Portugal 201604 29 Walking the Guadiana River

Today we walked parallel to the Guadiana River, which defines the border between Portugal and Spain.  The river is wide and heavily used for all kinds of activities.

The terrain was a little more hilly, and we occasionally heard the bells of sheep.  

Unfortunately, the day started off with a fairly steep descent, which of course meant climbing in the later part of the day.

Part of the trail occurred through a Special Protection Area formed in response to the European Union Habitat Directive of 1992 (I am sure this means something to the Europeans). Lunch was eaten(gobbled) at a lovely waypoint with other tourists, although one of the locals seemed just a little weird.

Looking across the river at Spain, it appeared at first glance there were absolutely no differences in the architecture.

We were back on the trail in the afternoon, fortunately ending in a cafe overlooking the river, enjoying an (gasp) alcoholic beverage while looking at the interesting boats on the river.

After the sheep, the only large game we saw was this trail of ants crossing the track.

I know I am stretching things a bit here but after 13 km and 1000 feet of ascent, even little things start looking really interesting.  Time to go to dinner soon!

Portugal 2016 04 28 Vila Real de Santo Antonio and the Coast.

Today we had a relatively long walk (16 km), but it covered an incredible diversity of terrain.  The roads were more quiet, with less population, but the abundance of roadside wildflowers  continued to amaze me.

From our initial stop, we got an overview of a river lagoon, which bore the first signs of the diverse fishing industry.  Here, oyster beds were nestled in the calmer waters.

After some walking, we descended onto a beach, and what a beach!  You can see how badly crowded it was.... 

July and August bring the hordes of tourists, and apparently this place just crawls with humanity then.

In the meantime, one could see local fishermen going after shellfish, and signs of sea life like this jellyfish.

Lunch was special, held at a local restaurant supplied by local fisherman.  We literally placed our order three hours ahead so that the fish could be caught freshly for us.

After lunch we were joined by local nature guide, who showed us things like the shark egg case below, and wild asparagus.

We finally ended up in small town while we waited for the bus.  We could see Spain across the river.

The local town square was quite attractive with decorative paving and further random pieces of art. 

Now it’s time for the bus ride back to dinner (huge) and a drink (almost huge).  And t:he famous dessert:  Camel Drooling!

Portugal 2016 04 27 A Free Day in Tavira

Today was unstructured, and we chose not to take the offered boat tour, so we happily toddled around Tavira for 4 or so hours, letting our poor bodies recover from the last three days of exertion.

There will be no rhyme or reason for the observations—they are random notes on Portugal.

First, I must say that there are all kinds of interesting modes of transportation here, running from donkey carts to small cars to motocycles to tuk tuks, three wheeled trucks and even the occasional tractor.  There are painted pedestrian crosswalks, and the local drivers observe them carefully (thank God).

Homes here are terribly little, but beautifully kept, with a variety of facades and decoration.  One intriguing detail is how the centuries-old structures are retrofit to include modern utilities.

The Portuguese seem extremely clean, because it is common to see fresh laundry out everywhere.

Streets and walkways are very narrow, and all cobbled.

I tried to get a picture of the sardines swimming in the water (about 8” long—not a mere mouthful), gulls standing around and a stork on its huge nest on top of a giant chimney stack.  They are somewhat like herons in that they are a bit ungainly looking, but extremely graceful in flight.

Random art pops up at intersections, with an interesting range of materials.

Fresh oranges are in season, and there are orange trees everywhere, including city streets.

For amusement, I tried taking pictures of some of the different kinds of tiles, and more than quickly reached 2 dozen in a few minutes.  I won’t bore you with them all, but there certainly is a fantastic variety.

Finally, some marvelous Portuguese philosophy...........

Portugal 2016 04 26 Ruins and Climbing

At first, some apologies--it seems like my first posts were at malloysathome.blogspot.ca  My fault!  Jet lag?  They are all there.....

Today I will try to act like I am on the same planet.

We took a bus from the hotel to get to our starting point of the ruins of a very old (and very big) Roman Villa, classified as a national monument.  The precision of the architecture is striking, with its very straight walls, and attention to all kinds of details and embellishments.  There were many signs of beautiful mosaics such as in the baths.  This was the villa of a very prosperous family, for they even had their own temple that allowed observances of more than one religious theme.

From ancient civilization, we then walked straight uphill (or so it seemed!) to an observation point on the top of the summit of Guihim.  Here, current civilization unfortunately caught up, with tagging not uncommon. 

The views were spectacular.  One thing I realized was that anything I saw that shone, which would have indicated a small body of water in Canada, was either a parking lot or greenhouse roofs.  There is no such thing as occasional water here.  We descended rather quickly.  Look at the obelisk now!

We passed by some very impressive luxury vacation homes, but regardless of the prosperity of the home, there was inevitably a minimum of three dogs guarding it.  The din was overwhelming.  It is not uncommon to hear roosters here, so at one point I was unsure who was louder—the rooster or the dog.

We stopped in a tiny cafe for a drink, and were pleased to discover that a cup of coffee or tea, or a beer were 1 euro (about $1.50).  For the Swiss couple with us, they went wild and had cokes which were 1.45 euros each!

Our walking today comprised about 14.5 km with 1100 ft of elevation, which does not seem too bad, but the relentless sun can be tiring.  We were more than glad to toddle back to the hotel, but unexpectedly we still had treats in store.  After dinner, there was a display of traditional Portuguese dancing, which was great fun.  The men wore stark black and white outfits, with black hats, but the women had a wide range of garb.  The youngest couple, two children, were extremely cute, and may only have been 4 or 5 years old, but they managed quite nicely.  (I think she had an extremely strong lead.)  Part of the display seemed to be turning the women as fast as they could to get their skirts to bell out widely.  Very impressive.