Portugal and bit of France

I was thinking on adding this trip to one thread related to Portugal but then decided to open new one since it covers Montpellier in addition

The decision to make this trip was made based on weather forecast as an answer to question: where will be nice in next few days? Since Portugal is quite far from Croatia in terms of GA, I chose refueling stop somewhere in the middle – Beziers LFMU – based on previous good experience. It took us 4 hours to get there, covering some 610 NM with pretty constant 15 kts headwind. PPR 24 hours in advance is required for non-Schengen flights to LFMU but other than that everything is easy and fast there. The total time for stop was 30 minutes, Jet A1 was around 1.6 € per liter and landing fee was below 15€. We continued to our destination Evora LPEV with pretty strong headwind, ranging from 25 to 30 kts, which extended our flight for some 30 min, taking us 4:25 to cover some 640 NM. Also, some heading and altitude changes were needed for weather avoiding because above FL120 wind was over 40 kts but we needed it for some time for topping up the clouds.

Evora airfield was pretty busy that day and day after with skydiving competition and the atmosphere there was really great. Refueling was very quick but the price, stated in e-mail (1.07€), at the end with all taxes rose to 1.70€ which was still much less than in Spain or Germany. Taxi to the city was cheap, under 10€ and our apartment rented via Airbnb was under 50€ offering solid quality and fantastic location in very center of the city yet reachable by car.
There’s a lot to see in the city and our plan was to spend as much time as we can in walking and to depart next day in the evening to Cascais. Dining options are great and there’s a lot of nice restaurants with tasty food of different kinds: meat, sea food and vegetarian. And it’s much cheaper than other European countries and Evora seems to be cheaper than other cities in Portugal. Just for comparison – small bottle of beer at café on main square costs 1€. In Croatia you can’t buy a bottle of beer at that price even in the supermarket.
I’m posting just few pics from few hundred we took.
Diana’s temple

One of the many churches

Chapel of bones in Dos Osos church

On the roof of the Cathedral

Cathedral cloister

Total bill at LPEV was 25€ for landing and 1-day parking which is quite OK. Our 40 minutes flight from Evora to Cascais LPCS was at low altitudes just briefly climbing to 6000 ft to top up some gliding zone and to start VOR/DME approach to LPCS via ESP. Cascais is also easy and straight forward, real GA airport, and since our flight was internal no PPR for immigration was needed. With flight schools, maintenance facilities and lot of aircrafts parked it looks like ideal base for GA. We didn’t lose much time at the airport; we just booked the apartment in Alfama quarter in Lisbon and caught Uber for 20€ drive there.
Lisbon is really amazing city and one would need several weeks to discover just a small piece of it. For this visit we decided not to visit museums and to stick to walking around the city enjoining good weather, nice views and good food. Our initial plan was 3 days in Lisbon and then 2 days in Porto before coming back home, of course with some flexibility always needed in GA mainly due to weather.
Since it was holiday and street parties were everywhere, we spent first evening just walking in Alfama, enjoying good music and eating grilled sardines in improvised street restaurant. Again, I must highlight the prices – a meal for two and few (or more) beers were under 20€.
Next two days we spent in different parts of the city mostly walking with few tram hops and one short taxi ride to Belem tower.
Castle of Sao Jorge

Famous Lisbon tram

Belem tower

Naval museum

Archeological museum

On third day the weather suddenly deteriorated (a bit faster than forecasted) and walking around the city didn’t look exciting due to rain. So, we decided to rent the car and drive around, avoiding rain or waiting somewhere for it to stop. Our first stop was Cabo da Roca, the most western point of continental Europe. It was not too crowdy due to bad weather, drizzle, rain and fog prevented taking good pictures but we were persistent enough to take some.

I went downhill all the way to the beach to get ocean view.

From there we drove to Sintra and then uphill to Palacio Nacional da Pena walking through the park and visiting the palace and later on Castelo dos Mouros. Spending two hours in the palace and two hours in the castle, we didn’t have much time to just walk around in the park although the nature is stunning.
Palacio Nacional de Pena

Castelo dos Mouros

View of Sintra from Castelo dos Mouros

View of Palacio Nacional de Pena from Castelo do Mouros

As sun was setting, we drove to Cascais for brief visit and diner. Despite being a kind of posh place, prices in restaurants were moderate and city itself is charming.



After restaurant and visiting few pubs we returned to Lisbon late in the evening.
Watching closely to TAF and other weather sources we decided to leave the decision for flying to Porto for early morning although FG, VV001, RADZ, -RA and BKN002 didn’t promise much. Our targeted airport for Porto was Vilar de Luz LPVL, so at least some level of VFR would be required. Unfortunately, the morning didn’t surprise and TAF just turned pretty much precisely to METAR with further TAF not promising at all. After checking 3-day forecast we realized nothing would change in following 2 days and we simply decided to fly to France and spend couple of days in Montpellier.
Quick ride with Uber from Lisbon to Cascais was even cheaper than on arrival, only 13€. Total bill at LPCS was under 70€ for landing and 3 days of parking. Comparing to what we usually see in touristic places, I would call this cheap (e.g. Split LDSP would charge you double and it would be very hard to get parking place). From my perspective, Cascais LPCS is five stars GA airport.
The shortest route to LFMP was along the occluded front which was part of pretty consistent low coming from Atlantic and high situated over Mediterranean. That’s why I decided to fly a bit more towards east to escape the front and then to continue to Montpellier. The decision proved right because we needed just 20 min to pass the front and emerge to clear skies. Due to high temperature freezing level was above FL140 where we briefly stopped our climb while being in IMC while combination of low behind us and high in front rewarded us with over 50 kts of tailwind.

Montpellier LFMP is really easy and doesn’t require any PPR for parking or extra-Schengen flights. You simply land and that’s it. If you need customs and immigration they will just come and perform the check. Refueling bowser showed up immediately and Jet A1 was around 1.60€ per liter. Uber/taxi ride to the city was around 25€ all the way to the pedestrian zone where we booked the apartment after we landed.
The city itself is vibrant, rich with historic sites, beautiful buildings and museums, full of young people because of large university. Spending there two days wasn’t nearly enough to see at least must-see locations but we walked the streets and visited most important sites, leaving the rest for the next visit.
Palace of justice

Arc de Triomphe

La Promenade du Peyrou

Medical faculty

Cathedral Saint-Pierre

Church Sainte Anne

The departure from LFMT was as easy as arrival – we just filed a plan and show up at the airport, settling the bill in 5 minutes and proceeding to the apron. Total fees were under 25€ with landing being 15€ and parking 4€ per day. It’s really surprising and more than welcome to see such prices at big international airport and probably that’s the reason of high level of GA activity there. With such pricing, no PPR, having flight schools and service facilities, customs & immigration, instrument approaches and additional GA runway, LFMT qualifies as one of the friendliest GA airports in Europe. It could be very nice location for one of our next fly-ins.