Vila Nova de Foz Côa: Getting out of Porto and onto the right roads east was a complete nightmare! The GPS and the map had different ideas about the best route to take and we ended up getting taken along roads which were either too narrow or in the wrong direction. Finally we managed to get onto some pretty back roads which followed the Rio Douro (the river in Porto) upstream through the vineyards. This being autumn, the grapevines - along with the other...

Porto: The roads we chose to drive for the trip to Porto were lined with small villages. By this I mean that one village would end, showing the appropriate sign that announced this, but only 10 metres further on a new sign would announce the name of the next village. There seemed to be no breathing space between settlements. Road signs have become increasingly confusing too. Signs announce the end of, say, a 70kph speed limit, but there was never any 70...

Coimbra: Close to Conimbriga is the University town of Coimbra which is renowned as the 'Oxford of Portugal'. The university which sits on the top of a very steep hill in the middle of the town is the reason to stick around here. All around the university is a tangle of small, cobbled lanes all leading inexorably up. Cars can and do drive through these lanes but only very small ones! We headed upwards calling in at the Old Cathedral on the way. The 'old...

Conimbriga: The guide book said that the finest Roman ruins in the Iberian Peninsula were to be found at Conimbriga. After having seen a few sites touted as the best or the finest in both Spain and Portugal, we took this statement with a grain of salt. Tarragona in Spain is pretty good, Italica near Seville has a great amphitheatre and a few good mosaic floors, and various places in Portugal boast Roman bits and pieces. But Conimbriga really was terrifi...

Tomar: Tomar is a Knights Templar town. Its crowning glory is its Convento de Cristo...yes another Convento. It is perched high on the hill overlooking the town. Quite complete (though heavily restored) 12th century walls enclose the monastery which was founded in 1160. This was a far more impressive site than the monastery we had visited in Batalha. The building rambles over a huge area within the walls amongst the monastery gardens. Here we could wan...