Spain 2016 - exploring Castro Marim

We had two problems at the apartment so had to wait for the maintenance man this morning. One minor (a light bulb in the kitchen ceiling) and one major (the dishwasher wouldn't drain). I had let the management office know on Friday and they had scheduled him for Monday morning. He had been here before, when the dishwasher flooded the kitchen in the first week, and declared that it was fine and he could see no problem, in Spanish, so there is a lot of guess work regarding what he really said. He was right, it was fine until Thursday night and then it wasn't fine again.
Some twiddling of dials, some wonderful water sounds and then .. well I think it is a good job that we don't know Spanish. I got the impression that the air turned blue while the water pumped out of the dishwasher on to the floor. Wet towels and a mop and bucket later and he pulled the dishwasher out but this time found no solution. I caught "returno" and "technologica" which I took to mean that a technician would come. In terms of the light bulb, he took the old one and again said he would "returno". Of course there was a lot of Spanish in between the words that I sort of recognized.
Within about 20 minutes another guy arrived, went through the same process and pumped some more water out onto the floor. I think we may have heard the same Spanish words. He left, leaving his tool bag so I knew he was coming back. Bought back a replacement part and gave me a big explanation in Spanish, none of which I understood except bueno and from gestures I took it that the dishwasher was working again. Bueno!
The first guy came back with a light bulb that didn't fit so he took a knife out of the cutlery drawer, carved off a few bits and made it fit. Not exactly to code but we now have a kitchen light.

After shopping at El Jamon, having a coffee at Nuevo Simon and checking out a potential restaurant for Mum's birthday dinner, we walked onto the fishing wharf to see this huge refrigerator truck backing right up to a fishing boat. We are not sure if he was loading up on fish or unloading ice.

A small fishing boat came in and the fisherman loaded two plastic buckets into his white van - Pulpo: Octopus.

After lunch we drove over to Portugal. Mum and Dad dropped me in Castro Marim and went up river to do some birdwatching. I wanted to explore the little town that we had been to before; once to go to the castle with Nicola and twice to go to the market.

Although unmarked I found this little alley that lead to stairs to the second castle.

This castle appears to be newer than the one we explored with Nicola, and is closed currently.

But the views are great. Across the village, church on the right, other castle in the centre.

From up here I could see how to get to the windmill and the little chapel behind it. That's the Guadiana River behind and Ayamonte.

After walking around the battlements that were open to me (some were closed off due to major cracks), I walked back down into the village.

He didn't bark at me, just curious about what I was doing walking down the alley next to his house.

I don't know what "Revelim" means but I am used to following these brown signs they usually end up at a monument of some kind.

It was a fortification on a stone outcropping built in the early 1600s (and "prettified" in the late 1900s) to guard the river.

The little chapel of Santo Antonio sat within those walls.

There is an elaborate entrance area with columns and fountains,

a renovated windmill, open air amphitheatre, restaurant and cultural centre but I didn't go in.

This is why. The wind was picking up and it looked like I was going to get rained on.

I did a quick sketch and headed back down to the square I was to meet Mum and Dad in. At least there was a cafe there if I needed to get in out of the rain.

On the way down I passed the church with its large Umbrella Pine

and this; the storefront for the warehouse of the Castro Marim salt producers co-operative. Inside there was a desk for walk in traffic but the rest of the space was taken up with boxes, bags and packaging paraphernalia for the salt harvested without chemicals or mechanical means from the Natural Park of Castro Marim.

I met up with Mum and Dad and we drove home without getting rained on.

All those clouds made for a good sunset behind Villa Real's lighthouse.