Portsmouth to Portugal 8: 21 September
After a fabulous breakfast buffet (if you can have cake for breakfast, always have cake for breakfast) and another swim, it was time to check out of our temporary life of luxury. After buying some postcards in the gift shop, where the assistant waved some with an older photo of the hotel and told me "This is from the James Bond time!"
Our first stop was the Praia do Guincho, the beach from the opening of OHMSS, where I had a swim but, unlike Bond, was not set upon by Corsican heavies. (Bond probably didn't get knocked over by a huge wave and get water up his nose, either.)
Then a scenic route to the Museu do Ar, the Portuguese Air Museum. This was in a new and spacious building, and was cheap to enter (in fact, on the day we visited it turned out to be free).
I love seeing less familiar planes, like the Alpha Jet, and familiar planes in strange liveries (it was very odd seeing a Chipmunk with Portuguese markings). As well as military aircraft there was a big section devoted to TAP, the national carrier, with examples of airline crockery and hostess uniforms through the decades (this is exactly the sort of thing I like).
We travelled on to our AirBnB, a cabin in a vineyard, dropped off our stuff and headed straight out again to join the 5pm tour at the Iberian Wolf Recovery Centre. After an introductory talk, we were led along a trail through the woods, with fenced enclosures to either side and stunning views of the countryside around us.
This is a real lupine paradise with lots of places for the wolves (all injured or raised in captivity, and thus unable to survive in the wild) to hide, but we did see one lazing in the sun, and another came close to the fence for a shy peep at us.
I brought my big camera on holiday mostly for this. Here's the one decent shot I got.
Bond, swimming, motorcycling, planes and wolves. All my favourite things in one day!
Miles: 73.4
Our first stop was the Praia do Guincho, the beach from the opening of OHMSS, where I had a swim but, unlike Bond, was not set upon by Corsican heavies. (Bond probably didn't get knocked over by a huge wave and get water up his nose, either.)
Then a scenic route to the Museu do Ar, the Portuguese Air Museum. This was in a new and spacious building, and was cheap to enter (in fact, on the day we visited it turned out to be free).
I love seeing less familiar planes, like the Alpha Jet, and familiar planes in strange liveries (it was very odd seeing a Chipmunk with Portuguese markings). As well as military aircraft there was a big section devoted to TAP, the national carrier, with examples of airline crockery and hostess uniforms through the decades (this is exactly the sort of thing I like).
We travelled on to our AirBnB, a cabin in a vineyard, dropped off our stuff and headed straight out again to join the 5pm tour at the Iberian Wolf Recovery Centre. After an introductory talk, we were led along a trail through the woods, with fenced enclosures to either side and stunning views of the countryside around us.
This is a real lupine paradise with lots of places for the wolves (all injured or raised in captivity, and thus unable to survive in the wild) to hide, but we did see one lazing in the sun, and another came close to the fence for a shy peep at us.
I brought my big camera on holiday mostly for this. Here's the one decent shot I got.
Bond, swimming, motorcycling, planes and wolves. All my favourite things in one day!
Miles: 73.4