Today's experience of the Portuguese' attitude to motorhomes
Trying to access a known stopover location in a medium sized town just inland from the coast, our motorhome specific SatNav tried to take us under a too low bridge and down unsuitable weight restricted roads so we came to a halt at a junction to take stock of which way to go - ignoring its instructions...
We were quickly approached by a passerby and asked if we needed help. We, ashamedly, don't know any Portuguese language but it was clear that he had an idea of where we were headed. As he tried to explain left here, right there etc a small boy and his mum appeared and the small boy translated the instructions into broken English while his mum waved traffic past us. Then a car drew up with two lads in it and the passenger asked, in English, if we needed help. He then had a word with his mate the driver and told us to follow them.
A couple a kilometres and lots of wiggly junctions later we arrived at our destination. The lads then told us how and where to get access to the locked motorhome spaces. As I had a look around the services they drove back to me and offered to give me a lift back to the cafe that holds the keys! I offered to buy them a drink but they wouldn't hear of it.
In the cafe I just said 'autocaravana' to the assistant and she produced a choice of keys depending on which space out of the 6 I would like and asked for 2 Euro which allowed me 2 days access.
The access includes full services including EHU !
Unbelievably friendly and helpful people! :kiss:
Trying to access a known stopover location in a medium sized town just inland from the coast, our motorhome specific SatNav tried to take us under a too low bridge and down unsuitable weight restricted roads so we came to a halt at a junction to take stock of which way to go - ignoring its instructions...
We were quickly approached by a passerby and asked if we needed help. We, ashamedly, don't know any Portuguese language but it was clear that he had an idea of where we were headed. As he tried to explain left here, right there etc a small boy and his mum appeared and the small boy translated the instructions into broken English while his mum waved traffic past us. Then a car drew up with two lads in it and the passenger asked, in English, if we needed help. He then had a word with his mate the driver and told us to follow them.
A couple a kilometres and lots of wiggly junctions later we arrived at our destination. The lads then told us how and where to get access to the locked motorhome spaces. As I had a look around the services they drove back to me and offered to give me a lift back to the cafe that holds the keys! I offered to buy them a drink but they wouldn't hear of it.
In the cafe I just said 'autocaravana' to the assistant and she produced a choice of keys depending on which space out of the 6 I would like and asked for 2 Euro which allowed me 2 days access.
The access includes full services including EHU !
Unbelievably friendly and helpful people! :kiss: