Sunsational Sagres!!!

How Many shades of 'beautiful' are there???? Every day, here, we have encountered amazing 'beauty'.....some has been man-made....some natural....and some has been a combination of both. No matter which way it's sliced beautiful is beautiful and today we have seen some of the most beautiful natural coast line beaches, green rolling hills and exquisite towns, we have seen to date!

Today we travelled to the farthest south western point of Portugal/Europe......to a sleepy/surfing town called Sagres and the amazing lighthouse point called Cabo De Sao Vicente. Ohhhhhhhh my!! There is absolutely no way to capture the absolute stunning beauty of the beaches we saw, sat/walked on and marvelled at!! Honestly.....we were in awe all day and we only saw 3 of soooooo many more in that area!

We were told by Catarina, the hostess at 'The House' in Lisbon, that we really should go to Sagres because it was so beautiful. Although it was a 3 hr drive, from Tavira, we wanted to go and we are soooooo happy that we did not miss this incredible place! So, how many shades of 'BEAUTIFUL' are there??.....well, today we saw a many more!

The first beach we found was a rugged surfer's beach....it was a sandy cove surrounded by rugged cliffs, giant waves with die hard surfers trying to master the waves and their families/friends watching and sunning on the calm sandy shores! It was amazing to absorb! Here are a few pictures.......

From here we found a large, sandy beach with calm waters. There was a great beach cafe/bar overlooking this exquisite beach where we ordered, what we were told is THE BEST sangria in the Algarve to accompany they picnic lunch we had prepared to eat on a beautiful beach! Ohhhhhh how wonderful our lunch (good old egg salad sandwiches and carrot sticks) was with, what turned out to be AMAZING sangria!.....sitting in the sun and visually absorbing this stunningly clean ocean water lapping up the shore....a few naked children running /playing on the beach and in the water ..... and the company of each other!! A both kept commenting about how much in awe we were to be granted this amazing experience! When we were done picnic-ing, walking the beach and exploring/marvelling at some rocks in the area, we went to the cafe for coffee and a piece of....OMG, get this.....fig-carob pie!!! IT WAS SOOOO DELICIOUS!!! Here are a few pics......

The

The BEST sangria in the entire Algarve!

The view to the left....

The view to the right....

Enjoying the rocks....

Gido waving to Orion, in Canada, on the other side of this ocean....

Savouring this day!!

This pie was extremely good!!

When we left this beach we were on our way to the light house of Cabo De Sao Vicente, whe we stumbled onto a different surfer beach. This one was a more sheltered cove of sandy beach, once again surrounded by magnificent rock walls. It was later in the day and the sun was lower and offered some exquisite shimmering glowing effects on the water! There were a lot of people out suffering in these waves. A beautiful place that you had to go down a long way to get to the beach and come up a steep walk to get back onto regular land. Here are a few pics.....

Path leading down to this cove...

Looking down, from the path...

Another view to the right of the path, going down...

A view to the left, going down the steep path....

I like this picture, looking up at the sky from the beach!

Last but not least.....we made our way to the lighthouse! W were mesmerized by how high up e were on the jut out of a cliff and how powerful the waves are as they collide with the rock walls around this point! Soooo amazing!

We've had another great day!.....tomorrow we are on our way to Espanha!

 

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Day Trippin'.....

We are back from another road trip and are tired!! This will be a short post because, for some reason, and it may be related to the size of my posts (with ++ pictures), we have been having increasing trouble posting the entries I submit. It is very, very frustrating and makes me feel like I don't want to put all the effort into writing extensive blogs, just to wrestle with an app bug! Maybe if it is a small entry, it will post quickly and successfully! Here's hoping!!!...... :-)

Today, we travelled along the N125 road, to the northwest part of the Algarve. We stopped in the city of Faro and really did not like it that much, at all.....we found one shop that had some good things for us to buy for our kids, and we had a cup of coffee & a pastry, listening to a great busking trio, but other than that, it was not an enchanting city and we left it o head further into the hills. Our destination for today, was a small city called Silves. The drive was scenic and interesting, in that you just seem to leave one community and you enter the next one!! It is is just one little - moderate size community after another! They are all very similar!

The highway signage is excellent so we did not have any trouble making our way there and back! This is a huge relief!

Our original plan, for today until Wednesday/Thursday, was to be travelling in Spain, but the weather has gotten very cool, windy and a bit rainy. With this being our ONLY time to explore Spain, we wanted it to be sunny! A have decided to go to Spain, on Wednesday, when it is supposed to go back to being sunny, hot and beautiful! We will continue to explore the costal communities in this Algarve area until then.

Okay....so back to Silves.....it it's quite a pretty little city and it has a long history dating back to it's beginnings in the 8th century!! It is nestled into the hills of NW Portugal, with a tiny river flowing through. It has a castle and of course a few massive, churches .....one that was originally built in the 15th century! There is soooo much to learn about, history-wise!! We just simply did not have time to do/hear it all! This was kind of an 'appetizer' visit!!

They are very proud of their heritage and host a medieval festival each year to commemorate their history!

We walked around the town....had lunch at one of the MANY coffee shops/cafes....absorbed it's charm and beauty, then left to make the 2 our drive back to our Tavira 'home'. It feels soooo wonderful coming back to our comfy apartment after a long and adventurous day! Here are a few pics of Silves (pronounced 'sheelash').....

Typical streets with cafes and stores.....very inviting!

Notice the stork & nest on the top right had corner of this brick building....there was a baby in the nest!!

Looking down, at this square, from the upper balcony of the brick building.

They have such interesting doors and windows in their homes.

Up, up, up!!

The view!.....

The inside of the church that was. Built in the 15th century! Amazing how it has stood the test of time!

Pole dancing in Silves!! :)

My audience!! Lol!

A park that seemed to be a tribute to the Moorish history in this settlement.

It was a good day!!!

 

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Sunday Drive....

OMG!!! We have had SUCH a great day!!!! I am so exhausted after our adventurous road trip, so I hope to do this exciting day justice as I try to capture the things we saw, heard, learned and were deeply touched by! Here goes......

When Lawrence & I were children.....each of our families tended to go for Sunday drives, to look at the crops and see what might be happening in the areas we lived in. Today, with our cute, rented Fiat Punto, we decided to take a 'Sunday drive' ...... pick a highway and just head in a certain direction with a loose plan but, be open to see where the wind might blow us! (Actually, today, when we woke, it was unusually cold and windy! We had been told that cold, rainy weather was blowing in from the north [Britain, to be exact] and it has turned out to be true! )

Our day's adventure started with us driving off the main road, toward a sign that we thought indicated a beach area. We found the most amazing beach/beach community called Manta Rota!!! It was soooooooo beautiful! This community lies directly on the Atlantic Ocean and the soft, sandy beach goes for miles and miles and miles!!! It was a very windy day, which made it a bit cooler than usual but the sun was shining and the view was exquisite!!! We walked the beach for quite awhile, just marvelling at how very beautiful it was.....we visited with a fellow who was fishing off the shore with a giant fishing rod and we talked about how much we would like to bring Orion to this beach someday!! I could go on and on about how beautiful a beach it is but it really would get nauseating!! So enough said about it.....here are a few pictures (I probably took about a hundred of the same scenes over and over again....wishing I could seal the memories!!! :).......

We got back on the road and as we drove through a town named, Castro Marim, we saw signs indicating it had historical significance and so, we decided to make a quick stop. Wow!!!! It turned out to be an amazing place and we ended up spending a few hours there, exploring the amazing castle that remains in fairly good condition, enjoying the Andaluz Garden and having a very interesting/enjoyable visit with a young man, named Paulo, who was a curator at the Garden site! Wevlearned so much from him about the Algarve area, Portuguese values, traditions and food AND his own history /family ! We loved our visit with him because, once again, through him, we experienced how very proud Portuguese people are, of their country, their traditions, and their families.....it is very moving and powerful!!

Castro Marim is one of the oldest places in the Algarve region of Portugal! The castle is situated at a very high point in order to defend the village port! The castle with all of its magnificence, in terms of architecture and purpose, made us imagine the medieval warriors fighting for their ideals and protecting their people!! The view from the turrets was incredible and made us understand how this view was an essential tool in preparing to protect those inside it's walls, from approaching enemies! I was amazing!! We took soooo many pictures, it will be hard to choose just a couple to include in this blog!!

I found a friend, who lives within the castle walls.....

The white cluster of buildings, on the far horizon is Spain. The water pockets are salt pans.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Andaluz Grden, along with an informational poster about the gardens....

From Castro Marim, we drove through some incredibly beautiful scenery.....through the rolling, green hills of Portugal! We were driving parallel to the Spanish border, heading to a place called Alcoutim, which we were told was "a very pretty village". OMG!!! Alcoutim is far more beautiful than the description we were given......it is EXQUISITE!!! Honestly it is sooooo beautiful and 'traditional'....it is a precious gem within Portugal! I actually don't have the proper words to describe it's beauty and quietly powerful charm! It is on the shore of the Guadiana River (which houses the Portuguese-Spanish border) and it looks directly across, at a small Spanish village on the other side of the river! Within Alcoutim, is a small tributary river which creates a beautiful river valley that has orange trees and other lush vegetation along its banks. You can just feel this community's warmth and goodness!! It is soooo peaceful and beautiful! We had a great meal in a local restaurant walked around a bit, saw that it, too has a castle to explore...took a million pictures and decided, right there and then, that we WILL come back to this 'off-the-main-road' village someday and we will stay longer! If any of you are coming to Portugal, you need to make this a destination spot!!

On our way back to Tavira, we accidentally took the 'scenic' road out of Alcoutim and were blessed with even nicer scenery than what we had experienced on the way there. W were on a very narrow and winding road that took us around mountainous-like terrain. It was breathtakingly beautiful as we witnessed the sun setting and felt this rural area's peaceful energy! Here are a couple of pictures.....

The highway conditions and signage are EXCELLENT, allowing us to drive with ease and confidence. I am VERY grateful for this! Lawrence, more so, because when I am not freaked out, it makes driving much easier for him! :)

We have had a WONDERFUL day and are looking forward to more car travel adventures throughout this week!!

Post script: we have had great difficulty publishing this blog post.....tried 3 times in our apartment with no success and MUCH frustration, so.....we are now in the beautiful town of Silves in the northern hills of the algarve, sitting at a Internet cafe and will give this a try. Here's hoping!!

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