MikeJ

Started this thread as the next in the series of the long running Costa Esuri thread (nearly 6000 posts and over half a million views it must be doing something right ) which has got too long those who may have slower connections.

I hope it will complement the Ayamonte Club and that people will post useful information in some of the club threads where they will be easy to search and find (perhaps with a note pointing to it from this thread). The old thread contained lots of interesting observations, general chat, social interaction etc etc which I personally found really entertaining. I always look forward to the next email telling me of a post so that I can see what others are up to, make new friends, exchange views etc.

We will see if anybody else liked the format by the success of this thread - but remember that the mods have given us some great new features, for which we should be appreciative and which we should use too.

Mike J

Ray-Pauline

Well put!

Ray

Steve and Pat

Added to our favourites already

Jon-Bxl

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray-Pauline View Post
Hi Jon, is it just through the summer or all year round?

Ray
Hi Ray

All year round - nice place LOTS of stuff and some barbeques as well where you can have a snack and a 70c beer!

Note its ONLY SECOND saturday each month and the parking can be a little tricky if you arrive late

Have fun

Jon

EsuriJohn

Hi Marisol just overnight on the way to Portsmouth but just enough time to see a little and what we saw was very nice so I guess we will be back,.

Regards John.

Jon-Bxl

Speaking of seeing nice things - attached are some photos (lo resolution) of several things. I put it in as a presentation as its quicker that way.

If you have broadband and are interested, please open the file and use the left/right arrow keys to move backwards and forwards on the photos.

We stopped over in a couple of nice towns on our trips to Seville - just for fun, and chose those that were a couple of minutes away from the m-way.

These are the ancient walled city of Niebla well over a thousand years old - and Chucena a very nice clean and interesting place. These are stopovers for a visit maybe lunch or a drink

Then photos of a boat trip we took up the Guadiana....

I say broadband because its a big file and it needs b-band for a reasonable download time. Lots of photos here, so its lo resolution so you cant zoom in really. I could have used bigger ones but the file size would have been large, and I assume most people will just click through them.

Hope you enjoy them

Jon

PS MODERATORS I had to save in an old version of powerpoint show, as the new version (which I think is a ppsx extension - not sure, was not accepted) - please can you allow this for the future as an attachment?

MEL & JOHN

Jon

I have just spent a lovely few minutes(when I should be doing other things really !!) looking at your photos....thank you very much for sharing those. I do love that river and Alcoutim then popping back over to Spain, I get a childish thrill out of going from one country to another and the time change makes it even more interesting. Bet you both had a great day, I think I might do that trip with my friend when we are over next month. The places on the Seville trip are on my "to do" list as well now. There are so many things to do and see and I appreciate the info you have put on in the past ...each time I try to do a "Jon and Catherine" place. Keep 'em coming please !! 12 more sleeps 'til I am at CE again ( NB Sandra and Graham - how many sleeps for you ???)

Take care

Mel

PS Posters...DO look at the photos and dream on !

tednsharon

I agree almost word for word with Mel! Just looked at the photos whilst I should have been doing something else and also get the thrill of going from one country to another. Am over with my 16-year old and 3 of her friends to celebrate the end of their GCSEs next weekend ... if you see a bunch of gorgeous young ladies chaperoned by a lonely looking, taxi driver mum, do come over and rescue me!
Sharon

Jon-Bxl

Thanks for the kind feedback. Our only regret is that we didnt extend our stay a bit - it seems that some of our favourite people are there, or there soon i.e Carol+John (that we saw fortunately on our last day); Kim from 'woodsie' on a girls weekend; Marisol and Fer (and Rocco) in July, Graham and Sandra, Mel and John and now I hear Sharon is going to be there with a bunch of gorgeous gals!! Oh no what are we missing!!

Now how can I slip away... hmmmmm Ayamonte isnt a 'nip around the corner'! What am I saying, my wife would jump at the chance to go back too - and dump me to join the various girls nights out and visit friends.

I just know that you all are going to have a wonderful time - have a glass or 2 - for us.

One place I've recommended before - that 'teedup' tried and enjoyed too with their friends is a little local bar just next to the Don Diego hotel/Eroski (the DD hotel is renamed now - but most know where it is). I arranged my birthday party there. 10 adults and 5 kids/teenagers took over the bar area, where they bought out platefuls of food for everyone - in 'buffet style' just help yourself from various plates placed in the centre of the table. As it was a big do I pre-arranged the booking in advance and also to get Cava, that they dont keep. What an unbelievable price I paid for the food, and all the drinks were Spanish prices I think around 7E for a bottle of wine; 1E for a beer etc etc. I think our guests werent just being polite when they said that they ate and drank really well. (And many were locals, non-tourists as well) Theres a secure open area opposite where the kids could kick a ball around (and lose to the adults in a footy match late in the evening!!!)

Please note its not a posh resto, but a bar/pub that serves good quality local food, pork steaks, ribs, some tapas, fish, cheese etc. Very local and rare to see tourists there. The owner Frederico is the shorter gentlemen, very friendly who speaks english and Manuel the larger gent - who is just a nice bloke!

When Teedup went there with friends - they just turned up and liked the local ambience, though at first wondered if they should eat there as it was so local, and the ladies had all dressed up for a night out, but decided to stay - and were glad that they did, even though at first they wondered about staying.

I hope it works for you if you try it and fancy a good pub-grub and drink meeeting in a local Spanish place. Not posh - but good fun and local ambience. GREAT FUN was had by all.

So therefore you can just turn up as well and ask for whatever they have or a buffet of mixed grill + fish etc. But if you are having a bigger party like I did - reserve it in advance to be sure.

You find it as follows:

Imagine walking out of the old Don Diego hotel lobby (so its behind you). Across the road are some small shops, with LOLYPAN on the left. (El Baario is effectively behind these shops)

Go down the road alongside Lolypan - for a few yards, turn right immediately and you will see it about 20 yards on the left.

Nice place to go after the market as its very buzzy and local too....

See attached for the bizcard and map.

Have fun - we know you will!

Jon

PS I have no commercial interest in the pub - just recommending somewhere nice.

Carol&John

Excellent photos all around and many thanks for the recommendation, Jon!
Carol&John

John and Lynn

Good photos, set me up nicely for our next visit. Can I ask where you got the boat from, how long the trip was and what the cost per person is. I definitely want to do this when we are over.

By the way the .ppsx file might only be viewable by those running the latest MS Office 2007 software, so sometime its best to save it in the older version anyway.

Ray-Pauline

excellent, makes a pleasant change from watching the rain run down the windows in Cheshire

Ray

jdr

It works ok in the freebie "Open Office"
Typical Microsoft.

Jon-Bxl

Hi John and Lynn.. the PPS had the boat details in it - but to be more specific.

We bought the tickets at the Ayamonte ferry terminal. Here you can get a leaflet (there are many places that also do this for a commission - like the paper stands in VRSA for egample) BUT the boats go from Villa Real. Make sure that you've calculated the timings... I think the boats leave at 10:30 PT. We arrived a little late, but had a huge stroke of luck - a very kind ferry captain got the boat to stop at Ayamonte for us. But this is not legal and the Port authorities guy came out to see what was happening,.... and then the police all arrived to do a big security check - so the captain was putting his head in his hands thinking that his very kind favour - was going to be seen by all. I dont think they will do that for anyone, and so you must plan on picking up the boat from VRSA - and please book in ADVANCE and get all the details. They insist on that at least a day.

For us it was a great start a one-off and all laughed about it, but please dont expect that this will happen again. We just had a huge stroke of luck on the day.

You have a choice of 4 boats. My advice take the boat as far as Alcoutim, some stop at Odeillette, seems a shame to miss out on the 'extra bit'. Theres 2 boats a big one (seen under the bridge on the pps) where they serve lunch on board. Havent tried it so cant comment, or the small one the 'Adi-Ana' that we took. Very friendly couple that really tried to give an excellent service, walking around the guests and talking about all sorts of stuff... a very warm welcome - also a chateau trip included, costs normally 2.5E) and a lunch at a restaurant - about 15 min walk - or a mini-bus pick up if its too hot. My wife took it back as we had some strong heat. I think this is nice personally having lunch off-board.

The only thing for us was that there were lots of Germans there, so the multi-lingual hosts were required to speak German - and present in German for the Chateau tour - but we still had a nice day on the river - it wasnt a problem

Have fun + hope this helps

Jon

PS interesting, I thought Microsoft made the slide show presentation or pps/ppsx files usable by anybody. I understand that the ppt file with all the detail in it is version specific - it sadly often happens when new versions come out, but I always thought the slide-show presentation that I wanted to post would have worked.

PPS LOTS of HUGE security checks on the Ferry and the bridge - we got stopped several times by machine-gun toting policemen.. this can delay any trip of course - also there are many alcohol checks at night as well. Take a taxi for many reasons.

MEL & JOHN

Thanks for the info on the trip Jon. About the security checks, I have never had my passport when going over to Portugal and back from Esuri but besides the alcohol checks are they also now asking for passports ?

All the best

Mel