I really struggle in finding the right words for what felt like a once-in-a-lifetime trip for me. The idea of a van trip grew over the summer, yet booking a van has been more of a last-minute decision. As normal in life, there were just too many options. Do we need an automatic? Is a van from the 70s still ok to drive, or in fact would it even be better to drive with one of the 70s, just to get into the feel? Is an outdoor shower useful and if yes, should it have a solar heating? At the end we found an appropriate and nice van from Siesta Campers (not a sponsor of this travel story... yet!) and therefore booked our flights from the UK to Portugal. We arrive at the Siesta Campers Station, after a three hours bus trip from Faro. We then get a full introduction about the van and turns out, the solar shower is indeed just a big black ball filled with water (and heated by the sun off course - put it out in the sun, wait 2 hours and boom you got your solar shower, easy). Of all the great things about this van, this was the least spectacular to begin with.
We took off to our first stop in Sesimbra, about 1 hour south of Lisbon and found a spot to park overnight. Since in walking distance to the city centre, we spend some time exploring the city. Maybe it was the teal covered house facades–also called Azulejos–maybe it was the first glass of red wine, but Sesimbra to me seemed like a small Lisbon.
