A diligent traveller would never attempt to peek into another country not having explored fully the one he came to. Logically it would make more sense to spend all the days we had in Portugal on seeing as much of Portugal as we can. Yet we deluted our One-Country-Trip with brief leaps over the border. I must say it wasn’t intended, but when we arrived to Algarve, we realised that our ambitions to see “whole Portugal” were…errmmm…too ambitious. So we draw a circle around the country’s Atlantic coast and made an executive decision not to venture outside of Algarve. Once we’ve got a sense of what to do and how to travel around, it became clear that it is better to leave the other parts of Portugal for another time. Having found an excuse to be lazy, we discovered a couple of temptations we couldn’t resist. There was a bus tour from Algarve to Seville in Spanish Andalusia. Also a Spanish town of Ayamonte beckoned to us seductively from across the river when we visited a border town Vila Real.

Ayamonte.
Little town on a Portuguese-Spanish border. Literally on it, because the only thing that separates it from a Portuguese little town Vila Real Sant Antonio is a Guadiana river and a 10 minutes ferry ride. One might argue Ayamonte is not a “typical” Spanish town, as it is tainted by the influence of tourists coming over from Portugal, as well as locals use the ferry to Portugal like a local public transport when they go shopping. And I didn’t really expect to get the feel of being in a different country. Yet the moment we step on a Spanish land the distinctive flavour of Portugal was no longer in the air. The centre of the town is a car-free zone and is a perfect place to take a leisurely stroll along the narrow streets. They link small, pretty plazas, which are tucked away but full of busy pavement cafés and bars.
We didn’t have a map of the town and didn’t manage to find one in a local shops either, but the town is so small it took us only a couple of hours to get a decent feel of it and a decent coffee in one of its charming little cafés. And we left Ayamonte with the memories of plazas lined with the palm trees, adorned with amazing glazed ceramic tiles in blue&green  and of hilly narrow streets decorated with artistic expressions of faith.