Southern Portugal

Today was supposed to be a nearly 300 mile day so we could get all the way down the coast to the spectacular beaches we’d heard about in the far south of Portugal... but then we needed an adapter for the hose bib to fill water... and needed to dump gray and the cassette... and needed to stop for a couple baguettes... and then the headphone splitter for the iPad broke.
.
An hour into the drive, we threw the plan out the window (along with the headphone splitter). With their headlamps on their heads to keep one ear of the Bluetooth headset they’re sharing from from ripping out of the other’s heads anytime either one squirms, we mapped to a spot much closer up the coast, just a little ways south of Lisbon.
.
If these are just the warm up beaches for those farther south, I’m pretty excited!
.
#portugal #algarve #rveurope #travelwithkids #familytravel #childhoodunpluggedbecauseofbluetoothheadphones

The mythical “wild camping” of the Portugal coast is starting to seem more like “parking behind a grungy restaurant” or “hoping the no parking signs in the pullout don’t get us woken up at 2 am by the cops.” Luckily there are no shortage of large 5-10€ a night campgrounds in each town.
.
Today we spent a few hours with a pretty beach mostly to ourselves (except for the couple on the far end sorta behind some rocks who were almost certainly having sex). We distracted ourselves and the kids by building dams in the stream running down the beach into the ocean.
.
Wynne: “You pile sand in the river and I’ll be the crack dealer!”
.
Us: “Uh, what?”
.
Wynne: “I’ll be the one who deals with the cracks.”
.
#travelwithkids #familytravel #lifesabeach #portugal

Southern Portugal is definitely a surfer’s paradise. Too bad we don’t surf. Not to worry, the kids played on the beach all day while Ann read and I sketched layouts for vans we don’t need, and we all ended up on this patio for the sunset.
.
Pic 2: Steady sets of 3-4 ft waves coming in at Praia da Arrifana.
.
Pic 3: My favorite 2WD sticker on one of many Westy’s in the parking lot at Castelejo.
.
Pic 4: And a new favorite adventure bike with world map sticker I’d never seen before (on a sweet old Patrol).
.
#travelwithkids #foosballwithkids #familytravel

Love that we’re part of a community in which we can just happen to stumble into a far corner of Portugal and find that we know someone to go out for pizza and gelato and talk about life and travel with. Thanks to Leah and Nathan Markham and their boys for playing host in Lagos! #nomadicbreedersunite #travelfriends #travelwithkids #familytravel #skeletonmuralinaparkinglot #adventuresofdaveandannandmclouis

Our last night in McLouis, the 20 ft rental camper that’s carried us from Amsterdam to Southern Portugal over the past 5 weeks. During our time with him, we’ve learned how to empty cassette toilets (and fix leaks in them); the difference between gazole, gasóleo and diesel (spoiler alert: they’re all the same); that propane connections in Spain and Portugal are not only different from each other but from the rest of the EU; that “ausfarht” means “exit” in German (and while I’m being immature, Portugal has a tire store called “Pneus”); and it’s impossible to “sleep tight” when you’re trying to not let the bed bugs bite.
.
It’s been an epic road trip, but the pace was a bit grueling. Each day, we either had something we wanted to see/explore or we drove. And while the camper has been a great way to get an overview, we’ve been missing the ability to easily get right into the heart of cities, and walking or riding a bike to get around. Honestly, without kids, it might be a lot easier to grab a cab or a bus from a campground outside a city and hang out for the whole day into the late evening, but for us, getting place to place can be exhausting and the late-shifted European meal schedule is tricky.
.
But this year is about experimenting with some different family travel, and this trip has left us with a desire to explore in one location for a longer period of time and become more part of the community. Fortunately, that’s exactly what we have planned for Spring, three months in Guanajuato, Mexico taking Spanish classes and enjoying the UNESCO World Heritage city!
.
#familytravel #travelwithkids #adventuresofdaveandannandmclouis #hesaidausfarht