BorderGirl

Like most people in this world, we would like to get as much as possible for our money. I wasn't sure which section to post this, Spain or Portugal.
We have been looking at Portugal and I have always fancied Spain. Could you tell us of any areas in Spain along Portugal border and what they are like, places, weather, people etc.

chrismortley

Hi
Are you thinking of living there or just taking a holiday ?
Chris

BorderGirl

Sorry, eventually living, but holidaying is a good start and all adds to the research.

chrismortley

The beaches are very hard to fault alone the whole coast in both countries,ideal if you have children
In my opinion the climate is generally good it can get quite windy @ times because of the Atlantic BUT when it gets cold it's freezing.
Obviously you take the appropriate measures but it comes as quite a shock the first time

cricketman

The areas of Spain next to the Portugal border are quite desolate and unpopulated areas but with beautiful countryside. They are mainly cheap to live but with very few jobs.

You can't get much more remote in Western Europe than Extremadura or Western Castilla. While Southern Galicia and Huelva have beautiful coastlines but are also somewhat off the beaten track.

The weather varies tremendously depending on where exactly you choose to live.

BorderGirl

You mentioned Huelva. How far is that from the border? Am I right that there is a bridge into Portugal that crosses the border and the time line?
Sorry for all the questions.

chrismortley

Portugal is the same as UK,Spain is an hour in front
You can travel from the Algarve basically to Seville on a decent motorway.
The bridge spans the river between the two countries & is about 30 mins. from Huelva,I don't know much about it but I think it's an industrial town.
One thing is for sure it has a pony football team

BorderGirl

Thanks chrismortley for taking the time to reply to my posts. All info gratefully received

EsuriJohn

There are in fact 2 bridges that cross the lower Guadiana the first between Castro Marim and Ayamonte and the second new one about 30km upstream. The Motorway from Sevilla traverses east west almost to the most western point in Europe about 270km. From Sevilla airport to the bridge is about 1hr 15mins and from the border to Faro airport takes 45mins.

EsuriJohn

The nearest new build to the border is Costa Esuri Ayamonte. Check out the Ayamonte club forum on the Spain page for loads of information.

EsuriJohn

Huelva is both a Province and a City. The province is the border between Spain/Portugal for about 150km from the atlantic to the Extramadura. The city is small by UK standards but about normal for Spain.

cricketman

What a strange thing to say There are dozens of cities in Spain a lot bigger than Huelva.

Actually the vast majority of Spaniards live in cities, a higher proportion than in almost any other country in the world.

EsuriJohn

And hundreds smaller, Take the City of Ayamonte it has just struggled past 20,000 and been awarded one extra councillor(this has taken about 20 years to achieve and hundreds of apartments built).

My town in UK Milton Keynes is just approaching the 400,000 mark and is surrounded by towns of similar size. It may seem odd but the City of London is one of UK's smaller cities with a resident population smaller than Ayamonte but within the M25 ring there are dozens of Boroughs with populations between 200-500,000.

The urban conurbations of Greater London, West Midlands, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool/Manchester, Newcastle/Gateshead and Glasgow added together would probably be the same population as Spain (and we still can't grow a half decent football team).

I would have thought that Huelva is about the average for a reasonable urban center in Spain and there will be dozens at about that size. I must say I was surprised to find that Sevilla (which I think of as a major Spanish city is not significantly bigger than MK and the real big cities such as Madrid and Barcelona are not much different to Leeds.

siesta

I think it's impossible to compare towns/cities and populations like that because the urban structure is completely different. Towns in the UK are usually extensive because people live in houses. There are places in the UK that if you see the population can be up to 200,000 but if you go there as a Spaniard you'll see it's a small village with only 3-4 shopping streets, a couple of tall buildings and the rest it's a huge area of "streets" with small houses. You don't have that here and many small towns look much bigger than that because they're urban. Comparing Madrid and Leeds killed me.

cricketman

Nonsense you've got your numbers all in a muddle

Seville is way bigger than MK. Seville has 750,000 in the city and 1.5 million in the greater urban area, vs 192,000 in MK (check Wikipedia if you like)

And Madrid and Barcelona are way bigger than Leeds. Leeds has 770,000, so as big as inner Seville. Madrid has 3.2 million and BCN 1.6 million, although there are 5 million people who live in the greater metropolitan area of BCN.

I've been to all the places you mention and it should be clear that Barcelona is a lot lot bigger than Leeds and that Seville is a lot bigger than MK!!

Oh and Ayamonte isnt really a city, by any stretch of the imagination