Mon 15 June - Campinanda and SAS Radisson

The quiet beach at Colada

Since we had booked a BMI Baby flight home for seven days leaving on Tuesday, we had a plan to see if we could get some repairs done to the van thereby saving on the cost of parking at the airport. After some square searching, we found Campinanda Reparaciones near Caiscais where, with the help of another campinista, we explained what we wanted done to the accommodating engineer Mykola – a Ukrainian! With most of our worldly possessions still on board, we left EMU in his care and set off in a taxi to a hotel near the airport. The best deal was at the SAS Radisson so we smartened up in our room (hot water, toilet paper provided and a double bed each) and bussed into the city for a meal. We found an airy and open restaurant but sat just inside rather than out in the oppressive heat which was just as well when very large raindrops, thunder and lightning arrived overhead to cause a major evacuation of the terrace and some unhappy looking staff who had to rescue the brollies, tables, chairs and place settings shoved around by the wind and rain.

With full tummies, we ambled slowly back towards our hotel pausing only to quench our thirst at a tiny bar (50cl white wine at 1.90 euros), a nightcap in the Radisson bar then bed before our departure for UK the following morning.

The blog will resume on Tue 23 June when we fly back to Lisbon and hope to collect our fully operational van from the Ukrainian.