Ayamonte, Spain 🇪🇸 2019 – Michael and Pam's Travels

Date: 7th September 2019

Travelled: 77 kms from Faro in Portugal to Ayamonte in Spain

Visited: Tavira and Ayamonte

Stayed: Ayamonte marina aire €11, all services. N37.21019, W07.40654

Budget: 90 days @ €72 per day

Whilst we (especially me) could have spent another day on the beach at Faro it was time to move. The scooter is loaded, the chairs away, the washing folded, we service the Hymer, wave au revoir to our French neighbours and roll out into the morning traffic. We have set the GPS for Tavira, near the Spanish border.

Almost every Lidl supermarkets we have stopped in has a section specially marked for motorhome parking. Goes to show Lidl know their market.

Tavira, Algarve, Portugal

Map of Tavira, the icon on our parking spot

Making our way into Tavira wasn’t easy.
You may think negotiating the Hymer along a narrow cobbled street looks like fun, but it’s a little nerve racking actually, luckily nothing came the other way, so all good.

Lots of potential here if your looking for something to renovate.

Having found our parking spot (finally) we cross the Rio Gilão into the old town. Needless to say we cross the Ponte Romano to do so.

The Igreja da Misericórdia, circa 1551. Apart from it’s renaissance features the azulejos tile panels lining the wall provide a story book.

From the Igreja bell tower we get views across Tavira.

The gardens below the ruins of the Castelo provide some shade and a peaceful stop.

We have enjoyed our walk around Tavira, but it’s time to continue east. We set the GPS for a stop at Vila Real de Santo António, but it proves to be a large dusty car-park on the Rio Guadiana. Whilst there are 20 or more motorhomes in situ, it looks a bit ordinary. The Rio Guadiana provides the border between Portugal and Spain in the south.

Crossing the Rio Guadiana. It appears this relatively new bridge is having some major rectification works.

Ayamonte, Andalucía, Spain

Map of Ayamonte, marker on our parking spot

So we cross to the Spanish side of the Rio Guadiana to an aire on the marina in Ayamonte. Apart from paying an extra €2 we have a lovely view of the marina, parked on concrete rather than dirt and have the place to ourselves until a Scottish couple arrive later in the day.

Love the GPS when it finds the steepest, narrow cobbled stone street for us to negotiate.

We go for an early evening walk around Ayamonte. Finding a little bar to sit down and watch the locals walking into the centro for the festival.

Our overnight spot on the marina, doesn’t seem very popular does it.

We watch the sun slowly set over Spain rather than Portugal tonight.

As usual Pam is keen for an early walk, so we spend an hour exploring Ayamonte. We only see cleaners doing their best and the odd reveller looking worse for wear. However the town square is worth a photo.

Our exploration of Portugal is now complete, so a couple of statistics. We have travelled 2387 kms (excluding the scooter) in Portugal, stopping overnight in 26 different villages, towns and cities over 34 days. No rain and only the odd cloud in the late afternoon. A very motorhome friendly country !

Michael and Pam

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