Sao João Festival

Finally back on the internet to update our journey.

Day one (as mentioned earlier) was spent in Vila Real, where we ate at the local restaurant in the caravan park - and made friends with the owner (who took great pride in knowing German) so since Tom could understand him, he kept pouring us Port after port. Then to top the night off, we received a 50% schnapps. That definitely helped us sleep!

Stayed somewhere in between, but have forgotten the name already - Vila do Condo or something like that -just north of Porto on the sea. Fantastic food (always bucket loads of fish) and lovely people who spoke some English!

Next day, we headed up to Braga for a look around, then headed down to Porto and stayed on the other side of the river in a village known as Vila de Nova Gaia (actually, this is the home of Port Wine) in a seaside caravan park. I was lucky enough to talk the bar owner of the camping ground to turn the TV onto Australia Vs Croatia (despite the Portugese having an obvious preference to watching Brazil play...) Was so nervous, and was joined by a bunch of French pensioners on the caravan vacations and had a nice time with Tom aiding in every way with communication!~

Then- yesterday. I have found my favourite place in the world. Porto... the city is exubing with charm, character and kindness. Although it is built on an excrutiatingly painfully steep hill, it helped with the fitness! We booked ourselves into a lovely little hotel, then walked through the city, across the river (back to Vila de Nova Gaia) and decided to make the most of the Port! We paid for one tour, then made our way through about 8 other port houses, tanking ourselves up for free (all the tourists do it) and decided we are fans of the Tawny Port aged 10 years from Quintra de Nova. And now know all details as to how to make it! Then, we just sat on the river and waited for the festivities to begin: 23rd of June is Saint Johns festival and for some reason, everyone walks around hitting themselves on the head with toy hammers and there are festivals all over the street. It was bigger than any new years celebration I have seen in Australia! And so much more peaceful. At one stage, we were close to a big stage and surrounded by a young family, so tom picked up the 4 year old, and I picked up the 1 year old and we started dancing together! Incredibly fantastic atmosphere.

We are on our way to Nazare tonight via Coimbra (where we are now - the student city of Portugal) for a quiet night on the seq again. Have so much more to write but will update another time!

Will post pickies when we get home

Obrigado

Hi all - have arrived safe and sound in Portugal and are making the most of the warm lifestyle! Have seen some of the most beautiful scenery in my life - right in the top of the country, between the spanish border and Braga (where we are right now). We are heading off to the sea tonight and camping there for 2 nights before heading a little south to Porto for its national hammer festival on the 23rd of June.

Have already encountered crazy Portugese drivers, and put our non-existent Portugese to the test, but am simply loving everything else.

Craziness in the town sqare qt the moment - Portugal Vs Mexico, and the entire city is watching it - all in appropriate attire! Quite a site!

But, we are off to another castley thing now, so will update more later. Just one word to elaborate on from last night... Port (and actually another word - hospitality!)

I've got too much life, running through my veins, going to waste

Robbie Williams has finally been witnessed in person by me! What an exciting evening... We departed nice and early to ensure a parking place and a quick bite before the concert. So, we pulled up, stepped out (34°C) and there were millions of Fries stalls with the choice of either steaming hot fries or hamburgers (here this means the offle stuff which caused the mad-cow problem a few years back on a bit of bread with ketchup). so I opted for the fries with tartare sauce option. We all wolfed these down (we being Tom, Inge, Mother in law and myself - quite a lovely little family affair), and then plodded along to King Boudewijn stadium. This was originally built as a football stadium which holds 55000 people, but deemed unsafe for football - but for some reason it's ok to hold a music concert there (which holds more when the middle is full...). We rocked up (ha, pun) just in time for the end of the opening program (cant remember the name of the group, but quite good), and waited for the middle program (yes, robbie appears to be so big that he has a before, and middle program...) The middle program was Basement Jaxx - which was really exciting! Two huge black women who can sing the arse of most people (with boobs bigger than my head by the way) but they provided a fantastic warm-up!

After another half hour break, Robbie finally entered after a display of fire-works and fire-balls being thrown into the sky. I have to admit, I dont really like any of his new music - but I just wanted to see the show, and hear some of the old music. He even did a tacky old Take That number, and I dagily sung along! Nice that he also mingled with the crowd, inviting any boobs to be shown. Mine stayed snug in my shirt, but, if i happened to be in the front row, Im not sure they would have stayed there (hi dad!!).

Anyway, show ended, we strolled back to the car - around 11pm. Expected a traffic jam for around an hour, so that was no surprise exiting the carpark. However, didnt expect the extra traffic jam around the Brussels ring, nor the road blockage between Brussels and Antwerp after midnight. So, all four tired, hungry and cranky of us had a lovely ride home hearing the midnight news, the 1am news, the 2am news, and Tom and I were even blessed enough to hear the 3am news after we dropped the other 2 off. So our trip home was approx 4 hours. Kinda enough to ruin a night! BUT, the show was great!

Gonna get home to pack - off on vacation soon, and we have to put our entire appartment in boxes asap!