Thursday, May 30, 2013

Market day in Olháo, Portugal

When I went to pay for a parking slip at 8:00 am Saturday morning in Olháo, I encountered the scene you see in the first photo below.  Man, was it busy.  What was happening was market day.  Bonnie and I spent a couple of hours walking around, seeing, hearing, feeling the market experience.  What is exotic and photogenic to us is just everyday to them.  Enjoy market day in Olháo.


Always time for a café con leche




Scouts were raising money for a project

Sort of a churro type of thing



Bag of snails




A fashion 'don't'








Indoor vegetable, fruit, and meat market



Beautiful jars of honey




The fish market was loud, smelly, busy



An idea for place markers for your next dinner party?!?

So silvery! Eels??

Parts is parts...



Octopus, the region's specialty

Reminds one of the tiled roofs of Spain...


Now that is a hunk of tuna!





Snails in abundance


Grains

Not sure what they are looking at


We encountered this lady in Tavira on the Roman Bridge two days
before.  She loudly shakes a single coin in her plastic cup shouting,
"MONEY...MONEY...MONEY!"



Big orange country











Fuseta, Portugal

Upon leaving Olháo, Portugal, we decided to stay on a secondary road instead of heading straight to the Autovia, or interstate.  Bonnie had the map out and said, "Turn right here."  I did and quickly we were in the little costal town of Fuseta.  We parked in front of a big unattractive apartment/condo building and set out to see what's what.  There were seven or so restaurants in front of the building.  Bonnie chose the one that had tomato on its "tosta", a traditional Portugese dish.  What it turned out to be was a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich on really good bread.  Very filling and a different taste since the sandwich had been grilled in olive oil instead of butter.

We set out to explore the town which was old, small, and quiet.  Here are some photos that will give a flavor of what we saw.  


Apartment/condo building with restaurants below

Small town square a couple of blocks from the water

Tiled houses scattered here and there

We kept being captivated by the old doors



Tile of a more 'tailored' print than usual 


That is a LARGE piece of furniture being hoisted out the window. Note the
men on the roof. There had been a car parked behind the truck. It was hurriedly relocated by its concerned owner.

Easy now...


Almost...

By golly, they did it!

Typical street of the town.  At the end is the entrance
to the cemetery beside the church.

Fishing boats

This fishing boat looks to be waiting to appear in an animated movie coming to a theater near you



Small but ready for action

Mascots I suppose

Hey! There's a gull on my head!

Who, me??



Hard to see but note ladders attached to wall - used to get on boats

It's always a good day for bocci 

Welcome to Spain

Dramatic bridge over the Guadiana River which separates Portugal and Spain