Seasons

When doing research for a trip to Northern Portugal, I looked at a few travel guides for an overview of what the weather was like in December and January. Sure it was Winter, in the North at that time, but Portugal is still a little further South than the Countries that experience seriously cold winters. I glanced over the rainfall stats, not expecting all 14 days of expected rain over the period to happen consecutively over the 10 days I was there :-):-), resulting in a rather rainy Season 🙂 . But, I tried to look on the bright side and took some pictures of the reflections after the rain  🙂 🙂 .

Season is the prompt on the Weekly Photo Challenge this week, and images of my Rainy Season trip are my response to the prompt…

…………the journey continues…….

Seasons

Optimistic

I recently stumbled upon an article in the online version of the Daily Mail about the N222 from Peso de Regua to Pinhao in Northern Portugal being voted as the Worlds best road “for it’s location, cutting through the heart of the Douro Valley and the spectacular views it provides of the Valley below.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3052472/The-world-s-best-road-voted-Portugal-s-wine-region.html

So it’s pretty significant when you are from South Africa, some 10 000 km away, and just happen to be on a road trip in the area. So during my trip a few weeks ago, I did a bit more research and decided to organise an itinerary that  include the N222. Travelling in Europe during Winter, one is somewhat prepared for encountering some unpleasant weather, but not necessarily all the time !!. Well, during the two weeks that I was in Northern Portugal, it felt as though the entire winter rainfall happened in 10 consecutive days :-(. Despite this, I tried to remain optimistic, that every now and then, the weather would abate, and there would be an opportunity to shoot some images. Fortunately, some of this optimism came to fruition while driving along the N222. There were short periods of time when the rain would subside and the low level fog would lift to reveal the wonderful terraced landscape, before closing in again minutes later.

Optimistic is the prompt on the Weekly Photo Challenge this week, and images I shot along  the N222 are my response to the prompt…..

………….the journey continues…………………..

 

Optimistic