Spain and Portugal – Termal de Barbates to Valenca
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Termal de Barbates to Valenca
The aire de camping cars at Termal de Barbates is a separate parking area that is set aside for motorhomes only. There are no marked parking bays, some shade is available from tall trees. The service facilities are good, and include electricity, but all the services are just outside of the parking area.
We sleep in till 8.30am and then remember we are now on Spanish time (7.30am in our ‘Portuguese’ time frame), time changes when crossing a land border are something outside our normal comprehension. It’s like having to change your clock when you drive from England into Scotland, something we just do not expect.
We sit in bed and drink coffee and watch the highlights of the queen’s funeral yesterday via the internet, very moving. We breakfast and plan our route north towards Vigo, Pontevedra and across the Pontevedra Bay to Sanxenxo, a coastal campsite. We take the N-541 up into the mountains and stop for lunch at the Area de Descanso, a viewpoint just below the 800m summit at Alto do Paraño. The layby with picnic tables is very nice, except… it is clearly used by truck drivers (and others) as a toilet stop, the evidence lying all around us on the ground!
The long descent through Serra do Candán takes us to Pontevedra, a large and industrial city. Here is where we have a mishap with our route. Having exited Google Maps to find a filling station with LPG, Google Maps reroutes us! instead of taking the AP-9 north and then along the coast to Sanxenxo, at a huge motorway interchange at Pontevedra we are routed onto the AP-9 south back towards Tui and Portugal to a Repsol garage in Valença. They do sell LPG (and their fuel is a very good price) so we fill with LPG. Knowing we are off route we consult the map and are horrified to see we are about 50km further south than we should be (in the opposite direction). I think part of the problem is that when we crossed a magnificent suspension bridge south of Pontevedra, the Ponte de Rande which crosses the Ria de Vigo, in my mind we had crossed the Pont de Pontevedra on the A9 going north! Another 50km further on we find we are in Valença.
The joke is (well not really a joke) we are back in Portugal… just. Oh dear… fortunately it doesn’t often happen. It is hot, 31°C and we are tired, being pragmatic we look for somewhere nearby to stop. About a mile away is Area Estaciomento (parking for motorhomes), a large flatish area, under the trees in Fortaleza Park and next to São Teotonio. It is the parking area for the old fortified walled city of Valença.
The ground is a bit rough and not too level but we park up under the trees with about only four other motorhomes. After a rest, we open wine and drink it with hummus, olives and crackers. In the early evening as the sun is setting (and cooler) we walk up the hill to Fortaleza, the old, fortified city. We are astonished at its size, its fortified walls and moat and double defences and its complex network of streets. The old city of Fortaleza or the Valença Fortress was built overlooking the Minho River in 12th century as a fortification on the Galicia border (now between Spain and Portugal).
Originally it was built for the defence of the town which was enclosed within it and for access to cross the river. Built with an outer fortification, a ditch (moat) between and inner curtain wall with ten bastions, it was almost impregnable and withstood incursions during the Portuguese Restoration war in 1643. However it fell to Napoleón in 1809. Perhaps its greatest defenses were its separation from the river by the network of bastions joined by means of moats and underground passages.
We spent two hours here exploring the old narrow streets, the churches (several) including the Capela do Bom Jesus, a magnificently ornate interior much covered in goldleaf; São Teotónio, the square with statue of the Saint (1082-1162), the first to be canonised in Portugal in 1163. We wander the narrow streets full of small cafes and shops as well as more organised and up-market restaurants and enjoy the ambiance of the evening.
We return after dark to the camper and eat Spanish jammon and sliced tomatoes in the cool of the evening. Some things are meant to be, our diversion today was part of that and we agree that we are glad we came here and found Fortaleza.
Gallery Termal de Barbates to Valenca
Click at image to enlarge
