where exactly? The centre line in their hunt for mullet eels and barbel?To cross between Spain and
Posted in General on 07. Aug, 2010
where exactly? The centre line, in their hunt for mullet, eels and barbel?To cross between Spain and Portugal legitimately in those days meant either going to the coast and taking the Ayamonte ferry, or travelling 30km up-stream to the bridge at Mertola. Two years after the Berlin Wall had fallen, and long after Spain and Portugal had joined together to shelter under the umbrella of the EEC, there were still military block houses studding the Portuguese bank, and Sanlcar was overshadowed by a paranoidly large garrison Police boats patrolled the no-man’s land of the river. The Guadiana River is the important part of the equation – the name’s Arabic derivation, wadi ana, gives an idea of the stretch of history around these parts, and the river has divided the two villages and the two countries for more than six centuries.And never more so than for the 50-odd years from the Spanish Civil War until 1992, when the border was closed over a length of 70km. Beautiful scenery on the way, and an unusual site for a castle, built as a royal hunting lodge in the 17th century.Further informationGlasgow Tourist Information (tel: 0141-204 4400).. MY NOMINATION for the most Alice in Wonderland-ish, the most pointlessly eccentric of all European borders, is the frontier between Spain and Portugal. Not all of it (though all of it is pretty strange) but the most southerly length, dividing Spanish Huelva from Portugal’s Algarve, each on a side of the Guadiana River.
To be specific – very specific – I’d nominate the 100m of gazpacho coloured waters swirling between the villages of Sanlcar de Guadiana (Spain), and Alcoutim (Portugal) as a sort of surreal frontier theme park. Swimming above or below the falls is not recommended, and definitely not a good idea on the one Sunday each month when the local power station “diverts all the water back down the river in a mighty surge”.Python fans can take a trip to Castle Aaaargh (from the end of the Holy Grail – a small castle on an island not much bigger).
It is actually called Castle Stalker, and it sits just off Port Appin, 30 miles up the coast, past Oban. As central as you can get in a tent.Out of townWhen visiting a foreign city it is often worth asking what the locals do at the weekend, then doing it during the week, because you can. Enlightened Glaswegians recommend hillwalking, and one of the best places to go is the Falls of Clyde, New Lanark. Local writer Peter Irvine describes “dramatic falls in a long gorge of the Clyde”. B&B from pounds 24-pounds 30 single, pounds 20-pounds 25 double. Very central.Chez Nous Guest House, 33 Hillhead Street (tel: 0141-334 2977). B&B pounds 18.50- pounds 25 per person for single/double/twin.
Near to the university, in the restaurant-rich West End.Craigenmuir Park, Campsie View, Stepps (tel: 0141-779 4159). Twenty pitches, pounds 6.50 for two people, plus car and caravan or tent per night. Tuesday to Sunday, 7pm to midnight.For more venues, get a copy of The List, Glasgow’s answer to Time Out, from any newsagent.Where to stayStakis Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel, Grosvenor Terrace, Great Western Road (tel: 0141- 339 881) B&B pounds 102.50-pounds 117.50. Victorian-style rooms, some with four-poster beds.Strathclyde Graduate Business School, 199 Cathedral Street, (tel: 0141- 553 6000). Good business indeed to offer 108 rooms with en suite bath/ shower, B&B from pounds 39-pounds 59 single, and pounds 38.50-pounds 41.75 twin or double.Willow Hotel, 228 Renfrew Street (tel: 0141-332 2332). Big-hotel feel.The Ewington, Balmoral Terrace, 132 Queens Drive (tel: 0141-423 1152).