Hiya Ayamonte

I'm a bit tardy with this post. I'm sorry about that. I'd intended to try and write one every couple of days but I've been nose to the screen editing my latest book. Anyway, now the weather's about as appealing as a wet woollen coat on a snowy day (actually it's sleeting, so just as bad), I'm happy to look at these photos and enjoy the sunny skies again. 

How lovely it was to be in Portugal. It's hard to believe we came back more than ten days ago. The photos below are actually of Ayamonte, which is in Spain. The border between the two countries is the lovely Guadiana River. 

Now why are you surprised we went there? And also that we took the ferry across the river instead of taking a bus? 

You're not, I know.

As you might imagine the boat trip was the highlight for me, just as the ferry to Farol was last time; I just love boats. The Guadiana is a tidal river that flows straight out to sea a kilometre or so downstream from the ferry, but considering it flows into the Atlantic, it is remarkably calm with a very slow running tidal current.

The approach to Ayamonte across the water is lovely. The boat follows a diagonal route and it takes about fifteen minutes, so not very long, but enough to give us that 'aaaaah' feeling of being on the water again.

 The views were marvellous. Above is Castro Marim, a castle we didn't manage to get to, but I've promised myself we will next time.

Ayamonte was very pretty straddling the hillside with its brilliant white homes and colourful waterfront.

I was fascinated by these fishing boats too. Apparently they are trawlers and those ramp things are where they haul the nets in.

And here we were saying Hiya Ayamonte. What an attractive town it is: full of colour and cheerful liveliness. It was odd that we suddenly went forward an hour and the difference between a not quite awake late morning in Vila Real on the Portuguese side and a lively Ayamonte in full lunchtime mode was quite striking.

The tidal harbour waters run deep into the town. I think this landing stage was for fishermen, though. It's too shallow for navigation and anyway, the bridge was fixed. The rest of the photos are just impressions from the backstreets that we found. I enjoyed it very much, steep hills and all.

Well, that's it for this time Allemaal. The weather here is quite horrible, so I'll keep posting about sunny Portugal until things improve a bit. I hear it's going to snow again tomorrow and Wednesday. Ho hum.