Today we took a drive to Vila Real de San Antonio (VRS) which sits on the tidal river Rio Guadiana that separates Portugal & Spain. You can take a ferry across to Spain for EU1.75.

A bridge was built over this river back in 1991 which eased the congestion down in VRS. This is quite an impressive looking bridge – see the picture below.

At the end of the 19th century the town was a major canning centre for sardines and tuna, and the port was busy with the ships that sailed the Guadiana. It is still a thriving community based on fishing, agriculture and tourism.

There is a large town square where we had lunch. The town square is surrounded by orange (laranjal) trees. We had a lovely paella. Steve ordered a small beer and they delivered a very small beer as a joke – see the pictures below. Most of the shops had shut for the afternoon siesta from 1pm to 3pm. The restaurants were open.

Spain is on a different time zone to Portugal so when you catch the ferry across to the Spanish side you need to put your clocks forward an hour.

As we sped along in our little Fiat Punto with no air conditioning we saw that the countryside took on a more agricultural look the closer we got to VRS – lots of orange plantations.