Where's Bertie? He's at a commercial Aire just outside of the town of Silves. It costs €6 per day to stay here, including the usual services and good wifi. Electricity is available to most pitches (but not Bertie's) for an extra fee. Exact location: 37.19041, -8.43810.
Weather: Sunny and warm
Most Lidl supermarkets in Portugal have four extra-long bays reserved for motorhomes. That may have previously also been the case in Silves, but they now have a shiny new store in a location where their only parking is under the store, with a height limit of 2.3m. Inconvenient, but not too much of a problem (given that we didn't need much) when there's a huge town car park just across the road - except that there's a total prohibition on motorhomes entering that car park, day or night.
Bertie was feeling rebellious, though, so we went and joined the other dozen motorhomes in that car park, although in our case only for as long as it took to shop (curiously, the day when we didn't have the option of pushing the shopping trolley to Bertie's door was the day on which we needed mainly heavy things).
The Aire where we wanted to stay was only a few hundred metres further along the road, so there we went next. The gaggle of motorhomes parked outside hinted that there was no room at the inn, which was duly confirmed by the receptionist. At least here we were permitted to stay in the car park outside between 8am and 8pm (and others looked suspiciously like they had spent the night), which meant we could approach the next Aire on foot. It was only another 500m further on, and it seemed pointless to drive there when we had every expectation that it would be full.
To our surprise, we were offered a choice of two spaces (one of which was clearly never intended to be a pitch), so we picked the nicest and here we are. It's a nice place, so it's possible that our two night stay could get extended.
Although a little out of town here, Silves is not a big place, so it was an easy walk this afternoon to go into town, up to the castle and through the streets, getting a feel for the place. Here's a little of what we saw:
An eye-catching artwork on the training tower at the fire station:
A big chap outside of the castle:
I'd like to know the story behind this sculpture-filled fountain:
From the bottom of the town, looking back up to the castle and cathedral:
Weather: Sunny and warm
Most Lidl supermarkets in Portugal have four extra-long bays reserved for motorhomes. That may have previously also been the case in Silves, but they now have a shiny new store in a location where their only parking is under the store, with a height limit of 2.3m. Inconvenient, but not too much of a problem (given that we didn't need much) when there's a huge town car park just across the road - except that there's a total prohibition on motorhomes entering that car park, day or night.
Bertie was feeling rebellious, though, so we went and joined the other dozen motorhomes in that car park, although in our case only for as long as it took to shop (curiously, the day when we didn't have the option of pushing the shopping trolley to Bertie's door was the day on which we needed mainly heavy things).
The Aire where we wanted to stay was only a few hundred metres further along the road, so there we went next. The gaggle of motorhomes parked outside hinted that there was no room at the inn, which was duly confirmed by the receptionist. At least here we were permitted to stay in the car park outside between 8am and 8pm (and others looked suspiciously like they had spent the night), which meant we could approach the next Aire on foot. It was only another 500m further on, and it seemed pointless to drive there when we had every expectation that it would be full.
To our surprise, we were offered a choice of two spaces (one of which was clearly never intended to be a pitch), so we picked the nicest and here we are. It's a nice place, so it's possible that our two night stay could get extended.
Although a little out of town here, Silves is not a big place, so it was an easy walk this afternoon to go into town, up to the castle and through the streets, getting a feel for the place. Here's a little of what we saw:
An eye-catching artwork on the training tower at the fire station:
I'd like to know the story behind this sculpture-filled fountain:
From the bottom of the town, looking back up to the castle and cathedral:
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