A motorhome trip through Europe: from Amsterdam to the Algarve with the family
A beautiful summer and 6 weeks time to travel around with the motorhome. We decided to drive with our family of 4 from our home town Amsterdam via France and Northern Spain to Portugal.
France was only a transit country this time, the drove through quite quickly and started the actual vacation in Biarritz. This French seaside resort is only a few kilometers from the Spanish border and looks exactly as I imagined it: palm trees, sandy beaches and lots of eateries.
After a short stop, we drove on to San Sebastian. What a fantastic place that is! A super cozy city in the Spanish Basque Country. Two big sandy beaches invite you to swim, beautiful houses along the wide streets, lots of nice restaurants with local specialties and an old city center with lots of small alleys and bars.
In Spain they eat hot at noon and the menu is not only very tasty but also very reasonably priced: for 8-10 EUR per person you usually have a 3-course lunch, often with house wine and/or water. If you then prepare something small in the evening in the camper, you will have eaten deliciously and for little.
Next door in Bilbao there is an undisputed highlight: the Guggenheim Museum, same name but totally different from the one in New York. I personally did not find the exhibitions so spectacular the building itself all the more so. In Bilbao there are the most restaurants per square meter worldwide - no shortage of good food. The specialty of the Basque country are the Pinxtos - elsewhere in Spain these tasty morsels are called Tapas. Outside Bilbao is the town of Portugalete with a spectacular floating bridge: you float over the river in a kind of elevator. Unique!
Unfortunately, the weather inland was not as nice as on the coast and we had to skip the national park "Los Picos de Europa" with its impressive peaks. We stayed on the coast and visited many small towns. Everywhere you come across the signs of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella. Walkers from all over the world follow these signs to the cathedral of this place of pilgrimage. You can even start this long walk in Utrecht.
Barbara: "There are many beautiful places in this corner of Spain. A secret tip are the Islas Cies, just before the Portuguese border. These pristine islands can be reached by boat from Baiona. A nice day trip!"
In the north of Portugal is the city of Porto, beautifully situated on the River Douro. That the port wine comes from here is incalculable, you can taste from the famous and lesser known brands everywhere. Pretty towns and beautiful natural areas can be found in the interior of Portugal, world-class surfing beaches with ditto waves along the coast. I also think the Monastery of Batalha (Unesco World Heritage Site) is definitely worth a mention.
And then, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe: Lisbon! Beautifully situated in the bay and surrounded by natural areas such as the Sintra/Cascais Natural Park to the west and the Costa Caparica beach to the south. Shall we stay here or move on to the Algarve? In the end, we opted to continue driving south to explore the often jagged coast of the Algarve.
Yes, and now have to head north again. Through Seville and Salamanca we drove toward the French border and from there across the country toward home. What a wonderful trip across the Iberian Peninsula that was!