The second day was another long drive, this time from Burgos in Spain to Porto in Portugual.
The fun started when we arrived for breakfast at the appointed time. One group was already eating and it seemed that the hotel staff were not expecting a second coach load, so there was not enough to feed us all. There was one waitress on duty. She did her best, but the demands on her for orange juice, hot water, coffee, bread, croissants (which never appeared) were too much for her. A second person (it looked like the manager) arrived shortly after 8am and swiftly nipped out for a couple of baguettes, but that didn't go very far and miracles were not available! We could all have eaten a little more!
At 9 we set out for a long drive, stopping only briefly before our scheduled lunch appointment at 1330. We were booked to eat in a restaurant close to the Spanish/Portugese border at Puebla de Santabria.
Most of the journey was essentially across desert. We travelled miles upon miles over unpopulated land, sometimes farmed and sometimes not. The colours change continuously
We stopped briefly for a break
The fun started as we approached the restaurant. Our driver had been given a name, address and telephone number, but no GPS coordinates. The address was the number of the main road - first problem - the number was wrong by one digit - N524 and N525. . The driver does not speak Spanish and the restaurant did not speak French. John helped out with english of which the restaurant staff had a few words. They described where they were and, having finally understood that we had a reservation and were not another bus looking for lunch, were able to hold the tables for us.
We now had to cross from one main road to another via the scenic route. By now, we were all rather peckish. Still, we were on the right road and were approaching the right village and had the name of the restaurant, we merely had to find it. What else could go wrong?
We had instructions from the restaurant as to where they were, but implementing the instructions was another problem. The first hotel we headed for was wrong and after some driving around, the driver stopped and asked for directions. We drove off and arrived at the hotel. It was closed! No amount of knocking or ringing was answered. The name was correct, the hotel was that in the photo, but no one was at home. By now we were all both hungry and laughing hysterically while the driver must have been wondering where he could feed a bus at a moment's notice. I was secretly hoping for lunch at the Parador (a chain of hotels in national monuments - we had seen the signs!). Eventually, after another phone call, a car arrived to guide us to the hotel and lunch.
When we arrived, the name of the restaurant was not what we were expecting, but at least the staff were expecting us!
When we left 2 hours later, we very soon spotted the first hotel that we had stopped at - but, had we continued along the road, we would have been no wiser because we were looking for a different name....
Our driver remained calm and we had sympathy for him. John had done a lot to help and was keeping to hotel informed throughout the adventure.
Some photos on our journey.
After lunch, we continued on our way and, despite our adventure, we had sufficient time in hand for an hour at an unscheduled stop - Guimares, another tick on the UNESCO list. Unfortunately, we had no knowledge of the city, so just wandered around taking photos and consulting Wikipedia while sightseeing!
It dates back to the 9th century and was the first Portuguese capital. With only an hour available, that had to be it for the time being.
We then continued to our next hotel which was by the sea. After eating, we walked along the beach and Pat had a quick paddle in the cold water before bed and another early start.
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