The Cork Tree Forest

May 1, 2023April 30, 2023 | Mairead

There was a huge cork tree forest beside the campsite. We have never been this close to a cork tree

On Monday night we stayed out in the countryside at a small campsite near the town of Evoramonte. We stayed there again on Tuesday night as the heatwave had arrived and zapped our adventuring spirit. A rest was needed. Showers were also badly needed!

And we had never see the leaves of the Cork tree this clearly

The campsite is owned by a Dutch couple who were very laid back. When we arrived it was the day before Freedom Day a public holiday in Portugal and the husband told us they were very busy so he wasn’t sure if there was anything left and wherever we could find a spot would be grand.

There was a path from the campsite through the fields to a nearby road

This way of doing things can lead to uncomfortable results… sometimes people leave their pitch for the day and expect it will be there when they return because they have mentioned it to the owner. We have been there and have become very sensitive to the signs of a pitch already taken. But there were no signs at one very pretty pitch.

This strange looking bug was on the path. Can you see the red stripes? I realise it would have been helpful to add a coin or my hand for size but he was afraid of me and I of him

In the evening we watched a couple pack up their camp when the original camper arrived back irate and questioned whether they had checked with the owner. Well… we knew it wouldn’t have helped if they had.

Cork trees have to be 25 years old before the first harvest. And 9 years between each subsequent harvest

We might have been in their shoes if the spot had been a little bigger and the trees hadn’t been overhanging. It was a particularly nice spot with shade (from the overhanging trees) a pretty view of the castle in the distance and a cooling breeze coming across the valley.

I can’t believe this is the only picture I took of the view of the castle… this is from our pitch, did I mention we didn’t get the best view. Grand picture of a lamp post though…

If I was making up the story of an irate man and wanted to give him a happier life, I’d have him suddenly come to his senses. He might say… I don’t worry if I have a pretty space, I enjoy it and if it’s gone when I get back I enjoy where I find myself.

Can you see the number 2 on that tree? That lets the farmer know when this tree is ready for harvest

We had our own shade – not overhanging. It was from a row of Leylandii trees. Yes, the ones no one likes in their gardens anymore but when the sun passed it’s highest point they provided the deepest shade. The irate man might have said, trees are very generous with their shade.

The cool of the evening is best time for a walk

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the next day that I realised that besides shade the Leylandii tree also provided mosquitos… The irate man would have said, ah mosquitoes, another reason to love Ireland.

I have antihistamine tablets and I’m taking them.

Everything is okay

April 30, 2023April 29, 2023 | Mairead

There’s a park beside the river Tagus with a canal for the ducks

We found a beautiful place to stay on Sunday night last. It was a big surprise to realise we had been here before. If you’ve been reading for years you may remember the last time we stayed the police came to tell us the river was running high and there was a possibility it would break its banks and we should move from our river view.

We did move but I have often thought about that time… in hindsight we didn’t move far enough away. Of course nothing bad happened it didn’t burst it’s banks and we didn’t get submerged. But it’s one of the biggest rivers in Portugal, the Tagus! It flows into Lisbon! I bet it would be a big flood!

I wish you could smell this field. And we had the quietest night’s sleep

One of the best things about this parking space on Sunday, was that it was in the overflow field. Not overflow for the river but overflow parking when the regular parking spaces are filled. And the best thing about the field… it had been a corn field and now it was cut… and the smell was absolutely magnificent. It reminded me of childhood summers in permanent sunshine.

There was a bus on the next street that served food!

Isn’t it funny how my mind was still playing with the thought of what might have happened years ago in this place? Nothing happened. But if I had realised we were coming back here I might have said, no I don’t want to go there, the river might flood. And I’d have missed the smell of that field and a return journey to childhood.

Love this quote and the freedom from worry it promises…

Yes, everything is okay.

Don’t sweat the small stuff

April 29, 2023April 28, 2023 | Mairead

We stopped at the town of Mangualde to have lunch on Sunday. We didn’t know where to park so we parked at the Intermarche and unlike it’s sister supermarkets in France it was open all day!🥳 Opportunity for grocery shopping taken we went for a little walk around the town before lunch in the quiet car park.

This door was behind a locked gate and surrounded by a high stone wall. There’s a story here but I don’t know it…

The buildings are old and lovely and there was plenty of things to photograph even on our 30 minute walk. Including two cats and a door blistering in the heat. The temperatures have started to rise here but we are keeping cool with ice cream… And we’ve bought a weighing scales. Both things not related.

After Mangualde we drove to see the castle at Penela. At some point Denis noticed something strange in the rear camera. We had bought a new bicycle cover to keep the bike dry and it seemed to have come loose and was flapping wildly behind us. We would need to stop but there were very few places so we kept an eye on it and drove on.

The flapping was getting worse. Eventually we saw a fuel services and pulled in. Both of us got out to investigate… the cover was intact but there was a tiny leaf stuck to the camera. A tiny leaf flapping around looked enormous on the screen inside the van.

Can you see the tiny leaf stuck to the rear camera?

Sometimes little things seem huge and they’re just not.

Portuguese Honesty

April 28, 2023April 27, 2023 | Mairead

On Saturday night we stayed in a car park in the town of Viseu. We arrived late and were tired so we decided to chill and go for a small walk to a little park. It was at that point that we remembered being here before. There’s an old town with narrow streets and a church but the town was at the top of the hill we were at the bottom… Don’t judge us – we didn’t revisit.

Next morning we were feeling a little more energetic and a walk uphill to a bakery/cafe one reviewer on Google Maps called – the best bakery in Portugal – seemed doable. It wasn’t a steep walk and we found the bakery – with coffee – easily.

Afterwards when we were almost back at the car park I realised I’d left my bag on the ground, under the table outside the bakery… My cash, cards and ID inside. We turned around and headed back uphill.

Completely forgot to take a picture of the cafe… it’s beyond the roundabout on the right🫢

If we had been anywhere other than Portugal I might have felt anxious that my bag would be gone. Previous trips had convinced me all was well. On our first trip we were in a supermarket and I noticed a handbag sitting all alone on top of a pallet of water. First thought, oh, someone has forgotten their bag. But no, it belonged to the woman who was nearby stacking the shelves, she had put her bag there in full view with no doubt it would be safe while she worked. Now, I had no doubt my bag would also be fine.

When we arrived back I couldn’t see my bag under the table but inside our waitress gave us the biggest smile and nodded a yes, she had my bag! I don’t know if anyone here realises that this is not normal everywhere. I’m very glad it’s normal here. The bakery is called Pastelaria D. João I (in English, Pastry John I) Oh and the coffee and natas were great too.

Portuguese Hospitality

April 26, 2023April 25, 2023 | Mairead

By Thursday evening last we had arrived over the border in Portugal at a town called Mogadouro and booked into a great municipal campsite. Great means the toilets are clean and the showers are warm and there’s all the camper services.

After the rush and bustle of France and Spain, Portugal is a lovely change. Everything slows down and yes that includes the service but what’s your hurry? I spent 15 lovely minutes with the receptionist who was having a difficult time with the computer as she tried and tried again to check us in. But she still found time to marvel that we had come all the way from Ireland. And to ask us if we were enjoying our stay. And all this in English!

We slept very well that night and decided to stay the next day to wander the very hilly town. We visited the castle and the cafe and the supermarket where we found more Portuguese hospitality.

I was making dinner that night and needed crème fraiche but I couldn’t find it. Denis suggested I ask someone… but he didn’t volunteer. While I was giving him the look – you know the one that says I don’t need your advice – the lady who was stocking the shelves nearby said something in Portuguese to me. She couldn’t be offering to help could she? She was!

I mentioned the crème fraiche with an expression of you probably don’t have it, sure it’s French, what was I thinking, no worries, I’ll use cream or maybe yoghurt. But guess what? She found it! I was so grateful and this is the thing that keeps happening in Portugal… it doesn’t matter that we don’t speak the language, we get each other! She smiled and put a hand to my arm, like, it’s ok I got your back!

Well I’m not ashamed to admit, there was a tear in my eye. It was not just crème fraiche, Denis!

Our last week…

June 23, 2022June 23, 2022 | Mairead

So here we are – our last week of the journey and I’ve been thinking.

We spent three days in Bayeux just relaxing, taking photos, having coffee in the mornings and dinner in the evenings and generally enjoying the last of France.

The weather has been very kind to us this last week, overcast with rain and the odd blue sky. And that has inspired an idea for a tourist campaign for Ireland with its perfect weather… The grey clouds you used to think were depressing are actually a huge fluffy blanket of protection from harsh sun. The rain that you used to think was annoying is actually cooling and nourishing. And the cold breeze…. we’ll yes that’s still a problem but two out of three, etc. Would you be attracted by my campaign?

Maybe you need to be escaping the red hot sun zone to have any interest in cool breezes, rain or grey clouds. But will we all, soon enough, be in this position?

I have been infected by the, but what can one person do? bug in relation to global warming. And this trip has been a kind of education. I feel so grateful that we’ve had the opportunity to make this journey. For two years we decided we couldn’t or shouldn’t and this year we decided we would. The week before we left I wondered again if it was the right time. While we have been away we have seen the return to pre-pandemic normal in the countries we visited to the point that we see very few people wearing masks. It’s more unusual that usual to see a person in a supermarket wearing a mask.

Before 2020 I thought pandemic was just a movie. Just before we left we watched a different movie called Finch. It was about a world where the consequences of global warming were very real and any amount of sunlight was toxic.

Was captured by an imaginary story of two people smiling from their balcony in Bayeux. A happy ever after movie waiting to be written…?

On our journey I realised I cannot get overwhelmed by the scale of the problem because that frightens me into looking the other way. What can I do? I can stay awake and take intentional steps. What does this mean for future trips in a motorhome? I don’t know… yet.

Under the tree in Beauvais

June 21, 2022June 21, 2022 | Mairead

We’re on the way home now. Right after our Disney experience we went to Beauvais (you might know it because Ryanair flies into Beauvais airport.) The weather was still hot but we managed to park under a tree at the camping car aire and I put my towel on the ground and read my book.

That white dot is Beauvais. But look at beautiful cool Ireland!

A car arrived as I sat there and the man inside started talking to me in French. I must have looked confused and he realised I wasn’t French (my sitting under the tree makes me look more French than I am…) But he needed to know some things so he was willing to try his English. We had a stop and start conversation. He said a word in English and I replied with a French word. He wanted to know if there was a charge for staying in the aire. There wasn’t. He wanted to know if there was water? Yes there was. He wanted to know where it was.

Steps down from the parking into the city

I got up from my tree and took him to the water machine. He wanted to know where to empty the toilet. I showed him. He wanted to know how to use it. I showed him. He had some more questions about the details of the toilet empty but neither of us had the words so we left that topic and walked back towards the tree.

The footpath on this bridge was the scariest! The planks lift as you walk!

On the way back he started to ask a question but he couldn’t find any English words but I guessed he was trying to find the words for where were we from and he was! We both laughed. It seemed that I was reading his mind. And of course, I wasn’t. Everyone wants to know where you’re from, I wanted to know where he was from too but I didn’t have the French words and I probably wouldn’t have recognised his home location anyway. I can guess he is about to buy or rent a motorhome and he was getting prepared to use it. He drove off still smiling, I was smiling too.

From halfway up the steps – I had to stop a few times…

Communication and clarity of communication is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. Words are not the only way we communicate. When we speak our native language we depend on the words to get the meaning across so we can happily ignore the non-words – the facial expressions, the hand gestures, the tone of voice, the eyes. But all of those non-words are felt internally by us but ignored… until the middle of the night when we can’t sleep because of something he/she might have been saying.

For some reason I took a picture of the sign describing the church but not the church…

Communication is tricky when you don’t speak the language and it’s very tricky when you do.

Disney – the parenting trap

June 19, 2022June 18, 2022 | Mairead

Disneyland Paris in front of the entrance

We went to Disney! We met the daughter and her best friend, and it was lovely. And it was exhausting (37km over the three days!) And it was hot (nearly 30℃ each day!)

And it was a great place to meet your daughter after a long time. Because we queued together, we walked together, we frightened ourselves together, we ate together, we hugged. A lot. And then it was all over and that last hug was very hard.

It’s strange being a parent because it comes with two slightly opposing job functions. One is to cut a chunk of your heart out and shove it dripping with blood into your child’s rucksack. Then while they cope with whatever the world throws at them, you listen inside the rucksack unable to help. And your other function is to tell them everything you think they need to know to cope with said world. One is hard, the other is impossible.

The telling them part is impossible because you (the parent) hasn’t the first clue what they need to cope. You tell them things you were told that didn’t help you in the least but it’s all you’ve got. Then they grow enough to resist your teaching and you get upset because how will you teach them these important (aka useless) rules if they won’t pay attention?

Extremely scary ride (what do you think?)

And you say things, things that you hope will help but they turn out to be mean things. And then you say nice things but they also turn out to be no help. It’s about this time that you start drinking regularly. (Oh, you didn’t? No, me neither…)

And then you meet them years later and you can’t get over how beautiful they are. And joy of joys they have coped with the world and all it threw at them. And your chunk of heart in their rucksack wags it’s tail at you and says, it’s all good, you did your best. And you cry for days.

Yep we went to Disney and I’m crying since but in a good way.

Picnic on the Town Walls

June 17, 2022June 18, 2022 | Mairead

I went on that picnic on Saturday! Sézanne is a really lovely town. They have a walk around the town walls (called ramparts) that’s a bit different – there’s no walls. Back in the day when it looked like all the fighting had stopped and everyone was getting on together they decided to disassemble the walls and use the stone to build nice houses. Aren’t the French very civilized? This was before World War 1 but walls wouldn’t have helped by then anyway.

So instead of a wall it’s a wide path with gorgeous houses set back behind their own walls on one side and a grass bank down to the new town on the other. And on both sides of this path there are trees providing shade from the heat. And there are benches, of course there are. This is where I had my picnic. I had accidentally picked up great picnic ingredients – a cheese pie, a fruit juice and a bag of cherries from the market. When I noticed the perfect bench in the shade it all came together. I lay down my scarf on the bench and my market bounty on top.

It was a marvelous thing! It is no exaggeration to say that every French person that passed said Bonjour and at least three stopped to say Bon appetite! They encourage picnic-lovers here because they are picnic-lovers themselves. There was one couple who tried really hard to avert their eyes from the woman eating alone on a park bench (me) but they weren’t French. They probably thought I would be embarrassed if they had a look to see what I was eating. But I didn’t feel a bit self conscious because so many French people demonstrated their acceptance of my behaviour.

Old Sézanne with the town walls path in green

It was a really lovely experience to be accepted while doing something that back home might be considered odd. I wonder do I have the courage to lay out my scarf and picnic alone on a park bench in Greystones? Probably not.