Spain 2016 - found a Saturday market.

Yesterday I heard a woman asking about the location of a Saturday market that her friend had told her was just over the bridge in Portugal. The person she was asking didn't know anything about it but it was just enough incentive for us to cross the river into Portugal this morning to take a look. The first indication of a market was a traffic jam and then cars parked beside the road and in fields near Castro Marim, the first little village after you come off the motorway.
We parked and walked into bedlam. We discussed tonight, over dinner, the difference between this market and the one we experienced every Saturday in Ceret, France, last year. In Ceret there was a sense of order. The streets were closed of and the vendors were on the sidewalk leaving the road for the pedestrians. There was little yelling, vendors would offer samples but reach out and speak intimately to get your attention. There was some jostling but mostly polite, edging through crowds and lining up at stalls. Here there was no sense of order, some tarps over stalls reached right across the street and to get through you had to walk through their wears, some were just a table in the middle of the roadway. There was lots of yelling in Portuguese, Spanish and English. It felt aggressive and people were also a bit aggressive in pushing their way through. Stalls were set up haphazardly resulting in some areas with one central aisle and others with three. Vendors yelled out the prices of their products and would do that when halfway through a transaction with a customer. It was great fun!

I parked in a field after dropping off Mum and Dad and looking up saw this above the market.

Bridge from Spain to Portugal.

This Crusader sculpture is in the centre of the roundabout going into Castro Marim (He looks like a pencil sketch)

We have been a little disappointed by the cheese selection in the supermarkets so were happy to see some cheese stalls here.

I loved a multilevel woven basket but couldn't figure out how to get it home.

Salt fish. Dad wants to try it. Mum and I have no interest. He may need to find it on a menu as we are not going to try buying it and cooking it.

Sheep milk cheese. We expected this to be mild but were given a free taste and it is hard and quite strongly flavoured. 3 for 5 Euros but we paid 2 Euro for 1.

Huge radishes! We bought a bunch of the normal, little round ones but next time I am going to get one of these and roast it in olive oil and herbs.

Makes me want to start gardening. If I had been able to find a basil plant I would have bought it. Being here for another 6 weeks it would have grown and we could have had fresh basil.

A lemon tree or a orange tree costs 20 Euro. I would love to be able to grow one of those at home.

One truck just had huge bags of onions or potatoes. George would have been tempted. He loved the big, cheap, bags of stuff.

Eavesdropping paid of and I think that this will become part of our weekly routine. We didn't walk right in to the thick of things this time but I will do next time. It looked like the rest was clothing but I would like to check.

Spain 2016 - random pictures and Chicken Livers

I went into town, Ayamonte, alone today, to do some shopping and just wander. Unfortunately I forgot my camera. I must be getting too relaxed. I found some things that I want to take pictures of but I have another 6 weeks so I think there is plenty of time to get them. I found free parking, had a lovely meander through the streets, found a cell phone store with a kind English speaking clerk (I may actually be able to use Christine's old phone in Spain, I will keep you abreast of this as it has been an ongoing struggle to get affordable cell phone use while in Europe), found the bull ring (Dad thinks we may be here for a bullfight. I am of 2 minds about this; on one side I hate the tormenting of the bulls, eventual death and the injury of the horses, couldn't care less about the human injury that's their choice, on the other hand its the chance to see something that may soon disappear, "a cultural event", I hope Dad is wrong and I wont have to decide whether to attend), I found the Casa Grande ( and will go back and take pictures to post). A trip to the market, Mercadona (super market) and bus station (no one in the info booth to help with questions about going to Seville) rounded out the trip.

We have consumed a few bottles of Spanish wine.

We have been buying our wine at the Mercadona and Carrefour. They stock cheap, primarily Spanish wine. Dad's philosophy is that he has chosen the wine that is on "special" for the week and that there are not many bottles left of (therefor popular). This has resulted in red wine anywhere from $2 to $4 (yep $s and all have been good). It is usually a Rioja but sometimes a Ribera del Duero. The $2 one was an accident and although it certainly wasn't the best wine I have had it was still quite satisfactory. He also accidentally (?) bought a $5 bottle and wow, it was delicious. Mum is finding it a little more difficult as she drinks a Pinot Grigio at home and has yet to find a white that suits.

Because of my lack of current pictures I am going to post a couple that I haven't had room for (feeling that my posts were getting pretty long):

Portugal is known for its fanciful chimneys but these are actually in Punta del Moral.

Also taken in Punta del Moral. Its not unusual to see painted tiles depicting the Virgin Mary next to the front door of homes.

This is the grocery store that we can see, across the harbour, from our terrace. We can tell whether it is open or not although we now know its hours of operation (siesta is from 2pm to 5pm). Its quite small but has an amazing array of products. The little tiny fishing village also has another grocery store, a number of restaurant/bars, at least one hardware store, a clothing store and a bank machine (!).

More painted tile, next to the bridge in Tavira. I wonder what the dragon is about.

Both Mum and I have found that we get in a rut in regards to cooking at home but somehow when we are away and working together in the kitchen we get more creative. We see things in the grocery store and want to try them. Last time in the Mercadona we saw chicken livers and Mum remembered a recipe she used to make. We had it tonight:
Chicken livers in yogurt.
1/2 Onion chopped
1/2 Red Pepper chopped
1 large mushroom chopped
3 cloves of garlic chopped
Fried in olive oil.
Add Chicken Livers, chicken stock, a little tomatoe paste
Cook livers thoroughly, turning frequently.
Add glug of white wine
Simmer until almost dry then add 1/2 small container of yogurt and mix thoroughly.
We had this with cauliflower but it would be good over pasta.

Spain 2016 - birdwatching in the marshes, las marismas. Pork in Mustard and Citrus Sauce.

Dad had gone for a drive yesterday and found a place where we could walk into the marshes to birdwatch. I walked over and Mum and Dad drove. Over the causeway to Punta del Moral.

When the tide goes out the marshes drain through these culverts under the road, a rushing waterfall.

There is roadwork being done but a gap has been left, at the roundabout, to get on the road towards Ayamonte.

Its a legitimate trail, not just a track of into the marsh. Sendero translates to path.

With a map that indicates that the 5.5km trail should take about 1 hour 45 minutes. The sign also indicated that banduras is a problem. On looking it up on Dad's translation app, it means garbage.

A gate prevents cars from going on the track.

Mum and I walked for half an hour, stopping frequently to check out birds with our binoculars and for me to try and take pictures of them. We then turned around and walked back to the car, where Dad was birdwatching from the comfort of the drivers seat.

I can't resist taking pictures of egrets, they are so photogenic.

This blind has views on 3 sides to watch the birds without disturbing them.

This Grey Heron kept flying on as we approached and took a while to get a photo.

A Marsh Sandpiper.

There are a number of different kinds of gulls and terns here. Rather obviously this one is a Black Headed Gull.

Spotted Redshank.

The tide was well out leaving these undulating mud banks on the tidal river.

The birds were not the only ones investigating the low tide possibilities. There were a couple of guys wading in wellington boots and digging with wide tined rakes.

When he noticed me taking pictures he dug these out of his bucket to show me what he was collecting. I still don't know what they are.

After meeting up with Dad we had coffee at a cafe, shopped at El Jamon in Punta del Moral and went home for lunch. I then went for a bike ride down to the other end of the beach. At the far end is Paradise Beach and this seems to be where the kite boarders hang out and the RVs are parked. I spoke to a German kite boarder who said that the RVs get moved along by the local police on the weekend when the local restaurants need the parking but otherwise they get left alone.
I biked back and sat in the sun, and out of the wind, and sketched and watched the fishing boats come in.

Love the colours.

He was watching me sketch, while pretending not to.

Mum saw Prawns in Mustard and Citrus on a menu and we decided to try it with the pork tenderloin tonight. Looked up the recipe on the internet and it was delicious.

Pork with Mustard and Citrus.
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 tbsp white wine
juice of one orange
juice of 1 lemon
Marinate pork in this for 1 hour and then cook in it in a frying pan.

Spain 2016 - Huelva Hell and a lovely lunch.

We have been considering how to visit Granada as I would love to see Alhambra again. However I remember the first time George and I went (when we stayed overnight) that driving in the city was very difficult, one way streets and impatient drivers. The second time, when we went with Chris we drove directly to Alhambra and didn't go into the city. We are far enough away that we would have to stay overnight so we are looking into taking a train. For the same reasons we are considering taking a train to Seville. So today we drove to Huelva to find the train station and get a schedule.
I hate driving in cities (even Toronto which I am relatively familiar with). I hate, even more, driving in cities where I only half understand the traffic signs, there seem to be no street names anywhere and we have only a simplified map out of a 10 year old guidebook to go by. However, with Dad "map reading" we found a tourist office and discovered we were only a block from the train station. We learned a number of things; there is no long term parking at the train station, there is no printed timetable (but clerks at both the tourist office and the train station hand wrote out the train schedule for me) and the train to Seville leaves at either 7am (too early) or 3pm (too late). Next we will look into the bus.
While we were in Huelva, Dad wanted to find Las Marismas de Odiel and after a knitting pattern drive over a bridge, 2 roundabouts, under the previous road etc we found the entrance to the marshes that are right across the River Odiel from Huelva.

We drove through an area of flat, sunken fields that are flooded with seawater, evaporated and yield mountains of sea salt.

I took the first exit and ended up in a parking lot of a building that was obviously not the visitors centre but there were glass cages with some birds and the signage indicated that it was a rehabilitation centre for injured birds.

The first cage had a hawk or harrier in it but the reflection of the glass was too much. In the next this beautiful horned owl.

The third had 2 spoonbills.

We drove out and into the next road on the left and found the visitor centre. Went to the bathromm, got a map and vowed to come back, with a picnic and spend the day. They have walking trails and blinds, a movie and displays.

This board was in Spanish but the heading translates to Fish Eagle. The pictures looked like an Osprey.

We continued along the coast back towards Ayamonte. It was now 2pm and we were starving but had decided to stop for lunch where we had coffee a couple of days ago, El Rompido. We sat at the same restaurant, inside this time as it was cool, grey, windy and felt like rain.

I told Christine I would post a picture of what I was looking at while talking to her, on her commute. Time change is sort of weird, I'm sitting down for a late lunch and she is on her way to work.

Mum and Dad shared a Prawn Risotto. Prawns, octopus and this huge lagostina.

I had asked Dad to order me the squid, which he did from the menu using the Spanish word given. There were shells on some of the pieces of seafood and when I asked the waiter he confessed that the terms for cuttlefish and squid had been reversed on the menu. It was delicious anyway, fried, over a bed of buttery potatoes.

Mum shrimp wrestling (we have decided it should be an Olympic sport, along with clingwrap wrestling which she would lose miserable at and I find strangely amusing)

A glass of wine each, bread and olives while we waited (it takes 20 minutes to make a risotto from scratch), coffee after and Mum and I had flan for dessert. It was our most extravagant meal yet and we decided that a light salad was all we would need for supper.

Spain 2016 - bicycling Isla Canela

Mum and Dad headed in to town to go to the market (we are trying to buy most of our produce there) and the "buck store" (this is the closest equivalent we can come up with, cheap store, wide variety of products in disarray) for a new ice cube tray and a second cutting board. They dropped me at the Isla Canela Golf Hotel.

It looks like a nice golf course and the hotel, although 4 star, is quite understated. It has a quiet little lobby with a bar and outside terrace.

I had asked at the office of Isla Canela Tours, the company that manages our apartment, and they had suggested that I might be able to rent a bicycle at the hotel at the golf course. The hotel clerk spoke excellent English, outlined the costs (2 Euro for an hour, 10 Euro for a day, 50 Euro for a week) and when I chose to rent for a week adjusted the bike to my height and showed me how to work the locking mechanism.

According to the map it was about a 7 km distance back to the Marina. It was dead flat and all on marked bicycle paths, very comfortable.

After leaving the golf course area I crossed a marsh. The tide was out and there were various wading birds, poking around in the mud .

I thought this was a curlew but on looking in the book discovered that it is a Whimbrel (stripy head, white on lower back) (Sheesh, Cyndy must be right, she says I'm in denial and am becoming a birder!)

In front of the developed areas there is still plenty of foliage between the path and the buildings. Grey cement for the bike path, pink bricks for walking path.

Beach beside the path.

Where the path goes through undeveloped areas the is a lot of native scrub on both sides of the path. We have been here just over a week and already there are more people here than when we arrived. Lots of people walking the path by the sea, most with small dogs.

They are still building so there must still be a market even though there are a fair number of units listed for sale.

The Goldfinch here looks quite different from our North American Goldfinch. Quite stunning with his bright red face.

I biked to the end of the path, where the river comes in and bends around to Isla Christina.

The Melia Atlantico Hotel has the end property with the beach in front and the river beside. Blue and white tile roof and a lovely pool area.

I got back just as Mum and Dad drove in to the underground garage. Lunch and then an afternoon of reading as it showered (as forecast) for the first time since we got here.

Supper recipe: Black Olive and Anchovy Tapenade
100gm pitted black olives
1 can anchovies
pinch of Herbs de Province
2 cloves of garlic
juice of 1/2 lemon
dribble of olive oil
Blend in food processor and let rest for 10 minutes. Serve on thinly sliced baguette.