Few tourists, plenty of space and rain in Spain

A woman on the next table to me at lunch, chatting on a mobile, explained the attraction. "We're in Portugal ... yeah, we've come to eat bacalhau and buy towels." The Portuguese and Galicians share a love of anything that swims in the sea, so eating this famous Portuguese speciality or marisco (like a sticky version of paella) is one reason they come; the other is cheap bed linen, towels and clothing on sale in the throngs of shops which pack the cobbled streets of the fort. Sadly, it gives this splendid historical town the air of a street market, but I managed to escape the textile touts by venturing off the main drag and into the northern part of the fortress. Here, just like everywhere I'd seen over the border in Galicia, there were few tourists and enough space.