fort which is on the cliff head and had a walk before heading to Zaival Beach for lunch and to watch the world go by. It's a super spot! After Sagres, we spent a few days travelling and staying in spots along the south coast and the entire Algarve from A-Z and they all have two things in common - they are super hot and full of tourists!

We spent time looking around Lagos and Alvor and spending the day at Aqualand where Max turned in to a child again and I was the proud girlfriend taking photos and videos (I wanted to go in the Rainbow Children's Park but I was too tall - that's a first!) We also had a beach day at Marinha Playa which was a beautiful spot and had a sea I could go in as not too cold and flat as a pancake - although not too cold here means you only get frozen ankles after 5 minutes! We stopped in Albufeira, Silves and Olhao and had our final night's sleep in Portugal for the bargain price of 13 € and the campsite had great facilities so after melting in the 35 degree heat, first stop the pool for a nice cooling off before we packed up and said adeus to Portugal and Hola Spain again