Leiden – Termas da Azenha. “Just finishing up my breathing exercises,” Bart texts, “and then a quick stop at the supermarket for chocolate sprinkles. We should arrive Monday, around six.” Pfft, the Dutch. Leaving Saturday morning and already knowing you’ll be there by six on Monday?
Camping along the way, without a plan
They had mapped out a route – not too precisely, but still – because quite a few campsites close at this time of year. That makes camping in a tent a bit tricky without any planning whatsoever. You can hardly pitch your tent in a highway rest stop; aside from the fact that it’s not allowed, it doesn’t seem like a very peaceful spot, either.
“It’s a bit further than I thought,” Bart laughs as they step out of their blue van – right around six o’clock on Monday, just as predicted. After a big hug – it’s been a few years since his last visit – he adds, “It was good practice, though, since I’ve only had my license for three months. Luckily, my dad has a bit more experience.”
Two B’s in a Blue Bus. And here comes Broes, too.
I had glanced at the sky that Monday and thought, “Well… maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get the little apartment ready, because it looks like rain.” Fortunately, the two B’s agreed immediately; camping is great, of course, but the weather has to be nice.
Camping in a room is plenty more comfortable
It really poured that night. Bart has been coming here for nearly twenty years, albeit with some long gaps in between. As a volunteer, as a guest, as one of the family. “I’m thinking…” he says, “that I might come back next spring; then Broes and I can give all those trees a bit of a trim.” That is, of course, a Very Good Idea!
The next day it’s quite windy, which likely pushes the rain clouds along a bit. “We’re going cycling,” Bart says bravely. “We don’t have any other plans; we’re taking it day by day. It takes a bit of getting used to, but just doing nothing is nice too—reading, hanging around, cycling…” And we eat together every day. It’s really pleasant.
Over dinner, it’ story-telling-time. Bart talks about his trip to India, years ago now. He was in his early twenties; he’d spent a year here and then got the chance to go to India. “Well, of course you grab that chance,” he says, going on to describe how he and a friend ended up at a tattoo “artist’s” place … he wanted a small tattoo, his friend wanted a haircut, and – by sheer coincidence – one was located right above the other.
“It was a bit of a shabby setup, but we thought it was incredibly authentic – so he went upstairs to the barber, and I went to the ‘artist.’ I’d had something special in mind, but this is what I ended up with,” and he shows the inside of his elbow, where a small cross is visible. “It took quite a while … but not as long as my friend’s haircut … After half an hour, he’d had more than enough of the snipping, so he left with the back only half done. It turned into a very unique hairstyle. Just like my cross. Also very unique.”
By this point, I’m practically rolling on the floor with laughter.
At the end of the day, two cyclists arrive, coming straight off the EuroVelo 2 route. “We made a bit of a mistake and took a slight detour, but then again, we didn’t really have a specific destination for today anyway. Plus, it’s pretty windy. We’re just taking it day by day. What a nice spot this is! It’s great that we can camp here!”
Men without plans, women without a destination
Exactly our target audience, really.
.
(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings. #campingPortugal #roomPortugal #Eurovelo )
We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa.You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere. Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.