What a Diff'rence a Day Made(Dinah Washington) - South and across the border to Portugal

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There is a song written in 1934 by a Spanish songwriter Maria Grever titled ‘What a diff'rence a day mades’ and today it couldn’t have been truer.

The weather in Santiago hadn’t been that kind to us over the last 3 days just as we were starting to think that warmer temperatures for the northern spring might have been here.But this morning has dawned brilliantly fine and sunny,if a little cool still.

Mind you we leave ourselves open to the changes in the weather by moving on every 2 or 3 days.

Packing up was easy in this apartment because it is compact although in saying that there has been enough room to spread ourselves around too.

It has been another find on Air BnB and despite the fact that the heating inside could have been a bit warmer to counter the cool outside temperatures we managed OK even if we did resort last night to leaving the oven on and the door open after baking chips to go with the pizza

. It was well equipped and had excellent cooking facilities and above all a comfortable bed which when one is experiencing so many other peoples apartments can be a standout and important feature for a good night’s sleep.

A quick check of Peggy confirmed that she still has all four wheels and our slight concerns at the closeness of the’ tent city’ to the car park out on open ground and away from the apartment were unfounded.

We now have a box for the grocery supplies we have accumulated and to give more security in the boot after we have chained the suitcases and backpacks together, the box now lives in the back of the car with the items requiring chilling in the fridgey bag with the ‘ice blocks’. This has worked well up to now keeping perishables in good order for consumption as we travel. We opted not to buy a microwave for the BBA V3 and this has turned out to be a good move as we have been mostly in apartments where generally a microwave for quick heating has been supplied.

The barrio cat wasn’t at the window to say goodbye to although Gretchen did have to sort out a cat fight that started outside our front door in the narrow alleyway last night chasing the cats across the road to try and get them apart. Guess that is life in the barrio!

We had two options for heading south to Portugal and as usual the BBA V3 chose the non highway route N550 which took us through the outer southern suburbs of Santiago and then a string of small towns that almost seemed to run into each other.

This side of Spain is not that ‘pretty’ as the standard and upkeep of housing in many places does not match other Western European countries even after making an allowance for the fact that much of the living accommodations are quite old and there is not a lot of new or replacement construction going on, at least on the roads we have travelled which have tended to take us through towns rather than around as the highways do.

We are back to being able to travel within sight of the sea today and we decided to take a diversion from the N550 to take us down a peninsula to a town at the bottom with the difficult to say name of Sanxenxo.

The name means Saint Genesius who is the patron saint of the town. The town reputedly has the best beach in Galicia province and we could certainly agree with that. Even Gretchen had to admit that the colour of the sand and the ‘look ‘of the beach put it right up there with our own Mount Maunganui. What it didn’t have was of course was ‘the Mount’.

It is one of the busiest beaches in summer in this part of Spain and is enjoyed by people that include the Spanish Prime Minister who takes his summer holiday here.

Today, apart from a couple of people soaking up the bright sunshine sunbathing on the beach, the only other people around other than ourselves, were elderly residents who we guess live there.

The road that runs on the other side of the beach promenade had a long line of apartment blocks, most only up to 5 or 6 stories high. Few looked occupied as the shutters on most windows were pulled down. Again we were please we visited in the off season.

After lunch on a bench gazing out over the Rio de Pontevedra to the blue water and distant beaches all that had white sand as well, we took a stroll along the promenade until we or should say I found the ice cream shop and ordered a chocolate menthe cone, yum!

For this short stop for lunch our impressions of the built up areas of Spain took a lift!

The road away from our lunch stop carried on following the coast with scenic views all the way.

From a high point on the road we were able to stop and take in a view that reminded us very much of Wellington Harbour with houses ‘tumbling down the hillside’ except there were lines of mussel barges in the harbour that we sure the ‘Greenies’ would never allow in Wellington. In retrospect they actually didn’t look out of place here.

Getting back to the N550 at Pontevedra roved a bit of a challenge but eventually we made and continued on a more direct route to our destination.

The name of the town that is on the Spanish side of the border is a word we are familiar with ‘Tui’ which in New Zealand is a much loved native bird.

The name of the town goes back to the 1^st century and has no reference to a bird but rather people who founded the town.

The BBA V3 doesn’t cross borders in the usual direct way if there is an alternative and so we diverted off to the N552 and headed towards A Guarda and then before getting that far turned sharply left and drove down a wide, divided road with no traffic that looked like it was leading to a border crossing. Over the river bridge and on the other side we were in Portugal!

We were looking for the N13 which would have continued the coastal drive for us but we only found the A28 and very quickly we were in our destination of Viana do Castelo.

Finding the apartment was a breeze for once down by the beach on the other side of the river from Viana do Castelo. Picking the key from the local hairdresser was easy and we were soon making ourselves at home in the very spacious apartment with a balcony looking due west on the 4^th floor.

There was a fresh breeze blowing giving the local windsurfers a real workout to control their boards.

Just time for a pre dinner drink and some nibbles before dinner and then watch the sunset.

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