on to NAZARE...

I was the designated driver in Portugal, and satiated with the wonderful repast we'd just had, it was hard for me to stay alert as we drove on to Nazaré, especially with my partner dozing in the seat beside me! To cut the journey short, we decided to take the National Highway (Estrada) and regretted it almost as soon as we were on it. 5 kms after we got onto it, we were fined 7500$00 escudos (about USD 35) for not taking a ticket from the machine earlier. I remember passing a line of booths where I scanned for a live person on duty. There was no one around. All text was in Portuguese. I wish I had been alerted about the highway tolls earlier, I think the rental companies should enlighten tourists about this. So we ended up paying the fine (the sum total of all the tolls on the entire length of the Estrada) to a stubborn officer, for a stretch of road that we were to use for barely another 15 minutes.