Porvoa de Varsim

Povoa de Varsim is not alone in having a church that doubles (or used to ) as a lighthouse.

A really great use for a church in my opinion, very often marked on Admiralty charts as " conspic"
In this case however lit up as well.....

This is the town hall, the photos on display in the arches are girls dressed in the local costume appropriate to the Barrio or neighbourhood they are from.
If you spend a little time in a place it either gets under your skin and stays or just gets on your nerves after a while. Povoa de Vaesim is neither, it is what it is........ it is slightly scruffy, the marina has no fuel berth, if the wind is in the north the fish smell from the northern harbour arm is apparent. Nothing appears to be quite finished but it all bumbles along with a great deal of friendly acceptance.

It has a fort which from the outside is an impressive military structure and indeed has a history, however inside is a restaurant and a sadly lost tourist information office.

It does have a great view from the battlements .

Of course the main asset or some might say downfall of the town is its extensive beach, " everyone wants to live on the beach" so said our friendly marina guy, "so they ruined the town", by building a load of high rise blocks and destroying the old fabric of the town.
He could be right, it is a bit Blackpool.........

Its true the high rises are intrusive and ugly, but one cant be too judgemental about these things, after all we are only passing through. Besides there are real treasures to be unearthed if you care to dig around.

  Take the local church ( or more correctly one of them ) from the outside a typical Iberian style building.

The doors however are solid bronze and only  a few years old .

Beyond is a beautiful carved wooden entrance with glazed doors.
and beyond that is the body of the church . A fabulous vision of guilt and art.

I was intrigued by one of the side chapels which seemed to depict bishops burning in hell.

Later as we returned to the boat the wind had increased, as it usually did in the late afternoon and several boats were making epic and painful (expensive ) attempts to berth in the marina. The wind strength was by this time force 7 ish... There was a lot of running around as a Hallberg Raasay, tried and failed several times to attempt an upwind berth. Eventually for reasons known only to the skipper he careered into a downwind berth at great speed and a dozen or more people from yachts overcame massive language and translation difficulties to help berth the boat in the 30 mph winds. Later a British boat came into a downwind berth at a bit of a lick in the wind and gave our pontoon a sound whack. The combination of persistent swell and high winds in the afternoon and evening was giving this coast a distinctly negative feel for me, and the antics of other yachtsmen obviously unused to these conditions was a little worrying. Luckily there was room to spare for boats to play bump and shunt, even if this proved expensive for them.....

I have no photos of the mayhem that followed so I will finish with a couple of nice shots of the skate park on the seafront.

Should please Alex anyway!