Where's Bertie? He's just across the river from Spain, at an Aire at Villa Real. It costs €4.50 per 24 hours to stay here (plus 50c tourist tax per person), including water, waste and wifi. Electricity is available for an extra fee. Exact location: 37.19992, -7.41506.
Weather: Mainly sunny and warm, but with some clouds drifting about during the afternoon.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Aire at Gibraleón had generally good reviews. All of the negative comments (at least, those in a language I could make out) were either because there was a problem with the service point when they stayed, or because of the noise of a band rehearsing late into the night at the adjacent auditorium. When I spotted that two of the reviews said that the band noise had been on a Thursday night, I crossed my fingers that on a Wednesday all would be quiet. It wasn't.
However, the noise was not quite what I had envisaged. When I read the word 'band' in those reviews, the picture I got in my mind was not a marching band. I can report that listening to a marching band practice the same tune over and over again for a couple of hours can get a bit tedious, not to mention that their big booming drums really are quite intrusive. However, they only went on until about half past nine, so we had no cause for complaint as the rest of the night was as quiet as you could wish for.
A very pleasant out-and-back run started my morning, and it was still relatively early when we rolled out of the Aire and headed westwards.
It was only about 30 minutes into the drive that we saw the bridge ahead of us that marked the border between Spain and Portugal. There we nipped back an hour in time, back onto UK time, and I felt a touch of excitement. Save for a few hours, I've never visited mainland Portugal, so everything from here on will be new.
Our first task on entering the country was to make sure we left the motorway at the 'foreign vehicles must go this way' point, to register Bertie and our credit card for the automated Portugese toll roads. The signs were clear and the machine at the toll plaza was perfectly straighforward to use, however, registration only lasts for 30 days and we currently have no idea what we have to do if we wish to use those motorways after that time period has elapsed. As far as I can make out, the registration machines are only located at four motorway entry points into the country. That's an issue to worry about in a month's time, though. Who knows where we'll be by then. It may not be an issue.
For today, we left the toll road immediately after registering for its use, and drove just 5km to the town of Villa Real de Santo Antonio, where we settled Bertie into a huge Aire overlooking the river, across the other side of which is Spain.
Then we set about bimbling, exploring, sitting and relaxing, all the time enjoying the warmth. T-shirts were adequate upper wear today, and I don't think I would have shivered if I'd donned shorts either.
Weather: Mainly sunny and warm, but with some clouds drifting about during the afternoon.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Aire at Gibraleón had generally good reviews. All of the negative comments (at least, those in a language I could make out) were either because there was a problem with the service point when they stayed, or because of the noise of a band rehearsing late into the night at the adjacent auditorium. When I spotted that two of the reviews said that the band noise had been on a Thursday night, I crossed my fingers that on a Wednesday all would be quiet. It wasn't.
However, the noise was not quite what I had envisaged. When I read the word 'band' in those reviews, the picture I got in my mind was not a marching band. I can report that listening to a marching band practice the same tune over and over again for a couple of hours can get a bit tedious, not to mention that their big booming drums really are quite intrusive. However, they only went on until about half past nine, so we had no cause for complaint as the rest of the night was as quiet as you could wish for.
A very pleasant out-and-back run started my morning, and it was still relatively early when we rolled out of the Aire and headed westwards.
It was only about 30 minutes into the drive that we saw the bridge ahead of us that marked the border between Spain and Portugal. There we nipped back an hour in time, back onto UK time, and I felt a touch of excitement. Save for a few hours, I've never visited mainland Portugal, so everything from here on will be new.
Our first task on entering the country was to make sure we left the motorway at the 'foreign vehicles must go this way' point, to register Bertie and our credit card for the automated Portugese toll roads. The signs were clear and the machine at the toll plaza was perfectly straighforward to use, however, registration only lasts for 30 days and we currently have no idea what we have to do if we wish to use those motorways after that time period has elapsed. As far as I can make out, the registration machines are only located at four motorway entry points into the country. That's an issue to worry about in a month's time, though. Who knows where we'll be by then. It may not be an issue.
For today, we left the toll road immediately after registering for its use, and drove just 5km to the town of Villa Real de Santo Antonio, where we settled Bertie into a huge Aire overlooking the river, across the other side of which is Spain.
Then we set about bimbling, exploring, sitting and relaxing, all the time enjoying the warmth. T-shirts were adequate upper wear today, and I don't think I would have shivered if I'd donned shorts either.
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