It rained heavily overnight and the deserted track we had parked close by turned out to be a short cut for the locals so traffic was more than expected! Up and about we had another excellent breakfast of scrambled eggs - again better than in any hotel of recent experience - and we were off to sort the fridge (and heater) problem out. At Campinanda in Alcabideche, we had met Joachim Costas who ran a mobile SOS facility for caravans and vans. We had his card so the previous evening we had made arrangements to meet him in Torres Vedras, a stroke of luck as it was only 40 minutes south. Even though we would have preferred not to retrace our steps slightly, we did so willingly. We met up easily and after 30 minutes or so he had sorted out both problems with no spare parts required then delighted us by not charging us a cent. Such a good man but in retrospect perhaps we should have given him a good bottle of wine as a token of our thanks.
Now completely and fully serviceable (again!), we headed north towards Coimbra and Bucaco the scene of the next battle of interest. We diverted to the attractive town of Batalha on the way as we were intrigued that there must have been an important battle there in its history. This proved to be an early battle for the throne of Portugal of no great interest to us but the monastery was splendid described as 'a masterpiece of Portugese Gothic and Manueline art'. It was easily found and very ornately impressive with its honey coloured stone discoloured at height by the weather. Inside, it was huge - as big as Liverpool Anglican cathedral - and surprisingly plain. M1 was pleased to take a photo of the tomb of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394 - 1460) for obvious reasons!
On then towards Bucaco and moored the boat in a delightful wooded spot on the slopes of the Bucaco Ridge with the intention of exploring the battle site tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment