June is the month to explain why northern Spain goes quiet while Portugal, four hundred kilometres west, does not. This coast faces north and north-west, so it only takes swell out of that quadrant, and the North Atlantic sends swell from there between September and April. Portugal faces west and catches whatever is going, all year. One coast is choosier, and it is paid back in winter.
So June is small and reliable rather than flat and disappointing. The beaches work most mornings at knee to waist high, the southerly comes off the land and holds them clean, and the sea is at 19°C for the first time.
The days are the longest of the year, light until well past nine, and the towns behind the beach have their terraces out and no queue at them yet.
