Portugal! Viana do Castelo Sunday, 6th September

Nice sail down, goosewinging most of the way with prevented mainsail and poled out genoa. For the non sailors, that is one sail on one side and the other sail the other side, with poles and lines to stop them flopping or accidentally winging across to the other side.

What a place! First of all Portugal is very different, even though we are only about 15 miles from Spain. And the language is completely different, more so than I remembered. The marina manager opened the pedestrian bridge to let our boat in and we eventually went up to register and I had my first Portuguese lesson - I was practising my numbers and he was encouraging me, correcting me, and beaming when I got it right!

Discovered there was a festival on last night, starting at 10pm, so we strolled through the old town to the Praca da Republica where a stage had been set up. There were folk dances and music from a number of countries - some previous Portuguese colonies and some European and Balkan. What a spectacle - from traditional dress and clog dancing from Portugal to native stamping, fire-eating and fertility dances from Angola, frenetic raunchy numbers from Colombia and Venezuela, then Greek traditional dancing and music to finally Russian dolls and Cossak (sp?) whirling, leaping and stomping! Finished about 1am but for us it was 2am (Portugal is same as UK time, not Spanish time) so a long but great day.

Today spent exploring this fabulous old town. The old squares, public buildings and churches are all 16th and 17th C for the most part, mixed with a very modern riverfront with open cafes, striking bridges, avenues and modern statues. Very smart, very looked after and beginning to see typical Portuguese things, like the beautiful mosaics and ceramic tiles they are famous for.

Also took a funicular up the mountain to the Basilica and Miradoira of Santa Luzia (not an ancient building, only about 100 yrs old) but it was spectacular and offered great views of Viana itself and the coastline heading south. It's hot and sunny here, the weather is set fair still, so we will push on tomorrow, not sure yet where to.