We did another daytrip on our Portugal trip to Monte Gordo besides the one to Tavira. This time to the Andalusian town Ayamonte in Spain, which is right at the other side of the Portugal border.

We only had to go to the next town, Vila Real de Santo António about 5 minutes away by taxi, which was a nice little town too. We had a fast shopping tour there, but didn’t find anything.

From there we only had to catch a ferry to Spain which takes about 20 minutes. It was cheap, both the taxi and the ferry and it went over quite frequently, so we only had to wait for a little while.

Guadiana River is 778 kilometers long and drains an area of about 67,000 square kilometers and has nearly two thousand dams. It’s the second longest river in Europe and flows into the Gulf of Cadiz, which is a part of the Atlantic Ocean.

There are also a more modern way, a bridge in the north part of the town linked to the motorway between Portugal and Spain, but of course we had to take this nice ferry ride.

Ayamonte is a small old fishing town which felt wonderfully Spanish with more shops, bars and restaurants than in Monte Gordo, so no wonder it’s such a popular destination.

There are wonderful old medieval quarter in the central district of the town, with many very narrow streets and historical buildings. There were very attractive cobbled plazas, lined with trees and restaurants and bars.

Once again we could see all those beautiful and interesting mosaic work, just look at these two photos!!!

Claudie asked me about the food in one of the other Portugal posts. Well, this was in 2004 and it was one of our first longer trips together, so we hadn’t started to take the photographing as serious as we do now. I remember though that Ayamonte had many excellent seafood dishes.

Besides that, you already know that we often forget to take photos of the food because we’re so hungry and just throw ourselves at the food…. *giggles*

I found this short video taken from the air over Ayamonte, which gives you a glimpse of how it looks in real life - and how small the ferry is that we went with. Cute I think!

When I stumbled over that video, I also could see that Ayamonte obviously is holding quite many music events and the popular young singer Maria Isabel is from Ayamonte.

The one thing that we regret now afterwards, was that we didn’t go to the beach area of Ayamonte, Isla Canela, which is about 5 minutes away drive from Ayamonte city area. It’s reached by a causeway across the Marismas del Guadiana. These salt marshes are a wildlife reserve where you have the opportunity to spot some waterfowls like flamingos and herons.

Isla Canela has several kilometers of sandy beaches popular by both windsurfers and kitesurfers - and most certainly me! There are also quality golf courses where of one is built into the Marismas itself. That would for sure interest Mr Lifecruiser!

Now to the news: we might be able to go to Isla Canela some day soon, because as it looks like right now, we’re heading for Spain in the upcoming week, somewhere between the 27th of February and the 1st of March. More info comes later.

Lifecruiser is going on a trip again! *smiling from ear to ear*

Lifecruiser Ayamonte photo slide show.