Back from Portugal

[AlanHo]

We have just returned from a super two week holiday in Portugal – touring the castles and other historic site in a circular area 200 miles around Lisbon. We stayed mainly in the State owned Pousadas, which are high class hotels located in old castles, convents and monasteries. It was a wonderful experience – in the one in Evora we stayed in a former nun’s cell with an entrance door so low even management had to stoop to get in or out. We were surprised to find that the nuns 700 years ago had lovely en-suite facilities, a telephone and TV’s in their cells.

The extensive Roman and other excavations at Conimbriga are awesome. We are rightly proud of our history in England – but Portugal can more than give us a run for our money.

We did about 1100 miles during the 2 weeks and were struck by the wonderful scenery and the almost lack of traffic. Having my Sat Nav with me was a huge help – it enabled us to leave the main roads and take to the country tracks to see the “real” Portugal and meet some lovely people. It paid for itself on the last day when we were driving to the airport up against a time limit, only to find the police were diverting traffic off the motorway into the Lisbon suburbs. Even the locals were waving their arms in frustration.

3 days before we returned home we experienced an unfortunate incident. We spent the day touring the Peniche Peninsular – stopping for a glorious giant shrimp lunch, lazing on a lovely beach and stopping off several times to take photos of the scenery. I had been quite careful about locking the car whenever we parked it and was horrified to find when we got back to the hotel that evening that our travel bag (which contained some of my things and management's handbag) was missing from the boot with no obvious damage to the car. We spent the next couple of hours cancelling bank/credit cards, vodafone mobile phone account and reporting the matter to the police. Two hours in a Portuguese police station when you don’t speak the language and their English skills are limited was quite enough. Although we jointly lost quite a few personal things and some cash – the worst loss was all the photos taken during the holiday. It was lucky that only that morning she had given me most of the cash from her bag because my cash funds were low – otherwise the scum bags would have got about £250 in cash in addition to their other loot.

Two days later we are 150 miles south with the car parked overnight in the road outside our next hotel. The following lunch time we decided to go for a drive but when we went to the car I noticed a small hole in the driver’s door near the lock – but the car was still locked. The rear seat was partly folded down and the parcel shelf had been disturbed, so it was clear someone had gained entry and checked the boot. We had not left any personal items in the car so nothing was stolen. So here we go again – off to the local police station. It took some time to find and when we got there we were turned away because they were “having lunch”. It’s a good job we were not there to report anything more serious thinking about recent events in the Algarve. After a mooch round local shops we went back and made the necessary report – this time it only took about an hour and the nice young copper remarked that it was a fairly regular problem with Opel Nova cars – they are easy to break into, but this incident was very strange because nothing was stolen.

I bet you think this is the end of the story – we did – but we were to be proved wrong.

The following day we flew home and dropped the car off at the car rental place. I showed the guy the hole in the door and he immediately went to the back of the car – lifted the rear hatch - and showed me a hole near the lock that was only visible if you knew where to look. On the Corsa there is a depression in the rear door for your fingers and a button above it for your thumb to open the hatch – the hole had been pierced at the top of the finger ‘well’ so could only be seen if you looked into it when the hatch was open – something I had not done. When I quizzed the guy he admitted that Opel Nova car security was a known problem.

I now have to make two insurance claims.

One to the UK car rental company to claim a refund for the cost of repairing the holes in the car (420 Euros). The rental agreement required me to pay the cost in Portugal and claim it back in the UK. On reflection – not a clever procedure. Especially now that I have belatedly read all the fine print which is so complex it leaves me concerned that they will try and wriggle out of a refund. We will see. I have already beaten myself up for using this internet low cost company rather than pay Hertz or Avis costs - so further advice is quite unecessary.

The second claim is against my household insurance for the loss of the personal items. I have adequate cover for personal items away from home so am not concerned about this one except for the circumstances. I am now not sure when the hole was put in the rear hatch. For sure there was no hole in the driver’s door after the bag theft – I checked the doors carefully and the rear hatch lock – but did not look up into the finger well. I am sure the hole in the door was done during the second incident but the hole in the rear hatch could have been done on either occasion. If this hole was done during the second incident – why did the scumbags pull the rear seat down if they had access from the hatch. It is all very mysterious. My own guess is that the rear hatch hole was done when the bag was taken whilst we were in the restaurant for lunch or on the beach and I did not notice it even when I checked the car.

Things like this and seeing the unfortunate drunken behaviour of some young Brits (it could even have been one of them that robbed us) kinda takes the gloss off the holiday – but it has not dented our appreciation of Portugal, the lovely people we met and the pleasure of one of the best holidays either of us have experienced to date.

We are due to take a canal boating holiday later this summer – watch this space for the next thrilling instalment of the Adventures of AlanHo and Management.

[deuces wild]

Welcome back. Sounds like a wonderful vacation.

[andsome]

Glad that you had a good time in the main, pity about those who you rightly describe as scum bags. That's one thing that I do appreciate about Muslim countries, in many of these places, people like this would have their hands cut off.

[-pops-]

I doubt it was drunken Brits - they wouldn't have had the intelligence to break into a car like that - the only method they know is brute force and a brick.

Pity such an incident had to spoil what seemed such a nice holiday.

[Irene]

Good to see you back, Alan. :D

Sorry to hear about your 'incidents', but pleased that it didn't dent the pleasure of your holiday too much.

On the subject of your next holiday plan, we have been looking into the possibility of buying a narrow boat (with cruiser-style fore / aft) for a retirement interest. If you have any experience of canal boat holidays, take a look at the thread and give me the benefit of your knowledge.

[Watchful]

Sorry to learn of your misfortune but glad you had a good time until then.

Missed your thoughts for the day

[catgate]

Sounds like a good trip rather badly spoiled, Alan.

Can I suggest that on your next trip, later in the summer, you take the matter of holes rather more seriously before you leave harbour. Holes in low down places can cause problems on that sort of trip.

[Thos]

Interesting report. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you with the insurance claims. My experience is that they try to wriggle out of any pay-out. Please keep us informed. I am particularly interested because we are due to go on a couple of driving breaks on the Continent in the next few weeks or so. Admittedly in France, not Portugal, but the warning serves to keep me aware.

Welcome back, though.

Thos.