Estação Real

We were given a ground floor room in this converted old station building. The room looked out on an old train platform which was accessible to the public and had graffiti on the walls. It also looked out on existing train platforms used by passengers and trains and there was considerable noise from trains and announcers. This meant we had no natural light or ventilation. There was no air conditioning. There was a plug in radiator to heat the large room. There were very few mains sockets to plug things into. Check in was from 5pm which we felt was rather late. We'd arrived on foot and had to catch a train to pass some time until the room was ready. The room was large as was the bathroom. There were some décor touches in the room and bathroom but we felt they smacked of 'style over substance', we would have preferred more facilities and less arty touches. The bathroom had space for a big shower and a free standing bath - it could be luxurious - but instead it had a tiny shower cubicle tucked in one corner. There were no glasses in the room for us to drink water so we were told to go to the café across the road to get some plastic glasses from the café. There was just one chair in the room which was broken. Vala Do Carregado has very limited facilities and is overlooked by a large power station. Not the most attractive setting!