Where's Bertie He's at an Aire in Badajoz. It's free to stay here, with free services. Exact location: 38.88461, -6.97808.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and very nicely warm.
An early start was had, not by choice but thanks to our neighbour whose vehicle had, from what we could hear, a dozen sliding cargo doors, all of which needed testing at 0630. It could have been the one door (about four feet from our heads) that he opened and closed a dozen times, but why would there ever be the need to do that at that hour?!
At just gone 8 we were at an Intermarche 20km away, discovering that the washing facilities I'd read about were of the vehicle, not the laundry, variety. No matter; breakfast in Lidl's car park saw us through to opening time and our food shortage was resolved.
The food shortage is what caused us also to put a gallon and a half of diesel into Bertie. Had we stuck with Plan A we would have driven east from Monsaraz, crossed the border into Spain after a few kilometres, bought cheaper diesel there and thus have achieved our entire visit to Portugal on one tank of fuel. However, I'd seriously misjudged the groceries (no bread, cake, chocolate, biscuits or fruit left and very little veg) and if we'd headed into Spain the shops would have been shut, whereas supermarkets in Portugal keep the same hours on a Sunday as the rest of the week. Travelling through Portugal to Badajoz was (give or take 5km) the same distance as travelling through Spain, so the via-a-shop reroute made sense.
The next change of plan came with regard to our night stop, as we were no longer going to be passing our intended destination. Moreover, I looked at the piece of paper on which I'd scribbled dates last week and realised that on our schedule to reach Bordeaux on Friday, we were supposed to be in Badajoz tonight, not tomorrow, so here we came, crossing the border just east of the fortified town of Elvas, which we were able happily to bypass, having visited before.
What a difference when we crossed the border! One of the things I like about Spain is that almost everywhere you go there are people of all ages (families, groups, individuals) out exercising. People don't just walk around to get from A to B, but there's very much a culture of moving around. I'd almost managed to convince myself in Portugal (where we didn't witness anything like the same thing) that my mind had exaggerated what Spain was like. Then we crossed the border and within minutes the walkway at the side of the road was teeming with people on this sunny Sunday.
I'm now going to go off at a bit of a tangent (it is relevant, I promise!):
In the summer of 2014 Mick was away working and I was temporarily living in a house I was renovating. My furniture was an airbed and a folding chair and my entertainment (besides the hard manual labour) was a radio, a laptop and some books. Doing some internet browsing one evening I came across a motorhome blog: http://ourtour.co.uk, about the travels of a couple called Jason and Julie. For the rest of my time at that house my break time reading saw me catch up on their travels to that point and I've followed them ever since. It is, without a doubt, the best motorhome travel blog I've found.
On Friday I saw that they were in Badajoz and commented that it was the closest we'd come to date to not quite meeting them, as it seemed likely they would have moved on by the time we arrived.
Our first focus on pulling into the Aire was whether there was a slot available (it's been expanded since we were last here, but has also become much more popular now it's made its way into all of the 'places to stay' databases), and it was with relief that we saw there was a single space free. On our way to it we clocked Jason and Julie's van.
We wasted no time in introducing ourselves and enjoyable chunks of the afternoon and evening was spent chatting. They are every bit as nice as they seem on their blog and are very easy company, so it was lovely to finally meet them.
The chatting wasn't at the expense of sight-seeing. Off into the town Mick & I headed for a little look around. Last time we were here it was just an in-transit night stop and whilst Mick took a run around the riverside park (an exellent leisure facility) before we left, I took a half hour walk around the still-sleeping town. The purpose of this return visit was to see the place properly.
With the museums being closed by the time we were heading into town, we settled on a visit to the always-open castle. What good value that is (free), with the walk around the walls being broken up with regular tri-lingual information signs, even more of which are to be found in the interior.
Just based on that experience, plus a little wander through the town, plus knowing how good the riverside parkland is, we completely disagree with the poor write-up given to the place in our guidebook.
We now have a bit of a quandary. Tomorrow is Monday, when the museums are closed, and there's at least one of them that we would like to visit. If we stay an extra night, then we have to skip Merida which was also on my list for a visit on our way north. I think the decision is that, on the basis that we will pass Merida when driving south in the future, but won't necessarily find ourselves in Badajoz again, we will stay here longer than intended.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and very nicely warm.
An early start was had, not by choice but thanks to our neighbour whose vehicle had, from what we could hear, a dozen sliding cargo doors, all of which needed testing at 0630. It could have been the one door (about four feet from our heads) that he opened and closed a dozen times, but why would there ever be the need to do that at that hour?!
At just gone 8 we were at an Intermarche 20km away, discovering that the washing facilities I'd read about were of the vehicle, not the laundry, variety. No matter; breakfast in Lidl's car park saw us through to opening time and our food shortage was resolved.
The food shortage is what caused us also to put a gallon and a half of diesel into Bertie. Had we stuck with Plan A we would have driven east from Monsaraz, crossed the border into Spain after a few kilometres, bought cheaper diesel there and thus have achieved our entire visit to Portugal on one tank of fuel. However, I'd seriously misjudged the groceries (no bread, cake, chocolate, biscuits or fruit left and very little veg) and if we'd headed into Spain the shops would have been shut, whereas supermarkets in Portugal keep the same hours on a Sunday as the rest of the week. Travelling through Portugal to Badajoz was (give or take 5km) the same distance as travelling through Spain, so the via-a-shop reroute made sense.
The next change of plan came with regard to our night stop, as we were no longer going to be passing our intended destination. Moreover, I looked at the piece of paper on which I'd scribbled dates last week and realised that on our schedule to reach Bordeaux on Friday, we were supposed to be in Badajoz tonight, not tomorrow, so here we came, crossing the border just east of the fortified town of Elvas, which we were able happily to bypass, having visited before.
What a difference when we crossed the border! One of the things I like about Spain is that almost everywhere you go there are people of all ages (families, groups, individuals) out exercising. People don't just walk around to get from A to B, but there's very much a culture of moving around. I'd almost managed to convince myself in Portugal (where we didn't witness anything like the same thing) that my mind had exaggerated what Spain was like. Then we crossed the border and within minutes the walkway at the side of the road was teeming with people on this sunny Sunday.
I'm now going to go off at a bit of a tangent (it is relevant, I promise!):
In the summer of 2014 Mick was away working and I was temporarily living in a house I was renovating. My furniture was an airbed and a folding chair and my entertainment (besides the hard manual labour) was a radio, a laptop and some books. Doing some internet browsing one evening I came across a motorhome blog: http://ourtour.co.uk, about the travels of a couple called Jason and Julie. For the rest of my time at that house my break time reading saw me catch up on their travels to that point and I've followed them ever since. It is, without a doubt, the best motorhome travel blog I've found.
On Friday I saw that they were in Badajoz and commented that it was the closest we'd come to date to not quite meeting them, as it seemed likely they would have moved on by the time we arrived.
Our first focus on pulling into the Aire was whether there was a slot available (it's been expanded since we were last here, but has also become much more popular now it's made its way into all of the 'places to stay' databases), and it was with relief that we saw there was a single space free. On our way to it we clocked Jason and Julie's van.
We wasted no time in introducing ourselves and enjoyable chunks of the afternoon and evening was spent chatting. They are every bit as nice as they seem on their blog and are very easy company, so it was lovely to finally meet them.
The chatting wasn't at the expense of sight-seeing. Off into the town Mick & I headed for a little look around. Last time we were here it was just an in-transit night stop and whilst Mick took a run around the riverside park (an exellent leisure facility) before we left, I took a half hour walk around the still-sleeping town. The purpose of this return visit was to see the place properly.
With the museums being closed by the time we were heading into town, we settled on a visit to the always-open castle. What good value that is (free), with the walk around the walls being broken up with regular tri-lingual information signs, even more of which are to be found in the interior.
Just based on that experience, plus a little wander through the town, plus knowing how good the riverside parkland is, we completely disagree with the poor write-up given to the place in our guidebook.
We now have a bit of a quandary. Tomorrow is Monday, when the museums are closed, and there's at least one of them that we would like to visit. If we stay an extra night, then we have to skip Merida which was also on my list for a visit on our way north. I think the decision is that, on the basis that we will pass Merida when driving south in the future, but won't necessarily find ourselves in Badajoz again, we will stay here longer than intended.
Snaps of the day:
No carrier bags needed for a shopping trip in Bertie - put groceries through till - put back in trolley - wheel trolley to Bertie's door - lay groceries out on worksurface - put away in cupboards/fridge:
View from Bertie into the park. Just look at all of those people out and about - and this wasn't at the busiest time of day:
Bertie's down there:
From the pedestrian bridge looking towards the castle:
Sculpture of the day:
One of the information signs on the castle walls and, in the background, the fort from which the British Army launched its successful attack on Badajoz in 1812 during the Peninsula War (or, to us, the Napoleonic Wars) - not something detailed in the signs, but known to Mick from reading Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels.
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