We left the Hotel around 10.00 and had a couple of challenges. We loaded the car and then drove to the shutter at the entrance to the garage and we had to push the bell and they would open the door. Well we pushed the bell and waited , then tried again and so after about 8 minutes of hanging around Jennifer said she would go to reception and that I should exit the car park and drive round to meet her at the front car park. Sounds easy enough, just exit the garage on one way system and then go round the block and back to Hotel only at the most important junction you could only go straight ahead and so I ended up driving away from the hotel on due carriage road wondering if I would ever find my way back. Eventually I came across a roundabout and was able to turn round and when I got back to the Hotel Jennifer was standing outside the Hotel door looking worried and asking what had happened. So that was the start of our morning.
Anyway we have about 5 hours drive ahead of us to Viseu which was a combination of Motorways with tolls and also regular dual carriageway or country roads thro towns and villages. The journey was very nice with lots of hills and rivers and farm lands but all the time there was threat of rain which when its started really poured down requiring us to slow down. We have this Motorway Toll gadget called ‘Bip and GO’ which enables you to travel on tool roads and not having to stop to collect a ticket then pay the other end as it registers your entry and exit and then charges you via direct debit to your bank. Its a good system and we have used it in France for years and as you go thro the toll gate its goes ‘BEEP’ only on our passing thro it did not beep so was wondering if it was working OK. After contacting the supplier they said it was all working well so don't worry.
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We stopped at a motorway services for a loo visit and to eat our sandwiches and then continued on to our destination which we reached around 4 pm and checked in to our chosen Hotel called Montebello Viseu Congress Hotel and Spa , its a modern Hotel but obviously set up for conference and meetings and it was quite empty as far as we could tell. We checked in and the receptionist we can send the robot to help you find your room? that sounds interesting and then this robot appeared and talked to us in Portuguese,
and we had to follow it to the lifts and it called for the lift, and then set the correct floor and finally when arriving on the fourth floor we following thro some doors and down the the corridor to room 444 where it said goodbye and toddled off, most amusing.
The views from our room are excellent as we have a small balcony and Hotel is on a hill so with good views. Jennifer went for an afternoon swim and Noel had a zizz.
We decided to have dinner in the Hotel as we were both a bit tired and to start looking elsewhere for a restaurant was not what we wanted to do and so had a drink in th bar and a nice dinner in a very large restaurant set up for about 100 people only there were perhaps less than fifteen people there. Then back to the room for a bit of Tv before bed. The weather forecast for next few days is rain and even more rain apparently the most amount o rain for 20 years and so this may impact upon our activities tomorrow.
