The weather, stray dogs and more kite flying

So to be truly British its about time for a weather based blog! Yesterday in Coimbra we awoke to a temperature of just 1 degree, this morning it was 14 and the walk to the unheated shower block seemed a lot more appealing (I chickened out yesterday!) The last few days have been more like an English spring than anything else, glorious sunshine and heavy showers, and its quite strange to think its only 4 days to Christmas.

Tonight we are in St Pedro de Moel on a brilliantly cheap campsite on the coast. We have spent the day wondering along the beach and flying Chris's big kite. The wind was so strong I was almost pulled off my feet a couple of times and found myself running along the beach to avoid falling over several times, great fun though.

Since my last entry we have spent a couple of days in Luso, and had an interesting walk around the Mata Nacional do Buçaco, a large forest laid out by monks in the 17th century, its a beautiful if somewhat neglected spot, full of lovely old trees, hermitages and chapels. The only slight draw back to the area was the number of stray dogs on the streets around town. Of all the countries we have been on this trip, Portugal has by far and away the worst problem with stray dogs, and I have to admit it makes me feel very uncomfortable. Not being a huge fan of dogs anyway barking mangy creatures on the streets do not help me form a good impression of a place!

From Luso we went on to Coimbra, where we spent a fun day Christmas shopping. It seemed a lot less manic than I remember the Saturdays before xmas at home being and was actually quite enjoyable! I am now having to guard my cupboards to stop Chris trying to find his presents, its a lot more difficult to hide things in a campervan!

Tomorrow we more on to Salir do Porto and a week of living in a house. We are both looking forward to a few creature comforts (a bath and plumbed in water!), but its going to be quite weird not being in the van.