Salt Town

I've blogged about Alcacer do Sal briefly once before since I reguarily drive through the town and across the old iron bridge on my way to the coast, only occasionally stopping for a coffee/lunch at one of the cafes near the river. It took my parents visit for me to stop the car and climb through the town to admire the view over the Sado.
If one photograph can sum up a country this is it. Portugal in a picture: washing outside the windows, wrought iron balconies, tiled exterior, in the background the belltowers of a church and (harder to see) centre right in the shade the shield of the town on the corner of the building, below it a Delta coffee sign outside a ground floor cafe.
Another slice of normal life: When you visit Alcacer you will inevitably stop for a coffee on the street/esplanade next to the river, if not a few beers as the sun sinks into a cool evening, and more than likely you'll take a walk along the riverside. As you walk watch out for these old ladies hawking little shrimps from the estuary (fresh? who knows) to passers-by, in-between catching up on town gossip. This is the town from the other side of the river crossed by the pedestrian bridge on the left reminiscent of London's Millenium Bridge. The town hall and town square is typical Manueline while the castle on the hill is 5000 years old. The main part of the castle has been restored using new style crappy cement and converted into a hotel/pousada so is more photogenic from a distance, the belltower remains authentic but is surrounded by power lines and full of graffiti from the locals who seem to have tagged it as a hangout. The church you can see between them would've been behind the old town walls and is a 12th Century church with a Romanesque arch (unusual in Portugal). The interior contains the graves of the local noblility, and records of visits by the royal family since the Dukes of Alcacer were cousins to the royal line and fairly important during this time. It also contains a lot of gold!